Arts & Sciences

Political developments affecting American business and new challenges and directions in political risk analysis will be the focus of a public forum from 8 a.m.-noon March 23 in the May Auditorium of Simon Hall on the Danforth Campus of Washington University.

Poet David Baker, the visiting Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in Washington University’s Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, will read from his work at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 22, for The Writing Program Reading Series. Baker is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently Midwest Eclogue (2005), as well as poetry editor for The Kenyon Review.

David Kilper/WUSTL Photo Services*Tartuffe*The Washington University Opera, led by director Jolly Stewart, will present Kirke Mechem’s highly acclaimed setting of Molière’s comedy Tartuffe. The story, first written in 1665, explores the impact of a corrupt and hypocritical “holy man” on a wealthy Parisian family. Mechem’s adaptation, which premiered in 1980, has since become one of the most popular works of contemporary American opera.

Stewart GoldsteinRon Himes in *King Hedley II* (2006)Can African-American theater survive? In recent years, several leading African-American companies have been forced to cut staff, cancel seasons or close their doors entirely. “We’ve lost a half-dozen of the larger companies,” says Ron Himes, founder and producing director of The St. Louis Black Repertory Company and the Henry E. Hampton Jr. Artist-in-Residence in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. “Nobody seems to quite understand why.” More…

Local culture impacts cotton production in India. In a study published in the February issue of Current Anthropology, Glenn D. Stone, Ph.D., professor of anthropology and of environmental studies, both in Arts & Sciences, at Washington University in St. Louis, explores how the arrival of genetically modified crops has added a new layer of complexity to cotton farming in a key area of the developing world. More…

Gerald N. Izenberg, Ph.D., professor of history and co-director of the Literature and History Program, both in Arts & Sciences, will examine the complex notions of identity in a series of programs, beginning with the Assembly Series lecture, at 11 a.m. Wednesday, March 21 in Graham Chapel. The Assembly Series talk is free and open to the public. Expanding on this theme, he will give a talk on “The Varieties of ‘We’: Collective Identities and their Conflicts,” for the Center for the Humanities, in which currently is a Faculty Fellow. The event begins at noon, Friday, March 23 in McDonnell Hall, Room 162. The final event, provided for the Century Series of the University’s Alumni & Development Programs, will be on “What, If Anything, Does Democracy Owe Identity?” at 5:30 p.m. Monday, March 26, in Lab Sciences 300.

Thomas F. Eagleton, who joined the faculty after serving nearly two decades in the U.S. Senate, died Sunday, March 4, 2007, at St. Mary’s Hospital in Richmond Heights, Mo. He was 77 years old.

Imrat KhanWorld-renowned sitar player Imrat Khan, a distinguished artist-in-residence in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, will be joined by virtuoso tabla player Samir Chatterjee for a concert of Indian classical music at 8 p.m. Sunday, March 25. Khan, the senior-most member of the famous Etawa Gharana (musical dynasty), is widely recognized as one of the giants of Indian classical music, celebrated for his virtuosity, musicality and inventive wit.

Scientists have known for years that the energy cost of walking and running is related primarily to the work done by muscles to lift and move the limbs. But how much energy does it actually take to get around? Does having longer legs really make a difference? Herman Pontzer, Ph.D., assistant professor of physical anthropology in Arts & Sciences, has developed a mathematical model for calculating energy costs for two and four-legged animals. His research was published in a recent issue of The Journal of Experimental Biology.

Robert Osburn (yellow helmet, recording and sketching) and WUSTL graduate student Jenny Lippmann (measuring and doing compass readings) conducting the cave survey in a small passage of 23 degree cave in Crawford County, Missouri.The Caves of St. Louis County and the Bridges of Madison County share a common theme: loss. The former, a scholarly paper that appears as the sole entry of the current issue of Missouri Speleology, is a description of some of St. Louis County’s 127 known caves and a warning that development over the past two centuries has eliminated or destroyed many caves in a state that could quite rightly call itself the Cave State. The latter is a tear-jerking novel, made into a movie by Clint Eastwood about a doomed, unlikely love affair, a hallmark of the ’90s with all the permanence of the Backstreet Boys. Caves, though, are in trouble, in St. Louis County, Missouri, and elsewhere, says co-author Robert Criss, Ph.D., professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.