Arts & Sciences

“Improving Women’s Participation in Elected Office” will be the topic of discussion as women representing Missouri’s Republican and Democratic parties visit Washington University’s Hilltop Campus for a public forum at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 27 in Room 201, Rebstock Hall.

Garber has authored four books devoted to the Bard; the most recent, Shakespeare After All, makes him more accessible to the common reader.

“Like all Shakespearean comedy, Much Ado deals with love and marriage,” says director Henry I. Schvey “But it’s also about misunderstanding, misinterpretation and disguise.”

The 70-plus-member orchestra will perform music of Ernest Bloch, Peter I. Tchaikovsky and Gay Holmes Spears at 3 p.m. Feb. 19 in Graham Chapel.

She’s the author of three collections of poetry: Fire in the Conservatory (1982); The Woman Who Died in Her Sleep (1996); and Waterborne (2002).

“30 Years of Sisterhood,” a documentary film on the 1970s genesis of Japan’s women’s liberation movement, will be in the campus spotlight Feb. 28 as Washington University hosts a group of Japanese activists, filmmakers and scholars now touring the nation to promote the project. Plans call for a special screening of the film at 3 p.m. Feb. 28 in Room 201, Crow Hall, followed by a panel discussion and reception. Sponsored by the Visiting East Asian Professionals (VEAP) program and the Women and Gender Studies program, both in Arts & Sciences.

In just six months of collaboration, a Department of Energy grand challenge led by Washington University in St. Louis has resulted in the sequencing and annotation of a cyanobacterium that could yield clues to how environmental conditions influence key carbon fixation processes at the gene-mRNA-protein levels in an organism.

The recent revolution in the life sciences- the sequencing of the human genome, and development of “high throughput” technologies- has created new opportunities for investigation, and created new challenges for educators. Sarah C.R. Elgin, Ph.D., professor of biology; biochemistry and molecular biophysics; and education in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been a proponent and creator of partnerships locally and nationwide to improve the life science education both in K-12 schools and at the undergraduate level.

Nationally there has been considerable recent debate and discussion about how to ascertain the effectiveness of any given school curriculum. Under the auspices of the National Research Council, a committee, chaired by Jere Confrey, Ph.D., professor of education in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has written the report “On Evaluating Curriculum Effectiveness.” “This discussion of how to establish curricular effectiveness in mathematics is particularly relevant in light of President Bush’s State of the Union address and budget, which includes significant expenditures on improving mathematics and science education in this country,” Confrey said. “If the funds are to make a difference, thorough, valid and fair evaluations of materials will be critical.”

The Department of Music in Arts & Sciences will present a symposium and concert dedicated to the work of Viennese composer Arnold Schönberg. The symposium will focus on Schönberg’s relationship with Kandinsky and the Expressionist movement, while the concert will feature a rare performance of his famously demanding Herzgewächse (Foliage of the Heart) by music students and faculty.