Hadley

She will be only the second director of the more than a quarter century-old scholars program. The late James E. McLeod served as director of the program from its inception in 1986 until his death on Sept. 6, 2011.

Holden Thorp, PhD, provost, executive vice chancellor for academic affairs and professor of chemistry, in Arts & Sciences, and of medicine, said that Hadley “brings an exceptional background in college access and student success to our efforts to recruit students from all backgrounds and ensure that they thrive at Washington University.”

Hadley founded the “What’s After High School?” program in the Alamance-Burlington School System, a low-wealth district in North Carolina, where Hadley grew up and where her mother worked as a school secretary for 40 years.

The program begins talking to children in elementary school about college and options after high school. It also teaches parents how to help their children through the college admissions process and through college.

In 2012, the White House recognized Hadley as a “Champion of Change” for her work, which has increased scholarship dollars and college enrollment in the mostly rural Alamance-Burlington district.

“Robyn is passionate about education, young people and creating opportunities for success for students,” Stahl said. “She understands the difference that a community of scholarship, leadership and service, like the Ervin Scholars Program, can provide for a student coming into a university community like Washington University.

“Her understanding comes from direct personal experience,” said Stahl, “but also from her professional commitment to the programs that she has developed.”

Matt Holton, Ervin Class of ’95, served as a co-chair on the search committee. "The committee was looking for a candidate, among other things, who could serve as a mentor to current scholars, effectively collaborate across multiple departments university-wide, foster strong engagement with the Ervin alumni base, and establish a clear vision for the future of the John B. Ervin Scholars Program and in turn execute against that vision," said Holton, a senior business leader at MasterCard Inc.

“In my interactions with Robyn, I have found her to be very approachable, someone who has numerous good ideas but is as interested in ideas coming from others, and someone who has tremendous drive and enthusiasm for the work that she does.”

A legacy of scholarship

The Ervin Scholars Program awards scholarships to incoming freshmen who have demonstrated exceptional intellectual and leadership achievements and have shown a strong commitment to community service and bringing diverse people together.

The full scholarship is renewable for all four years of undergraduate study and includes a stipend to cover living expenses.

The program is named for John B. Ervin, PhD, who was the dean of the School of Continuing Education (now University College in Arts & Sciences) from 1968-1977 and was the first African-American dean at WUSTL.

Throughout his life, Ervin wrote about the importance of education and how it led to a life of leadership committed to the improvement of the human condition, which the program seeks to instill in each Ervin Scholar.

Hadley started volunteering to help students apply to college as an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a member of the prestigious Morehead-Cain Scholars, a program with similarities to WUSTL’s Ervin Scholars Program.

The late Mebane Pritchett, director of the Morehead-Cain Scholars Program, was an important mentor for Hadley. “He played a role for me as a college student in the same way that Dean McLeod, from what I have read, played for many of the Ervin Scholars,” Hadley said.

McLeod mentored hundreds of Ervin Scholars over his more than 25-year tenure as program director. As vice chancellor for students and dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, he mentored thousands more.

“Like Dean McLeod, Robyn cares deeply about young people and recognizes that their four years in this community will shape their lives and lives of others,” Stahl said.

“She understands the importance of coming to know students by name and story and the importance of creating a community that supports, encourages and challenges students to be their best, do their best, and expect the best of each other and of all of us who are part of the Washington University community.”

Pursuing dreams

In 1988, after graduating from UNC and attending Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, Hadley joined JAMNC Export Import Group in Hampton, Va., where years later she became president and chief operating officer.

She continued her volunteer work, critiquing college essays and advising families about what to look for on a college tour.

In 2004, Hadley returned to North Carolina to take care of her mother, who was sick but since has recovered. While there, the owner of JAMNC died, and Hadley had to make a decision.

“That’s when I began to focus more on education,” Hadley said. “I asked myself if there was a way to transition from a volunteer and advocate to working more in the nonprofit arena or in public or private education.”

In 2004, she and a group of friends founded “YES I CAN,” a one-time, faith-based college access program at Children’s Chapel United Church of Christ in Graham, N.C. It won the Howard N. Lee Institute for Equity and Opportunity in Education “Champion in Equity and Opportunity in Education” award. The program has continued to grow and will celebrate its 10th anniversary this summer.

That program led her to talks with her former school district about her idea of the “What’s After High School?” initiative. They were interested in such a proposal, but didn’t have much funding to offer.

Hadley launched the “What’s After High School?” program in 2005 with the superintendent's support and started looking for funding from private donors, foundations and the U.S. Department of Education. Over time, the program received enough funding for long-term operations and to hire a staff of four.

“To come in as a consultant with an initiative that had no budget and to build it into a program that now has several employees, a very significant budget and is nationally recognized, you have to have a vision and a great team,” Hadley said. “You have to be organized, you have to listen and you have to be very, very persistent.”

Hadley’s work earned her recognition from the Burlington Rotary Club, where she was named Woman of the Year in 2012. The “What’s After High School?” program also won a Magna award from the American School Board Journal for “Best Practices and Innovative Programs that Advance Student Learning.”

Hadley, whose program will continue in North Carolina after she departs, is looking forward to working with the Ervin Scholars Program.

“What excites and inspires me is the opportunity to nurture students, and in words that I’ve read continually about Wash. U., to get to know them ‘by name and by story,’” Hadley said. “The Ervin Scholars Program and the university can help students to become what they never dreamed they could be or to become what they always dreamed possible.”

Courtesy of Missouri History Museum

This image, titled “Founding of St. Louis, 1764,” is from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat Sunday Supplement, Feb. 22, 1902.

As the City of St. Louis marks the 250th anniversary of its founding with a yearlong series of events, scholars from across the nation will provide their perspectives on the city’s historical significance during a daylong symposium Friday, Feb. 14, at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park.

Among the scholars participating in the symposium are Washington University’s Peter Kastor, PhD; Yale University’s Jay Gitlin, PhD; and California State University’s Patricia Cleary, PhD, a St. Louis native.

Titled “A Great City From the Start: The Founding and Lasting Significance of St. Louis,” the event is open to the public. For details on registration and costs, visit here.

The symposium will be held from 9 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. in Lee Auditorium, lower level of the Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd. Registration begins at 8 a.m. on the museum’s main level.

Scholars’ talks will range from “Creating St. Louis: A ‘Civilized Wilderness’ of Multicultural Cooperation” and the “Physical Geography of Early St. Louis” to “Mapping Women in the French Colonial World” and “Fashion on the Frontier: Clothing Choices and Cultural Identities in Colonial St. Louis.” 

