Arts & Sciences

In “Mrs. Kelley’s Igloo,” senior Sophie Tegenu explores themes of family, romantic love and the difficulties of saying “I do.”  This weekend, the play will be one of three to receive world premier staged readings as part of the Performing Arts Department’s annual A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival.

Whatever impeachment moves the Democratic-majority U.S. House of Representatives makes next, it’s ultimately up to the Republican-controlled and administration-friendly Senate to hold a trial on the matter — and Washington University in St. Louis political scientist Steve Smith anticipates the Senate could make a number of moves to avoid the issue.

Bronwen Konecky, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, works at the cutting edge of an emerging research area that combines paleoclimate data with climate models. She received the Nanne Weber Early Career Award from the Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology Section of the American Geophysical Union.

The College of Arts & Sciences has added two new majors and a new concentration, all available this academic year. They are: a joint economics and computer science major; an astrophysics major; and a production concentration for the existing major in film and media studies.

Fredric Raines, associate professor emeritus of economics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Sunday, Sept. 8, 2019, in St. Louis. He was 86.

At the Arts & Sciences faculty welcome reception held Sept. 10 in Holmes Lounge, Dean Barbara A. Schaal presented the annual Arts & Sciences faculty awards for excellence in teaching and service. Awards were presented to Elizabeth Borgwardt, Stan Braude, Adrienne Davis, Steve Fazzari and Lerone Martin.

Cindy Brantmeier has been named the university’s first faculty fellow in international research. She will advise faculty on the Danforth and Medical campuses on conducting international research and achieving effective collaborations with international partners.

Washington University’s collaborative Center for Quantum Sensors was awarded a Quantum Leap Challenge Institute (QLCI) conceptualization grant from the National Science Foundation to help advance applications of quantum information science.

The Center for the Humanities offers internal funding opportunities to Washington University faculty in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Several programs have an Oct. 1 deadline, including the Faculty Fellowship, the Collaborative Research Seed Grant, the Summer Faculty Research Grant and the Grimm Travel Award. Learn more online.

Todd Braver, professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences, and of radiology and neuroscience at the School of Medicine, has been appointed to the National Advisory Council for Complementary and Integrative Health.