Ampersand Magazine, Fall 2023

Magazine | Fall 2023

The power of poetry Carl Phillips shares his path from high school Latin teacher to Pulitzer Prize-winning poet in a conversation with Paul Tran, MFA ’19.

The art and science of cancer care A popular program connects first-year students with cancer survivors as part of a holistic approach to understanding the disease.

A record-breaking year for research Arts & Sciences sets a new school record for external grant funding, fueling groundbreaking discoveries across disciplines.

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Fall 2023

The Ampersand magazine shares stories of incredible people, research, and ideas in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

It is published semiannually and distributed to alumni, faculty, students, staff, and friends of Arts & Sciences.

EMAIL ampersand@wustl.edu WEBSITE ampersand.wustl.edu DEAN Feng Sheng Hu PUBLISHER Ebba Segerberg EDITOR Sarah Hutchins CREATIVE DIRECTOR Sudon Choe PUBLICATION COORDINATORS Sarah Lu England, Janet Vigen Levy MARKETING MANAGER LaRanda Parnacher Turner

The call of the great outdoors Ella Marks spent the summer of 2023 as a high school apprentice in the Tyson Environmental Research Apprenticeship (TERA) program, where she worked with the plant disease team led by Rachel Penczykowski, assistant professor of biology. TERA is one of Tyson’s two flagship programs for high school students. (Photo: Sean Garcia)

DIGITAL EDITOR Nathan Ralph LEAD PHOTOGRAPHER Sean Garcia CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER Gara Lacy DESIGNERS & ILLUSTRATORS Cydney Bibbs, Kristen Wang, Gavin Yao CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Simone Becque, Jenny Bird, Jeremy Goldmeier, Sarah Hutchins, Talia Ogliore, Sara Savat, Diane Toroian Keaggy, Josh Valeri, Chris Woolston

Cover: Our illustrated ampersand contains the text of Carl Phillips’ poem “Silverchest.” Cydney Bibbs, a recent graduate of WashU, and Kristen Wang, an undergraduate, collaborated to create the cover art, a celebration of Phillips’ 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. Read more on p. 14.

EDITORIAL ADVISORS Deanna Barch, Andrew Brown, Sophia Hayes, Erin McGlothlin, Thomas Eschen, Adia Harvey Wingfield

The Ampersand | Fall 2023

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We are serving as a powerful force for good.

The start of the new academic year has inspired me to change up my routine this fall and make more time to meet colleagues outside to talk and walk. It helps me take in the incredible beauty of our campus – Brookings Quad, Graham Chapel, Ginkgo Allée – and it has led to many serendipitous encounters with faculty, students, and friends. Hearing their stories of summers filled with travel, learning, and service has reminded me of the incredible ways Arts & Sciences serves as a force for good close to home and around the globe.

CELEBRATING FACULTY ACHIEVEMENTS Last year, our distinguished Arts & Sciences faculty members were recognized by some of the top professional and honor societies in their fields.

Here are a few highlights:

– Carl Phillips wins Pulitzer Prize in Poetry – Ursula W. Goodenough and William B. McKinnon elected to the National Academy of Sciences – Jean Allman and Tristram R. Kidder elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences – Ray Arvidson wins Outstanding Public Leadership Medal from NASA – Deanna Barch wins Gold Medal Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry – Kia Lilly Caldwell elected president of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora – Ian Dobbins named Society of Experimental Psychologists fellow – Denise Head and Lori Markson named Association for Psychological Science fellows

This issue of Ampersand magazine is a celebration of that inspiring work. You’ll learn about a popular Ampersand program that connects first-year undergraduates with cancer survivors to provide a holistic study of cancer treatment (p. 22). It’s been moving to hear how the program has changed the lives of students, faculty, and patients. A program partner at Barnes-Jewish Hospital shared with our writer, "I have so much hope for the physicians of the future."

Our alumni are also using their Arts & Sciences education to improve and save lives. Nara Higano, PhD ’17, is applying lessons from her graduate physics courses to her job at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, where she is bringing MRI technology to neonatal intensive care units (p. 36). Learning about the accomplishments of our impressive alumni is always a highlight of the job for me.

The past year has been full of accomplishments for our talented Arts & Sciences faculty, too. Carl Phillips won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, a tremendous accomplishment and recognition of his talent (p. 14). He is only the third WashU faculty member to win the poetry prize. We’re also celebrating the election of Ursula Goodenough and Bill McKinnon to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the top honors for a U.S. scientist (p. 8). And I’m very pleased to see Jonathan Losos, another NAS member on our faculty, reaching audiences around the world with his new book on the origins and biology of cats (p. 40). I’m proud to work with some of the most accomplished scholars in the world, and I know the year ahead will be filled with even more groundbreaking research and creative practice.

Whether you’re joining us on campus this fall or staying connected from afar, I hope you will join me in celebrating the power of Arts & Sciences through these powerful stories. Together we are changing the world in incredible ways, and I can’t wait to see what we do next.

– Erik Henriksen and Kater Murch selected as 2022 Moore Experimental Physics Investigators – David Lawton receives lifetime achievement

Warmly,

award from the British Academy – Edward McPherson wins Guggenheim Fellowship – Rachel Penczykowski, Martha Precup, and Sheng Ran win NSF CAREER awards – Barbara A. Schaal elected member of the American Philosophical Society

Feng Sheng Hu Richard G. Engelsmann Dean of Arts & Sciences Lucille P. Markey Distinguished Professor Washington University in St. Louis

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Table of Contents

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FEATURES

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’The poem in front of you’ Carl Phillips discusses his path to poetry, the importance of instilling trust in the classroom, and the significance of winning the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.

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The art and science of cancer care A popular Ampersand program for first-year students is preparing the physicians of the future to understand the scientific and social aspects of cancer.

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The workplace revolution From “quiet quitting” to telecommuting, Arts & Sciences researchers have been at the forefront of groundbreaking research on our new normal.

Correction: The spring 2023 Ampersand magazine story “Icons of anthropology” mistakenly referenced “the late” Patty Jo Watson. Watson, a professor emerita of archaeology, is alive and enjoying retirement. We offer our sincere apologies for this error. A corrected digital copy is available online.

The Ampersand | Fall 2023

AROUND THE QUAD

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CONVERSATION

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STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Expanding resources for research Arts & Sciences

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Learning from local history Department of African and African-American Studies

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The health benefits of a purposeful life Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences

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Mitigating risks from fires and floods

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Anthropology meets therapy

Presidential prose

Rebecca Lester uses her knowledge of anthropology and social work to treat patients in her nonprofit therapy practice.

Graduate student Ben Noble’s research on the American presidency has launched him into the political science spotlight.

MEMORIES & MILESTONES

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences

SNAPSHOT 20

A peaceful place to retire

STUDY SESSION 26

A record-breaking year for research

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A distinguished legacy

The physicist in the NICU

A new distinguished professorship honors Hungarian-born author and journalist Bela Kornitzer.

Nara Higano, PhD ’17, uses her knowledge of physics to help premature infants at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

NOTES OF GRATITUDE

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The Banjanin Family Scholarship

FACULTY BOOKSHELF Recent faculty titles explore the mysteries of feline evolution, refugee writers in Mexico, border ecology, and more.

PERSPECTIVE 42

Finding a voice abroad The immersive Summer Language Institute helped Alexis Bentz hone her language skills and step out of her comfort zone.

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ampersand.wustl.edu

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AROUND THE QUAD

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Around the Quad

News, milestones, and spotlights from across Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis

Arts & Sciences

Expanding resources for research and creative practice A

Peter Kastor, the Samuel K. Eddy Professor in the Department of History, recently assumed the role of associate vice dean of research in the humanities, humanistic social sciences, and creative practice. In his new role, Kastor will work with Deanna Barch, vice dean of research, to help Arts & Sciences faculty compete for external awards, fellowships, and grants.

We’ll pursue new ways for faculty to fund their work, develop ideas, write their books, and circulate the new knowledge that is at the core of what we do.

Peter Kastor Samuel K. Eddy Professor Professor of History and American Culture Studies Director of Undergraduate Studies in History

Find expanded versions of all Around the Quad stories.

artsci.wustl.edu/ATQ

The Ampersand | Fall 2023

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(Photo: Gara Lacy/Washington University)

Department of African and African-American Studies

Learning from local history

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A free summer institute organized by Shanti Parikh, chair and professor of African and African American studies, and Gerald Early, the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters, connected regional high school teachers to WashU experts and resources in local Black history and culture. For one week, participants learned about Black music, explored University Libraries collections, read narratives written by enslaved people from Missouri, and took field trips to historical sites. “By introducing students to primary sources such as a score or a photograph, we are showing what it means to be a scholar — to learn how to analyze primary data and understand its context,” Parikh said.

The College

An environmental scholar

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Tori Harwell, a senior studying African and African American studies and environmental analysis, was named a Udall Scholar, an honor bestowed on students who have demonstrated leadership in the areas of the environment and conservation, tribal public policy, or Native American health care. After graduation, Harwell wants to empower communities of color to create equitable strategies to mitigate climate change, develop green energy programs, and build sustainable food systems.