Courtesy of Missouri History Museum

August Becker, “Founding of St. Louis” (1861). Becker painted this scene of the city’s founding after one of Carl Wimar’s Old St. Louis Courthouse murals. The scene depicts Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau landing on the site of St. Louis in 1764, greeted by American Indians. 

‘One of the finest cities of America’

Gitlin, who is a lecturer at Yale with an expertise in French colonial history and associate director of the Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers & Borders, will conclude the symposium with a talk titled “A Great American City: Making the Case for St. Louis History.”

Since his undergraduate years at Yale when he took a course taught by Lamar on the history of the American West, Gitlin has made the founding of St. Louis in 1764 a focus of his scholarly work.

“St. Louis encompassed cultural, racial and sectional divides and, at the same time, connected a vast region as a gathering place of peoples, cultures and goods,” said Gitlin, who is author of “The Bourgeois Frontier: French Towns, French Traders, and American Expansion” (Yale University Press, 2010), which describes the key role the French played in developing the American West.

“French and American, eastern and western, southern and northern, multiracial, multicultural, and multilingual, St. Louis may not be the geographic center of the nation, but its history — and its future — may hold the key to understanding our sense of self and our sense of purpose,” Gitlin continued.

“Pierre de Laclède is purported to have said that the settlement he had established might become, ‘one of the finest cities of America.’ And so it has,” Gitlin said of St. Louis.

Among the distinguished guests attending the symposium, as well as participating in other events during stl250’s birthday bash weekend Feb. 14-16, are Graham Paul, Consul General of France in Chicago; Chief Scott Bighorse, principal chief of the Osage Nation; and Eric Marquis, Quebec's leading delegate to the U.S.

Washington University Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton will host a luncheon on the Danforth Campus for symposium participants. Wrighton, along with Paul, Bighorse and Marquis will present remarks at the luncheon.

Wrighton will speak about the history of Washington University, which is inextricably entwined with the history of St. Louis, and the university’s significant impact on St. Louis.

“As we continue to make progress toward our objectives, we will continue to influence — and be influenced by — St. Louis, the great city that gave birth to our university,” Wrighton said. “Two hundred and fifty years from now, I am certain the connection between Washington University and St. Louis will be stronger than ever.”

Symposium participants also are invited to attend a dinner that night at Windows on Washington hosted by the Yale Club of St. Louis and Les Amis.

At the dinner, Ryan A. Brasseaux, dean of Yale’s Davenport College and author of a soon-to-be published work on French influence on 20th-century American culture, will deliver a talk titled “Being French in North America.” Also, the Poor People of Paris, a St. Louis-based French popular and jazz music group, will perform.

Cory Booker addresses crowd in Lab Sciences Auditorium in 2007

The Washington University in St. Louis Assembly Series turned 60 in 2013, and to mark such an august occasion, it’s fitting to remember why the lecture series was conceived in the first place. The Assembly Series launched during the institution’s centennial celebration in 1953 as a way to involve the broader St. Louis community in the robust intellectual life on campus.

Back then and through much of its history, Assembly Series programs could be enjoyed only by physically attending them, always at 11 a.m. on Wednesdays in Graham Chapel on the Danforth Campus. Sixty years hence, and for a number of reasons, the programs are no longer tethered to a set time or place. The change means a lost tradition, but it allows more members of the community and campus to attend programs. And if you can’t make it at the scheduled time, you may be able to watch or listen to it later on the Assembly Series website, or stream it live. (Recordings are posted online if speakers permit.)

Much has changed in the delivery of Assembly Series programs, but the mission has not: to bring some of the most vital and compelling voices of the day here for the enlightenment of WUSTL students, faculty and staff on campus, and to share these experiences with the broader St. Louis community. Today, that audience has been broadened immeasurably, and WUSTL can share much of this rich and diverse intellectual environment with the wider world.

It’s also fitting that the spring 2014 lecture series begins and concludes with WUSTL faculty members. It serves as a reminder of how fortunate campus community members are to live, study and work with some of the most vital and compelling voices of our day.

Washington University has an abundance of wealth when it comes to thought leaders, and the Assembly Series provides the chance to experience the best and brightest minds right here.
As always, every Assembly Series program is free and open to the public, although space may be limited.

Assembly Series opens with Mark Jordan on Feb. 4

Tuesday, Feb. 4, noon, Umrath Hall Lounge
MARK D. JORDAN
“Divine Beauty and Its Ghosts”

Mark D. Jordan, PhD, the Neaves Distinguished Professor of Religion and Politics at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion & Politics at Washington University, will kick off a three-part lecture series for WUSTL ‘s Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities. All three talks begin at noon in Umrath Hall Lounge.

Jordan has titled the series “Divine Beauty and Its Ghosts: Nietzsche, Weil and Foucault.” The Assembly Series event on Tuesday will focus on Nietzsche, with the Wednesday, Feb. 5, and Thursday, Feb. 6, programs covering Simone Weil and Michel Foucault, respectively.

Explaining the meaning of the title, Jordan said:

“We cannot talk long about beauty without talking about our gods, even if we mean to pronounce them dead. The ‘death of God’ in Nietzsche’s sense is as much the loss of a dazzling beauty as the denial of transcendence or the diagnosis of a lapse in religious feelings. If the beauty has withdrawn, it does not vanish. It haunts a line of modern texts as memory, but also as desire.

“These lectures track the ghosts of divine beauty in Nietzsche and two writers who come after him. Each relies on exact memories of old texts that spoke about gods without mourning. Each scrutinizes the recent testimonies to desire for beauty in literature and the arts,” Jordan continued.

“Most of all, these three try to invent new forms for writing that can perform the loss of the divine and, perhaps, even entice it to return.”

A distinguished philosopher, ethicist and theologian, Jordan’s more recent research and teaching interests center on contemporary topics in Christianity in the United States, especially in the interplay of political and religious rhetoric, the history of sex and gender in America, and the functions of ritual in creating unexpected identities.

He received a bachelor’s degree from St. John’s College and his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Texas at Austin.

Spring 2014 schedule

The rest of the spring semester schedule follows. To find out more about each program and to receive updates and reminders, visit the Assembly Series website or call 314-935-4620.

