Author and feminist philosopher Judith Butler spoke to a crowd of about 200 members of the WashU community about their most recent book, “Who’s Afraid of Gender?” and the future of world democracy in the Clark-Fox Forum in Hillman Hall, Feb. 3. 

We both plan to attend law school, which we are sure will teach us new things and expose us to new perspectives. Still, nothing is quite like an undergraduate education in the liberal arts. Our lives are dedicated to learning. We are encouraged to follow our intellectual curiosity without the pressure to turn all of those interests into lucrative careers.

The idea of consolidating humanities departments should never have occurred at a university of WashU’s stature. Yet sadly, the university experience has become more of a business instead of a site of meaningful self-exploration that the humanities encourages.

WashU’s College of Arts & Sciences is forming a new task force to consider the reorganization or combination of what are currently six separate departments: African and African American Studies (AFAS); Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS); Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies (JIMES); Education; Global Studies; and American Culture Studies (AMCS). 

Four postdoctoral researchers — Marc Blanc, Jessica Samuel, Jesse J. Lee, and Danielle Williams — spoke in a panel titled “Humanities Politicized” on April 17 to address the status of humanities research in academia amid funding cuts and restrictions to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) by the Trump administration that began in early April. 

WRAP (WashU Research Ambassador Program) hasn’t been around long, but it has been making a difference already. It launched in the Fall 2023 Semester as a student-operated companion to the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR), with the goal of improving student access to research as well as general awareness.

Bauer Hall was bustling with fresh ideas on Friday, Oct. 27 when undergraduate researchers set up posters and presented their work at the Office of Undergraduate Research’s Fall Symposium.

There is power in being a generalist in a world which prioritizes intense, secluding specialization. 

Whatever other factors are affecting your decisions, don’t let the pressure to study STEM eliminate the possibility of studying another field that you might care about. 

Ideas that everyone should read are written to be accessible only for scholars – this restriction of information, intentional or not, needs to stop.