Department of Political Science

Celebrating a decade of discussion D

For the past 10 years, a small conference has been having a big impact on the Department of Political Science. The Comparative Politics Annual Conference brings together students and scholars for a day of in-depth discussions and networking. Graduate students play a critical role in the event by picking the theme (“Political Behavior and Emotions” in 2023), conducting much of the planning, and serving as session discussants. The spring conference has also become a draw for nationally recognized researchers seeking early feedback on their work.

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AROUND THE QUAD

The Departments of Biology, and Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences

Academy awards

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Ursula W. Goodenough, professor emerita of biology, and William B. McKinnon, professor of Earth, environmental, and planetary sciences, were elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be awarded to a U.S. scientist or engineer. Goodenough is a molecular cell biologist who has helped bridge the gap between science and religion. McKinnon, who also won the 2023 Kuiper Prize for outstanding contributions to planetary science, focuses on the icy satellites of the outer solar system and the physics of impact cratering.

Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences

The health benefits of a purposeful life F

A sense of purpose in life — whether it’s a high-minded quest to make a difference or a simple hobby with personal meaning — can offer potent protection against loneliness, according to a study co-authored by Patrick Hill, associate professor of psychological and brain science. Surveys of more than 2,300 adults in Switzerland found that feelings of loneliness were less common in people who reported a purposeful life, regardless of their age. “Loneliness is known to be one of the biggest psychological predictors for health problems, cognitive decline, and early mortality,” Hill said. “Studies show that it can be as harmful for health as smoking or having a poor diet.”

The Ampersand | Fall 2023

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Arts & Sciences

Celebrating a milestone in Arts & Sciences G

In August, Feng Sheng Hu, the Lucille P. Markey Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences, was installed as the Richard G. Engelsmann Dean of Arts & Sciences. The newly endowed position was established thanks to a gift from Richard G. “Dick” Engelsmann, a lifelong St. Louisan and friend of WashU. During his installation address, titled “Transformations,” Hu talked about his personal and professional journey as well as the school’s 10-year strategic plan, which aims to transform scholarship, teaching, and impact.

“I am very honored to be the inaugural Richard G. Engelsmann Dean of Arts & Sciences,” Hu said. “This generous gift from Dick Engelsmann will allow Arts & Sciences to shape Washington University in extraordinary ways for years to come.”

A formal installation ceremony was held in Graham Chapel, followed by a reception and a student festival on the Olin Library lawn.

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AROUND THE QUAD

Department of Sociology

Professor to president

Adia Harvey Wingfield, the Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor and vice dean of faculty development and diversity, has been elected the 116th president of the American Sociological Association.

In this role, she will be responsible for leading the association’s overall strategic direction and policymaking. Wingfield is a leading expert on gender equity and racial inequality in the workplace. Her research examines how and why racial and gender inequality persists in professional occupations.

The College

Chemistry costars

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Undergraduate students Cynthia Chang and John Georgiades, both chemistry majors, were chosen to participate in the Beckman Scholars Program. Created by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, the program is intended to provide “in-depth, sustained undergraduate research experiences for exceptionally talented, full-time undergraduate students.” Chang studies biofilms created by Staphylococcus aureus.

Georgiades is researching the mechanisms that bacteria use to develop antibiotic resistance. WashU was one 14 colleges and universities selected to participate in the 2023 Beckman Scholars Program.

Department of History

A good read

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Christina Ramos, assistant professor of history, won the 2023 Cheiron Book Prize for “Bedlam in the New World: A Mexican Madhouse in the Age of Enlightenment.” The book traces the history of San Hipόlito, a hospital that cared for the mentally disturbed in Mexico City from 1567 to 1910. Ramos has received several awards for “Bedlam,” including the 2022 Bandelier/Lavrin Book Prize and an honorable mention from the Alfred B. Thomas Book Award.

Department of Physics

Glitches in the matrix

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In the atomic-level world, tiny flaws can make a big difference. Chong Zu, assistant professor of physics, and colleagues are working to find new ways to harness the quantum power of defects in otherwise flawless crystals. Their work with boron nitride — a material that forms super-thin sheets — could pave the way for innovations in quantum sensors, devices that could have a wide range of useful applications. The work is supported in part by the Center for Quantum Leaps, a signature initiative of the Arts & Sciences Strategic Plan, which aims to apply quantum insights and technologies to physics, biomedical and life sciences, drug discovery, and other far-reaching fields.

The Ampersand | Fall 2023

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Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences

Mitigating risks from fires and floods

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Across the country, wildfires have generated smoke that has darkened skies and created unhealthy outdoor air conditions. But radar imaging technology, including some systems used by Roger Michaelides, can provide valuable insight into the location and extent of wildfires in remote Arctic and subarctic ecosystems. Michaelides, assistant professor of Earth, environmental, and planetary sciences, is co-investigator of a new project funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that aims to improve the warning systems for flash floods that threaten areas recently ravaged by fire.

Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences

Pioneering contributions

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Deanna Barch, the Gregory B. Couch Professor of Psychiatry and professor of psychological and brain sciences, received the Gold Medal Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry. The award honors “pioneering contributions” to biological psychiatry and recognizes “significant and sustained work that advances and extends knowledge” in the field. Barch, vice dean of research, is well known for her research into the neurobiological causes of cognitive and language deficits in schizophrenia and other disorders.

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CONVERSATION

The healing power of relationships Rebecca Lester uses her expertise in anthropology and social work to treat patients in her nonprofit therapy practice.

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JOSH VALERI

Through her research on eating disorders, religious conversions, and polyamory, Rebecca Lester has gained an intimate understanding of the complex relationship between cultural practice and personal development. For the professor of sociocultural anthropology, however, a theoretical understanding of the issues is not enough. In her highly personalized nonprofit therapy practice, she applies the lenses of both anthropology and social work to address the needs of her patients.

Recently, Lester, chair of the Department of Anthropology, sat down with the Ampersand to discuss her research on eating disorders, the healing potential of relationships, and how she built a community of selves.

The Ampersand | Fall 2023

What made you decide to pursue clinical work alongside your anthropological research, and how has that changed your perspective on mental health treatment?

Psychotherapy is something I’ve always wanted to do. When I was an assistant professor at WashU, I started doing research at an eating disorder clinic, and it reignited this desire in me to do something more hands-on than what I could do as an ethnographer. That’s when I decided to go back to school, get my master’s of social work, and do my clinical training.

I was able to see how our healthcare system constrains the kind of work clinicians can do. When you have an insurance company looking over your shoulder saying, “You have 10 sessions to get this done,” you can’t really give a client what they need. Now I have the luxury of working in a private practice, charging people whatever they can pay, and tailoring my treatment to each client.

I do it because I’m passionate about it and because people need mental health care.

In 2019, you published the book “Famished: Eating Disorders and Failed Care in America.” What did you learn from writing that book, and how does it relate to your broader research interests?

If you trace the history of treatment and attitudes towards eating disorders, you very clearly see their ties to Victorian ideas about young women in distress, characterizing them as vain or manipulative. But the issue is so much more fundamental than trying to look like somebody on television. Fundamentally, people are dealing with what it means to materially exist in their bodies, in relationships, and in the world.

Those are the moments I investigate in my research — the ones where people think, “What am I doing here? What does all of this mean to me, or what can I make it mean?” Whether those moments happen because of an illness, a religious vocation, or a change in circumstance, they are really rich experiences to accompany people through.

Watch Rebecca Lester discuss her work studying eating disorders in America.

artsci.wustl.edu/RebeccaLester

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Scientific American published an article you wrote on your clinical work with a patient you called “Ella,” who struggled with dissociative identity disorder in response to childhood trauma. How did you use anthropology to understand and treat Ella’s way of seeing the world?

When Ella started to present multiple selves, I didn’t automatically think it was pathological. Our specific cultural idea of the self — that we have a singular self with boundaries around it — is just one of many. There are cultures around the world that believe that we are an amalgam of different parts of our ancestors, community, spirits, or pieces of the divine.

What was problematic was that Ella’s selves were not communicating, and it was causing her difficulty in everyday life.

So, I approached my work with Ella as an anthropologist of her inner world: trying to understand how her community of selves functioned, how it came to be the way that it was, and what was important to its different factions. And, like any anthropologist entering a community, I had to build trust and rapport before I was invited in.

Why was it important to work with Ella’s different selves instead of dismissing their existence?

With all my clients, I apply what psychologist Carl Rogers calls “unconditional positive regard.” The point is not to automatically believe everything the patient tells you is the absolute, objective truth, but to get as close as you can to understanding how the world appears to them. Ultimately, that is what both psychotherapy and anthropology try to do. If you can connect with someone without making negative assumptions about their behavior, you can see them as a person beyond the lens of a disorder.

There’s been a lot of research on different types of therapy and which ones are most effective. Again and again, these studies show that what makes the biggest difference is not the type of therapy, but the quality of the relationship between the therapist and client. Obviously, skills and techniques are important. But, fundamentally, it’s the relationship that heals people.

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FEATURES

The poem in front of you Carl Phillips discusses his path to poetry, the importance of instilling trust in the classroom, and the significance of his recent Pulitzer Prize.

