Arts & Sciences

The 17th annual African Film Festival at Washington University invites St. Louisans to see Africa’s most acclaimed films on the big screen. This year’s showcase, to be held March 24-26, includes six films and a youth matinee. 

Tropical hummingbirds use a hibernation-like state called torpor in varying ways, depending on their physical condition and what is happening in their environment, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis and Colombian biologists.

Using dental records of more than 10,000 people from 139 archaeology sites throughout Europe, political scientists in Arts & Sciences found that individuals who live in areas that historically favored men over women display more pro-male bias today than those who live in places where gender relations were more egalitarian centuries ago.

Scientists at Tyson Research Center are carefully tracking the timing of salamander breeding as part of a larger research effort examining the impacts of climate change on amphibians and plants.

George C. Hatch, who taught in the Department of History in Arts & Sciences for more than 30 years, died Feb. 25, 2023, at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. He was 85.

Neglected by government officials and medical professionals, parasitic infections can lead to lifelong health consequences, according to Theresa Gildner, a biological anthropologist in Arts & Sciences.

David Cunningham and Geoff Ward, both in Arts & Sciences, received a $500,000 three-year grant from the Mellon Foundation, along with collaborators from other universities, for the project “The Virality of Racial Terror in US Newspapers, 1863-1921.”

England’s legendary Academy of St Martin in the Fields, known for its “delectable mix of drive and vibrant coloring” (Baltimore Sun), will perform music of Schubert, Schumann, Sallinen and Tchaikovsky March 4 as part of the Department of Music’s 2023 Great Artists Series.

Garland (“Gar”) Edward Allen III, a professor emeritus of biology in Arts & Sciences, died peacefully in Palm Springs, Calif., Feb. 10. He was widely known for his work in the history of genetics and was an international leader on the history of eugenics.

Scientists led by Emily Wroblewski, in Arts & Sciences, discovered that bonobo populations differ in a key immune trait depending on the presence of malaria infection. Infected populations have a higher frequency of an immune variant that protects against developing severe disease, a pattern that mirrors what is observed among human populations.