Arts & Sciences

Reuben Riggs, a senior in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, says the fight for social justice is the foundation of a liberal arts education and he has embraced that fight in light of events in Ferguson in 2014. “To know that and not go out and engage when it’s happening on my doorstep would go against everything I believe in,” said Riggs, who also is an Ervin and a Civic Scholar.

Much more than an archaeology course, a six-week summer field practicum on the history of Central Asia, led by Michael Frachetti, PhD, associate professor of archaeology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, offers students from all disciplines the opportunity to immerse themselves in the past and present culture of Kazakhstan.

This spring, students in Ignacio Infante’s “World-Wide Translation: Language, Culture, Technology” will help create positive experiences for critically ill children visiting St. Louis. The work is made possible in part  by an Arts & Sciences grant, one of 15, designed to support engaging and transformative classroom experiences.

Jazz bassist and composer Eric Warren will launch the spring Jazz at Holmes series with a free concert Thursday, Jan. 22. In all, the weekly series will feature 12 performances, including evenings with acclaimed guitarist John Abercrombie and saxophonist Eric Person, a St. Louis native now living in New York.

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.