Interview by

PAUL TRAN, MFA ’19

(Photo: Reston Allen)

The Ampersand | Fall 2023

Just a few months after he won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, Carl Phillips, professor of English, sat down with his former student, award-winning poet Paul Tran, MFA ’19, to talk about his early career in classics, the art of teaching, and the lifechanging power of poetry.

Paul Tran: One of the many reasons I found the MFA

program in writing at WashU so enchanting was the possibility of studying with faculty who not only came from similar circumstances, but who also transformed what they were given into the lives they have now.

Carl, can you tell us how you grew up, how you became a high school Latin teacher, and the ways those experiences shaped your early thinking as a poet?

Carl Phillips: In college, I was initially studying to be a

veterinarian. But I had promised my high school Latin teacher that I would take one Greek class, and that was the only course my freshman year that I enjoyed. So, when I broke into tears one evening over an organic chemistry problem set, I suddenly thought, why not do what you enjoy and worry about what you can do with it later.

My senior year, a professor suggested a new master’s program his friend had started for people who wanted to teach high school Latin. It helped you get certified in a bunch of states to teach in public schools. That seemed like a practical thing to do, even though I was afraid to speak in front of groups. But the first day I started teaching, I found that I loved it. I thought, this is what I am going to do for the rest of my life. Being there for kids those years I was a high school teacher was very rewarding.

While I was doing that, I started writing poems just for fun. One day, the poet Martín Espada visited my school, and, at the end of the day, he offered a one-hour workshop for teachers. That was the first time I’d ever shown my poetry to anybody. He suggested I apply for a state grant, and within six months I had won $10,000.

It all just tumbled into place. Suddenly, I had a book of poems.

Suddenly, my teacher, Robert Pinsky, said he had just come back from a school called Washington University, where he’d been a visiting Hurst Professor. He said, “You know, they’re looking for a one-book poet. Maybe you’d have a chance.” It was supposed to be a three-year teaching job, and it’s now been 30. So, I guess it worked out.

I’m still terrified when I go into the classroom, which I think is healthy because it means I haven’t become complacent. And even though I only teach graduate students now, I still feel as if teaching is a way to give them a model for one way to be an adult in the world.

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Tran: You’ve taught us that a poem consists of patterned

language. To analyze a poem is to analyze the patterns of a human mind, how the mind orders and arranges their world, feelings, thoughts, and beliefs. Can you share how you came to this belief and how you tried to teach us this in the classroom?

Phillips: I’m not a trained academic and I didn’t study to be

a professor, so I don’t know how to teach poetry in some highly intellectualized way. I don’t think I would like poetry if I thought it was this big, intellectual thing I had to unravel.

Poetry is many things to me, and one of them is mystery. And that’s not a thing that goes over well in academic discussions.

How do you talk to a class about that? But there is something mysterious about poetry, and there’s also something very bodily and blood and guts about it.

One of the first things I make sure students know is that this is a class where you’re going to treat poems as physical things.

I don’t want them to bring in secondary sources. Just read the poems. What did the poet say? That’s just one way of teaching and looking at literature, but it’s the only way I know.

It’s like the cooking show I hosted on my Instagram during the COVID-19 lockdown. People kept saying, “Oh, you’re actually a regular person in your own kitchen whipping batter.” And I thought, why are they so surprised? But some of these cooking shows make you feel so intimidated. And here’s someone, just a regular home cook, making something from scratch and saying you can do it too. And that’s how I feel about teaching; it’s an invitation. Sometimes I think people see teaching as imposing knowledge upon people. But I want to invite people in and say, “Let’s look at this. Let’s play around with it.” I think when people feel invited, they start to trust you. And that seems so important in a classroom.

Tran: I remember the seminar on patterns and forms very well. It took me a long time to learn exactly what you wanted me to learn, which was to focus on the poem in front of me. It really changed my thinking and approach to living in many ways. Focusing on the poem in front of me means that, as I walk through life, I can only focus on what’s in front of me and take it one step at a time.

You’ve said that all art, including poetry, is a “record of interior attention paid.” And I wanted to spend some time talking about the importance of exploring our interiority — not just representing it, but also investigating it — as people of color, as queer people. Why is that important to you?

Phillips: When I was growing up, every example around me

suggested that what I am was a terrible thing. Back in the ’60s and ’70s, there was no representation of people of color. When I learned to read, all the books were filled with white kids, a dog,

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FEATURES

Tran: You said that one poem propels the other. But as soon as

we find that architecture, that shape for the shapelessness, it moves and becomes something else, or our circumstances change. And there’s an endless list of everyday things to do: grocery shopping, making dinner, laundry, paying bills. But, in light of all this, I do want to celebrate you. In the process of writing one poem after another, you arrived at this incredible collection, “Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020,” which won the Pulitzer Prize.

Phillips: Yay! So weird.

Tran: I know! What did it feel like to have that interior

attention paid being recognized, to see that your work had resonance?

Phillips: Well, I’m grateful that I’ve made a body of work that

other people feel they can keep looking at over their lifetimes and sharing with others. That makes me feel like I’ve been here for a reason. But as soon as I have that thought I think, Carl, you don’t need a prize to know that; you’ve been here all along. And even if you never won a prize, one of the many reasons you were here was to share what you know with other people in a classroom, and maybe help them in some way.

Paul Tran, MFA ’19, is the author of "All the Flowers Kneeling."

I want there to be fewer people who had to feel hurt and lost about who they are in the way that I did. If I can do that in the classroom or with my poems, it’s just one of the greatest things.

People have talked a lot about how the Writing Program at WashU is an extremely safe space for queer writers, and I feel really proud of that.

Tran: Maybe the prize is less of a confirmation of the things you white parents — suddenly you’re being told that you don’t or shouldn’t exist. As I got older, whenever queerness was mentioned, it was a joke or something that should be erased entirely. But paying attention to one’s own interiority, and writing from that interiority, can be a rescuing device, a way to make a private space for who one is, despite how others might think we should be.

Sometimes things don’t feel real to me until I’ve given them an architecture. I’ll feel as if I have these abstract feelings floating around in my head, but once I’ve patterned them into a poem, I’ll feel as if I’ve locked those feelings into place and given them at least temporary meaning. And so, in that sense, I’ve found some mental stability for myself for a moment. It doesn’t last forever, which I guess is what pushes me toward the next poem.

That might not be why everyone writes, but I’ve never really thought much about audience. I’ve always felt like I’m trying to make a puzzle work for me, if only briefly. And then it’s just seemed incidental when other people read it and say, “Oh, your poem helped me.”

already knew and more of a thank you — from the community, from your readers — for the life-changing work.

We met at the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, which I applied to because I wanted a chance to learn from you even if I didn’t get into the Writing Program at WashU. I know so many people who share that same sentiment and wish they could be a fly on the wall of your classroom.

Thank you for teaching me and poets like me not only how to write, but how to think, how to rise above our circumstances to take back our agency and use the craft of writing to build the lives we deserve.

Phillips: The real reward is having conversations with someone like yourself. Obviously, you are your own person, and I haven’t created you. But it’s hard not to feel that pride that a parent presumably feels when seeing their child has not only made it to adulthood but is flourishing as well. And I feel like that’s the point: to help contribute to a future. The future being you with your brand-new university teaching job. It’s like a relay race where you pass the torch, and the next person runs with it. There’s something very gratifying about that.

The Ampersand | Fall 2023

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Carl Phillips

Paul Tran

Professor of English

MFA ’ 19

Phillips is the author of 15 books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning collection “Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020.”

His other books include “Wild Is the Wind”; “The Tether,” winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award; and “Double Shadow,” winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He served as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2006 to 2012.

Tran is the author of the debut poetry collection “All the Flowers Kneeling.” Their work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Best American Poetry.

They have won the Discovery/Boston Review Poetry Prize and received fellowships from the Poetry Foundation, Stanford University, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Tran is an assistant professor of English and Asian American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Watch Carl Phillips read his poem “Dirt Being Dirt” from his home in St. Louis.

artsci.wustl.edu/PhillipsPoem

Watch Paul Tran read their poem “Copernicus” as part of a WashU celebration of Poetry Month.

artsci.wustl.edu/TranPoem

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STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Presidential prose Graduate student Ben Noble’s research on the American presidency has launched him into the political science spotlight and landed him a job at one of the top universities in his field.

by

JENNY BIRD

The summer before he started graduate school at WashU, Ben Noble wrote himself a letter. Putting his thoughts down helped him consider the challenges of transitioning from the professional world back into academia.

As he got the hang of being a graduate student in the political science department, a challenging top-15 program, he began to write articles about what he’d learned, offering advice on everything from choosing an advisor to preparing an academic talk.

His planning paid off. Noble’s graduate research on the American presidency went on to win several awards, including the Arts & Sciences Dean’s Award for Graduate Research Excellence and an American Political Science Association award for the best graduate student paper in his subfield.

As he prepared to defend his dissertation, he sat down with the Ampersand to reflect on his work and his time at WashU.

Have you always been interested in political science?

I majored in history during my undergrad at WashU, but I’ve always been interested in politics. I ultimately decided to pursue political science and the kinds of questions we can answer with data science. As social scientists, we think about generalizable theories and test them with empirical data. I was drawn to using those methods to answer bigger-picture questions about American institutions, especially the presidency.

