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Washington University in St. Louis News & Information >
June Culture & Living Tip Sheet
June 23,
2009 --
Tip sheets highlight timely news and events at Washington
University in St. Louis. For more information on any of the
stories below or for assistance in arranging interviews,
please see the contact information listed with each story.
Iran's Joan of Arc?
Reactions to Neda Agha-Soltan shooting reveal how we make sense of history
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| Julie Singer |
June 25,
2009 -- The shooting death last Saturday of Neda Agha-Soltan has emerged, thanks to video widely circulated on the Internet, as a potent symbol of Iran's antigovernment movement. In the news media and in private postings across the Web, Agha-Soltan has been memorialized as a victim, a martyr and — perhaps most hauntingly to Western ears — as "Iran's Joan of Arc." Yet while fitting in some ways, that comparison says less about either Agha-Soltan or the 15th-century French saint than it does about our own need to make sense of the present through comparison with the past, says Julie Singer, Ph.D., assistant professor of French in the Department of Romance Languages & Literatures at Washington University in St. Louis.
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Disputed election
Iranian administration losing legitimacy, says expert
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| Robert Canfield |
June 23,
2009 -- As the Iranian government continues to crack down on citizens protesting against the recent disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an expert on Iran at Washington University in St. Louis says the Iranian administration wants the legitimacy of having won an election without actually having allowed a true election to take place.
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Windows on Iran
Iranian-American scholar posts daily updates on election-related turmoil in Iran
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| Windows on Iran |
June 22,
2009 -- An Iranian-American scholar at Washington University in St. Louis has been posting daily updates on election-related turmoil in Iran as part of her long-running electronic newsletter on cultural, political and social issues in Iran. Fatemeh Keshavarz, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures in Arts & Sciences, posts news, filled with cell phone videos and firsthand anecdotes from friends and academic contacts within Iran, at Windows on Iran Web site. She is available for media interviews on the day-to-day news reports she's receiving from contacts within Iran and for broader discussions of the cultural context of these events, including the role of women and the unique ways that this protest is being shaped by the use of cell phones, instant messaging and other online social media.
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Future of U.S. health care
Health economist and leading policy expert believes health reform legislation will pass in '09
| June 23,
2009 -- The United States has attempted to pass major health reform legislation eight times in the last century, starting in the mid 1910s up through 1993-94 with the failed Clinton health reform effort. "Only once in that period was any legislation passed — in 1964-65 when Medicare and Medicaid were passed," says Timothy McBride, Ph.D., associate dean of public health at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. "Yet, for many reasons, I feel that it is much more likely that legislation will pass this year." At this point, McBride believes that President Obama has the political support necessary to make health reform happen, and he has made it his top domestic priority. McBride has been active in testifying before Congress and consulting with important policy constituencies on Medicare, insurance and health policy issues. He is a member of the Rural Policy Research Institute Health Panel that provides expert advice on rural health issues to the U.S. Congress and other policymakers.
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