Arts & Sciences

Five young women take the stage, playful but competitive. In “Fandango” (1963), Antony Tudor explores the nature of friendly rivalries with energy and insight. In December, “Fandango” will be among seven professionally choreographed works featured in “emBodied Language,” the 2014 Washington University Dance Theatre concert.

​Washington University in St. Louis alumna Louia Kornblatt, a finalist for a 2014 Rhodes Scholarship, is working to help women overcome gender-based violence and find their voice.

Matt Erlin, PhD, chair of the Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, is a co-investigator on a multi-university digital humanities initiative called NovelTM.

At the Oct. 3 Board of Trustees meeting, several Washington University faculty members were appointed with tenure or promoted with tenure. Read more for details. 

The Department of Classics in Arts & Sciences will launch a new Doctor of Philosophy in classics next fall. The program builds on the department’s nationally recognized Master of Arts but also draws on resources from across the university to create specialized tracks in ancient performance, ancient history, ancient philosophy and Greek and Roman music.

As immigration reform once again heads to the front-burner of American politics, the nation’s politicians and voters have an opportunity to decide whether a fringe coalition of racist groups will once again be allowed to sabotage serious efforts to reach a rational compromise on critical immigration issues, suggests Robert W. Sussman, author of a new book on enduring scientific myths behind modern racism.

L. Lewis Wall, MD, DPhil (right), has received a gold medal for his “meritorius contributions” to medical education at Mekelle University College of Medical and Health Sciences in Mekelle, Ethiopia. He is a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Washington University School of Medicine and of anthropology in Arts & Sciences.

Paul Steinbeck, PhD, assistant professor of music theory and composition in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, recently attended the Mizzou Improvisation Festival at the University of Missouri-Columbia and — and even had one of his works performed.

Alexander Stefaniak, PhD, assistant professor of musicology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, was invited to present his paper, “Brilliant, Transcendent Virtuosity in Clara Wieck Schumann’s 1830s Concerts” at the American Musicological Society Annual Meeting (held jointly with the Society for Music Theory), in Milwaukee in early November.

Scientists have mostly ignored mRNA, the molecule that ferries information from DNA to the cellular machines that make proteins, because these DNA transcripts are ephemeral and soon destroyed. But mRNA can be just as important as DNA scientists at Washington University in St. Louis say. They found that oxidized messenger RNA jams the cellular machines that make protein. The failure to clear the jams and chew up bad messengers is associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.