Arts & Sciences

Two modern American masterpieces will be offered by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Monday, February 4, at May Auditorium in Simon Hall on the Washington University Danforth campus. The concert is free and open to the public. Both are considered ground-breaking works in contemporary music by composers who are at the forefront of experimental American music.

Jane Maienschein, Ph.D., the Regents’ Professor and Chair of the Program for Science and Society at Arizona State University, will speak on “From Transplantation to Translation: Why History Matters in Stem Cell Research” at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 5, in Rebstock Hall, Room 322. Maienschein is the first of six speakers appearing this spring as […]

Chris HartmanMasks are a key part of *commedia dell’arte* costumes. Commedia dell’arte was among the most popular entertainments of 16th and 17th-century Italy and France, yet its slapstick humor, quirky costumes and use of improvisation have continued to influence performers from Vaudeville and Cirque du Soleil to television’s “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” This month, the Kingsbury Ensemble and Project Improv * St. Louis will join forces to present a new translation of The Old Man’s Folly, a classic commedia dell’arte work, in Washington University’s Umrath Hall.

Lars Angenent in his lab.A team of researchers headed by Lars Angenent, Ph.D., assistant professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, is plying new techniques to produce a biofuel superior to ethanol.

Erin BelieuAcclaimed poet Erin Belieu will read from her work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 24, for the Writing Program in Arts & Sciences. Belieu is the author of three collectionss: Infanta (1995), One Above & One Below (2000) and, most recently, Black Box (2006).

Courtesy photoJanet KauffmanAuthor, environmentalist and multimedia artist Janet Kauffman will read from her work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7, for the Writing Program in Arts & Sciences. Kauffman, who lives on a farm in Hudson, MI, is the author of the forthcoming book Trespassing: Dirt Stories & Field Notes, which combines stories and nonfiction pieces to illustrate the impact of modern factory farms—confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs — on her rural community.

Joseph Roach, former chair of Washington University’s Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences, will present the 2008 Helen Clanton Morrin Lecture at 4 p.m. Monday, Jan. 28. Roach, now the Charles C. and Dorathea S. Dilley Professor of Theater and English at Yale University, studies the history and theory of theater and dramatic literature and has been a major force in developing the field of performance studies.

Pratim Biswas, Ph.D., chair of WUSTL’s energy, environmental and chemical engineering department, heads a project involving Washington University, Chrysler LLC and Ameren Corporation to test a mercury removal process in a full-scale power plant.Washington University in St. Louis is partnering with Chrysler LLC and a major Midwest utility company in a project to determine if paint solid residues from automobile manufacturing can reduce emissions of mercury from electric power plants. The project is based upon the technical expertise of Pratim Biswas, Ph.D., Stifel & Quinette Jens Professor of Environmental Engineering Science who has demonstrated the effectiveness of titanium dioxide in controlling mercury in lab and recent field studies. He heads the project that will test a mercury removal process in a full-scale power plant.

David Kilper/WUSTL Photo Services*The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek*The 7:10 train rattles through a small rural town battered by the Great Depression. Two teenagers play a dangerous game of “chicken,” racing the 153-ton engine across a narrow railroad bridge. Welcome to The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, a poignant and erotically charged coming-of-age tale by playwright Naomi Wallace, winner of a 1999 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, or “genius grant.” In January the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will present The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre.

Rather than being gentle giants, new research reveals that Pleistocene cave bears ate both plants and animals and competed for food with the other contemporary large carnivores of the time.Rather than being gentle giants, new research conducted in part by Erik Trinkaus, Ph.D., professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences, reveals that Pleistocene cave bears ate both plants and animals and competed for food with the other contemporary large carnivores of the time: hyaenas, lions, wolves and our own human ancestors.