Arts & Sciences

Using satellite imaging and drone reconnaissance, archaeologists from Washington University in St. Louis have discovered an ancient irrigation system that allowed a farming community in northwestern China to raise livestock and cultivate crops in one of the world’s driest desert climates.

If your resolution is to be healthier, happier and more fit in the new year, focus first on finding a real purpose in life. People with a higher sense of purpose tend to engage in healthier lifestyle choices and are more likely to feel better about their own health status, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

Gayle Fritz, professor of archaeology, and Natalie Mueller, a 2017 doctoral graduate, both of the Department of Anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, have received the Patty Jo Watson Award for the year’s best article or book chapter on Southeastern archaeology.

“Life After Rugby,” the first book-length poetry collection by Eileen G’Sell, was published in December by Gold Wake Press. G’Sell is a lecturer in writing and in the Prison Education Project in Arts & Sciences.

Washington University in St. Louis Cadet Cormac O’Halloran, a senior majoring in political science in Arts & Sciences, was named as one of the top Army Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets in the nation.

Four faculty members from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts are among the finalists in the international Chouteau Greenway Design Competition, which aims to connect dozens of cultural and educational institutions from Forest Park to the Arch. Washington University is a partner in the greenway project.

Where do nature and design meet? And how does one create space within evolving nature? This fall, students in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts explored those questions as part of “Disappearing Ground,” a speculative studio centering on Fogelpole Cave in Illinois.

In her new book, “Moral Combat: How Sex Divided American Christians and Fractured American Politics” (Basic Books, 2017), Washington University’s R. Marie Griffith offers a compelling history of the religious debates over sex and sexuality that came to dominate American public life.

Rebecca Lester, associate professor of sociocultural anthropology in Arts & Sciences, has been awarded the 2017 Stirling Prize for the Best Publication in Psychological Anthropology.

Washington University in St. Louis senior Cole Warner makes a killer cookie. Warner’s recipe for pumpkin-white chocolate chip snickerdoodles bested about 80 recipes to win the Judges’ Pick award for the annual St. Louis Post-Dispatch Cookie Contest.