You’ve won awards for your research on the presidency. Tell us about that work.

I’m interested in how American presidents have communicated with the public and Congress. I approach that not by thinking about any individual president so much as thinking about the presidency as an institution. I study the transcribed text of spoken content, looking for patterns.

The Ampersand | Fall 2023

Part of my research argues that presidents who are institutionally strong — for example, when there’s a unified government — tend to use a more emotional style of speaking to appeal to their base.

Presidents who face a divided government tend to use more factual language to convince people of the objective logic of their ideas and to expand their coalition.

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continuing to do research. I look forward to introducing more people to political and data science. I plan to continue research on the executive branch and executive communication. I’m interested in taking a broader look at how presidents’ speech affects the policies and choices they make.

I also study how members of Congress talk about the executive branch with their constituents. It’s often the members of the nonpresidential party who talk about the president the most. I argue that’s due to polarization and the fact that voters are more excited by their dislike of the other party than by warmth toward their own party. My research highlights the institutional consequences of nationalization, polarization, and negative partisanship.

What has it been like to be a political scientist during a period of such intense political polarization?

I think it has impacted the way we approach our work and teaching. People have very different beliefs about what’s happening in politics today. In the classroom, there’s an opportunity to bridge some of these divides. Some research in political science shows that when people communicate with one another in a social setting, like the classroom, they learn things about the other side that they might not have known.

You earned a bachelor's, master's, and now a doctorate from WashU. What's it been like to study at WashU at the graduate level?

I really love WashU and I’m so happy I decided to come here for my PhD. My advisor Andrew Reeves and the members of my dissertation committee have been incredibly kind and generous with their mentorship and friendship. Beyond that, I tell prospective graduate students that, in this department, everyone’s door is open for discussion, comments, and advice. There’s no feeling of competition; everyone’s very supportive and wants to see other people succeed.

What do you do when you aren’t talking about the executive branch?

For the past decade or so I’ve performed and taught improvisational comedy at The Improv Shop. It’s a fun way to get outside of yourself and engage with other people in a creative way. I also spend a lot of time playing board games. My current favorite is War Chest. It’s a bit like chess: easy to learn, but difficult to master.

What’s next for you?

I’ve accepted a job as a tenure-track assistant professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego. I’m excited because it’s one of the top political science programs in the country and I’ll be achieving my goal of becoming a professor and

Ben Noble Hometown: St. Louis Degrees: Bachelor’s in history with a minor in political science; master’s in political science; doctorate in political science — all from WashU Dissertation: “Three Essays on Presidential Power, Persuasion, and Interbranch Conflict” Next steps: Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of California, San Diego

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SNAPSHOT

A peaceful place to retire

Geoff Childs, professor of sociocultural anthropology, has been researching demographic trends in Nubri, a highland Buddhist community in Nepal’s Himalayas. He’s done fieldwork there since the ’90s, when he began studying demographic processes such as historical migrations and fertility transitions in the region. He’s gone on to investigate many stages of life, everything from breastfeeding at altitude — a collaboration with E.A. Quinn, associate professor of biological anthropology — to school-age children leaving the valley in search of education in larger cities. Recently, his work has focused on the impact of outmigration on family-based care for the elderly. Monasteries, like the Ribum Monastery pictured here, are popular retirement destinations that allow the elderly to engage in religious practices away from the demands of village life.

The Ampersand | Fall 2023

Watch Geoff Childs talk about his research in Nubri.

artsci.wustl.edu/Childs

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FEATURES

The art and science of cancer care A popular Ampersand program is preparing the physicians of the future to understand the scientific and social aspects of cancer.

by

CHRIS WOOLSTON

As a PreHealth biology major, Mishka Narasimhan knows the finer details of cancer down to the molecule. Her familiarity with DNA, oncogenes, cancer cells, and antibodies will serve her well as she works to become an oncologist, but she’ll have to call on deeper, more personal insights to become a truly successful physician. Thanks to Hallmarks of Cancer and Patient Care — a two-year Ampersand program that explores the disease at every level — she feels up to the challenge.

As part of the program’s inaugural cohort, Narasimhan spent the spring semester of 2022 getting to know a group of cancer survivors. Over Zoom, the students and survivors discussed their days, shared worries and accomplishments, and, in a highlight for all, made art.

Anthony Smith, biology lecturer and coordinator of undergraduate research experiences, and Dinesh Thotala, now an associate professor of radiation oncology and director of cancer biology at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, introduced Hallmarks of Cancer and Patient Care in 2020 to fill a pressing need. Over a third of all Arts & Sciences undergraduates have their sights on a career in the health field, said Smith, who was himself a PreHealth biology major at WashU before earning a doctorate in microbiology and immunology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Smith went on to discover a love for teaching as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Minnesota Medical School and returned to WashU as an assistant dean in Arts & Sciences.

Whether new undergrads aspire to geriatrics, pediatrics, or any health field in between, an understanding of cancer will be a part of the job. “If students are eventually going into healthcare, they’re going to interact with cancer at some point along their journey,” Smith said. “We wanted to help them develop the skills to be successful.” Hallmarks adds to Arts & Sciences’ growing array of offerings for students interested in medicine, including a multi-semester MedPrep program and anthropology courses on global health and the environment.

Mishka Narasimhan (left) completed the Hallmarks program and strongly recommends it to incoming WashU students. Elina Deshpande (right) is beginning her second year in the program and considering a career in pediatric oncology. (Photos: Sean Garcia)

For the initial cohort, Smith and Thotala received piles of applications and personal essays from hopeful students, far outpacing the number of available slots. They narrowed the pool of applicants down to those who ticked every box: academic rigor, intellectual curiosity, and a desire to learn about every aspect of cancer. From that group, the final 20 students were selected.

While Smith and Thotala were surprised by the initial interest, it became clear that the program’s mission resonated with students.

As part of their applications, many students wrote about their own experiences with cancer, including the loss of friends and relatives.

“There is clearly a deep emotional connection to this program and this topic,” Smith said.

Like other Ampersand programs, Hallmarks gives first-year students a chance to dive into a particular topic in a small-group setting. The first two semesters cover the biology of cancer, including the mutations in healthy cells, the growth of tumors, and the underlying theories behind chemotherapy, radiation, and other treatments. In the third semester, students learn about the scientific method and the latest research on therapy, diagnosis, and other cutting-edge topics. In the fourth semester, Smith calls on a group of experts from Siteman Cancer Center and beyond to give students a fuller picture of the cancer community. “We have a lot of field trips and guest speakers, and it really opens the eyes of the students,” he said. “It’s not just about medical doctors. It’s

nurses, social workers, dietitians, psychologists, and clergy. They can all make a meaningful difference to someone facing cancer.”

Students also have the chance to learn directly from survivors.

From the outset, Smith wanted to inspire meaningful interactions between students and people who have personal experience with the disease. To reach that goal, he enlisted the help of Sarah Colby, coordinator of the Arts + Healthcare program at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, part of the WashU Medical Center.

Colby, a trained artist, is a fixture at the hospital, where she wheels a cart of paint, yarn, and other supplies from room to room, giving patients a break from their troubles and an outlet for creativity. “I see people at the hospital with all kinds of conditions, but there’s still something especially troubling about cancer. When you hear that word, your mind goes to the worstcase scenario. Art can be very helpful for those patients as a form of expression and diversion.”

To bring that approach to the Ampersand program, Colby worked closely with Rochelle Hobson, a hospice and oncology nurse who manages the Siteman Cancer Center’s Survivorship Program. Hobson reached out to her network to find a group of survivors who were interested in helping to train the next generation of physicians.

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FEATURES

Art therapy sessions have been a highlight of the Ampersand program Hallmarks of Cancer and Patient Care. During the pandemic, survivors turned their homes into miniature art studios and met with students over Zoom.

With Smith’s encouragement, Colby and Hobson built an art therapy support group that brought students and survivors together over paint, gel pens, and poetry. “The smallest interaction with someone can be incredibly important,” Colby said. “That’s a huge lesson for the students going forward if they want to be physicians.”

The images from the survivors spoke volumes. In her first session, Kathleen Stomps, who had just started chemotherapy for endometrial cancer, drew a dark, moody picture of an IV bag with the words “time passes with measured, poisonous drips.” Later, she decorated her box of art supplies with a collage of butterflies, Muhammad Ali, and the phrase “choose to be grateful.”

I’m so impressed by the students in this program, and I have so much hope for physicians of the future.

Not every student was an expert with a paintbrush, but they all brought a lot of energy and talent to the project, Colby said. “A lot of them are super creative. I’m so impressed, and I have so much hope for physicians of the future.”

The first round of Hallmarks took place during the pandemic, so face-to-face meetings between students and survivors weren’t possible. So, they turned to Zoom. Over the course of eight weeks, survivors converted their homes into miniature art studios using supplies Colby sent in the mail. In 90-minute sessions, the survivors and the students would craft mandalas, watercolors, and collages of family photos. “It felt like the survivors were in the room with us,” Narasimhan said. “We could all be vulnerable together.”

Stomps volunteered for the program partly because she wanted a respite from the routine of cancer treatment and the isolation of the pandemic. She was immediately struck by the students’ compassion and enthusiasm. “These students are really committed to becoming the best physicians possible,” said Stomps, who is now cancer free. “It was a short-term interaction, but it just blew me away.”

