Arts & Sciences

When Washington University students weren’t able to return to campus in mid-March due to COVID-19, faculty fellows and their families living on the South 40 stepped in to tend to the large student-run garden outside the Alumni House.

Adia Harvey Wingfield, a leading sociology expert in gender equity and racial inequality, has been installed as the Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Wingfield was installed by Barbara Schaal, dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences.

Jonathan Myers, associate professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, and Solny Adalsteinsson, staff scientist at Tyson Research Center, participated in a Future of Fire Consortium that produced both a scholarly review and a blog item in the Journal of Ecology.

Over the years, the global HIV response has provided the modern medical community with valuable experience about responding to outbreaks and preventing the spread of the disease. These lessons should inform our approach to COVID-19 — especially in lower-income and Black communities, according to Shanti Parikh, associate professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

Ahead of the anticipated SCOTUS ruling on landmark abortion case, Marie Griffith, director of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, discussed the Supreme Court case, the history of the abortion debate across religious/political lines and a way forward.

Douglas Flowe, assistant professor of history, discusses the history of Juneteenth and its continued resonance for all Americans.

Gary Patti is among the 31 finalists for the Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists, selected from 305 nominations across the United States, the organization announced June 17. He is the first honoree from Washington University in St. Louis in the award’s seven-year history.

Umbrella Man. Outside agitators. Agents provocateur. As protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd continue, conspiracy theories and “false flag” charges have flown fast and furious. But sometimes the conspiracy is real. In “F.B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover’s Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature” (2015), William J. Maxwell, professor of English in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, details a decades-long harassment campaign waged against prominent African American writers and activists.

Erin Gemmell, a PhD candidate working with Timothy Wencewicz, associate professor in chemistry in Arts & Sciences, was awarded a National Science Foundation-sponsored industry internship for summer 2020.

New research from Washington University in St. Louis planetary scientists shows that Martian dust storms, like the one that eventually shut down the Opportunity rover, drive the cycle of chlorine from surface to atmosphere and may shed light on the potential for finding life on Mars.