Thursday, Feb. 6, 4:30 p.m., Graham Chapel
SEAN B. CARROLL
“Brave Genius: A Scientist’s Journey from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize”

Sean Carroll is an evolutionary biologist, popular author, educator and WUSTL alumnus who discovered the beauty of the humanities while studying biology as a student here. His embrace of both worlds informs his most recent book, "Brave Genius," which chronicles the adventures of Jacques Monod, a co-founder of the field of molecular biology, from the dark years of the German occupation of Paris to the heights of the Nobel Prize; his friendship with the great writer Albert Camus; and his emergence as a public figure and leading voice of science. A booksigning will follow. Sponsored by Arts & Sciences and the Institute for School Partnership

(Related links: Story of Brave Genius; Sam Harris on Brave Genius; Antarctic icefish film)

Tuesday, Feb. 11, 7 p.m., Graham Chapel

SHERYL WuDUNN
“Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide”

Presented by the Student Union Speakers Series *

Sheryl WuDunn studies and writes about the economic, political and social forces affecting women throughout the globe. She is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and author of"Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide." But "Half the Sky" is more than a book; it also is a powerful social justice and economic movement that is positively affecting millions of womens’ lives. A booksigning will follow. Sponsored by the WUSTL student group Half the Sky and the Gephardt Institute for Public Service

Tuesday, Feb. 25, 6 p.m., Graham Chapel
JON HUNTSMAN JR.
“Opportunities and Challenges Facing America Today”

Presented by the Student Union Speakers Series *

As a candidate during the 2012 presidential primary campaign, Huntsman was known as “the Reasonable Republican,” and it’s easy to see why: although the former two-time governor of Utah and former ambassador to China under President Obama no longer holds public office, he continues to be a voice for civil discourse and sound business and government policies. Sponsored by the Washington University Political Review student organization in partnership with the Gephardt Institute for Public Service and the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy

Please note that seating for the public will be limited at this event.

Monday, March 3, 5 p.m., Graham Chapel
ERIC KANDEL
“The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind and Brain from Vienna 1900 to the Present”

Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel has been called a titan of modern neuroscience. He also is a Renaissance man whose Viennese birthplace produced what he calls “The Age of Insight,” a dynamic flourishing of science and art brought on by the meeting of such revolutionary minds as Freud and Klimt. Kandel’s talk will explore the neuroscience of aesthetics outlined in his book by the same name, written in an attempt by the author to answer this question: How are internal representations of a face, a scene, a melody, or an experience encoded in the brain?" Arthur Holly Compton Science Lecture

(Related links:Charlie Rose Brain Series; Review of "Age of Insight")

Wednesday, March 5, 5:30 p.m., Graham Chapel
RICHARD DAVIDSON
“Change Your Brain by Transforming Your Mind”

In1992 neuroscientist Richard Davidson was challenged by His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, to apply the rigors of brain science to study positive qualities of mind. The Dalai Lama picked the right person. In the ensuing decades, Davidson has discovered ways to help people live happier, healthier lives through mental skills training such as meditation and yoga. Witherspoon Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Religious Studies Program and Department of Psychology, both in Arts & Sciences

March 10 – 14 SPRING BREAK

Tuesday, March 18, noon, Anheuser-Busch Hall, Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom
CHAI FELDBLUM
“The 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act”

As one of five members of the bipartisan Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Chai Feldblum is responsible for upholding the federal laws against workplace discrimination. It’s a fitting job for someone dedicated to advocating for the rights of minorities and who was instrumental in the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. To mark the half-centennial anniversary of the Civil Rights Act as well as to celebrate International Women’s Day, Feldblum will share her views about the meaning of this milestone in American history. Sponsored by the School of Law, Women’s Law Caucus, The Woman’s Club of Washington University and the Gephardt Institute for Public Service

Wednesday, March 26, 6 p.m., Graham Chapel
ADAM STELTZNER
“How Curiosity Changed My Life”

NASA called it “seven minutes of terror.” In August 2012, the world watched to see if the Mars rover Curiosity, a 1-ton robot hurtling toward the red planet at 13,200 miles per hour, would gently land on the surface or explode on contact. The planned landing allowed for zero margin of error. No problem -- the perfect landing was made all the more dazzling for the fact that its lead engineer and public “face” of the effort, Adam Steltzner, a/k/a Elvis, flunked high school geometry and used to play in a rock band. Steltzner’s talk will explore both types of curiosity – the rover and the human attribute — and opine on where space exploration should head next.

(Related links: Smithsonian: Curiosity landing;Steltzner TEDx Talk; Steltzner on NPR quiz show)

Thursday, March 27, 4 p.m., Steinberg Hall Auditorium
JOHN M. CAMP
"Greece Between Antiquity and Modernity: Views of Two Early 19th-Century Travelers"

(Related links:Amazon: Archaeology of Athens)

Monday, March 31, time TBA, Simon Hall, May Auditorium
JOE PANTOLIANO
“Mental Illness Awareness: No Kidding? Me Too!”
Presented by the Student Union Speakers Series *

Thursday, April 10, time and location TBA
Skandalaris Center Lecture on Social Entrepreneurship
Speaker to be announced

Thursday, April 17, 5 p.m., Simon Hall, May Auditorium
HOLDEN THORP
“From Salesman to Hamletmachine: The Need for the Humanities"

Last June, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences published a report called “The Heart of the Matter,” making the case that the humanities and social sciences are necessary for a vibrant, competitive and secure nation. This is not the usual argument for the humanities, and that’s a good thing, according to WUSTL Provost Holden Thorp, PhD, who was recently elected to the National Humanities Center. He believes that those in higher education have an obligation to keep the humanities vital — but need to find a better way to talk about the humanities to our external stakeholders that also resonates internally. His talk will examine arguments and strategies being used to garner support for strong humanities teaching and research in the current fiscal and political climates. Phi Beta Kappa/Sigma Xi Lecture

For more information on these programs, visit the website at assemblyseries.wustl.edu or call 314-935-4620.

* Special thanks to Student Union, the undergraduate student government at Washington University in St. Louis, for providing funds to the sponsoring student groups for these speakers.

National Geographic and NASA have chosen Washington University in St. Louis to host the next FameLab, the science communication competition where scientists and educators transform data and research into entertaining and enlightening presentations. Think “American Idol” meets TED Talks.

Young scientists from WUSTL and across the region are invited to qualify for FameLab at a morning competition round at 9 a.m. Friday, Feb. 21. FameLab is open to graduate students (MS and PhD), postdoctoral fellows and early-career researchers. Topics can range from astronomy to oceanography, paleontology to planetary science, and they must be presented in three minutes or less. Props are allowed — but Powerpoint is not. The winners will go on to compete before a panel of judges and a live audience at the FameLab Finals Feb. 22 at the 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave. Kenny Broad, National Geographic’s 2011 Explorer of the Year and a renowned anthropologist, will host the free event. The winner will advance to the FameLab National Final in Washington, D.C.

National Geographic also is hosting a Young Explorers Grant Workshop Feb. 22 for would-be applicants ages 18-25. An expert panel of National Geographic grantees and staff members will discuss potential field projects and teach participants how to craft a successful application. Every year, National Geographic distributes thousands of dollars in grants to young scientists, filmmakers and photographers.