The art gave everyone a common purpose, but it also sparked conversations. Many of those discussions drifted toward everyday life. The students would talk about spring break plans or studying for finals; the survivors would talk about grandkids, hobbies, and fears. “It was beautiful and powerful,” Smith said.

The Ampersand | Fall 2023

The art therapy sessions played to the strengths of McKenzie Halpert, now a senior majoring in biology and minoring in psychological and brain sciences. “I was able to share my passion for art and connect with people using that form of selfexpression,” said Halpert, whose grandmother died of breast cancer a few months before the program launched in 2020. She recalls a powerful image from one survivor: a watercolor of a butterfly emerging in front of a sunrise. “It represented the feeling of optimism and how she’s looking forward,” Halpert said. “She had so much positive energy that she was putting out there and into her work.”

Halpert was so inspired by her time in the Ampersand program that, after she completed it, she began volunteering in the oncology unit at the Barnes-Jewish Center for Advanced Medicine. After graduation, she plans on going to medical school to become a physician.

Elina Deshpande is one of the students just starting their second year of the program. The sophomore feels deeply connected to the 19 other students in her cohort. The shared classes have created a bond that rarely happens in large lecture halls, she said.

Before she arrived at WashU, Deshpande saw herself eventually practicing general medicine, perhaps as a pediatrician or family doctor. “But after starting the program, I’ve had a shift,” she said.

“I’m really fascinated by cancer and cancer biology. New things are always being presented, new questions are being asked, and new answers are being provided. So, now I’m thinking about becoming a cancer specialist, maybe a pediatric oncologist.”

Deshpande is looking forward to meeting and working with survivors in the spring. While she doesn’t have much skill with a paintbrush or pencil — her preferred artistic medium is dance — she anticipates that those interactions will give her a chance to understand how patients feel about their disease, their lives, and their treatment. “I’m minoring in Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern studies, and I really want to see how culture and religion influences the ways people look at medicine,” she said.

Now a senior, Narasimhan looks back fondly on her time in Hallmarks, an experience she strongly recommends to incoming WashU students. “Anyone who is interested in becoming a doctor should apply for this program,” she said. “Humanity is so central to the practice of medicine.”

Ampersand programs, by the numbers Whether they’re studying tumors, Shakespeare, or hip-hop, students in Ampersand programs gain an immersive introduction to an Arts & Sciences education. These one- or two-year programs for incoming freshmen offer group learning opportunities that go beyond the classroom. Here’s how the programs stack up.

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unique Ampersand programs offered during the 2023-2024 school year

4

programs involve domestic travel

6

programs involve international travel

4

programs involve original research

300-350

students participate Learn more about Ampersand programs.

artsci.wustl.edu/AmpersandPrograms

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in Ampersand programs each year

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STUDY SESSION

A look inside the most successful year for grant funding in Arts & Sciences history.

by

CHRIS WOOLSTON

Arts & Sciences reached new heights in 2023, bringing in the most external grant funding in school history. Support from a wide variety of government agencies, private foundations, and other sponsors fueled a year of unprecedented discovery and growth across disciplines, said Deanna Barch, vice dean of research.

The Grants Administration Integrated Network, a program started in 2022 that supports Arts & Sciences researchers at every step of the process, has contributed to this success, Barch said. She also highlighted the ongoing efforts of the Research Development Office to promote collaboration and provide seed funding and pilot grants. The addition of Peter Kastor, the Samuel K. Eddy Professor, as associate vice dean of research (p. 6) will increase the school’s capacity to compete for grants moving forward, she said.

Barch noted that many of the funded projects last year involved collaboration within and beyond Arts & Sciences, a key component of strategic plans underway at both the school and university level. The Arts & Sciences Strategic Plan alone includes eight signature initiatives that have already attracted significant funding and produced new findings in quantum physics, psychology, and other fields. “The results speak for themselves,” Barch said. “We do particularly well in areas where we have faculty with convergent strengths.”

Ultimately, Barch said, credit for the grants and fellowships goes to the researchers themselves.

“They’re the ones with the ideas, the creativity, and the motivation to write the proposals,” she said. Last year, 192 Arts & Sciences researchers received funding for 296 projects, adding up to a impressive $55 million in support.

In a year brimming with exciting projects, Barch pointed to several awards that reflect the varied contributions of Arts & Sciences researchers and the vast potential for the future.

The Ampersand | Fall 2023

Populist Rhetoric on Social Media and Its Effects on Democracies Around the World Funded by the National Science Foundation Principal investigators: Jacob Montgomery, professor of political science; Margit Tavits, the Dr. William Taussig Professor in Arts & Sciences; and Christopher Lucas, assistant professor of political science Researchers are using this $571,000 grant to gather social media posts from tens of thousands of political candidates and hundreds of political parties from nearly 80 countries to get a fuller picture of the prevalence and impact of populist language. The project was born from seed funding provided by the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy.

CAREER Awards Funded by the National Science Foundation Principal investigators: Rachel Penczykowski, assistant professor of biology; Sheng Ran, assistant professor of physics; and Martha Precup, assistant professor of mathematics and statistics These highly prized grants are reserved for junior faculty who have excelled at both research and mentorship.

Penczykowski is using her award to investigate the factors that drive fungal infestations of common broadleaf weeds in the St. Louis area. Ran’s project continues his search for quantum materials with special characteristics that could be useful for next-generation electronics. Precup will use the grant to search for patterns within geometric data.

Linking Quantum Sensing Technologies Across Disciplines Funded by the National Science Foundation Principal investigators: Sophia Hayes, professor of chemistry; Kater Murch, the Charles M. Hohenberg Professor of Physics; and Erik Henriksen, associate professor of physics Working with Sheretta Butler-Barnes, a professor at the Brown School, Hayes, Murch, and Henriksen will use this $3 million, five-year grant to create a quantum sciences and engineering graduate training program across the St. Louis region. The McKelvey School of Engineering will also be involved. The training program will focus on quantum sensing, a burgeoning field that uses atomic-level insights to track quantum properties of materials.

St. Louis Translational Fellowships in Education Funded by the James S. McDonnell Foundation Principal investigator: Andrew C. Butler, chair and associate professor of education This $3.5 million grant will support the training of six postdoctoral fellows each year for six years. The two-year fellowships will include coursework, research, and experience working in school settings. The goal is to provide new PhDs with training that enables them to pursue a career conducting rigorous, collaborative, and equity-focused educational research.

Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Framework for Attentional Control Traits and States Funded by the U.S. Department of Defense Principal investigator: Todd Braver, the William R. Stuckenberg Professor in Human Values and Moral Development Braver is the lead investigator on this multi-institutional, multinational project, expecteded to span five years with a total budget of $8.8 million. The team includes Julie Bugg, professor of psychological and brain sciences; Wouter Kool, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences; and 12 other researchers from the U.S. and Australia. The project will use brain imaging technology including fMRI and EEG to better understand wandering minds and lapses in attention.

Time and Episodic Memory: Neuropsychology Meets Philosophy Funded by the National Science Foundation Principal investigator: Carl Craver, professor of philosophy and philosophy-neuroscience-psychology This $280,000 grant funds a project that melds the fields of philosophy and neuroscience to explore how our memory of past events shapes our perception of time. In collaboration with York University in Toronto, Craver will study how people with episodic amnesia process and understand the passage of time. Craver hopes his research will be especially valuable for philosophers investigating our knowledge of time, scientists struggling to understand the nature of memory, and clinicians treating people with memory loss.

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MEMORIES & MILESTONES

A distinguished legacy A new distinguished professorship honors Hungarian-born author and journalist Bela Kornitzer. His life and career inspired his niece, a longtime WashU supporter, to keep his legacy alive.

The Ampersand | Fall 2023

In January, Diana Z. O’Brien, professor of political science, will be formally installed as the inaugural Bela Kornitzer Distinguished Professor, an appointment made possible thanks to a significant pledge from longtime WashU supporter Noémi Neidorff.

Neidorff created the distinguished professorship in memory of her uncle, Bela Kornitzer, an acclaimed author, historian, and journalist from Hungary. Noémi and her late husband, Michael Neidorff, have been champions of WashU and the St. Louis community for decades.

“I am especially pleased about Diana’s appointment,” Neidorff said. “Obviously, her accomplishments and credentials are most impressive, but I also know that my Uncle Bela would have enjoyed her warm, outgoing, and effervescent personality.”

O’Brien studies the causes and consequences of women’s political representation in democracies across the globe. Her research examines gender and political parties, executive branch politics, and how citizens respond to women in politics. She said she feels a special connection to Neidorff and Kornitzer. All three are immigrants to the U.S., an experience that “fundamentally influences your worldview.” And, like Kornitzer, O’Brien is deeply intrigued by political institutions. “Kornitzer used his journalistic prowess to interview politicians to better understand political leadership,” O’Brien said. “I use the tools of social science to try to answer some of the same questions.”

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Top: Noémi Neidorff with her late husband, Michael.

Left: Diana Z. O’Brien, the inaugural Bela Kornitzer Distinguished Professor in the Department of Political Science.

