Arts & Sciences

Mabel Moraña, PhD, the William H. Gass Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has won the Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize from the Modern Language Association of America.

The Karb Family Quartet — which consists of senior Jonathan Karb, his parents Margaret and Benjamin and younger brother Aaron — will launch the spring Danforth University Center Chamber Music Series Jan. 20 in Goldberg Formal Lounge.

Math circles, which bring together professional mathematicians and young students, have been a part of mathematical culture in Russia since the 1930s and in Bulgaria for nearly a century. Washington University’s math circle, founded in 2002, gives kids a chance to meet a mathematician and to absorb his or her adventuresome and imaginative approach to solving problems.

Andrew Gott, teacher of applied music, bassoon, and Adrianne Honnold, teacher of applied music, saxophone, both in Arts & Sciences, were featured in recent performances with the St. Louis Symphony.

Jason Silberman, a senior in Arts & Sciences, spent his summer working to develop guidelines to better prepare doctors for treating patients with disabilities. The project was part of Silberman’s training as a Civic Scholar, an initiative of the Gephardt Institute for Public Service. Applications for the Class of 2017 cohort are due Feb. 2.

Does the recent decision by President Barack Obama to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba truly represent fresh opportunity? Or is it merely the latest chapter in a long, tortuous narrative of manipulation and misunderstanding? At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 20, Cuban novelist Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo will discuss “U.S.-Cuba: A New Era or a New Ire?” in the Danforth University Center.

​A dance may begin with a thought or gesture but making art requires more than mere inspiration. On Jan. 23 and 24, Doug Varone and Dancers, one of today’s most celebrated companies, will visit Edison Theatre on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis for an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at the creative process.

The secular, anti-immigration and Islamophobic divisions now gripping France have their roots in the nation’s 200-year history of close interaction with Algeria and its strong 19th century tradition of opposing organized religion of any form, suggests John R. Bowen, PhD, a sociocultural anthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis who has written four books on Islam’s interaction with Western societies.

Before Twitter and Facebook, message boards and the Internet, the backyard clothesline was a universal destination for news, gossip, work and socializing. On Friday, Jan. 16, Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon will bring “The Clothesline Muse,” a multidisciplinary performance celebrating domestic labor and community empowerment, to Edison Theatre as part of the Edison Ovations Series.

New work shows that bacteria (and probably other cells as well) don’t  double in mass before dividing. Instead they add a constant volume (or mass) no matter what their initial size. A small cell adds the same volume as a large cell. By following this rule a cell population quickly converges on a common size.