Photo courtesy of Techli.com

Members of “The Force” accept the $50,000 prize from Jim Eberlin, CEO of TopOpps, for winning the GlobalHack event Feb. 2 at Union Station in St. Louis.

Seven current and former Washington University in St. Louis students, collectively known as “The Force,” took home the top prize of $50,000 during the GlobalHack event held Jan. 31-Feb. 2 at Union Station in St. Louis.

Eric Elias (BSBA ‘07), senior Arts & Sciences student Kristy Okada, junior fine arts student Leslie Ding, freshman engineering student Du Zhang, junior engineering student SeungJu SJ Lee, sophomore architecture student Daniel Borstelmann and junior engineering student Fangzhou Xiao made up the team. 

"I still cannot believe my team and I won," Okada said. "We were up against professionals with years of experience and other amazingly smart teams with great ideas. What made the win more gratifying was the fact that every individual was from the university. Most of us had never previously met before that day, but we came together, collaborated and created something we are all proud of. Even if we didn't win, I'm glad to have participated because I made so many new friends and connections."

GlobalHack’s quarterly hackathon competitions bring together developers, designers and entrepreneurs for 48-hour computer programming events focused on solving a technology-related problem for a St. Louis-based company. Teams compete for a $50,000 cash prize, among other prizes.

Teams were asked to develop a new software solution tool to help sales organizations manage their sales leads within the Salesforce.com platform.

The event drew more than 200 participants from St. Louis and beyond. Each team of up to 10 members had 48 hours to build an application on top of the Salesforce1 platform. The title sponsor, TopOpps for this event, makes a $50,000 acquisition offer to the winning team for the prototype that they develop during the weekend-long event.

“The WUSTL team stood apart from the others through the predictive analytics features and built-in recommendation engines that they developed in their solution,” said Clifford Holekamp, senior lecturer in entrepreneurship at Olin Business School and one of the judges for the competition.

“It was impressive that this young team was so savvy to the business analytics that sales managers would need in order to make better management decisions,” he said.

The hackathon was sponsored by TopOpps, Bank of America and the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership. Partners were Arch Grants, Cultivation Capital, Lockerdome, Strangeloop, T-Rex, Think Big Partners, Techli and WUSTL's School of Engineering & Applied Science and the Entrepreneurship Platform at Olin Business School.

“The Force's success at GlobalHack is indicative of the active and talented computer science community at Washington University,” said junior Shane Carr, president of the university’s Association for Computing Machinery. “Through our weekly Thursday Tech Talks and Code & Cookies programming sessions, we are proud to provide a meaningful lineup of events for the enrichment of students in the computer science program.”

GlobalHack is a nonprofit organization that hosts quarterly hackathon competitions and an annual product competition, with plans to award more than $1 million in prize money annually. The second GlobalHack event will be held in May. Learn more at globalhack.org.

Carroll

His embrace of both worlds informs his most recent book, Brave Genius: A Scientist’s Journey from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize, and is the title of his Assembly Series lecture at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 6, in Graham Chapel. A booksigning will follow in the Women's Building Formal Lounge. Both events are free and open to the public.

Carroll is an eminent scientist who is passionate about the humanities and for the need for a liberal arts education.

"Brave Genius owes its existence to my experiences as an undergraduate student at Washington University. This is a story that underscores the many unforeseeable dividends of a liberal arts education and the lasting impacts of great teachers and mentors," he said.

It's also a great story: In the spring of 1940, the aspiring but unknown writer Albert Camus and budding scientist Jacques Monod were quietly pursuing ordinary, separate lives in Paris. After the German invasion and occupation of France, each joined the Resistance to help liberate the country from the Nazis, ascended to prominent, dangerous roles, and were very lucky to survive. After the war and through twists of circumstance, they became friends, and through their passionate determination and rare talent they emerged as leading voices of modern literature and biology, each receiving the Nobel Prize in their respective fields.

Drawing upon a wealth of previously unpublished and unknown material gathered over several years of research, Brave Genius tells the story of how each man endured the most terrible episode of the twentieth century and then blossomed into extraordinarily creative and engaged individuals. It is a story of the transformation of ordinary lives into exceptional lives by extraordinary events - of courage in the face of overwhelming adversity, the flowering of creative genius, deep friendship, and of profound concern for and insight into the human condition.

Philip Skemer poses at Siccar Point, one of the most famous sites in the history of geology. He is sitting on what is called an angular unconformity, where horizontally oriented strata abut vertically oriented ones, a juxtaposition so bizarre it forced a new understanding of geological processes and the time scale over which they unfold.

Philip Skemer, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has won a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation.

The awards are given “in support of the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization” with the goal of “building a firm foundation for a lifetime of integrated contributions to research and education.”

Training the competition

“Rock mechanics data are so important to geology, geophysics and planetary science,” Skemer said, "yet there are very few labs set up to do this type of research."

So Skemer embraces the educational component of the CAREER award. Skemer and his students will be designing a small benchtop rock deformation apparatus that will deform rock analogs like paraffin wax and can be used for classroom demonstrations and for instructional labs.

These apparatuses will be distributed to liberal arts colleges to expose  undergraduate students to the potential of rock mechanics. In so doing, Skemer hopes to draw a new wave of experimentalists to the discipline he is convinced holds the answer to many longstanding problems in earth and planetary science.

​

Buzz Spector, 'About the Author #2,' 2013. Collaged dust jackets.

They are perhaps the proudest words in publishing.

In "About the Author #2" (2013), Buzz Spector collages 128 versions of that titular phrase. Printed in different fonts, sizes, colors and languages, they are stacked four-across in 32 rows, width varying but height constant. The effect is humorous and friendly, like a hardwood floor of mismatched planks, but also shrewdly, sympathetically obsessive — a scholarly peacock, a muttered mantra of writerly aspiration.

Mary Jo Bang deploys radically different means to achieve a similar tone of crafty generosity. Where Spector’s collages and image/poems riff on the sheen of the printed page, Bang’s intimately scaled sketches and found objects seem to comprise an extended meditation on just what counts as drawing.

In "Self-Portrait: Overeager Student" (2013), Bang presents a small wooden figurine of the Statue of Liberty, perhaps three inches tall, jauntily matted and pinned to the wall. Extracted from New York in a Bag, a novelty set sold at the Museum of Modern Art gift store, the re-contextualized piece slyly recalls a zealous pupil, arm thrust upward, hand waving in the air, knowing the answer and desperately hoping for a chance to display it.

"Otherwise: Mary Jo Bang & Buzz Spector" remains on view through Feb. 8 at the Fort Gondo Compound for the Arts (Beverly), 3155 Cherokee St.For more information, visitwww.fortgondo.comorfacebook.com/FortGondo.