The journalist had a reputation for building relationships with political figures that enabled him to get exclusive interviews with the likes of Albert Einstein, Harry S. Truman, and Douglas MacArthur.

“I feel tremendously honored to be the inaugural recipient of this professorship,” O’Brien said. “Bela Kornitzer’s work demonstrates his deep commitment to upholding — and understanding — democracy and democratic values. I hope that my research and teaching will honor this legacy.”

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MEMORIES & MILESTONES

Timeline

1952

Mid-1920s Kornitzer leaves home for Budapest.

His early published works —­printed in the city’s major newspaper — are sketches and short commentaries of prominent men. An editor at the paper advises him to pursue journalism, and Kornitzer goes on to become the reporter-commentator in the Hungarian parliament for about a decade.

When Nazis occupy Hungary, Kornitzer uses his significant connections to obtain false identifications for himself and his sister, Alicia. Neither wears the mandatory yellow star, and together they seek shelter for members of their family. Kornitzer also requests protection for 100 Jewish families and is later credited with saving their lives.

Kornitzer publishes his first book in English, “American Fathers and Sons.”

It includes 14 biographical sketches of famous Americans in government, science, and the arts, examining their relationships with their fathers.

The same year, NBC broadcasts his interview of Robert Frost. “At Home with Robert Frost” covers Frost’s poetry, his relationship with his father, and his views on America and democracy.

1910 Bela Kornitzer is born in Szerencs, Hungary.

1947 Kornitzer becomes a high official in the post-war Hungarian cabinet but is quickly ousted when Communists claim that his writings “strengthened the forces of rebellion.” The Arrow Cross Party, a Hungarian fascist organization, places him on their “most wanted” list, and he escapes Hungary.

1940 “Fathers and Sons,” Kornitzer’s two-volume book of the influence of autocratic fathers on their sons, is published in Hungary. It becomes a standard textbook in Hungarian schools until the Nazis take control of the government and order it burned.

Kornitzer becomes the first Hungarian official to seek exile in the United States after World War II. He learns English by going to the movies: “Very fine teachers I had,” he once remarks. “Betty Grable, Humphrey Bogart, and Jimmy Cagney.”

The Ampersand | Fall 2023

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1960 “The Real Nixon,” a biography tracing the events that led to Richard Nixon’s national prominence, is published.

Kornitzer sought to demonstrate how American democracy begins at home and how family values contributed to America’s heritage.

2024 1991 & 1992 Kornitzer’s sister, Alicia Karpati, donates the archive of Kornitzer’s work to the library of Drew University.

Karpati and her husband also create an endowment for the Bela Kornitzer Award at the university.

Diana Z. O’Brien will be installed as the Bela Kornitzer Distinguished Professor. A Kornitzer Research Symposium will feature cutting-edge political science research on topics related to Kornitzer’s life and work.

1964 Kornitzer, 53, dies of a sudden illness, and his obituary is published in The New York Times.

1955 “The Great American Heritage: The Story of the Five Eisenhower Brothers,” Kornitzer’s book on the Eisenhower family, is published.

Kornitzer was interested in exploring family dynamics to understand American democracy, believing that the family unit functioned as a tiny democratic state.

2023 Noémi Neidorff pledges to establish the Bela Kornitzer Distinguished Professorship in Arts & Sciences at Washington University.

When I came to America in ’47, I realized that the best way of learning about a nation is to talk to the people on their home ground, when they are in their slippers and you can get the unaffected personality, the way he really is and not the carbon cliché of the press agents.

Sources: The New York Times, Drew University, Noémi Neidorff, Diana Z. O’Brien

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FEATURES

The workplace revolution From “quiet quitting” to telecommuting, Arts & Sciences researchers have been at the forefront of groundbreaking research on our new normal.

illustrated by

BAILEY CROUCH

The Ampersand | Fall 2023

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Welcome to the post-pandemic, work-from-home revolution. Changing policies, technologies, and economic conditions over the past few years have brought about radical shifts in how, when, and where people work.

The once-in-a-generation experience of COVID-19 shined a light on existing workplace trends and, in many cases, led to new ones. Faculty members across Arts & Sciences have been at the forefront of groundbreaking research on the future of work. Three of those researchers — spanning the fields of political science, sociology, and economics — took us inside their recent findings.

Leveraging Leave Margit Tavits measures how increasing paternity leave can decrease gender bias.

A change to Estonia’s parental leave policy offered Margit Tavits a unique opportunity to study how expanding leave for fathers can reduce sexist mindsets.

“Gender norms and biases are hard to overcome because they are so deeply ingrained in our society,” Tavits said. The Dr. William Taussig Professor in Arts & Sciences previously studied the origins and effects of sexist attitudes, including a 2023 paper that traced sexism in Europe back to the Middle Ages and revealed that biases persist over centuries.

Tavits, who has deep ties to Estonia, said the July 2020 policy change offered a rare chance to study parental leave policies in real time. Estonia had previously offered generous paid leave exclusively for mothers — 20 weeks — compared to a meager 10 days for fathers. After the change, fathers were entitled to 30 days, triple the previous amount.

“Extending caregiver leave for fathers has the power to decrease gender biases because it disrupts traditional gender roles and promotes less stereotypical ones,” she said.

Tavits worked with researchers from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland to conduct two surveys to measure gender bias before and after the policy change. The first surveyed roughly 1,300 new parents — both mothers and fathers — who were directly impacted by the policy change. The second targeted the public.

The surveys gauged Estonians’ support for gender equality, including pro-female policies and interventions. Respondents were asked if they agreed or disagreed with statements like “A preschool child is likely to suffer if his or her mother works” and “Men make better political leaders than women do.”

The surveys showed that new and expecting parents who could benefit from Estonia’s updated paternity leave policy were significantly more likely to express support for social and economic gender equality than those who had children before the change took effect.

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FEATURES

When it came to the public, however, the researchers found that indirect exposure to policy reform didn’t do much to change people’s mindsets.

Tavits said her research offers a path for changing deeply ingrained sexist attitudes. “A lot of prejudice and bias has been tied to these very rigid, traditional gender roles,” she said. When deciding whether to extend parental leave to fathers, governments often focus on immediate outcomes such as childbearing decisions, labor market participation, and earnings, Tavits explained.

This new research looks at the downstream consequences of these reforms on sexist beliefs. “It’s not just about equalizing distribution of labor at home, but also about changing how mothers and fathers look at the world.” ­— Jenny Bird and Sara Savat

The Cost of Caregiving Caitlyn Collins studies the effects of the pandemic on working moms.

When the pandemic began, some believed there might be a silver lining for working mothers.

“People thought working from home could allow fathers to see how much work goes into managing the domestic sphere and we might see an equalization in the work moms and dads do in different-sex couples to manage the household,” said Caitlyn Collins, associate professor of sociology. “But that didn’t happen.”

in-person school had more serious career consequences for women than men, especially less-advantaged women.

This research is part of Collins’ career-long interest in gender inequality. For her 2019 book “Making Motherhood Work: How Women Manage Careers and Caregiving,” she interviewed hundreds of middle-class working mothers in the U.S. and Europe to learn how they navigated career and family. In their conversations, all of the women echoed the importance of childcare, a resource so vital to maternal and family success that Collins said she feels a “moral obligation” to focus on it in her work.

So, while her 2020 paper showed that the pandemic exacerbated existing caregiving trends, Collins said there was, in fact, a silver lining — just not the one some predicted.

“I’m heartened about what flexible and remote work has done for working mothers and workers in general,” Collins said. She called the pandemic, which pushed many employers to allow telecommuting, a revolutionary event that may ultimately offer an upside for working moms who have long wanted more flexible working arrangements. Collins, Landivar, Ruppanner, and Scarborough’s latest paper found that access to telecommuting was an important resource to help sustain mothers’ employment during the pandemic, though it had little impact on working fathers.

In fact, Collins and co-authors Liana Christin Landivar of the Maryland Population Research Center, Leah Ruppanner of the University of Melbourne, and William Scarborough of the University of North Texas found the opposite to be true.

Their study, published four months into the pandemic, showed that COVID-19 lockdowns worsened the gender gap in work hours: Women did more caregiving and worked fewer hours than men.

The researchers looked at changes in married mothers’ and fathers’ work hours between February and April 2020 — a window that captured the month preceding the widespread outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States through its first peak. They found mothers with young children reduced their work hours four to five times more than fathers. If that trend continued after the pandemic, it could have a lasting impact on gender equity in the workplace, the researchers wrote: “Future merit-based opportunities and pay rises may disproportionately benefit men whose work commitments remained high during the pandemic.”

Collins and her collaborators published several other papers on families, employment, and childcare in the pandemic era, including one that revealed that increased access to Head Start programs during the Great Recession kept many families from falling into poverty and helped others escape it. The researchers suggest that increased federal funding for Head Start is needed to support families dealing with the long-term fallout of the pandemic. Another paper showed how the delayed reopening of

Still, Collins is quick to point out that telecommuting isn’t a perfect solution. Remote work was largely adopted by companies with white-collar workers, excluding many hourly and lowincome employees who need flexibility on the job. But, overall, she said, this is a step in the right direction. “The flexibility of telecommuting opens up possibilities for mothers and may lead to increased freedom for workers overall.” — Jenny Bird

The Ampersand | Fall 2023

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Missing Men Yongseok Shin discovers intriguing gender-related trends in the latest U.S. recession.

