Remembering the Holocaust’s Disabled Victims

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Discovery: New Arts & Sciences Publication

From classrooms and labs to field sites around the globe, Columbian College researchers are following their scientific curiosity in search of answers to the most profound questions of our time. In our new Discovery publication, you’ll meet our amazing scientists, scholars and students as they embark on bold explorations to the jungles of Africa, the Arctic tundra and the ocean depths. Read more.

Family Ties: Wild Chimps Offer Human Parenting Hints?

Chimpanzees aren’t just humankind’s closest living relatives. Their family dynamics may mirror the parent-offspring interactions in your own home. In a video conversation with Dean Ben Vinson, Carson Murray discusses her observations of chimps in the jungles of Tanzania—and how they are shedding new light on maternal moods, gender roles and even human parenting practices. View video.

Dean’s Scholars Remember Holocaust’s Disabled Victims

In his Dean’s Scholars in Globalization seminar, David Mitchell leads his students on a pilgrimage to memorialize a little-known tragedy: the twisted Nazi euthanasia program that murdered 300,000 disabled people. As they toured the killing centers, the class asked: How could this slaughter have occurred—and why is it still a secret? Read more.

Behind the Scenes, Students Bring New Museum to Life

From exhibition designers to tour guides, Columbian College students are making their mark on the new George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum. Even before the 53,000-square foot museum opened its doors to the public, they worked over-time to connect the world-renowned collections and the community. Read more.

SEH Spotlight: Piecing Together Humankind's Family Tree

As director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Bernard Wood is shaking up conventional wisdom about our earliest ancestors. From his laboratory in the Science and Engineering Hall, Wood uses fossil findings to map branches of the human family tree, developing scientific snapshots of our prehistoric relatives. Read more.

SEH Spotlight: Outsmarting Drug-Resistant Bacteria

With once-treatable diseases like tuberculosis evolving faster than drug development can handle, fears of antibiotic-resistant bacteria have gripped both the general public and the scientific world. Working from her chemistry lab in the Science and Engineering Hall, Cynthia Dowd is on a mission to develop new small molecule inhibitors that will stop tuberculosis in its tracks. Read more.

Corcoran’s ‘Bowls’ Feed the Hungry

As part of a fundraiser to benefit the homeless, Corcoran students, faculty and staff transformed clay-into-contributions by creating more than 500 ceramic bowls for a local nonprofit. The handcrafted bowls were auctioned to donors and raised proceeds earmarked for feeding 1,000 Washingtonians a day. Read more.

Wald Pens ‘Soul’ful TV Tribute

In her book It’s Been Beautiful: Soul! and Black Power Television, Gayle Wald looks at the first African American variety show on public television. The pioneering stage—where Stevie Wonder sang and Toni Morrison read from her debut novel—first beamed black culture, arts and politics into America’s living rooms. Read more.

In the Spotlight

Carmel Chiswick published the book Judaism in Transition: How Economic Choices Shape Religious Tradition (Stanford University Press).

Dylan Conger was nominated to serve on a National Academy of Sciences committee on Fostering School Success for English Learners.

Huixia Wang received a $298,474 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a statistical framework for modeling and predicting conditional quantiles in data-sparse regions.