Mary Jo Bang, Self Portrait: Overeager Student, 2013. Mixed media.

About the artists

Bang is professor of English in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and the author of six books of poems. Her 2012 translation of Dante's "Inferno," with illustrations by Henrik Drescher, was named among The New Yorker’s “Best Books of the Year. “A collection of poems titled "The Last Two Seconds" is forthcoming from Graywolf in 2015.

Spector is the Jane Reuter Hitzeman and Herbert F. Hitzeman Jr. Professor of Art and Dean of the College and Graduate School of Art in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at WUSTL. His work has been shown at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., among many others.

WuDunn

WuDunn’s lecture is sponsored by the undergraduate student governing body, Student Union, the WUSTL student group Half the Sky and co-sponsored by the Gephardt Institute for Public Service and the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy.

WuDunn is a best-selling author, business leader and lecturer who studies and writes about the economic, political and social forces affecting women throughout the globe. She is also a co-author, with her husband, Nicholas Kristof, of "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide."

In addition, WuDunn is president of TripleEdge, a social investing consultancy, and also works as a director with Mid-Market Securities, an investment banking firm serving the middle market.

She has had extensive experience at The New York Times, in both executive and journalistic roles, first as a correspondent in its Beijing bureau. With Kristof, she has authored two additional best-sellers about Asia: "Thunder from the East" and "China Wakes." The couple received a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in 1990 for their coverage of the Tiananmen Square protests.

WuDunn earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, an MBA from Harvard University, and a master's in public affairs from Princeton University.

Related links

WuDunn TED Talk
Half the Sky movement on PBS
HalfTheSkyMovement.org

For information regarding this and other programs, visit the Assembly Series page or call 314-935-4620.

SKEMER LAB

The rock deformation apparatus Skemer has built in his lab. The yellow frame is a commercial hydraulic press rated at 100 tons and the black cylindrical object poking out to the bottom right is the actuator that twists the bottom anvil of the press.

“I have always been interested in the origins of plate tectonics," said Philip Skemer, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. 

"Plate tectonics is directly or indirectly responsible for virtually every geological phenomenon we experience at Earth's surface." 

“But when I got to graduate school I realized that many of the questions I was asking about plate tectonics couldn’t be answered using a rock hammer or a computer. To get to the heart of the matter, I really needed to do laboratory experiments."

But as he quickly learned, there were no instruments that could recreate on the surface the conditions in Earth's mantle. So with the help of a National Science Foundation grant, he built his own machine, which he calls the Large Volume Torsion apparatus.

The problem

Rocks on the surface of Earth are brittle and fracture if you hit them with a hammer. But deep below the surface, where it is much hotter and the pressure is much greater, they are able to deform without breaking. They creep, or flow, behaving more like fluids than rigid solids.

The flow manifests itself at the surface as the ponderous movement of large rafts of rock that make up the continents and the ocean floor. The flowing mantle rocks drag on these tectonic plates, pulling and pushing them this way and that.

“The viscosity of rocks is critical to understanding plate tectonics," Skemer said. "At sufficiently high temperatures and pressures, rocks, like other fluids, have viscoity. But the viscosity of rocks in the upper mantle might be 10¹⁹ or 10²⁰ pascal-seconds, whereas the viscosity of water is about 10^-3 pascal-seconds. The difference is enormous; more than 20 orders of magnitude.

Scientists can estimate the viscosity of mantle materials under a variety of conditions by conducting experiments. But to derive viscosity without extrapolating dangerously  beyond experimental data, they have to be able to expose rocks to a wide range of deformation conditions.

“For a long time, people were doing experiments with devices that compress a cylindrical rock sample,” Skemer said. “If I push on a cylinder, I might be able to shorten it by 50 percent, that is, strain it by 50 percent. But 50 percent is nothing for the Earth.

"If I go out in the field I can quite easily find rocks that deformed to strains of 2,000 percent or even larger," he said. Many critical deformation processes do not occur until very large strains are achieved.

The new rig

“I couldn’t just go out and buy the instrument I wanted,” Skemer said. “There are no commerically available rock-deformation instruments because the academic discipline is so small.

“Fortunately, there’s this whole world of equipment out there that will allow you to construct an apparatus that can do just about anything you want to do,” said Skemer, who admits to reading industrial supply catalogs for fun.

His new rig traps a rock sample between tungsten carbide anvils about a quarter inch in diameter within a 100-ton hydraulic press. Once it is under pressure a screw actuator, originally designed for tasks such as lifting drawbridges, twists it from below. Skemer has geared the actuator down by about 500,000:1, so the torque can be applied slowly.

SKEMER LAB

The business end of the machine. A pressure vessel supporting the rock sample is placed at the pinch point between tungsten carbide anvils at the center of this photograph.

“Six giga-pascals (GPa) is my target pressure,” Skemer said. “That’s about 870,000 pounds per square inch. Put another way that's 435 tons of force, about the weight of a loaded 747, pressing down on an area the size of a postage stamp. The center of the Earth is about 360 GPa,” he said, “but 6 GPa takes you 250 kilometers down, to the base of the tectonic plates.”

The sample will simultaneously be heated to temperatures as high as 1300 degrees Celsius (2,500 degrees Fahrenheit).

What about seismic data?

One of the many things Skemer wants to study with his new machine is how rocks under pressure develop what is called a lattice-preferred orientation, a key parameter in the interpretation of seismic data, which are used to image the interior of Earth much as CTs are used to image the interior of the human body.

Seismic waves travel faster in some directions than in others, a property called anisotropy. This happens because some mantle rocks have a preferred lattice orientation, or a preferred arrangement of crystalline grains and the bonds between their constituent atoms. A seismic wave will travel faster parallel to stiffer bonds and more slowly parallel to weaker bonds.

“Most of what we know about the patterns and direction of mantle flow comes from seismic data,” Skemer said. “The problem is that assumptions must be made about the relationships among flow, seismic anisotropy and lattice-preferred orientation in order to interpret the seismic data.

SKEMer

Photomicrographs of thin sections of a rock derived from the Earth's mantle and exposed in the Klamath Mountains in Oregon. The top sample is undeformed and the second, from the center of a shear zone, is highly deformed. Rock deformation in shear zones is poorly understood but key to plate tectonics.

“How olivine, the dominant mantle mineral, goes from a random distribution of lattices to an organized one is not well understood,” said Skemer. “And if you don’t understand that, you can’t go in the other direction and use seismic anisotropy to infer the flow patterns in the mantle.

“As an experimentalist, I’m doing the forward problem, and seismologists are doing the inverse problem. They’re trying to go from anisotropy to flow, and I’m trying to understand how the anisotropy arises in the first place. They are complementary approaches; we cannot do one without the other.

