Arts & Sciences

The board of trustees of the National Humanities Center recently elected Holden Thorp, PhD, Washington University in St. Louis provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, as one of its three new members.

The Department of Anthropology is widely recognized as a gem, with a reputation for excellence among top institutions. Yet housed in one of Washington University in St. Louis’ oldest and most revered buildings — McMillan Hall — the Arts & Sciences department had been challenged by an infrastructure ill equipped to support the research and teaching needs of the highly regarded department, with its growing numbers of undergraduate and graduate students. Until now, that is.

Gerald Early, PhD, the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters in Arts & Sciences, has been appointed to the National Council on the Humanities, the 26-member advisory board to the National Endowment for the Humanities. Early is one of five new members nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

A temporary seismic array in Marie Byrd Land in West Antarctica recorded two bursts of activity in 2010 and 2011. Careful analysis of the events shows they originate from a subglacial volcano at the leading end of a volcanic mountain chain. The volcano is unlikely to erupt through the kilometer of ice that covers it but it will melt enough ice to change the way the ice in its vicinity flows.

“John-John,” a new aria by playwright Carter W. Lewis and composer Kamala Sankaram, debuted recently as part of “November 21, 1963: The Day Before,” a multidisciplinary event marking the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

The U.S. Air Force Band of Mid-America and the Washington University in St. Louis Wind Ensemble will mark the anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination with a free concert Nov. 22 in the 560 Music Center.

Nonviolent protest or armed resistance? In My Children! My Africa!, acclaimed South African playwright Athol Fugard illustrates the choice with an arresting image. Mr. M — a beloved teacher in a poor black township — lifts a dictionary in one hand. The other grips a rock someone has thrown through his window. Mr. M is played by Ron Himes, founder of The Black Rep. 

The air chills, the leaves fall, the crops are collected and stored for winter. From India to Estonia, from Holi to Thanksgiving, virtually every culture celebrates the harvest. On Nov. 24, the WUSTL Concert Choir and Chamber Choir will honor fall’s bounty with Thanksgiving, featuring music that stretches from Renaissance Italy to contemporary Senegal.

The inaugural Danforth Distinguished Lectures is bringing nationally recognized scholars to Washington University in St. Louis Nov. 18-20 for public lectures and discussions with faculty, students and invited experts. The theme will be “Protestant Foreign Missions and Secularization in Modern America.”

A unique, long-term partnership between Washington University and the Hazelwood School District is showing eye-popping, unprecedented success in elementary and middle school science test scores — and in the process providing a roadmap for other districts to follow. The district saw scores on the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) tests increase 22.4 percentage points for fifth graders, and 12 percentage points for 8th graders over a five-year period beginning in 2008, the year it began a collaboration with WUSTL’s Institute for School Partnership.