Arts & Sciences

“Few chefs of African descent work at the pinnacle of our national haute cuisine today, yet their contributions to American kitchens and dining rooms have been definitive.” So argues Rafia Zafar, professor of English and of African-American studies, both in Arts & Sciences, in her new book “Recipes for Respect: African American Meals and Meaning.”

Choreographers Harrison Parker and Rachael Servello will present a pair of new works March 23 in Edison Theatre as part of “Reel2Real,” the 2019 MFA Student Dance Concert.

Shanti Parikh, associate professor of sociocultural anthropology and of African and African-American studies in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, led planning for the American Ethnological Society (AES) annual spring meeting, which takes place March 14-16 at the university.

The German Academy for Language and Literature will award its 2019 Friedrich Gundolf Prizeto Paul Michael Lützeler, the Rosa May Distinguished University Professor in the Humanities in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

The movement to abolish clock-time changes each spring and fall is growing — and so is the scientific evidence. Experts say perennial standard time, or “wintertime,” is the best and safest option for public health.

A department in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis has been renamed. It is now known as the Department of Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies. The previous name was the Department of Jewish, Islamic, and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.

Meredith Jackrel, assistant professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, recently received a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and another from the Longer Life Foundation to study protein disaggregases —  evolved protein forms that mitigate protein misfolding — as a strategy to combat neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS.

Joshua Blodgett, assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, received a five-year $900,500 grant to support his research related to actinomycete bacteria. This type of bacteria produces a majority of current antibiotics and may harbor other useful small molecules that could be revealed by activating silent genes.

A growing number of first-year students are seeking career advice and resources early in their college careers. In response, the Career Center has launched a number of new career-readiness program specifically for first-year students. The center also collaborated with Arts & Sciences on a pilot program that combines career planning and academic advising.  

Richard Alley, the Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University, will deliver the McDonnell Distinguished Lecture on March 6 at Washington University in St. Louis. Alley’s lecture is titled “Finding the Good News on Energy and Environment.”