“For decades, seismologists have been using simple models that assume the fastest direction for seismic waves is parallel to the direction of flow,” he said, “and I don’t think that assumption is always correct. It rests heavily on a small number of data that I think give an incomplete picture of what's going on down there.

Anyone who reads the history of science can think of many instances where something true on the face of it turned out to be false when it was tested by experiment. That's what drives him to roll up his sleeves and do experiments with the rock itself instead of by simulation, that is mathematically, and all on paper.

Just for this evening, let’s not mock them.
Not their curtsies or cross-garters
or ever-recurring pepper trees in their gardens
promising, promising

At least they had ideas about love.

— from “The Troubadours Etc.”

Mary always thinks that as soon as she gets a few more things done and finishes the dishes, she will open herself to God.

-- From “Update on Mary”

Incarnadine is a fleshy hue, a blushing, pinkish crimson, akin to salmon or rust or rose, the color of pale sunsets, of angels’ robes, of water stained by blood.

But blue is the color that dominates Incarnadine (2013), Mary Szybist’s second collection: the blues of bright skies and dark oceans, of pretty dresses and ominous clouds, of feathers and bubbles and bruises long past healing.

Mary Szybist. Photo by Joni Kabana.

“I see annunciations everywhere,” Szybist writes—in butterflies and predators, in poets and presidents and prosecutors, in feathery branches that reach to the sky and blackbirds that tumble from it.

“Annunciation in Nabakov and Starr” mingles phrases from Lolita and the Clinton impeachment investigation. “Annunciation as Right Whale with Kelp Gulls” explores the sacramental violence of seagulls attacking and feeding from the living flesh of whales. “Invitation” calls for the divine with a physical, almost erotic intensity.

On Thursday, Feb. 13, Szybist will read from her work as part of The Writing Program’s spring Reading Series. The talk, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 8 p.m. in Hurst Lounge, Room 201, Duncker Hall. A reception and book signing will immediately follow.

For more information, call (314) 935-7428.

Mary Szybist

Szybist’s previous book, Granted, was a finalist for the 2003 National Book Critics Circle Award. Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Poetry, Best American Poetry, Pushcart Prize Anthology, Virginia Quarterly Review, Cincinnati Review,Tin House, The Iowa Review, The Kenyon Review and other journals.

Szybist grew up in Williamsport, Penn., and attended the University of Virginia and the University of Iowa Writers Workshop. She teaches at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon.

Jim Beirne, director of external relations at the Career Center, received an award for work at United States International University in Nairobi, Kenya, where he will help guide the school's recently formed career center. During two visits in the next five years, Beirne will lecture, lead workshops, consult on organizational design and assessment protocols and help establish and develop sustainable employer relationships to aid the career center.

“I see this as a clear recognition of the world-class quality of the career services Washington University has developed in the last decade under (Career Center Director) Mark Smith’s leadership,” Beirne said.

Eric Mumford, PhD, professor of architecture at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, received an award to lead two seminars, of two weeks each, for design faculty at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru in Lima. In July 2013, he gave lectures, “On the Development of Modern Urbanism and its Implications for Education in Urban Design” and “El Plan Regulador de Bogotá (1950) and the Emergence of Urban Design,” and participated in meetings with the dean, chair and faculty of the architecture school in discussing the design program and proposed new curricula in urbanism and landscape design.

“Lima is booming at the moment and has an intense level of activity of all kinds,” Mumford said.

L. Lewis Wall, MD, DPhil, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the School of Medicine and professor of anthropology in Arts and Sciences, received an award for work at the College of Health Sciences at Mekelle University in northern Ethiopia. He will help establish a residency training program in obstetrics and gynecology and institute quality-assurance programs in maternal-child health and gynecologic surgery in that college's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Additionally, Wall plans to develop ongoing educational exchange programs between Washington University School of Medicine and the College of Health Sciences and between Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Ayder Referral Hospital, the College of Health Sciences' teaching hospital. 

"I'm going to Ethiopia to transform women's lives," Wall said.

More than 400 U.S. faculty and professionals are traveling abroad during the year through the Fulbright Specialists Program. The Fulbright Specialists Program was created in 2000 to complement the traditional Fulbright Scholar Program. It provides short-term academic opportunities to prominent U.S. faculty and professionals to support curricular and faculty development and institutional planning at postsecondary academic institutions around the world.

Fulbright grant recipients are chosen based on their academic or professional achievement.

Webcast live from the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., the news conference touted the the FDA's first-ever youth tobacco prevention campaign, which targets  the roughly 3,200 Americans per day who smoke their first cigarette when they're not yet 18 years old. 

Giuffra, of Chesterfield, Mo., is president of the Tobacco Free Missouri Youth Advisory Board. He discussed the tobacco cessation and prevention programs that he has been involved with over the past three years, including work with Casa de Salud, a nonprofit health clinic serving the St. Louis Hispanic community. 

As part of his news conference presentation (see video below), Giuffra said: 

"I think it's important that this campaign will not only use TV, but also Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to drive these messages home and get teens thinking differently about smoking and how it will affect their everyday life."

The yearlong “The Real Cost” media campaign will begin Feb 11 with a focus on things “teens care about” — such as outward appearance and independence.

“Tobacco causes more deaths than alcohol, illegal drug use, homicides, suicides, car accidents and AIDS combined,” said Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of food and drugs at FDA, during a Washington, D.C., press conference. 

“Tobacco use is almost always initiated and established during adolescence. And close to 90 percent of established adult smokers smoke their first cigarette before the age of 18. That’s why early intervention is critical.”

For more information, visit "The Real Cost" campaign's website.

The members of the winning team, all juniors, were (left to right): Ryan Endsley, a physics and mathematics double major; Nathan Stein, a physics and geophysics double major, and Christina Kreisch, a physics and mathematics double major. The team was sponsored by assistant professor of physics Fracesc Ferrer.

They were asked to analyze the following scenario using the principlas of physics and write a formal paper describing their conclusions. The problem:

Asuume a planet has been found whose mass is eight times that of earth while its radius is twice that of Earth. The average surface temperature on the planet is 250 K. A four legged animal has evolved to live on the equator of this planet. Produce a physics-based analysis on how life on this planet might be similar to, or different from, creatures that evolved on Earth. 

After due consideration, the team members wrote:

We concluded that obone width would increase by approximately 30% and bone length would decrease, yielding more compact animals with shorter extremities. Leg bones would meet the body at shallower angles, making legs straighter. Most organs, including the heart, would increase in size due to an approximate doubling of blood volume per unit mass and capillary radius would increase. Due to increased surface gravity, animals would have to expend more energy to reach efficient modes of locomotion than they do on Earth, decreasing their speed.

