Newsroom Stories

Influential film theorist Laura Mulvey, professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck College, University of London, will discuss “Modernity and Obsolescence: The Use of Rear Projection in Film” at 4 p.m. Friday, March 4, for the Center for the Humanities in Arts & Sciences. Mulvey is perhaps best known for the germinal essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, which explored questions relating to spectatorial identification and the male gaze, and which arguably helped establish feminist film theory as a field of study. Mulvey’s talk is presented as part of the Center for the Humanities’ 2011 Faculty Fellows 
Lecture and Workshop Series.  

Washington University will test its emergency notification system, WUSTLAlerts, at approximately 12:05 p.m. Wednesday, March 9, 2011. The WUSTLAlerts test will take place unless there is the potential for severe weather that day or some other emergency is occurring at that time.

Washington University in St. Louis graduate and undergraduate students recently helped teacher Scott McClintock and his students at Maplewood Richmond Heights Middle School complete a diverse study of wind energy, biomass, solar power, and hydropower, spending an entire week with four different classes.

Eleven Washington University research teams are preparing to ask and answer critical questions about pediatric health problems with help from $3.8 million in new grants from the Children’s Discovery Institute.

Joel Seligman, JD, president of the University of Rochester, will discuss the future of financial institutions at the 2011 Tyrrell Williams Lecture at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 3. Seligman, former dean of the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, will speak in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom in Anheuser-Busch Hall. The lecture will be followed by a reception in the Crowder Courtyard. The event is free and open to the public.

Song, dance and dishes from a variety of nations represented by students at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis highlight the 17th annual International Festival Sunday, March 6 at the 560 Music Center. The event, which is open to the public, begins at 5 p.m. with a food tasting of 11 different dishes. This year’s theme is “1 Community, A World of Traditions.”

WUSTL has been named a Tree Campus USA for 2010 by the Arbor Day Foundation. WUSTL is among the first schools in Missouri to receive the honor. Tree Campus USA is a distinction given by the Arbor Day Foundation to recognize schools across the United States for their dedication to healthy campus forestry management and engaging the community in environmental stewardship.

In an age of computer graphics and 3-D rendering, South African artist William Kentridge employs the simplest materials imaginable — paper, charcoal and pastel — to create animated films that explore apartheid, colonialism, human rights abuses and other sobering topics with breathtaking insight and poignancy. At 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 2, Kentridge — whose work also includes prints, books, sculpture, collage, etching and performing arts — will receive the Dean’s Medal from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. 

A research group at Washington University in St. Louis has received more than $2 million to test a biomimetic material that promises to improve the success rate of the more than 75,000 rotator cuff (shoulder tendon) repairs performed each year in the United States. The natural attachment of tendon to bone relies on a transition zone where the material properties of bone shade into those of tendon. The biodegradable patch would provide an environment where stem cells could recreate this transition after surgery, making repairs less prone to failure.

One of the most acclaimed poets of her generation, Louise Glück has, over the last four decades, received virtually every major honor available to a U.S. poet, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award and a Wallace Stevens Award for “outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry.” At 8 p.m. Thursday, March 10, Glück, the Visiting Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in Washington University, will read from her work as part of The Writing Program’s spring Reading Series.