Arts & Sciences

Raymond E. Arvidson, Ph.D., the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Washington University, will deliver the inaugural Robert M. Walker Distinguished Lecture at 7 p.m. Oct. 30 in Room 100, Brown Hall, on the university’s Danforth Campus. Arvidson, who has played key roles in NASA’s missions to Mars, including the current Phoenix Mars Mission, will discuss “Mars: Environments, Habitability, and Life” during the free lecture that is open to the public.

Dancer, choreographer, and creative/performance artist Liz Lerman, together with WUSTL faculty, will participate in a panel discussion on the intersection of art and community called “Still Crossing: Expressing Identities, Building Communities” for the Assembly Series at 4 p.m. Thursday, October 30 in the Women’s Building Lounge, on the Danforth Campus. The panel discussion, free and open to the public, includes Sunita Parikh, Ph.D., associate professor of political science in Arts & Sciences, and Robert Hansman, associate professor of architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts. Lerman created the dance, “Still Crossing” to address issues of immigration, transition and the meaning of “home” and “community.” Lerman will be in residence at Washington University to restage this now-classic dance for a student performance in December as the end piece of this project (see accompanying announcement for details.)

Dominic ArmstrongTenor Dominic Armstrong will perform an intimate Liederabend for the Washington University Department of Music in Arts & Sciences Oct. 26. The program will feature Romanzen aus Tieck’s Magelone, Op. 33 by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), a set of 15 loosely knit romances that comprise the composer’s only song cycle.

The recent meltdown in financial markets around the world, government rescue plans and the future of the global economy will be the focus of an international panel of economic experts Friday, Oct. 17, 2:30 p.m., at Washington University in St. Louis. Free and open to the public, the event will be held in the Lab Sciences Building, Room 300 on the Danforth Campus.

Photo by David KilperThough the vice presidential debate may be over, the political fun continues at WUSTL with the Friday, Oct. 24, opening of the PAD’s “Of Thee I Sing,” the classic musical satire of American public life.

Novelist John Brandon, who earned a master of fine arts degree in 2001 from Washington University’s Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, will read from his work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16, for the Fall Reading Series. Brandon is the author of “Arkansas,” a darkly comic novel about rural drug distribution published last spring […]

Photo by David KilperThough the vice presidential debate may be over, the political fun continues at WUSTL with the Performing Arts Department Production of “Of Thee I Sing,” the classic musical satire of American public life.

One of the nation’s most celebrated journalists, Carl Bernstein, will deliver the Elliot Stein Lecture in Ethics at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23, in Graham Chapel.

A study by WUSTL biologists shows that the more diverse a bird population is in an area, the less chance humans have of exposure to West Nile Virus.

Max GreenstreetJean ValentinePoet Jean Valentine, the Visiting Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in Washington University’s Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, will read from her work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23. The author of 11 books, Valentine is currently State Poet of New York.