Newsroom Stories

Each year in the St. Louis region, thousands of African American students drop out of high school. According to a newly released policy brief — “How does health influence school dropout?” — health and education are closely related, and there are patterns related to health that increase the risk of high school dropout. The brief is the second of five in a yearlong, multidisciplinary study called “For the Sake of All: A Report on the Health and Well-Being of African Americans in St. Louis.” Its author is William F. Tate, PhD, the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and chair of the Department of Education in Arts & Sciences.

The public discussion of global warming can feel very stuck at times. An innovative course at Washington University in St. Louis offers a way forward by making available the efforts of historians to integrate natural history and human history over the past 40 years. Taught by Venus Bivar, PhD, assistant professor of history in Arts & Sciences, it is an introduction to a discipline called environmental history, with a special focus on climate change.

Low-income youth in developing countries will save their money in a formal account when given the right opportunity. That’s a key point in a groundbreaking study called YouthSave, shared by Lissa Johnson, director of administration for the Center for Social Development (CSD), at the YouthSave Learning and Exchange Event in Washington, D.C., this month. CSD is a research center in the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Playwriting is hard. But in recent years, the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Science has emerged as a national incubator for young playwriting talent. We sat down with Carter W. Lewis, playwright-in-residence, to discuss drama versus prose, the upcoming A.E. Hotchner New Play Festival and the difficulties of letting go.

The sarabande. The gavotte. The minuet. On Saturday, Sept. 28, The Kingsbury Ensemble, one of the Midwest’s premier early music groups, will celebrate these and other Baroque dance forms in the 560 Music Center’s Ballroom Theatre.

James Cavallaro, professor of law at Stanford, kicks off the 16th annual School of Law Public Interest Law and Policy Speakers Series at noon today with “The Toxic Effects of Drone Strikes on Targeted Communities, the Global Role of the U.S., and our Constitutional and Democratic Principles.” Cavallaro, a well-regarded international human rights expert, is director of the Stanford International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic and director of the Stanford Human Rights Center, and recently elected member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. For more information and a full list of speakers visit http://law.wustl.edu/pilss/.

A long-term study of older adults led by Anne Fagan (right) has helped validate a new system for identifying and classifying older adults with preclinical Alzheimer’s disease. Many researchers think this stage of the disease, which can last a decade or more, is critical window for slowing or stopping Alzheimer’s treatments.

Researchers at the School of Medicine and Imperial College London are the first to identify the site where the widely used anesthetic drug propofol binds to receptors in the brain to sedate patients during surgery. Shown is a photoanalogue of propofol to identify where it binds to receptors. The small green circles show the site.

​Washington University in St. Louis is launching a new pre-college program designed to help talented but underserved St. Louis high school students prepare for and complete a college education at a selective four-year college or university​. Pictured is Leah Merrifield, who will head the program.

Holden Thorp, PhD, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at Washington University in St. Louis, has appointed an eight-member committee to identify candidates for the position of dean of the School of Law. Daniel Keating, JD, the Tyrrell Williams Professor of Law, will serve as interim dean. At the law school, Keating has served twice as interim dean, as well as vice dean and associate dean.