Newsroom Stories

From literature, philosophy and ethics to history, law and musicology, the humanities are central to our understanding of ourselves, our communities and the larger world around us. On Wednesday, April 27, the Center for the Humanities in Arts & Sciences will present talks by Richard J. Franke, founder of the Chicago Humanities Festival, and Geoffrey Galt Harpham, president and director of the National Humanities Center, as part of “Celebrating the Humanities Day.”

WUSTL will test its outdoor warning sirens on the Danforth Campus between noon and 12:30 p.m. Monday, April 18. The test will take place unless there is the potential for severe weather that day or some other emergency is occurring at that time.

The George Warren Brown School of Social Work awarded one Distinguished Faculty Award and five Distinguished Alumni Awards during its annual alumni awards celebration April 5 at Steinberg Hall Auditorium. Two of the alumni also were selected as outstanding “Graduates of the Last Decade.”

Civil rights leader Julian Bond makes a point during a panel discussion in the Women’s Building Formal Lounge that followed his Assembly Series lecture, titled “Post Racial America: Fact or Fiction?” held April 1 in Graham Chapel. Bond’s Assembly Series talk was the keynote address for the Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship Program 20th Anniversary Conference and Alumni Reunion, held on campus March 31- April 1.

The Washington University Bouchet Honor Society Selection Committee chose its fifth class of Bouchet Fellows. The 2011 Bouchet Fellows are Pascale Guiton, a doctoral student in the Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis Program in the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, and Natecia Williams, a doctoral student in the Neuroscience Program in the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences.

Larry J. Shapiro, MD, gets outfitted with a T-shirt supporting Japanese earthquake relief from Shin-ichiro Imai, MD, PhD, April 6 in the Shell Lobby. Members of the Japanese Happy Hour, a scientific study group of Japanese researchers organized the sale, which is designating 100 percent of proceeds to relief organizations including the Japanese Red Cross.

The Department of Mathematics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis has announced the results of two competitions, the national William Lowell Putnam Mathematics Competition and the Missouri Collegiate Math Competition. The WUSTL team placed 19th out of  442 teams from 546 colleges and universities in the Putnam, and two teams finished first and third in the state contest.

What does it take for a family in the U.S. to have long-term economic security and not just “get by”? This question inspired the creation of the Basic Economic Security Tables Index (BEST), a joint effort of Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) and the Center for Social Development (CSD) at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. The BEST is different from other ‘living wage’ indexes in that it aims to capture what is needed for household stability and development rather than focusing on subsistence. Findings suggest that families’ largest economic security challenges are rent and utilities, transportation, and childcare. The report calls the high cost of quality childcare “the greatest threat to many families’ security.” Childcare is so expensive that income needs for a one-parent family with two preschoolers are equivalent to those of a one-parent family with five teenagers.

Between them, Dan Presgrave, conductor of the Washington University Symphony Orchestra, and John Stewart, director of the Washington University Concert Choir, have taught in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences for a combined total of almost 60 years. On April 17, the pair — both of whom are retiring at the end of the semester — will join forces one last time for the 2011 Chancellor’s Concert. 

With the theme “Celebrate the Magic of Community,” the 2011 Thurtene Carnival will transform Washington University’s North Brookings parking lot into a vista of thrilling rides and dramatic facades. The carnival will be from 4-8 p.m. Friday, April 15, and from 11 a.m.-8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, April 16 and 17.