A. Nony Maus

An artist's conception this way comes.

The WUSTL team's entry was chosen from a field of 69.

The University Physics Competition is an international contest for undergraduate students, who work in teams of three at their home colleges and universities all over the world, and spend a weekend in November, 48 hours, analyzing a real-world scenario using the principles of physics, and writing a formal paper describing their work.

After receiving an excellent education at Washington University in St. Louis, including access to mentors and learning in an environment conducive to innovation, alumnus Suren G. Dutia (BS '63, AB, MS '67) forged a successful career in several industries, including Internet/e-commerce, medical instrumentation and other high-technology businesses. Along the way, he grew into a passionate advocate for innovation and transdisciplinary, cross-campus entrepreneurship.

Now, he and Jas K. Grewal, his wife and frequent professional collaborator, are completing the circle of opportunity begun at his alma mater by establishing an endowed fund to assist promising entrepreneurs and high-growth entrepreneurial ventures to catalyze social change.

Their gift of $1,025,000 will establish the Suren G. Dutia and Jas K. Grewal Global Impact Award in the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at WUSTL. The endowed fund will receive $1 million, and the remaining $25,000 will support awards made during the current academic year. 

The Skandalaris Center is a campus-wide program that supports entrepreneurial initiatives in every school at WUSTL.

In announcing the gift, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton said:

“As professionals with a long history of entrepreneurial leadership and success and a genuine commitment to help others, Suren Dutia and Jas Grewal understand the great potential benefits, for both the individual and for society, that can arise from an environment conducive to learning and growth.

“We are honored by their commitment and very grateful to Suren and Jas for this remarkable gift that strengthens the Skandalaris Center’s resources for future generations of entrepreneurs and agents of social change,” Wrighton continued.

The Suren G. Dutia and Jas K. Grewal Global Impact Award Fund has been designed to meet the donors’ overarching goal: to invest in promising ventures founded by highly motivated entrepreneurs that use technology to develop low-cost products and services that will spur economic growth and catalyze social change for underserved, disadvantaged populations.

Skandalaris Center managing director Ken Harrington, who has known and admired Dutia for several years, appreciates the way the donors have structured the award process to instill a socially conscious goal and to support future generations.

“I’m extremely grateful to Suren and Jas for this important gift to the Skandalaris Center, which fosters and supports the great work of our students, scholars and alumni,” Harrington said. “Their gift adds powerful resources to help entrepreneurs in the WUSTL community develop their skills and social networks and form ventures equipped to change the world.”

Another key aspect of the gift is to encourage award winners to contribute back to the fund after achieving a successful venture. As Harrington points out, the donors are underscoring the importance of expanding what they have begun, to empower more people to create more entrepreneurial ventures each year.

“The objective is to establish an ongoing commitment to long-term social responsibility,” Harrington said. “Their gift serves as a wonderful example for others who may be inspired to make impactful gifts consistent with their own values and beliefs. This helps complete the circle of ‘giving back to society’ that Suren has written about and exemplifies all that he and Jas do.”

Harrington will establish a selection committee to oversee the awards process. It will be structured, according to the donors’ wishes, to include the director of the Skandalaris Center, the dean of the School of Engineering & Applied Science and representatives of St. Louis area organizations and firms that support entrepreneurial enterprises.

Award winners will receive $25,000 to $50,000 to implement their business plans; access to mentors; and connections to organizations that can accelerate their ventures.

The application process is open to all current WUSTL students, postdoctoral researchers and alumni who have graduated in the past five years. The application deadline is noon March 24; the first award will be presented in September.

While having a generous funding source is important to a venture’s success, Harrington emphasized the value of the mentoring component, which will be available to all finalists in the competition — not just the winners.

“Though not all applicants will receive funding, all finalist teams will receive mentorship and introductions to important connections that can help them develop their ventures, ” he continued.

Dutia, currently a senior fellow with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, invests in a number of startup ventures and is on the board of several firms.

Most recently, he served as chief executive officer of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Global. With 57 chapters in 14 countries, Silicon Valley-based TiE is one of the largest nonprofit organizations involved in fostering entrepreneurship globally.

Earlier in his career, Dutia was president and CEO of Xscribe Corp. and held a number of leadership positions with Dynatech Corp.

Dutia holds three degrees from the university: bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering and a bachelor’s degree in political science, from Arts & Sciences. He also received a master's in business administration from the University of Dallas.

From 2011 to 2012, Dutia was the Wells Fargo Advisors Visiting Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at WUSTL.

He continues to serve the Skandalaris Center as a senior fellow and is a member of WUSTL’s Entrepreneurship National Council. In addition, Dutia chairs the San Diego Regional Cabinet and Grewal serves as a member.

They also are longtime supporters of the School of Engineering & Applied Science and have made provisions to establish an endowed scholarship in the school through their estate.

For more information on the Suren G. Dutia and Jas K. Grewal Global Impact Award, including criteria for selection, visit here.

WHAT: “A Great City From the Start: The Founding and Lasting Significance of St. Louis” daylong symposium on St. Louis’ 250th anniversary

WHO: Scholars from across the nation will provide their perspectives on the city’s historical significance. Scholars include Washington University in St. Louis’ Peter Kastor, PhD; Yale University’s Jay Gitlin, PhD; and UMSL’s Frederick Fausz, PhD.

WUSTL Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton will host the symposium luncheon at WUSTL and speak about the history of Washington University, which is inextricably entwined with the history of St. Louis, and the university’s significant impact on St. Louis.

Distinguished guests attending the symposium, as well as participating in other events during stl250’s birthday bash weekend Feb. 14-16, are Graham Paul, consul general of France in Chicago; Chief Scott Bighorse, principal chief of the Osage Nation; and Eric Marquis, Quebec’s leading delegate to the U.S. All three dignitaries will present remarks at the luncheon.

WHERE: Lee Auditorium, lower level of the Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd.; luncheon in Anheuser-Busch Hall on Washington University’s Danforth Campus

WHEN: 9 a.m. until 5:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 14; luncheon from noon to 2 p.m. 

For more information, call Sue Killenberg McGinn at 314-935-5254 (w) or 314-603-6008 (cell).

 

But then she found out that Washington University in St. Louis’ Global Diversity Overseas Seminar Program (GDOS) was accepting applications for a study-abroad trip to Ghana in June.

“I first heard about this program when Bill Larson, my colleague from Edison Theatre, participated last year in the trip to Chile,” said Gartley, manager of public outreach and applied music programs for the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences.

“This year, when I found out they were going to Africa, I knew I wanted to apply,” she said. “Africa is such a dynamic and exciting place. Having the opportunity to dig in and learn about Ghana and the culture before departing and then to see it in action is really attractive to me.”

