Arts & Sciences

In the 1930s, the photographer Ansel Adams struck up a friendship with California painter Chiura Obata. Yet the arrival of World War II would set these two celebrated artists on radically divergent paths — paths that would, in very different ways, lead both to the now-infamous “war relocation centers” at which the U.S. government forcibly interred approximately 120,000 Japanese-Americans. Next month their sons, Michael Adams and Gyo Obata, will explore the impact of internment on their respective families in a public dialog at Washington University.

Provocative questions of activism, justified violence and making a difference lie at the heart of “underground,” an ambitious evening-length multimedia dance piece by acclaimed choreographer David Dorfman Sept. 25 and 26.

Ramanath Cowsik, Ph.D., professor of physics and director of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, received the 2009 O’Ceallaigh Medal for his “outstanding contributions to cosmic ray physics.” Cowsik, whose scientific contributions span over four decades, received the award during the opening ceremony of the 31st biennial International Cosmic Ray Conference, held in Lodz, Poland.

Gary S. Wihl, Ph.D., who joined Washington University in St. Louis July 1 as dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences, will be installed as the Hortense and Tobias Lewin Distinguished Professor in the Humanities during a 4:30 p.m. ceremony Sept. 16, announced Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. Wihl, who also is a professor in the Department of English in Arts & Sciences, came to WUSTL from Rice University, where he was dean of its School of Humanities and the Francis Moody Newman Professor of the Humanities.

Fiction writer Lydia Millet will read from her work at 8 p.m. Sept. 17 in Duncker Hall, Room 201, Hurst Lounge to open the Writing Program in Arts & Sciences’ fall Reading Series. Millet is the author of six novels, beginning with the subversive coming-of-age tale “Omnivores,” which centers on a young woman whose megalomaniac […]

Gary S. Wihl, Ph.D., who joined WUSTL July 1 as dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences, will be installed as the Hortense and Tobias Lewin Distinguished Professor in the Humanities during a 4:30 p.m. ceremony Sept. 16.

On Sept. 12, the Dance Program in the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will explore the role of ethnicity in contemporary dance with “Dancing Who I Am,” a panel discussion and informal concert featuring faculty performers and leading critics and choreographers from around the country.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have shown that individual cells isolated from the biological clock can keep daily time all by themselves. However, by themselves, they are unreliable. The neurons get out of synch and capriciously quit or start oscillating again.

Fiction writer Lydia Millet will read from her work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17, for Washington University’s Writing Program in Arts & Sciences Millet is the author of six novels, beginning with the subversive coming-of-age tale Omnivores (1996), which centers on a young woman whose megalomaniac father turns their home into an armed camp after seceding from the United States. Her third novel, My Happy Life (2002), won the 2003 PEN-USA Award for Fiction. Her latest book is the forthcoming story collection Love in Infant Monkeys.

Gary NoelDavid Dorfman Dance”Does what you do make a difference?” “Is violence ever justified?” “When can activism become terrorism, or vice versa?” Such provocative questions lie at the heart of underground, an ambitious evening-length multimedia dance piece by acclaimed choreographer David Dorfman. On Sept. 25 and 26 Dorfman — a Washington University alumnus — will return to Edison Theatre with his company, David Dorfman Dance, to launch the 2009-10 OVATIONS Series.