Arts & Sciences

Washington University in St. Louis has taken a leadership role in helping to shape the future of online education by being a catalyst to bring together a consortium of the nation’s leading colleges and universities that plans to launch Semester Online. This program is a transformative new model for online education, offering undergraduate students the opportunity to take rigorous, online courses for credit from consortium schools.

Over the course of 30-plus years and more than 20 documentaries, Ken Burns’ films have illuminated the country’s past and brought history to life through techniques such as first person narration. For these lasting contributions, Burns will receive WUSTL’s International Humanities Medal. The event on Friday, Nov. 16, includes a preview and commentary of his upcoming films.

On November 8, 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the appointment of three new science envoys, including Barbara Schaal, the Mary-Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor of Biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. The science envoys travel in their capacity as private citizens and advise the White House, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. scientific community about the insights they gain from their travels and interactions.

Angelina toils away for her two preening stepsisters. But when Prince Ramiro visits the household, disguised as a mere valet, it is love at first sight. In La Cenerentola, Gioachino Rossini offers a brisk, witty and emphatically non-supernatural variation on the traditional Cinderella story. On Nov. 15-16, the Washington University Opera Workshop will present excerpts from La Cenerentola and four other works in the 560 Music Center.

Acclaimed poet Carl Phillips will help relaunch WUSTL’s Modern Literature Reading Series when he does a reading of the late poet Robert Creeley’s work at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 12. The event, which is sponsored by University Libraries’ Department of Special Collections, will also feature two master of fine arts students reading the work of two 20th-century poets.

Investigators at Washington University and The Scripps Research Institute have announced the launch of a “Global Metabolomic Initiative” to facilitate meta-analyses on studies of the metabolism of bacteria, yeast, plants, animals and people. Although metabolomics has existed as a discipline for only a decade, it has already provided insights into many difficult-to-treat diseases, including chronic pain. Many more are expected to fall out of the meta-analyses.

Some students enrolled in the Cognitive, Computational and Systems Neuroscience (CCSN) pathway, are sharing their love of science and improving communication skills through community outreach. CCSN is a specialization for graduate students in psychology, neuroscience and biomedical engineering. The students are coaching low-income area teens for an international competition called the Brain Bee, and participating in many events, including the Nov. 10 Amazing Brain Carnival held at the St. Louis Science Center. The free event introduces the public to brain science research in St. Louis. 

Maria Zuber, a professor of geophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will deliver the fifth annual Robert M. Walker Distinguished Lecture at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14, in Room 100 in Whitaker Hall on the Danforth Campus. During the free, public lectures, she will discuss new information about water on the moon.

A group of Washington University students, in collaboration with the Missouri History Museum and Gephardt Institute of Public Service, will present a two-part community forum on the evolution of the U.S. prison-industrial complex titled “The Criminal Brand: America’s Invisible Class,” at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 8 at the Missouri History Museum.

In 1827, a young giraffe named Zarafa was shipped from the Sudan to Paris, where her arrival caused an immediate sensation. That true history forms the basis of Zarafa, an animated French film that combines Zarafa’s story with that of Maki, a 10-year-old escaped slave. This weekend, the Center for the Humanities and the Program in Film & Media Studies will screen Zarafa as part of their Ninth Annual Children’s Film Showcase.