Newsroom Stories

The photo galleries indexed below offer a selection of high-resolution stock images of campus scenes, including key buildings, architectural details and student life. Created by photographers in the Photo Services division of Public Affairs, these images are provided free to media representatives for purposes of news coverage. For detailed guidelines and restrictions on media usage, […]

ThakorAnjan V. Thakor, Ph.D., has been named the John E. Simon Professor of Finance at the John M. Olin School of Business, it was announced by Olin Dean Stuart Greenbaum. Thakor joins the Olin School from the University of Michigan, where he served as the Edward J. Frey Professor of Banking and Finance from 1996 to 2003 and as the chairman of the finance department from 2000 to 2003.

The human brainThe failing memories of older adults, including their tendency to remember things that never happened, are not an inevitable consequence of aging, according to Washington University research presented Aug. 8 at the American Psychological Association meeting in Toronto. The study offers evidence that false memories and other cognitive declines often associated with normal aging can be more directly linked to measurable declines in executive control functions in frontal brain lobes.

Harriet Hosmer, Portrait of Wayman Crow, Sr., 1866, Carrara marbleSince its founding in 1853, Washington University in St. Louis has grown from a small private school to one of the nation’s premiere research universities. Influence 150: 150 Years of Shaping a City, a Nation, the World, which opens Sept. 5 at the Gallery of Art, celebrates that journey with hundreds of archival photographs, drawings, posters, letters, scrapbooks and other materials chronicling key events, people and discoveries in the life of the university.

*Pu’uhonua O Honaunau, 2002*Chicago photographer Alan Cohen has traveled the world tracing overlapping waves of stone, earth, asphalt, brick and concrete — the geologic and manmade ground — that demark physical and perceptual “sites” such as national borders, the path of the equator and places of historic violence. This fall, the Gallery of Art at Washington University in St. Louis will survey Cohen’s work since the mid-1990s as part of its Contemporary Projects Series.

*Big Baby* by Charles BurnsGreat art, of course, can speak for itself, but like any other social activity, it can also spur strong opinions, heated debate and intellectual illumination. This fall, the Washington University Gallery of Art will present a series of special Friday evening events — including films, lectures, tours, concerts and artists’ talks — designed to compliment its fall exhibitions.

Martin Luther King, Jr.August 28 marks the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, one of the most famous and stirring addresses in U.S. history. In commemoration, the International Writers Center (IWC) in Arts & Sciences will host a public roundtable with St. Louis scholars and civil rights activists. The event also includes a video presentation of King’s entire, 15-minute address.

Washington University is among 15 universities across the country selected by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Mo., to participate in the Foundation’s Kauffman Campuses Initiative, a new program aimed at making entrepreneurship education a common and accessible campus-wide opportunity. The new Kauffman program builds on an emerging trend among colleges and universities to expand entrepreneurship education beyond business schools so that entrepreneurship training and experiences are available across the University’s schools and academic departments and to students of diverse disciplines.

EarlyGerald Early, Ph.D., Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters, contends that the Korean War was a driving force behind integration efforts during the early years of the civil rights movement and was therefore one of the most important conflicts in our nation’s history. In his forthcoming book, “When Worlds Collide: The Korean War and the Integration of the United States,” Early argues that the successful integration of the military in Korea encouraged the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 school desegregation ruling, Brown vs. Board of Education, and helped change attitudes about race. Had the military failed, integration overall would have suffered, he contends.

LeVineCivil strife and violence in Liberia has produced numerous calls for U.S. military involvement, but should America heed these calls? Victor T. Le Vine, professor emeritus of political science in Arts & Sciences, contends the United States has a moral imperative to take action in Liberia based on strong historical ties to the nation. In a St. Louis Post-Dispatch commentary, Le Vine explains how the United State brought Liberia into existence and has in the past supported an unjust social system hostile to indigenous people. “We owe the Liberians some relief from the brutal lot we helped to create,” he argues.