Arts & Sciences

Washington University faculty and staff make news around the world. Following is a representative sampling of media coverage from clippings and electronic sources.

Richard Howard, poetry editor of The Paris Review, will present a talk on the craft of poetry at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 16, for The Writing Program Reading Series at Washington University in St. Louis. In addition, Howard will read from his own work at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 18.

FlinnOn Feb. 27, the John Jay School of Criminal Law will release its report on the abuse of minors by priests from 1950 to 2002. Those who have seen it, claim the report will demonstrate that roughly 4,500 priests abused 11,000 minors during that time and that the abuse took place in 70 out of 90 dioceses in America. Frank K. Flinn, Ph.D., professor of religious studies at Washington University in St. Louis and an expert on the Catholicism, claims that the sex-abuse scandal is “far-and-away the most serious crisis to confront the American Catholic Church in its entire history.”

Social inequalities in schools and neighborhoods will be addressed by leading national scholars as well as prominent local scholars, experts and activists during a daylong conference Feb. 27 at Washington University. WUSTL’s Program in Social Thought & Analysis (STA) in Arts & Sciences is sponsoring the conference, titled “Inequalities in Schools & Neighborhoods: St. Louis and Beyond.”

The Tom Kennedy Group will perform for Washington University’s Jazz at Holmes Series from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursday, March 18.

The Brett Stamps Quartet will perform for Washington University’s Jazz at Holmes Series from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursday, March 25.

The soon to be released Mel Gibson movie “The Passion of The Christ” is creating quite a stir among religious experts, as well as lay people. Many say the movie has anti-Semitic overtones. But according to Frank K. Flinn, Ph.D., professor of religious studies at Washington University in St. Louis, the Jews had nothing to do with killing Jesus — the Romans are actually to blame.

Four distinguished St. Louis composers, all affiliated with the Washington University Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, will be honored with a concert of their works in the university’s Edison Theatre at 8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 29.

Robert M. Walker, Ph.D., professor of physics in Arts & Sciences and faculty fellow for the McDonnell Center for Space Sciences, died Feb. 11 in Brussels, Belgium after an extended battle with stomach cancer. He was 74.

Four eminent scientists will explore the subject of “Plant Sciences: The Environment and Sustainability,” and topics ranging from phytoremidiation, the inorganic carbon cycle, carbon sesquestration, the impact of genetically modified crops on the environment, and the issue of sustainability.