Arts & Sciences

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.

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.

Groundbreakers Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane had a 17-year partnership, interrupted only by Zane’s death in 1988, that was arguably the most productive in contemporary dance. On Nov. 16-17, the company they formed will return to St. Louis with Body Against Body, a retrospective of groundbreaking duets.

It’s not every day you get to play with the greats. On Oct. 20, famed trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra — arguably the nation’s finest jazz big band — joined the St. Louis Symphony for a performance of Marsalis’ Swing Symphony. The day before, Marsalis and Co. visited WUSTL’s 560 Music Center to conduct a clinic with students from the East St. Louis High School Jazz Band.

At the Oct. 5 Board of Trustees meeting, faculty members were appointed with tenure, promoted with tenure or granted tenure. The appointments were effective Oct. 5, 2012.

Tillie’s Food Shop moved a step closer to federal historic landmark status with its designation as a historic area from the state of Missouri. WUSTL students in a service-learning course taught by Sonia Lee, PhD, assistant professor of history in Arts & Sciences, helped prepare the application for historic status. The North St. Louis corner was a hub of activity in the 1950s for African-Americans and an example of a black- and woman-owned business. 

At the annual Founders Day gala Saturday, Nov. 3, six outstanding alumni and two exceptional supporters will be honored for their dedication to Washington University.

Patrick Kennedy is a garrulous alcoholic, drenched in whisky and Shakespeare. His daughters — insecure Judith, acerbic Rose and idealistic Maud — are variations on the theme of spinsterhood. In other words, a typical broken Irish family. Ah, but wait. All is not exactly as it seems, here in County Sligo. In The Night Season, British playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz flirts with the tropes of Irish drama, inhabiting and upending in equal measure.

Undergraduate research opportunities at Washington University have come a long way in a few short years. When the first symposium to showcase undergraduates’ research was held in spring 2005, there were just 15 participants. This weekend, 210 undergraduates will showcase their research projects through poster presentations and visual and oral presentations during the Fall Undergraduate Research Symposium from noon until 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27.