Around the Quad

Arts & Sciences

Expanding undergraduate research

The Office of Undergraduate Research relaunched in late 2022 with a new team and the goal of expanding and enhancing research opportunities for undergraduates across academic disciplines. Whereas the natural and social sciences more readily offer a direct pipeline to research and mentoring through faculty-run labs and fieldwork, the humanities present a different model. “We are looking for new ways to mentor those students earlier in their trajectory at Washington University,” said Erin McGlothlin, vice dean of undergraduate affairs. The goal is to find innovative ways to reach students from all backgrounds and support them in discovering their path to a rewarding research experience.

Feng Sheng Hu Dean of Arts & Sciences

Lucille P. Markey Distinguished Professor

Environmental Studies Program Climate conversations

Since 2011, WashU students in Professor Beth Martin’s “International Climate Negotiations” course have attended the annual United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) to learn more about the international climate negotiations. In November, they returned from Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, with fresh insight into the global and interdisciplinary complexity of the crisis. “The more time I've spent in the COP space, the more I realize the impact of its everyday realities on the people participating,” said Bea Addis, a graduate student in sociocultural anthropology and teaching assistant for Martin’s course.

Arts & Sciences

Senior scholars

Seniors Sabrina Hu and Sam Norwitz were among the 23 U.S. students selected for the prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship, which fully funds postgraduate study and research at the University of Cambridge. Hu majored in chemistry and history and minored in mathematics. She plans to earn a PhD in chemistry at Cambridge. Norwitz, who also received an NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholarship, majored in neuroscience and minored in children’s studies. He plans to earn a PhD in medical science.

Department of Anthropology

Milk markers

E.A. Quinn, associate professor of biological anthropology, received a grant from the Leakey Foundation to study how certain hormones in breast milk contribute to brain growth in humans and primates. By comparing human and primate milk samples, she hopes to better understand the unique and essential function of breast milk. “I want to understand why and how human infants have evolved these large brains, these high levels of body fat, and how human milk is a part of that story,” Quinn said.

Department of Anthropology

Park protectors

Biodiversity research led by Crickette Sanz, professor of anthropology and co-director of the Living Earth Collaborative 2.0, and at least 20 graduate and undergraduate students helped inform a decision by the Republic of Congo to protect a 36-square-mile area called the Djéké Triangle, making it part of the adjacent Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park — the only habitat in the world home to habituated groups of both gorillas and chimpanzees. Collaborators from WashU, the Saint Louis Zoo, and other groups screened thousands of video clips recorded at camera traps to document biodiversity in the Djéké Triangle, information used to elevate the area’s protected status.

Department of Political Science

Inherited gender bias

DNA may not be the only thing we inherit from our ancestors. New research by Margit Tavits, the Dr. William Taussig Professor, provides evidence that modern gender norms and biases in Europe have deep historical roots dating back to the Middle Ages and beyond. The findings highlight why gender norms have remained stubbornly persistent in many parts of the world despite significant strides made by the international women’s rights movement over the last 100-150 years.

Book to big screen

Doctoral student Sayed Kashua’s 2004 novel “Let it Be Morning” recently made its way to the big screen. The film follows a journalist who returns to his Palestinian village after working in Jerusalem for many years. One morning, he tries to commute to his job, only to discover that the Israeli military has blockaded all exits from the village. As a screenwriter, novelist, and journalist, Kashua considers storytelling to be his best tool for addressing political inequalities. “It has always been injustice that motivates me to write,” he said. “All of my work is about minorities struggling to express their frustrations.”

Department of Music

Classical music in Haiti

What inspires Haitians to devote extraordinary resources to practicing, learning, and performing classical music? Lauren Eldridge Stewart, assistant professor of ethnomusicology, is trying to find out. She recently received a six-month Career Enhancement Fellowship from the Institute for Citizens & Scholars to support her research. This new award, along with one she received last year from the Center for the Humanities, has provided Eldridge Stewart with two semesters of research leave to work on her book-length manuscript, “Recital: Classical Music and Narrative Power in Haiti.”

