Perspectives

Provost Holden Thorp, PhD, writes on his blog about his admiration for Herbie Hancock, who is to receive an honorary degree today, and how watching him perform helped guide his own career path.

The School of Law’s Karen L. Tokarz, JD, and student Sam Stragand write in a commentary for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about the need for, and ways to, reform the St. Louis region’s municipal court system.

Lena Kelly, who graduated from WashU last year, offers some advice and perspective to new college graduates through a column in The Plain Dealer.

It’s finals season, so check out a Q&A from Arts & Sciences’ Henry L. “Roddy” Roediger, PhD, in The Chronicle of Higher Education about his research on learning, memory and test-taking.

Lissa Johnson, of the Brown School’s Center for Social Development, discusses what factors encourage youth to save in a New America podcast.

Biostatistician Melody Goodman, PhD, of the School of Medicine, spoke with Harvard Public Health Magazine about the public-health factors involved in studying, and responding to, violent encounters with police.

For 25 years, Mark Smith, JD, director of the Career Center, has been helping new graduates — and their parents — cope with the stress of finding that first job. Smith shares his top tips for graduates and their parents.

William J. Maxwell, PhD, of Arts & Sciences, writes in Politico about how the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover monitored celebrated African-American writers.

Corinna Treitel, PhD, associate professor of history, discusses her research on the origins of the natural food movement and her current book, “Eating Nature: Food, Agriculture, and Environment in Modern Germany,” on the Center for the Humanities site.

The graduate student group ProSPER, which created the “Where’s My Jetpack?” speaker series, explores the challenges behind research and innovation in a “Hold That Thought” podcast.