Arts & Sciences

Four Arts & Sciences faculty at Washington University in St. Louis will explore the “politics, issues and theatrics” of this year’s presidential election during a 6 p.m. panel discussion
 Thursday, Oct. 18, in the Laboratory Sciences Building, Room 300. The event, which is part of the Arts & Sciences Connections Series, is free and open to the Washington University community. A
 5:30 p.m. reception in Lab Sciences’ Rettner Gallery will precede the discussion, titled “Decision 2012.” 



Some Halloween news tips refuse to die, rising from the newsroom morgue each October with a stubborn resolve to once again help trick-or-treaters stay safe on Halloween night. Here’s three timely safety tips that remain very much undead.

Interdisciplinary faculty collaboration is fast becoming a hallmark of Washington University in St. Louis. To help support interdisciplinary teaching, the Office of the Provost announces the second round of the Interdisciplinary Teaching Grant Program. The application deadline for the teaching grants is December 1. In order to assist prospective applicants in putting together proposals, the Provost will hold a workshop from 3:30-5 p.m. in DUC 234 on October 23 facilitated by faculty who were successful in the previous round. Please RSVP for the workshop to Marion G. Crain, JD, the Wiley B. Rutledge Professor of Law and vice provost at WUSTL, at mgcrain@wulaw.wustl.edu.

Jennifer R. Smith, PhD, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, is one of eight U.S. citizens selected to go abroad in 2013 as an Eisenhower USA Fellow. Retired Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of Eisenhower Fellowships, announced the eight fellowship winners, who were selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants. As part of her fellowship, Smith will spend a month in India next summer on an intensive individualized professional program.

Over the course of 10 novels, Richard Powers has emerged as one of today’s most challenging and philosophically minded authors. On Oct. 16 and 18, Powers, the Visiting Hurst Professor of Creative Writing, will present a pair of events for The Writing Program’s fall Reading Series.

Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart will present Lindsey Steinberg, a senior majoring in chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, with a $10,000 scholarship from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation during a public ceremony at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 10, in Brookings Hall, Room 300. Schweickart will also share his experience orbiting the Earth as Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 9.

The Florist’s Daughter, Patricia Hampl’s most recent memoir, opens with a striking scene. As her mother lays dying, the writer sits at her bedside and begins composing an obituary on a plain yellow notepad. What follows is a loving tribute to her parents and to the startling passions that define supposedly ordinary lives.​

Tiffany Knight, PhD, associate professor of biology and director of the Environmental Studies Program in Arts & Science, is on sabbatical in Hawaii working to pull some of its many endangered plant species back from the brink.

“Welcome to cabaret!” declares the Master of Ceremonies. “Leave your troubles outside! Life is disappointing? Forget it! In here, life is beautiful! The girls are beautiful! Even the orchestra is beautiful!” Welcome to The Kit-Kat Club, Germany’s most decadent nightspot. And welcome to Cabaret. The Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will stage the groundbreaking musical Oct. 19-28 in Edison Theatre.

The director of the women, gender and sexuality studies program at Washington University in St. Louis identifies some key issues of importance to women and non-heterosexual American voters in this year’s elections. Among the key issues are women’s reproductive rights, access to health care, equal rights for non-heterosexual Americans and equal pay for equal work.