Departments of Sociology and African and African-American Studies

Tracing racial terror

David Cunningham, chair and professor of sociology, and Geoff K. Ward, professor of African and African American studies, received a $500,000, three-year grant from the Mellon Foundation for their project, “The Virality of Racial Terror in US Newspapers, 1863-1921.” Along with collaborators at other universities, the two will use digital humanities text-mining methods to trace the circulation of reports about anti-Black violence in United States newspapers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Departments of African and African-American Studies and Anthropology

We'd like to thank the Academy

Jean Allman, the J.H. Hexter Professor in the Humanities, and Tristram R. Kidder, the Edward S. and Tedi Macias Professor, are among nearly 270 newly elected members of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies. Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences honors exceptional scholars, leaders, artists, and innovators and engages them in sharing knowledge and addressing challenges facing the world.

Departments of African and African-American Studies and East Asian Languages and Cultures

Honors for humanists

Karma Frierson and Hyeok Hweon Kang received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies. Frierson, assistant professor of African and African American studies, will be working on an ethnography of how locals in the city of Veracruz, Mexico, reckon with expectations of Blackness in the wake of late 20th century multiculturalism. Kang, assistant professor of East Asian languages and cultures, will examine the rise of early modern engineering as a global phenomenon, emphasizing how Korean artisans and practitioners developed a multimedia system of material design and production.

Department of Sociology

An inspiring advocate

Zakiya Luna, a Dean’s Distinguished Professorial Scholar and associate professor of sociology, was named the 2023 Distinguished Feminist Lecturer Award winner by Sociologists for Women in Society. Luna’s research and teaching focuses on social movements, reproduction, and human rights, with an emphasis on the effects of intersecting inequalities within and across these sites. Her nomination by current and former colleagues described her as “one of the most visible advocates of Black feminist sociology and praxis with an inspiring record of service, community activism, and public scholarship.”

Department of Physics

Doing the math on a solar-powered future

Anders Carlsson, professor of physics, and a collaborator used 40 years of data from the St. Louis region to figure out the ideal mix of solar generation and storage for a reliable power grid. Their calculations show that small improvements in energy generation and storage could have huge impacts on the overall reliability of a solar-powered grid. The math also points to an important lesson: “Extremely highly renewable systems are very expensive,” Carlsson said. “If we can get to 99% renewable in 10 years, versus 100% renewable in 30 years, we’d better figure out how to get to that 99%.”

Arts & Sciences

The future of statistics and data science

Xuming He, a renowned leader in statistics and a proponent of interdisciplinary research in data science, will join Arts & Sciences this summer as the inaugural chair of the new Department of Statistics and Data Science. Leaders and faculty across WashU celebrated He’s appointment, noting the potential for cross-campus collaboration and innovative digital transformation. “Professor He is a truly exceptional scholar, educator, and leader,” said Feng Sheng Hu, dean of Arts & Sciences.

Department of Economics

New economics leader

George-Levi Gayle, the John H. Biggs Distinguished Professor in Economics, will take the helm of the economics department starting July 1. Gayle’s own work centers around inequality, human capital accumulation, and labor markets, but he’s also excited about the larger direction of the department. Arts & Sciences has world-renowned leaders in macroeconomic policy as well as a dynamic cohort of early-career scholars who are researching economic theory centered on the allocation of scarce resources — everything from kidney transplants to education to broadband. “There’s excitement and momentum in the WashU economics department,” Gayle said.

Department of English A Guggenheim tradition continues

Edward McPherson, associate professor of English, recently became the ninth Arts & Sciences faculty member since 2010 to receive a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. The award will provide McPherson with support for his new nonfiction book, a project that mixes history, reportage, and personal experience to examine the “delights and dangers” of taking the long view. “We are thrilled that the Guggenheim Foundation has recognized Edward’s work,” said Feng Sheng Hu, dean of Arts & Sciences. “He is carrying on a great tradition of Guggenheim Fellows in Arts & Sciences — one I believe we are poised to build on in the future.”