Arts & Sciences

When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) accused the Trump administration of “running concentration camps on our southern border,” a political firestorm erupted. But a question remained. Was the comparison justified? Arts & Sciences historian Anika Walke, a scholar of the Holocaust, offers perspective.

In a systematic review of 21 peer-reviewed journal articles, Anne Claire Grammer, a Washington University in St. Louis PhD candidate in psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences, and co-authors aimed to determine if sexual and gender minority adolescents are at greater risk for overweight or obesity compared to cisgender, heterosexual youth.

Morgan DeBaun (AB ’12) finds success as a media startup creator with Blavity, a platform that helps the Black community have a safe space online.

African and African American Studies, a program born out of student protest that recently became a department, celebrates its 50th year.

Kate Smith was the “songbird of the south” and “the First Lady of radio,” a 20th-century superstar whose recording of “God Bless America” was still being played during Philadelphia Flyer and New York Yankees home games. But recently, both teams distanced themselves from Smith due to racist lyrics in a pair of her early recordings. Arts & Sciences’ Todd Decker, chair of music, helps unpack the controversy for USA Today.

Tim Wencewicz, assistant professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, has been recognized with a 2019 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. He will use the funding for his research to help develop new antibiotics, to combat antibiotic resistance and to improve the university’s organic chemistry curriculum.

Physicists studying the brain at Washington University in St. Louis have shown how measuring signals from a single neuron may be as good as capturing information from many neurons at once using big, expensive arrays of electrodes. The new work continues the discussion about how the brain seems to function in a “critical” state. The research was reported in the Journal of Neuroscience.

New research by biologists in Arts & Sciences reveals the molecular machinery behind the high-intensity sweetness of the stevia plant. The results could be used to engineer new non-caloric products without the aftertaste that many associate with the sweetener marketed as Stevia.

Washington University professors Fiona Marshall, Gary Stormo and Yoram Rudy will receive 2019 awards for faculty achievement, innovation and entrepreneurship, Chancellor Andrew D. Martin has announced.

Three Washington University in St. Louis students have received the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship, which honors students who conduct research in the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering.