Arts & Sciences

The Brookings Institution and Washington University in St. Louis announce the first recipients of grants from the Academic Venture Fund, the purpose of which is  to support collaboration between the two institutions, particularly long-term projects that impact research, education and policy. Grants are available in amounts from $20,000 to $50,000. Interested fellows, faculty, staff, centers, institutes and programs can submit proposals by June 1 for review in July 2010. 

A new test allows scientists to discover whether ticks are carrying disease-causing bacteria and which animals provided their last blood meal. Results suggest three emerging diseases in the St. Louis area are carried by lone star ticks feeding on record-high populations of white-tailed deer.

The gift of “seeing ourselves as others see us” comes in handy when judging how we’ve made a first impression. Yet many come away with little or no clue about how that first impression was perceived. A new study suggests confidence is a key indicator of how well we’ve assessed impressions left behind.

John W. Lowe, Ph.D., a noted Americanist specializing in Southern literature and studies, is the visiting Hurst Professor in the Department of English in Arts & Sciences the week of March 1. Lowe will give two public lectures: one on “The Haitian Revolution’s Effect on Southern Literature”; the other on William Faulkner.

Baritone Ian Greenlaw, teacher of applied music in Arts & Sciences, will join members of The Kingsbury Ensemble, St. Louis’ leading early-music group, for a concert titled “Music of Classical Vienna” at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 28. 

Following carbon monoxide poisoning from a furnace at his work place on May 31, 1926, Franz Breutel was unable to remember anything for more than about a second. An interdisciplinary panel will discuss this forgotten amnesic case study at 3 p.m. Friday, Feb. 26, in Wilson Hall, Room 214. The lecture, “Remembering Mr. B: The Man with a Two-Second Memory,” is sponsored by the WUSTL Center for Programs.

Anthropology professors Peter Benson and Carolyn Sargent will travel to Washington, D.C., Tuesday and Wednesday, Feb. 23 and 24, to speak with U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan of Missouri about the recently convened Healthcare Reform Task Force and new ways to link academic research and policy development.

The intricately intertwined relationship between the global economy and politics will be the focus of a public forum titled “Politics and the Global Recession” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25 in the Knight Center. The program is being sponsored by the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy.

Mary Ann Dzuback, Ph.D., director and associate professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, associate professor of education and adjunct associate professor of history, all in Arts & Sciences, is a gifted teacher and visionary leader.

Donna Haraway, Ph.D., an internationally recognized theorist and historian of science and technology, is visiting the Department of English in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis as a Hurst Professor Monday, Feb. 22, through Friday, Feb. 26. As part of her visit, Haraway will give the opening talk Feb. 24 in a lecture series titled “21st Century Science Studies: Agents of Overlap in Biology and the Humanities.”