Arts & Sciences

Hannah Highfill, a master’s degree student in Islamic studies in the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has received a 2011 U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) to study Persian in Tajikistan this summer. Highfill is among approximately 575 U.S. undergraduate and graduate students from more than 5,200 applicants selected to receive a CLS scholarship.

The Young Scientist Program (YSP) will mark its 20th anniversary with a day-long symposium at 8:30 a.m. Monday, June 6, at Washington University School of Medicine.

Nancy Reynolds, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of History in Arts & Sciences, has received an American Council of Learned Societies’ fellowship to study the impact of Egypt’s construction of the High Dam on its culture and society.

William F. Tate, PhD, the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences and chair of the Department of Education in Arts & Sciences, has been named a fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in Washington, D.C. Tate is one of 31 scholars named by the AERA for 2011. He was inducted April 9, at the AERA annual conference in New Orleans, where he presented a paper titled Epidemiology and Education Research: Dialoging about Social Disparities.

The Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis recently launched a formal alliance with Fudan University, one of the leading universities in China. As part of this growing relationship, Fudan and the Brown School will hold a summer institute in Shanghai to develop policy and management skills for the first generation of social work leaders, NGO leaders and government officials.  

A new online service designed to “match” law students with potential employers is backed by a proprietary algorithm written by Andrew Martin, PhD, professor of law and director of the Center for Empirical Research in the Law (CERL) at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, and Kevin Quinn, PhD, professor at the University of California at Berkeley. JD Match, the brainchild of law firm consultants Bruce MacEwen and Janet Stanton, is loosely based on a medical school model, which is operated by the National Residency Matching Program and links medical students to available residency opportunities annually on Match Day.

Bolstering its emphasis on interdisciplinary efforts, Washington University will offer five new courses rooted in a partnership between two or more schools. In tandem with the growing trend of cross-collaboration in research and the professional arena, the Office of the Provost created its Cross-School Interdisciplinary Teaching Grants Program in 2010. The first of those grants was announced last month.

Planning one of the best-attended senior weeks doesn’t appear, at first glance, to be a major initiative to bridge cultural and racial divides, but to organizer and Senior Class President Alex Kiles, it is. Kiles, who will deliver the student speech at the 150th Commencement May 20, says that one of his missions since a pivotal experience in high school is to help people find common ground.

The Guggenheim Foundation has selected Pascal Boyer, PhD, from among 3,000 nominees to be one of its fellows for 2011. Boyer, the Henry Luce Professor of Collective and Individual Memory and professor of sociocultural anthropology and of psychology, all in Arts & Sciences, was one of only 180 scholars selected for the highly esteemed honor.

Under Secretary of the Army Joseph W. Westphal, PhD, was on hand as 17 members of the Gateway Battalion, St. Louis’ Army Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) based at Washington University, were commissioned as new Army officers. The class of 17 cadets from area universities, including seven from WUSTL, received their two gold bars and took an oath of office during the 93rd annual Gateway Battalion Army ROTC Commissioning Ceremony, held May 13 at Tisch Commons in the Danforth University Center.