Arts & Sciences

Common Ground, a joint initiative of the Department of History, the Program in African and African American Studies and the Program in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, all in Arts & Sciences, will host five speakers over the remainder of the academic year. The first, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, PhD, will present Thursday, Dec. 2.

Novel metal catalysts might be able to turn greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide into liquid fuels without producing more carbon waste in the process.

Washington University Dance Theatre, the annual showcase of professionally choreographed works performed by student dancers, will present Living in the Momentum, its 2010 concert, Dec. 3, 4 and 5 in Edison Theatre. Performances — sponsored by the Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences — will feature more than 50 student dancers, selected by audition, in seven original works by faculty and guest choreographers.  

Gerald L. Early, PhD, the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters in Arts & Sciences and director of the Center for the Humanities, both in Arts & Sciences, chats with a group of students Nov. 17 in South 40 House about the book Blue Angel by Francine Prose. Prose will be on campus to receive the 2010 Washington University International Humanities Medal Nov. 30.

Washington University’s Department of Music in Arts & Sciences will present its annual sing-along of George Frideric Handel’s oratorio Messiah at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 5, in Graham Chapel. The performance, which lasts about an hour, will include the Christmas portion of Messiah as well as the “Hallelujah Chorus.”

Composer and pianist John MacIvor Perkins, professor emeritus in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, died Friday, Nov. 12, 2010, at Barnes-Jewish Extended Care of complications from liver cancer and kidney failure. He was 75. A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 12, in the Recital Hall of the 560 Music Center.

Noted historian Alan Brinkley will present the keynote address for “Celebrating Our Books, Recognizing Our Authors,” Washington University’s ninth annual faculty book colloquium, at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 29. The event also will feature presentations by two faculty members. In addition, the colloquium will include a panel discussion on “The Future of the University Library” beginning at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 30. 

Priya Mallika Sury, a 2010 graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, has been named a Rhodes Scholar, according to an announcement today by the Rhodes Trust. Sury is among 32 students from across the United States chosen for graduate study at the University of Oxford in England. Winners of the highly acclaimed award are selected on the basis of their undergraduate academic achievements, personal integrity, leadership potential and physical vigor.

In Western literature on laughter, says Anca Parvulescu, PhD, a lot of attention is paid to why people laugh. Parvulescu’s book Laughter: Notes on a Passion (MIT Press, 2010) examines what people do when they laugh. What does laughter sound like? What are the different kinds of laughs that people laugh? What social, cultural and political work does laughter do?

The Washington University Symphony Orchestra will perform music of Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Joseph Haydn and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 21, in the university’s E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall.