Arts & Sciences

Numerous prominent researchers will gather at WUSTL March 12-14 to discuss the nature of human sociality. The conference, titled “Man the Hunted: The Origin and Nature of Human Sociality, Altruism and Well-Being,” is the first of its kind to focus on the evolution of cooperation, altruism and sociality in primates and humans.

Fiction writer Kate Bernheimer will read from her work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26, in Duncker Hall, Room 201, Hurst Lounge for the Writing Program Reading Series.

NorthCommunity-based conservation in Madagascar, property rights for the poor in Argentina and trade-offs between violence and power in societies throughout human history are among topics to be explored in a free public workshop on the social science of international development from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 24 in the Women’s Building Formal Lounge.

The Performing Arts Department and the African & African American Studies Program, both in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, will host a residency March 13-22 for a nine-member touring ensemble of internationally known Kenyan performance group Haba na Haba. Group members perform acrobatics, music, dance and drama to educate their communities on topics such as HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, reproductive health, women’s issues and violence. The residency will culminate March 20 with a performance, titled “Co-existence,” based on the recent ethnic conflicts in Kenya following disputed elections. The event, free and open to the public, takes place at 8 p.m. in the 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave., in University City.

The annual Washington University African Film Festival will be held March 26-29. The event will feature films that emphasize movement and migration and their impact on African’s shifting identities. All screenings are free and open to the public and begin at 7 p.m. each evening in Brown Hall, Room 100. A postshow discussion and reception will follow Saturday’s films.

Davis Fiction writer Lydia Davis, the Fannie Hurst Visiting Professor in Washington University’s Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, will present a craft talk, titled “A Beloved Duck Gets Cooked: Writing Outside the Mainstream,” and a reading from her work at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 17, and Thursday, March 19, respectively, in Hurst Lounge, Room 201, Duncker Hall on Washington University’s Danforth Campus.

Flying twin-engine light aircraft the equivalent of three trips around the globe and working in temperatures that averaged minus 30 degrees Celsius, an international team of scientists, including one from Washington University in St. Louis, has not only verified the existence of a mountain range that is suspected to have caused the massive East Antarctic Ice Sheet to form, but also has created a detailed picture of the rugged landscape buried under more than four kilometers (2.5 miles) of ice. Douglas A. Wiens, Ph.D., WUSTL professor and chair of earth and planetary sciences, is part of the seismology team.

WUSTL astrophysicists have received a five-year, $3,225,740 grant from NASA to design and build Super-TIGER — a Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder — to collect rare atomic particles called galactic cosmic rays. Super-TIGER’s first flight is planned for December 2012.

Poet Brenda Shaughnessy will read from her work at 8 p.m. March 5, in Duncker Hall, Room 201, Hurst Lounge for the Writing Program Reading Series. Shaughnessy is the author of “Human Dark with Sugar” (2008), winner of the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets and one of five finalists for the […]

Peter Schäfer, Ph.D., the Ronald O. Perelman Professor of Jewish Studies and director of the Program in Judaic Studies at Princeton University, will present the 2009 Adam Cherrick Lecture in Jewish Studies, “Why Did Baby Messiah Disappear? The Birth of Christianity From the Spirit of Judaism,” at 7 p.m. March 19 in Wilson Hall, room 214.