Economic recessions normally occur when the number of people in the workforce falls. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, Yongseok Shin, the Douglass C. North Distinguished Professor in Economics, found something different at play.

Two years after the disease emerged, the number of workers had returned to roughly what it was prior to COVID-19 lockdowns, but recovery still lagged. For the first time in history, the recession wasn’t fueled by fewer workers but, rather, by a drop in the number of hours people worked.

The leaders of this trend? Highly paid, college-educated men.

With a tight job market and educated workers in demand, Shin said it’s likely this group felt secure enough to cut back on their hours and seek new work-life balance, a trend the media coined “quiet quitting.”

“This is a positive development,” Shin said. “If everybody is working lots of unpaid overtime, you don’t want to be the only one not doing that. But if others are working less, then you can take your foot off the gas pedal.”

Remote work likely contributed to this trend as well, Shin hypothesized, helping workers cut back on hours without losing productivity.

Meanwhile, young men without college degrees have been the slowest group to return to the workforce, Shin said. This trend started long before the pandemic, an escalation of a phenomenon first seen in 2007. During the Great Recession, an increasing number of young, less-educated men began choosing to sit out of

the labor market altogether. The pandemic only intensified the shift, he said. Shin worries this could have a significant impact on future earnings and opportunities for this demographic.

“People who aren’t firmly attached to the labor market when they’re young tend not to have stable careers or strong earnings growth as they age,” he said. “To the extent that they are not fully aware of such long-term consequences, it may come with a high personal and social cost.”

Shin said that while many studies done early in the pandemic (like the one led by Collins) found that women were disproportionately impacted, his research shows a reversal of this trend. “In the depths of 2020, the pandemic proved to be harsher to women and their participation in the workforce suffered more than men,” Shin explained. “But it also recovered more quickly.”

His data show that by 2021, it was women, not men, who reentered the workforce the most. Shin attributes this to the rise of remote work and the flexibility that comes along with it.

“Though women workers might not have all the childcare they would want due to worker shortages, opportunities stemming from technology and telecommuting have allowed them to cope — somehow they are making it work.”

Shin and his coauthors, WashU PhD candidates Dain Lee and Jinhyeok Park, concluded that researchers and policymakers monitoring recessions should consider the number of hours people are working as well as the number of workers participating in the market. And while Shin and his colleagues have guesses about why older men were working fewer hours and younger men were opting out, they know there is more research to be done: “These important topics are left for future research.” — Jenny Bird

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ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

The physicist in the NICU Nara Higano, PhD ’17, is using her knowledge of physics to help the smallest patients.

by

CHRIS WOOLSTON

Nara Higano, an instructor in the departments of pediatrics and radiology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, in front of the center's neonatal MRI scanner.

While some PhD-level physicists end up working at super colliders, nuclear reactors, or university labs, Nara Higano, PhD ’17, has found her calling in what might seem like an unexpected place: the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

For the last five years, Higano has been using her knowledge of protons and electromagnetism to improve the lives of premature infants. Her work focuses on fine-tuning the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology to view fragile lungs that haven’t fully developed. “MRIs can produce beautiful images, but we’ve come nowhere close to fully tapping their potential in medical settings, including the NICU,” she said. “I’m using the physics I learned in my PhD studies at WashU to help sick babies.”

The Ampersand | Fall 2023

MRI machines use a combination of magnetic fields and radio waves to create images. But what’s more important than what they use is what they leave out: potentially harmful ionizing radiation.

Other options, like computed tomography (CT) scans, can produce exquisitely detailed images, but they are rarely used in NICUs, in part because the dose of ionizing radiation produces risks that generally outweigh any potential benefits. And while X-rays produce a relatively small amount of radiation, the images aren’t crisp enough to display the subtle nuances of diseased lung tissues. All of these reasons make MRIs an appealing option for fragile patients who may need to be scanned many times throughout their lives.

Getting an image with an MRI isn’t as simple as pushing a button on a camera. The image depends on precise control of spinning protons within magnetic fields, which are intentionally changed over time and space. And that’s where Higano and other physicists fit into the picture. “The image of a person’s body is only possible because someone manipulated nuclear spins,” Higano said. “In order for MRIs to be used in more settings, someone will have to think about the physics involved.”

Higano got her bachelor’s degree in physics at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota, but she didn’t see the full possibilities of the field until she got to WashU for graduate school. Alongside her courses in theoretical physics, relativity, and quantum mechanics, she learned about the use of physics in medicine. “Some of the researchers in the physics department were working closely with investigators at the med school, and I got really interested in medical physics,” she said.

The team is motivated by the hope that sharper images could add clarity to clinical decisions. Physicians, for instance, could potentially use lung MRIs to identify the premature infants who are most likely to respond to corticosteroids.

Despite their potential, MRIs are still a largely untapped resource for treating premature infants. “There are only a few centers in the world that have the logistics to bring MRIs to the NICU,” Higano said. “It takes a huge team effort to move forward with this sort of imaging.”

That makes Higano’s work all the more valuable. In 2020, she was a lead author of a first-of-its-kind study that used hyperpolarized gas MRIs to compare the space in the air sacs of healthy infants and those with lung disease. She hopes that demonstrating the power and accuracy of the procedure can help it reach more NICUs. “We would love to be able to capitalize on the work our center has done to really demonstrate the clinical relevance of these techniques,” she said.

The bustle and high stakes of a NICU may seem far removed from a physics classroom, but Higano says her training in quantum physics and electromagnetism at WashU has served her well in her current role. “I’m able to provide a crucial piece to the puzzle,” she said. “It’s amazing to be able to connect the dots in a way that’s going to actually impact somebody’s lifelong health.”

As a grad student, she worked as a teaching assistant for the popular Physics of the Heart undergraduate course taught by James G. Miller, now the Albert Gordon Hill Professor Emeritus of Physics. “I was essentially taking the course along with the undergrads, and I really became enthralled with how physics can be applied to biological systems,” she said. “I started to really appreciate the potential for less traditional applications of my physics education.”

Higano deepened her understanding of medical physics working in the lab of her thesis co-advisor, Mark Conradi, now a professor emeritus of physics. Conradi’s work involved using xenon gas to view lung disease in a novel way. In order to do its job, the gas has to be “hyperpolarized” using a combination of high-powered lasers and magnets — a type of manipulation of quantum mechanical states that is being championed by the Center for Quantum Leaps, a signature initiative of the Arts & Sciences Strategic Plan.

“You have to marry several principals of physics to make it work,” Higano said.

At Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Higano is part of a team dedicated to unlocking the potential of MRIs in the NICU. Physicists, engineers, and physical chemists work together to generate the types of images that can identify clinical problems and guide treatments. “We are super interdisciplinary and we work on a nearly daily basis with the physicians who keep our work grounded in key medical questions that will actually help patients,” Higano said.

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Nara Higano and PhD co-advisor Jason Woods during commencement in 2017. Woods is now director of research in pulmonary medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

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NOTES OF GRATITUDE

A final gift With the Banjanin Family Scholarship, beloved Russian professor Milica Banjanin and her husband created a legacy that will support the next generation of student scholars.

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JOSH VALERI

Through their estate, Professor Emerita of Russian Milica Banjanin and her husband, Stanko, established the Banjanin Family Scholarship as an enduring gift to the WashU community. Last year, five undergraduate students became the first to benefit from this final gift of the devoted WashU student and scholar.

Milica Banjanin was born in Zagreb, Yugoslavia (now Croatia) in 1938. She met Stanko after they both immigrated to the United States. Milica, an orphan after World War II, had made the journey in 1956 at the age of 17. Stanko, having experienced some of the most harrowing decades in modern European history, arrived a few years later to pursue the American dream, according to friends.

Banjanin moved between St. Louis and New York City for her education, earning her bachelor’s degree from Washington University in 1961 and her master’s degree from Columbia University in 1963. She returned to WashU as an instructor in Russian the following year, completing her doctorate in comparative literature at the university in 1970. In 1986, she was appointed chair of Russian, a position she held until her retirement in 2006.

As a scholar, she had a particular interest in Russian modernism and its encounter with the city, especially as expressed in poetry and painting. “Milica was drawn to the ‘poetics of the street,’ as she termed it, and poetry that involved ‘listening to the new rhythms of life,’” said Lynne Tatlock, the Hortense and Tobias Lewin Distinguished Professor in the Humanities. “From the start, women writers and artists occupied a significant place in her engagement with cultural production.”

Banjanin’s work included essays on the historian Lidiya Ginzburg, the painter Boris Ender, the lyrical poet Aleksandr Blok, and the playwright Lydia Scheuermann Hodak. Above all, she was considered a global expert on Elena Guro, a Russian futurist painter, playwright, poet, and fiction writer.

“Milica’s scholarship on Guro stresses two sides of her artistic sensibility and production: the artist’s intense encounter with the city, complemented by a lifelong engagement with nature,” Tatlock said.

For her research, Banjanin was honored with grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the International Research & Exchanges Board, and the Fulbright-Hays Program.

