Arts & Sciences

*To Kill a Mockingbird*Since its publication in 1960, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird has become the best-selling novel of all time and is perhaps the most widely read book exploring race in the United States. In January Washington University’s Edison Theatre will join forces with Metro Theater Company, St. Louis’ foremost professional troupe for young people, to stage an all-ages theatrical production of the civil rights classic.

Photo by David KilperWashington University Dance Theatre, the annual showcase of professionally choreographed works performed by student dancers, will present “Common Ground” Dec. 5-7 in Edison Theatre.

Photo by David KilperWashington University Dance Theatre, the annual showcase of professionally choreographed works performed by student dancers, will present “Common Ground,” its 2008 concert, Dec. 5-7 in Edison Theatre.

Washington University’s Center for the Humanities and Program in Film & Media Studies, both in Arts & Sciences, will host the Fifth Annual Children’s Film Symposium Friday and Saturday, Nov. 21 and 22. Presented in conjunction with Cinema St. Louis, the festival will feature five screenings as well as introductions and postshow discussions by a […]

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have shed light on a basic process that could improve future solar cells. Dewey Holten, Ph.D., professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences and graduate student Hee-eun Song have directly measured the rate of hole transfer between identical porphyrin compounds in their ground states. These results are key to understanding the fundamental processes underlying charge separation in this sort of structure and have applications for improving the efficiency of solar cells.

David Kilper/WUSTL Photo Services*Falling Petals*Washington University Dance Theatre (WUDT), the annual showcase of professionally choreographed works performed by student dancers, will present Common Ground, its 2008 concert, Dec. 5 to 7 in Edison Theatre. Performances will feature more than three-dozen student dancers, selected by audition, in eight works by faculty and guest choreographers. Pieces range from contemporary dance and re-stagings of modern classics to dances drawing on Chinese and Indian traditions.

Donald Finkel, poet-in-residence emeritus of English in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008, of complications from Alzheimer’s disease at the Schuetz Manor in St. Louis County. He was 79. Finkel joined the Washington University community in 1960 with his wife, the late poet Constance Urdang. He was the author of more than a dozen books of poetry. An obituary will appear in the Dec. 4 issue of the Record.

Celebrated food writer Michael Pollan will receive the Washington University Humanities Medal as part of “Celebrating Our Books, Recognizing Our Authors,” WUSTL’s seventh annual faculty book colloquium. The biannual award is given to a distinguished scholar, writer or artist whose career merits special recognition for excellence and courage. The inaugural recipient was Turkish novelist and […]

Biologists at Washington University in St. Louis have made major headway in explaining a mechanism by which plant cells silence potentially harmful genes. A team led by Craig Pikaard, Ph.D., WUSTL professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, has published a paper this month in Cell, that explains how RNA polymerases work together to use the non-coding region of DNA to prevent destructive, virus-derived genes from being activated.

Photo by David KilperThe Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences showcases another side of David Mamet with “Boston Marriage,” a sharp and sometimes shocking drawing room comedy centered on a pair of genteel Victorian women. Performances take place in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre at 8 p.m. Nov. 20, 21 and 22; and at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 22 and 23.