Newsroom Stories

On Sept. 17, Sherrilyn Ifill, the distinguished legal scholar and president/director-general of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. will visit campus to deliver an Assembly Series lecture, “From Brown to Ferguson: The Unfinished Business of Civil Rights” at noon in Anheuser-Busch Hall’s Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom on the Danforth Campus. Due to an expected large turnout, remote viewing sites within Anheuser-Busch Hall will be available.

The Assembly Series offers a rare look inside one of the U.S.’s most secret organizations, courtesy of Jack Devine, retired acting director of CIA operations at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept.16, in Steinberg Hall Auditorium. Devine’s presentation, “The Importance and Ethics of National Intelligence,” is the annual Elliot Stein Lecture in Ethics.

​​Leah Me​rrifield loves attending productions at the Rep, the New Jewish Theatre and the St. Louis Black Rep. She will share other St. Louis gems tonight at the St. Louis Up Close presentation in the Danforth University Center. 

Painter Michael Ray Charles will launch the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ Public Lecture Series Sept. 15. Charles is known for his aggressive appropriation — and scathing critiques — of racist imagery drawn from vintage illustration.

A new study led by Michael J. Holtzman, MD, at the School of Medicine suggests that a fundamental antiviral defense mechanism is intact in asthma. This indicates that another aspect of the immune system must explain the difficulty people with asthma have when they encounter respiratory viruses.

Matthew W. Kreuter, PhD (right), was installed Sept. 2 by Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton as the inaugural holder of the Eugene S. and Constance Kahn Family Professorship in Public Health. Kreuter is a professor of social work and of medicine, associate dean for public health and a faculty scholar in the Institute for Public Health.

Early in September, the X-Calibur mission, preparing for launch at the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Fort Sumner, N.M., put its pointing system through its paces to make sure all of its parts were working in programmed harmony.

Members of the Washington University in St. Louis College Republicans will spend the evening of Sept. 10 on Mudd Field planting 2,977 flags — one for each life lost on 9/11. Junior Kaitlyn Cullen says it’s important that those too young at the time to comprehend the tragedy reflect on it now.

Soprano Jane Jennings and pianist Gail Hintz will perform Washington University in St. Louis’ annual Liederabend concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 14, in the 560 Music Center. Literally translated as “evening of song,” Liederabend is a German term referring to a recital given by a singer and pianist, particularly of works by 19th-century Austrian or German composers.

Open Streets initiatives temporarily close streets to automobile traffic, so that people may use them for walking, bicycling, dancing, playing and socializing. Although the movement is gaining popularity in the United States — more than 100 different cities have hosted Open Streets events since 2008 — little is known about planning and implementing them. Brown School researchers Amy Eyler, PhD, and J. Aaron Hipp, PhD, explore the development and implementation of Open Streets initiatives and make recommendations for increasing the capacity of organizers to enhance their success.