The Ampersand | Fall 2023

Banjanin was also a beloved teacher. She often mentored the students in her Russian language and literature classes, encouraging them to pursue opportunities like studying abroad. A sign of her dedication, she remained in touch with many students well past their graduation dates. In 1985, the Council of Students of Arts and Sciences recognized Banjanin with a Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching and Commitment to Undergraduate Students. One student returned to St. Louis to offer a moving tribute at her memorial service.

Among her former colleagues, Banjanin is also remembered as a compassionate and committed scholar. “She was very well known and respected, but also very discreet,” said Harriet Stone, professor of French and comparative literature. “She never sought the limelight.” Banjanin’s esteem at the university was especially evident in her seven semesters on the Personnel Advisory Committee, Tatlock said. “Election to this faculty committee reflects the confidence of one’s colleagues in one’s fairness and conscientiousness. It was a perfect fit for Milica.”

After her retirement in 2006, Milica and Stanko Banjanin remained deeply involved in the WashU community. Milica often welcomed faculty and others newly arrived in St. Louis for a meal

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and stimulating conversation. She also read voraciously and, with Stanko, regularly traveled abroad to discover new places, which they viewed with an eye to both history and innovation.

Milica Banjanin died just before her 80th birthday in December 2018. Stanko died the following year at the age of 90. Throughout their lives, they remained steadfast learners, eager to engage with different languages, cultures, and communities. “The study of languages and cultures other than one’s own enables students to confront and transcend human differences and engage in a dialogue with people whose perspectives on life are shaped by diverse forces,” Milica Banjanin said in a 1998 issue of WashU’s alumni magazine.

According to family friend Ksenija Kos, MD, the couple’s generous gift to the university is an expression of gratitude for the WashU community. “Milica was appreciative of the opportunities that Washington University provided to her, first as a student and then as a member of the faculty,” Kos said. “This gift reflects her appreciation of the community that existed during her years here. It reflects the couple’s desire to give back by providing opportunities for future generations of students.”

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314-935-5219 Tom Eschen

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makeway.wustl.edu

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FACULTY BOOKSHELF

Copycats Jonathan Losos takes readers from the Fertile Crescent to modern-day cat shows to unravel the mysteries of feline evolution.

by

CHRIS WOOLSTON

Somewhere between 4,000 and 10,000 years ago, wildcats in the Fertile Crescent made a bold move. Humans had started to raise and store grains to feed their growing villages, and those piles of grain attracted mice. The bravest of the wildcats lurked around huts and grain bins looking for mice, a decision that set off a cathuman partnership that has spanned millennia.

“We didn’t really seek out cats,” said Jonathan Losos, the William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor and director of the Living Earth Collaborative. “They sought out us.”

Losos explores the origins and biology of domestic cats in his new book “The Cat’s Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa.”

Losos, who teaches an upper-level WashU biology course called “The Science of Cats,” understands the appeal of felines. He lives with four: Archie, Jane, Winston, and Nelson. But his book goes far beyond a mere appreciation of his four-legged housemates. He uses cats as vessels for deep thinking about biodiversity, evolution, and ecology, all while giving readers a richer understanding of

felines, including the subtle differences between domestic cats and their wild ancestors.

Domestic cats span a wide spectrum of colors, hair types, and personalities. But even with that diversity, cats can’t match the many shapes and sizes of dogs. So, why are cats all so catlike?

Losos explains that humans have had relatively little time to tinker with feline breeding (cats were domesticated at least 10,000 years after dogs). But there may also be a more practical reason why there’s no housecat version of a Great Dane: “Maybe breeders just had the good sense to not create a 50-pound cat.”

Learn more about Losos and his cats.

artsci.wustl.edu/Cats

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Departments of Romance Languages and Literatures & Comparative Literature

Department of Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies

A Planetary AvantGarde: Experimental Literature Networks and the Legacy of Iberian Colonialism

Disenchanting the Caliphate: The Secular Discipline of Power in Abbasid Political Thought

Ignacio Infante

Hayrettin Yücesoy

Department of English

Department of Art History and Archaeology

My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing Carl Phillips

Browse more books on the digital Arts & Sciences faculty bookshelf.

artsci.wustl.edu/FacultyBookshelf

Border Ecology: Art and Environmental Crisis at the Margins Ila Sheren

Religious Studies

The Opening of the Protestant Mind: How Anglo-American Protestants Embraced Religious Liberty Mark Valeri

Global Studies

Unexpected Routes: Refugee Writers in Mexico Tabea Alexa Linhard

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PERSPECTIVE

Finding a voice abroad WashU’s immersive Summer Language Institute helps students hone their language skills and step out of their comfort zones.

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ALEXIS BENTZ

As an American college student, there are three things I know with certainty: the haunting last line of “The Great Gatsby,” the first 17 digits of pi, and my Starbucks order.

But as I walked into my green-and-white haven for the first time on a different continent, it dawned on me: My usual rapid-fire request for a grande decaf iced caramel latte with oat milk would no longer be rapid. I had to figure out how to say “lactose-free” in Spanish.

Despite having studied the language for eight years, I became a stuttering, stuck record, only able to utter “no caliente” (“not hot”) when asked what kind of drink I’d like. “¿Entonces…frío?” (“so… cold?”), the bemused barista replied. I nodded. He chuckled, and my cheeks burned.

What felt like an eternity later, I had trudged through my order and, exasperated, offered a handful of crumpled euros to the cashier. Given that this was one of my first interactions while studying abroad in Madrid, Spain, one might guess that I subsequently went full-on turtle, retreating into a shell of silence.

Instead, I got louder.

I knew that my experience in the Summer Language Institute in Spain would be immersive. Six weeks in Spain. Living with a host family. Classes, activities, and interactions all in Spanish. While this was a gulp-worthy notion, it was also electrifying. I also knew from experience that immersion in foreign language learning makes all the difference. In high school, my Spanish classes were largely conducted in English. As a result, when I entered my first collegelevel language course ­— this one entirely en español — ­ I realized something: Despite six years of rote memorization and conjugation drills, I actually had no clue how to speak Spanish.

My first three years of language learning at WashU forced me to put the abstract grammatical lessons I’d learned into practice. I began to finally consider myself a proficient Spanish speaker. Wanting to magnify the impact of immersion, I enrolled in the Madrid summer program, eager for my surroundings to work their magic.

A class field trip to Córdoba provided students in the Summer Language Institute in Spain an opportunity to learn about Arabic influence on Spanish language and culture. (Photos courtesy of Alexis Bentz)

Magical, truly, is an apt description of my experience abroad. I saw historical epochs brought to life as my class traveled to the very cities — ­ Toledo, Córdoba, Segovia ­— we’d studied. I witnessed

The Ampersand | Fall 2023

course concepts — ­ Franco’s dictatorship, Spanish women’s rights ­— transformed into the lived experiences of locals who spoke to our class. And I felt the power of connection as I bonded with classmates over crowded metro rides, a long weekend in Barcelona, and a few too many churros.

Much to my surprise, however, the immersive aspect of my travels was not what made them life changing. What made them impactful was my choice to trade my inner turtle for a howler monkey; instead of limiting myself to the baseline immersion of the program, I sought out opportunities for even more interactions.

After an eight-hour plane ride in May, I was exhausted and nervous to speak to my host mom, Gloria. Nevertheless, I took a deep breath and guided our initial conversation about the weather into an intense discussion about climate change and Spanish environmental movements. Although I didn’t always have the vocabulary to communicate what I intended, I didn’t stop trying. As a result, Gloria has become family to me. Over lunches, dinners, and spontaneous conversations, we connected over a shared love of theater and writing, comparing the political situations in our respective countries, and the occasional bout of gossip about our love lives.

I sampled traditional dishes (Paella! Patatas bravas! Octopus!) thanks to Gloria’s unparalleled cooking and the array of superior restaurants in the Spanish capital. I visited museums, marveling at

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“Las Meninas” at the Museo del Prado and an ornate mantelpiece at the Museo del Romanticismo. I stepped out of my comfort zone, opting for a solo trip to Seville even though I had never traveled alone and shedding my 80-year-old persona to stay out late dancing with friends. And whether I was sitting on trains or sipping on lattes, I pushed myself to make small talk ­— which inevitably grew into big talk ­— with the strangers next to me.

The person who came home from Madrid is not the same person who, just six weeks earlier, set foot on Spanish soil. My Spanish is undoubtedly stronger, as is my sense of self. I owe infinite gratitude to my professors, friends and classmates, host family, and the many Spanish locals with whom I interacted ­— including the barista who laughed at me ­— for enabling me to take my immersive experience to even greater heights.

Alexis Bentz is a senior double majoring in English and Spanish. Whether she’s serving as editor-in-chief of Spires Intercollegiate Arts & Literary Magazine, running the Creative Writing Cafe for WashU’s aspiring authors, or promoting childhood literacy with the community service group Out of the Blue, she’s constantly looking for ways to share her love of language with others.

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Arts & Sciences welcomed nearly 1,200 undergraduate students to campus in August for orientation events, which included ampersand-shaped pretzels, postcards to their future selves, and a visit from WashU Police Department therapy dogs Bear and Brookie. An additional 300 incoming graduate students kicked off their studies with a day at the St. Louis Zoo.

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