Perspectives

But the Rams, the league, and other NFL teams may have an even larger Thanos-like challenge in avoiding a hefty financial settlement with parties from St. Louis. A lawsuit that’s unlikely to evaporate into dust with a click of the fingers, writes Patrick Rishe.

Tabea Linhard, professor in Arts & Sciences, writes on the Center for the Humanities website about constructed and natural borders ahead of anthropologist Jason De León’s delivering the Holocaust Memorial Lecture, “The Land of Open Graves,” on Dec. 4.

Chancellor Andrew D. Martin shares his thoughts on gratitude in his inaugural Thanksgiving letter. “Words cannot begin to express my gratitude for your efforts and commitment to our shared work,” he writes.

Jeannette Cooperman shares a first-person perspective about starting in her new role as a writer for the Common Reader, an online journal published by Washington University.

Swanne Gordon, of Arts & Sciences, is a Canadian evolutionary biologist and behavioral ecologist. In the biology newsletter BIOrhythms, she speaks about her background, career challenges and passionate belief in embracing diversity and broadening horizons.

Henry S. Webber, the university’s executive vice chancellor and chief administrative officer, writes a column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about the future of St. Louis city and the need to invest in redeveloping north St. Louis. “St. Louis can’t be economically successful without building on our strengths and challenging the status quo,” he said.

If we work together for growth and equity, St. Louis can become one city of opportunity and inclusion where all of our children have hope for the future and live without fear, writes Henry S. Webber.

Laura Jean Bierut, the Alumni Endowed Professor of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine, writes in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about efforts to fight opioid addiction, the “medication first” approach and the need for sound data to inform future treatment.

Phillip Maciak, lecturer in Arts & Sciences, writes an article published in The Week about online cultural criticism and how quickly it has changed — for the worse.

As the world marks the 30th anniversary this weekend of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Anika Walke, associate professor of history in Arts & Sciences, writes that it wasn’t inevitable, explaining East German demonstrators’ forgotten visions for the future of the German Democratic Republic.