Gartley is one of seven WUSTL staff members chosen to travel to Ghana this summer as part of the program. The remaining members are: 

• Harvey Fields, PhD, assistant director for academic programs at Cornerstone and PI/director of the TRiO Student Support Services grant
• Robin Hattori, assistant director of the Gephardt Institute for Public Service
• Anu Hittle, career consultant for the Career Center, lecturer and director of Hawaiian Projects in Environmental Studies in Arts & Sciences
• Thomas Malkowicz, video producer and editor for Public Affairs
• Ashley Viager, a residential college director in Residential Life
• Mary Zabriskie, assistant director of Campus Life

The program is designed to give staff a global perspective on diversity through seminar meetings, group discussions, assigned readings and community-engagement opportunities culminating in an international site visit to one of WUSTL’s study-abroad programs. 

The Ghana trip, which is June 7-17, marks the program’s third year. Previous destinations were Paris; Shanghai; and Santiago, Chile.

Upon return, participants take part in outreach efforts on campus to share what they have learned.

Shanon Langlie, global projects manager in Global Initiatives, said this year’s cohort will focus on five main topics before, during and after going to Ghana: history and culture; environmental issues; the role of religion; social entrepreneurship; and Ghana’s role in Africa.

Malkowicz said he applied to the program because he enjoys travel and wants to experience a new culture. After being notified that he was chosen, he began researching Ghana.

“I have spent quite a few late nights reading and watching videos online, trying to learn everything I can about the history, culture, environment and people of Ghana,” Malkowicz said.

He has two goals for the trip.

While in Ghana, participants will visit the University of Ghana in Accra and WUSTL’s study-abroad partners at the Council on International Educational Exchange; meet staff at Webster University’s Ghana campus; visit Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park; learn about U.S. connections to Ghana through the W.E.B. DuBois Memorial Centre; and take a day trip to tour the Cape Coast Castle. 

Accra is a St. Louis sister city, and the University of Ghana is a McDonnell International Scholars Academy partner institution.

Also, before departure, they will visit the Blessing Basket Project warehouse in St. Louis and meet with director Theresa Carrington and her staff. Blessing Basket works with basket-weaving artisans around the world and helps lift them out of poverty through the sale of their baskets.

“I hope going on this journey will inspire me to be continually curious about the world around me and to take active steps to learn about people from different cultures and be open to their stories,” Gartley said.

“I am also secretly hoping that we will get to be there during the World Cup. No matter what, it will be an amazing experience.”

For more information, visit here.

Catherine Athenson and Mitchell Manar as Alice and Tony. Photo by James Byard/WUSTL Photo Services. Download hires version.

It’s the difference between passion and love.

The Vanderhof home is a haven for individualists, eccentric more than rugged, chasing assorted muses, oblivious to judgment or expectation. The rooms run riot with dance rehearsals, printing presses, wild animals and small explosives.

But then Alice, youngest member of this anarchic clan, becomes engaged to the son of a Wall Street executive. Can these two families—the free spirits and the moneyed snobs—ever reconcile?

So begins You Can’t Take It With You, the beloved Depression-era comedy by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. WUSTL’s Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences will stage the Pulitzer Prize-winning show Feb. 21 to March 2 in Edison Theatre.

“This is classic screwball comedy,” says director Jeffery Matthews, professor of the practice in drama. “It’s very clever, very funny, things get turned on their heads. But it’s also challenging. There’s a size and potency to the language and its rhythms.

“The story is rooted in that period, but there’s something timeless about its themes and questions,” Matthews adds.

“What do you really need to be happy?”

You Can’t Take It With You

The answer, for Kaufmann and Hart, is not very much.

“Alice’s grandfather collects snakes and her father manufactures illegal fireworks,” Matthews say. “Her mother writes plays because someone mistakenly delivered a typewriter. Her sister makes candy but her real passion is dance. She’s terrible at it, but it gives her pleasure.

“Nobody is good at what they do,” Matthews continues. “There’s no ‘practice makes perfect.’ They are pure amateurs, completely artless—but they’re also very happy.”

Yet the outside world encroaches, in the form of Tony Kirby, Alice’s fiancé. Though Tony is quite at home amidst the chaos, Alice worries that his parents—finance titan Anthony Kirby and grim, prim Miriam—will be less accepting.

“The plan is to invite them over for dinner,” Matthew says. But Tony is optimistic and “purposefully brings them on the wrong night, hoping that they’ll get to know the real family.”

Hijinks, as they say, ensue. Meanwhile, Federal agents begin to circle, variously concerned with back taxes and packages of candy that somehow—completely innocently!—have been wrapped in the words of Leon Trotsky.

“They’re seen as communists, as dangerous,” Matthews says. “’Normal’ people can’t understand them at all. But they're like children, just playing in this magical jewel box of a house, thumbing their noses, following their passions.

“They eat cornflakes for dinner and go happily on their way.”

Cast and crew

Leading the cast of 18 are senior Catherine Athenson and junior Mitchell Manar as Alice and Tony.

Senior Will Jacobs is Alice’s grandfather, Martin Vanderhof.  Sophomores Schuyler Atkins and Robert Kapeller are her parents, Penny and Paul. Senior Eric Gustafson and junior Clare Mulligan are Mr. and Mrs. Kirby.

Junior Mary Reischmann and freshman Harold Lee are Essie and Ed Carmichael, Alice’s sister and borther-in-law. Freshman Zachary Schultz is Mr. DePinna, the ice deliveryman who never left.

Seniors Kate Drummond and Henry Clements are Rheba and Donald, the family maid and her boyfriend. Graduate student Jim Short is Boris Kolenkov, Elsie’s expatriate ballet instructor. Sophomore Joe Holley is Henderson of the IRS. Freshmen Daniel Marshall and Harley Greene are agents from the Department of Justice.

Rounding out the cast are sophomores Ricki Pettinato and Julia Zasso as Gay, an alcoholic actress, and Olga, a former Grand Duchess of Russia.

Sets are by Rob Morgan, senior lecturer in drama. Costumes are by Bonnie Kruger, professor of the practice in drama. Sean Savoie is lighting designer and production manager. Sound design is by Patrick Burkes, associate professor of music.

Tickets

Performances of You Can’t Take It With You take place in Edison Theatre at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 21 and 22; and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 23. Performances will continue the following weekend, at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 28 and March 1; and at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 2.

Edison Theatre is located in the Mallinckrodt Center, 6465 Forsyth Ave. Tickets are $15, or $10 for students, seniors and WUSTL faculty and staff. Tickets are available through the Edison Theatre Box Office, (314) 935-6543.

For more information, call (314) 935-6543 or visit padarts.wustl.edu.