Newsroom Stories

Does art have a moral duty to be politically engaged? On Thursday, March 7, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will explore that question and more with “Committed Culture: A Panel Discussion on Politics and Aesthetics During World War II.”

Ninety-one security cameras are being installed in the Central West End, 60 of which will be funded by the Washington University Medical Center. An additional 42 such cameras will be installed throughout the medical campus. The cameras are part of ongoing security efforts that also include more bike patrols.​

The annual Engineers Week, held Feb. 25-March 2, featured activities ranging from a paper airplane contest to a butter-sculpting competition to a lecture by cast members of the Discovery Channel’s “Mythbusters” television show. Read more to see video and photos.

A pair of extensive, unique collections arrived at Washington University Libraries in recent weeks, their wide-ranging contents anticipated to be of much interest to scholars and others wishing to explore the remarkable literary career of either David Wagoner or Alexander Trocchi. ​

At the Washington University in St. Louis Board of Trustees meeting Thursday and Friday, Feb. 28 and March 1, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton reported on a number of recent developments on the Medical and Danforth campuses. Trustees also heard special reports on innovations and developments in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the School of Medicine. ​

The Supreme Court appears very likely to strike down the most important provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, says Gregory P. Magarian, JD, constitution law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “This was an unusually revealing oral argument, because two justices asked questions that reflected both fundamental misunderstanding of the law and disturbing indifference to the constitutional grounding of the Voting Rights Act,” he says.

Peter G. Sortino, WUSTL assistant vice chancellor, is being inducted into the Missouri Recreation and Parks Hall of Fame. This year he is coordinating the effort to pass Proposition P to fund improvements to area parks and the Arch grounds.

In a boon for teenagers everywhere, scientists have discovered there are “bad” strains of acne bacteria associated with pimples and “good” strains that may protect the skin.

Two biologists at Washington University in St. Louis were delighted to discover a meticulous dataset on a plant-pollinator network recorded by Illinois naturalist Charles Robertson between 1884 and 1916. Re-collecting part of Robertson’s network, they learned that although the network has compensated for some losses, battered by climate change and habitat loss it is now weaker and less resilient than in Robertson’s time.

The Academy of American Poets has selected Mary Jo Bang’s translation of Dante’s Inferno as one of the Notable Books of 2012. Bang is a professor of English in Arts & Sciences. Her Inferno: A New Translation was one of only 12 books that made the notable list for 2012. The American Library Association also recently selected Bang’s Inferno as one of only two books of poetry to make its Notable Books for Adults 2013 list.