Arts & Sciences

A new brain-imaging study is shedding light on what it means to “get lost” in a good book — suggesting that readers create vivid mental simulations of the sounds, sights, tastes and movements described in a textual narrative while simultaneously activating brain regions used to process similar experiences in real life.

What is the proper role of American higher education in shaping the values and ambitions of a free democratic society, and more specifically, what are Washington University’s responsibilities as a citizen of the greater St. Louis community, the nation and the world? Getting the campus and surrounding community to reflect on these questions is the goal of the Master of Liberal Arts program’s “Democracy and the University” seminar series.

Gary S. Wihl, Ph.D., dean of Rice University’s School of Humanities and a highly respected scholar and academic leader, will become dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences on July 1, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. “Gary Wihl brings his many talents as both an accomplished scholar and an experienced administrator to Washington University at a very important time in our history,” Wrighton said.

Gary S. Wihl, Ph.D., dean of Rice University’s School of Humanities and a highly respected scholar and academic leader, will become dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences on July 1, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. “Gary Wihl brings his many talents as both an accomplished scholar and an experienced administrator to Washington University at a very important time in our history,” Wrighton said.

Wihl Gary S. Wihl, Ph.D., dean of Rice University’s School of Humanities and a highly respected scholar and academic leader, will become dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis on July 1, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. “Gary Wihl brings his many talents as both an accomplished scholar and an experienced administrator to Washington University at a very important time in our history,” Wrighton said.

Recent blockbuster films and television events devoted to World War II and its aftermath have claimed to break new ground by breaking taboos on the representation of German suffering while also emphasizing an emotional engagement with the past, particularly through forms of sympathy and empathy. Yet the work of Alexander Kluge, the German director and […]

Poet Carolyn Forché, the visiting Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in the Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, will read from her work at 8 p.m. Jan. 22. The talk — part of The Writing Program Reading Series — is free and open to the public and takes place in Duncker Hall, Room 201, […]

Six Washington University faculty members have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Gerald EarlyThose looking to learn more about president Barack Obama and gain an introduction to African-American writing in the process are advised to check out two new books — “Best African American Fiction: 2009” and “Best African American Essays: 2009.” Edited by Gerald L. Early, Ph.D., the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters and director of the Center for the Humanities in Arts & Sciences, the two volumes are the first in the “Best of…” series to exclusively showcase African-American writing. They include writing by and about Obama.

David Kilper/WUSTL PhotoWUSTL biomedical engineers Younan Xia (left) and Lihong Wang examine the photoacoustic tomography machine (PAT) in Wang’s Whitaker Building laboratory.Information obtained from a new application of photoacoustic tomography (PAT) is worth its weight in gold to breast cancer patients. For the first time, Lihong Wang, Ph.D., Gene K. Beare Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, with a joint appointment in Radiology, and Younan Xia, Ph.D., James M. McKelvey Professor in Biomedical Engineering, with a joint appointment in chemistry in Arts & Sciences, both at Washington University in St. Louis, have used gold nanocages to map sentinel lymph nodes (SLN) in a rat noninvasively using PAT.