Anarchy, war, love and poetry

David Kilper/WUSTL Photo Services”Bloody Poetry”In the summer of 1816, Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord George Byron, both fleeing scandal in their native England, met in Switzerland, sparking one of literature’s most storied, passionate and tumultuous friendships. From Feb. 17-20, the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will revisit those days with Howard Brenton’s Bloody Poetry, a swirling, lyrical (and darkly satirical) look at that legendary encounter and its political, emotional and artistic consequences.

Patriotic Fervor

Erin Brooks, a graduate student in musicology in Washington University’s Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, will speak on “Patriotic Fervor in Places West: The Role and Meaning of ‘Victory Songs’ and Sing-Alongs in World War I-Era St. Louis” at 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 11.

‘Gender, Human Rights and Islam’ panel discussion

A panel discussion titled “Gender, Human Rights and Islam,” featuring Shaheen S. Ali, visiting professor in the School of Law, will be held at 4:15 p.m. Feb. 10 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall. Ali will present “Application of Islamic Law in Diasporic Communities: A Feminist Perspective.” Ali is a professor of […]

John W. Bennett Obituary

John W. Bennett, Ph.D., founder and first chair of the Department of Anthropology in Arts & Sciences, died Feb. 1 at Alexian Brothers Landsdowne Village in St. Louis. He was 89.

School achievement higher for children in nuclear families than for children in blended or single-parent families

Family structure may have an effect on educational outcomes.Educational outcomes of children in stable blended families are substantially worse than those of children reared in traditional nuclear families, according to a study published in the most recent issue of the journal Demography. Both stepchildren and their half-siblings who are the joint children of both parents achieved at similar levels, well below those of traditional nuclear families where all the children are the joint offspring of both parents, according to economists Donna Ginther of the University of Kansas and Robert Pollak of Washington University in St. Louis.

Aceh province can rebuild, but United States needs to assist volunteer groups, says Indonesian expert

John Bowen doing fieldwork in Sumatra, Indonesia, in the late 1970s.Despite suffering large loss of life and devastation of cities and villages from the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami, Aceh province in Indonesia can rebuild. And at the same time, the United States can burnish its image among Indonesians — tarnished over the invasion of Iraq — by supporting Indonesian volunteer groups in the rebuilding process, says a sociocultural anthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis who lived in Aceh for five years and has studied its people and culture since 1978.
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