Perspectives

Mary-Jean Cowell, of the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences, reflects on the important role that dance plays, both at a research university and for society at large.

John Bowen, of Arts & Sciences, co-writes a piece in The Conversation analyzing identity politics in the modern world. The article stems from the findings of a broad academic initiative known as the International Panel on Social Progress.

In this video, pianist Yihan Li, a senior in Arts & Sciences whose honors include the Department of Music’s 2016 Friends of Music Award and 2017 Antoinette Dames Award, performs the Prelude to “Pour le Piano,” Claude Debussy’s musical manifesto, in the 560 Music Center.

R. Marie Griffith, director of the university’s John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, writes a piece in The Washington Post in which she argues that Americans have no consensus on what constitutes moral behavior. Her piece comes in light of fired FBI director James Comey’s statements that President Donald Trump is “morally unfit” […]

Calvin Lai, of Arts & Sciences, writes a piece on The Conversation website about unconscious bias training and what we know about whether it is effective. The article is also available on the WashU Perspectives page.

Aaron Coleman, PhD candidate in comparative literature in Arts & Sciences and Chancellor’s Fellow, spoke with NPR’s “All Things Considered” about the challenges of translating poetry from one language to another. The program was celebrating National Poetry Month.

Sociologist Caitlyn Collins, of Arts & Sciences, writes an article in Slate about American tourists’ reaction to seeing Swedish fathers caring for their children. She explains her yearslong project comparing the lives of working mothers in Sweden, the U.S. and other countries, all of which have vastly different work-family policies.

Sociologist Adia Harvey Wingfield, of Arts & Sciences, writes about her research on the complicated position that black professional men often find themselves in, being part of both the majority and the minority in the workplace, in a Harvard Business Review article.

Income inequality expert Mark Rank, of the Brown School, wrote in an op-ed published in The New York Times about his research on the cost to the nation’s economy of childhood poverty. “The bottom line is that reducing poverty is justified not only from a social justice perspective, but from a cost-benefit perspective as well,” […]

Anne-Marie McManus and Nancy Y. Reynolds, both of Arts & Sciences, write on the Center for the Humanities website about sorting out the truth regarding news and politics in war-ravaged Syria. Their piece comes ahead of a Mellon Sawyer Seminar lecture Thursday, April 19, focused on Syria.