“America’s Future: Insights from a Presidential Advisor”
Why You Should Listen:
Mary Wickes
Don’t know the name? You probably recognize the face. The ____ alumna starred in theater productions in college and went on to become a famous actress, appearing in such classics as “The Music Man,” “White Christmas,” “Now, Voyager,” and her final feature, “Sister Act.” The Libraries’ Mary Wickes Collection is virtually a history of 20th […]
Anca Parvulescu: “Can Wolves Laugh?”
WashU English Professor Anca Parvulescu, who also holds a joint appointment with the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities (IPH), will use Hermann Hesse’s novel, “Der Steppenwolf,” as well as a contemporary video installation, to consider the role of laughter in modernity. In her talk she will raise the question of whether Hesse’s faith in the promise […]
Jennifer Eberhardt: “Visual Attention and Racial Bias”
Psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt investigates how subtle racial biases are interpreted in the brain. Her research, conducted both in the laboratory and in the field, reveals the extent to which racial imagery, and subsequent judgments based on imagery, suffuse our culture and influence different actions and outcomes for blacks and whites within the criminal justice system. […]
Meghan Daum: “Truth in Writing”
Meghan Daum writes about serious matters, but that doesn’t mean her novels, essays and columns are depressing. Rather, they cover real life – the heartbreak and the humor — in all its complicated glory. For example, in her newest collection, “The Unspeakable,” she writes about her feelings of kinship with lesbians, how it feels to […]
Jay Winter: “The Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide”
In many ways, (the Armenian genocide) shows that the old idea that war is politics by other means is outdated in the 20th century. War is hatred by other means. And in this case, hatred means extermination. The First World War was the biggest war ever to date. The Second World War was bigger still. […]
Elisabeth Lloyd: “The Orgasm Debates”
For decades, scientists have disagreed over the evolutionary purpose of the female orgasm. Because women don’t need to achieve orgasm to conceive, it doesn’t have the same adaptive significance as the male orgasm, which must occur for reproduction. Weighing in on this biological puzzle, evolutionary biologist and historian of science Elisabeth Lloyd, in her book, […]
Paul Farmer: “In the Company of the Poor”
The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that’s wrong with the world. This statement from Paul Farmer, one of the most dedicated practitioners in global health, serves as shorthand for the mission statement of Partners In Health (PIH), the organization he helped found three decades ago to advance the belief […]
Christine Souffrant:
When Christine Souffrant, a Haitian immigrant who grew up in a family of street vendors, saw how the earthquake of 2010 had devastated the vending trade, she created a company to digitize the industry and develop a global market. The successful result is Vendedy, Souffrant’s social enterprise dubbed “EBay meets Etsy for street vendors,” which […]