Arts & Sciences

Washington University in St. Louis will offer a doctoral program in rehabilitation and participation science beginning in fall 2011 designed to meet the growing demand for medical scientists in the rehabilitation field. “This unique program is aimed to train scientists within the areas of occupational science, neuroscience, environmental science and engineering to provide a scientific basis to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities and chronic health conditions and to increase their ability to participate in family, work and community life,” says Carolyn Baum, PhD, the Elias Michael Director of the Program in Occupational Therapy and professor of occupational therapy and of neurology.

Washington University’s Center for the Humanities and Program in Film & Media Studies will host the Seventh Annual Children’s Film Showcase Friday and Saturday, Nov. 19 and 20. Titled “An Exploration of Children’s Films and Their Audiences,” the showcase is presented in conjunction with Cinema St. Louis and will feature four screenings as well as Q&A sessions with several of the filmmakers.

What happens when great classical music falls into the hands of complete, if talented, idiots? Find out when Pluck, the world’s funniest string trio, descends upon Washington University’s Edison Theatre with Musical Arson, a slapstick spoof of concert hall decorum. 

WUSTL’s University College will host “The Future of Sports,” a panel discussion featuring Bob Costas, Bill James and other sports experts and historians, at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 29, in Graham Chapel. The panel discussion is free and open to the public. The panelists will discuss topics ranging from performance-enhancing drugs to the collective-bargaining negotiations in the National Football League to the potential rise of soccer in the United States.  

Washington University in St. Louis has received a $1 million grant over the next four years from the Amgen Foundation to provide hands-on laboratory experience to approximately 100 undergraduates through the Amgen Scholars Program.

The American dream is a fragile thing. Just ask the Tate family, a bickering, dysfunctional clan struggling to retain its dilapidated farmhouse on the edge of an unforgiving Western desert. Welcome to Curse of the Starving Class, Sam Shepard’s bitterly funny — and disturbingly prescient — family drama. This month, Washington University’s Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will present the play for five performances in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre. 

Acclaimed fiction and nonfiction writer Francine Prose, author most recently of Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife, will receive the 2010 Washington University International Humanities Medal Nov. 30. Awarded biennially, the medal honors the lifetime work of a noted scholar, writer or artist who has made a significant and sustained contribution to the world of letters or the arts.

The achievement gap separating black and white students has been known and studied for a number of years. However, new research focusing on black males shows the gap may be much bigger than originally thought. How to breach the divide? Better teachers, suggests a WUSTL expert in science education proficiency.

Art historian Monica Amor will discuss “Affect and the Participatory Dimension of Brazilian Neoconcretism: 1959-1964” at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 8, in Steinberg Hall Auditorium. Part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ fall Public Lecture Series, the talk is co-sponsored by the Department of Art History & Archaeology in Arts & Sciences and is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Rivane Neuenschwander: A Day Like Any Other, on view at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. 

In her research, Jennifer R. Smith, PhD, associate professor of earth and planetary sciences and of environmental studies, both in Arts & Sciences, uses the tools of classic earth science to address questions of archeological interest.