Perspectives

Joseph Jez, professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, talks about the importance of plant biology as it relates to day-to-day science at the TedXGateway Arch event May 17, 2016. Studying biochemical networks in plants and microbes, Jez’s aim is to engineer those systems to address agricultural and environmental issues and find solutions to real-world problems.

Gerald Izenberg, professor emeritus of history in Arts & Sciences, is the author of a new book on “Identity: The Necessity of a Modern Idea.” The University of Pennsylvania Press published the book in its Intellectual History of the Modern Age series.

In “Ramadan Diaries,” two Arts & Sciences students, Oguz Alyanak and Dick Powis, who are studying anthropology, blog about their experiences of fasting among Muslims during Ramadan this summer in France and Senegal.

Adia Harvey Wingfield, of the Department of Sociology in Arts & Sciences, writes a piece in The Atlantic about how stereotypes present distinct challenges for Asian-Americans in the workplace.

James M. DuBois, of the School of Medicine, co-writes a commentary in the journal Nature about the Professionalism and Integrity Program, a training program he helps run for researchers who have lost their research privileges.

Essayist and American culture critic Gerald Early writes an opinion piece for The Washington Post about boxing legend Muhammad Ali and his significance both within and beyond boxing. Early is editor of “The Muhammad Ali Reader.”

Kurt Beals, of Arts & Sciences, discusses his latest work — the translation of a book about the life of German-language writer Franz Kafka, “Is That Kafka?” — in a “Cut and Paste” podcast with St. Louis Public Radio.

Adetunji Toriola, MD, PhD, of the Division of Public Health Sciences at the School of Medicine, discusses the litigation against Johnson & Johnson alleging harm from talc in baby powder and other products for a Wharton University podcast.

Claire Weichselbaum and Brian Lananna, doctoral students in neuroscience, co-founded Brain Discovery. The outreach program brings neuroscience into elementary-school classrooms, where kids can get to know a scientist and do fun brain experiments. Learn more on Arts & Sciences’ “Hold That Thought” podcast.

Essayist and American culture critic Gerald Early writes a piece in the latest edition of his online journal, The Common Reader, offering an overview of notable films about jazz trumpeters.