Work, Families and Public Policy series begins Sept. 19

Faculty and graduate students from St. Louis-area universities with an interest in labor, households, health care, law and social welfare are invited to take part in a series of Monday brown-bag luncheon seminars to be held on the Danforth Campus biweekly beginning Monday, Sept. 19, through Nov. 28. Presentations will be from noon-1 p.m. in Seigle Hall, Room 348. The series begins with a lecture by Joan C. Williams, JD, the Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California Hastings College of the Law Foundation Chair and director of the Center for WorkLife Law at UC Hastings on “Why Gender is So Unbending: Gender Pressures on Men.”

Service with a smile

Karina Mehta (left), Alexandra Blasch (center) and Maria Coronelli weed the area around the flagpole at Gateway IT School Saturday, Sept. 3. The three freshmen were participating in Service First, WUSTL’s largest annual community service project that invites incoming students to get involved in the St. Louis community and challenges them to give back.

Artist Thomas Demand to discuss work Sept. 14

German artist and photographer Thomas Demand will discuss his work Wednesday, Sept. 14, as part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ fall Public Lecture Series. The talk is held in conjunction with the exhibition Precarious Worlds: Contemporary Art from Germany, which opens at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum Sept. 9. Also opening Sept. 9 is Tomás Saraceno: Cloud-Specific. Additional museum events this fall will include a talk by Saraceno as well as film screenings, panel discussions and an all-ages Community Day.

9/11 impact was less in Europe, says WUSTL anthropologist

Because the Sept. 11 attacks happened on U.S. soil, it makes sense that they might have had a more profound impact in the United States than in Western Europe. But key differences in how Muslims were perceived before 9/11 in the United States and Western Europe also played a key role in how much — or how little — attitudes on Muslims changed after 9/11, says John R. Bowen, PhD, an anthropology and religious studies professor, both in Arts & Sciences, at WUSTL.

Death tolls spur pro-war stance, study finds

Mounting casualities in America’s nearly 10-year-old wars in Iraq and Afghanistan might seem to serve as a catalyst for people to denounce the war and demand a way out. But a Washington University in St. Louis study into the psychology of “sunk-costs” finds that highlighting casualties before asking for opinions on these wars actually sways people toward a more pro-war attitude. This sunk-cost mindset may also expain why losers stay in the stock market.
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