Arts & Sciences

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. 

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.

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.  

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. 

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.