Perspectives

The Sam Fox School’s Pablo Moyano Fernández writes about the advantages of concrete for single-family home construction. Though wood still dominates the U.S. market, Moyano and WashU architecture and engineering students have explored concrete housing through models, prototypes and design competition entries.

Cultures differ around the world, meaning each city has its own set of variables that shape the evolutionary processes of wildlife. Understanding how these human cultural practices shape evolutionary patterns will allow people to better design cities that support both humans and the wildlife that call these places home, writes Elizabeth Carlen.

Translating these men’s writing is not just a matter of bringing a text from one language into another. It is also a deep reflection on the complex position of Jews and conversos in those years. Their unique vantage point offers a window into the intertwined histories of Europe, the Americas and the in-betweenness that marked the Jewish experience in the early modern world, writes Flora Cassen.

The spiral of silence becomes inimical to pluralistic debate, discussion and, ultimately, to democracy itself, writes James L. Gibson.

A new podcast from WashU’s John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics covers topics ranging from evangelical Christians and Donald Trump to social media and lost connections, and even “The Karate Kid.”

Jenisha McDonald, who works with WashU’s College Prep Program, discusses her passion for empowering students and her professional journey in Human Resources’ staff spotlight.

WashU School of Public Health Dean Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, takes part in an episode of the “Wondros” podcast to discuss what can truly make America healthy, looking at areas such as nutrition, living conditions and work-life balance.

Get rid of states? Legal scholar Stephen Legomsky, who taught for 34 years at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, has just published a book, “Reimagining the American Union,” that proposes a radical idea: Abolish state government. The Conversation’s politics and democracy editor, Naomi Schalit – a former statehouse reporter herself – interviewed Legomsky about the provocative idea behind his book, in which he advocates moving most of the functions of state government down to the local level, closer to those represented and governed by it.

Rather than limiting the understanding of his work, accounting for Gorey’s queerness invites viewers of his art and readers of his work into deeper communion with the artist – and themselves, writes Liz Wolfson.

The dynamic and creative quality of the United States is in no small part the result of the dynamism of its colleges and universities. Most of this research is neither left nor right, red nor blue, but in the interest of all Americans and the country as a whole. To lose its vitality and effectiveness would be nothing short of a national tragedy, writes Mark Rank.