Hold That Thought - A Few Dollars Can Help Girls Stay In School. Here's How.

A Few Dollars Can Help Girls Stay In School. Here's How.

09/02/15 • 10 min

In the United States, a woman's monthly period is rarely more than a slight inconvenience. In places like the Tigray region of Ethiopia, however, the story is much different. There, many girls face adolescence without information and without basic materials like sanitary pads or tampons. Confused and embarrassed, menstruating young women often stay home from school. With the help of Dr. Lewis Wall from Washington University in St. Louis, one Ethiopian woman is attempting to create a local, sustainable solution to this problem. You can find out more about their efforts at www.dignityperiod.org.

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"The Quality of Mercy": A Shakespearean theme

Most authors have a "signature moment," a theme or scene that reoccurs in their work as if they're exploring it from every angle, and Robert Wiltenburg believes that the quintessential Shakespearean theme is mercy. Wiltenburg, the former dean of University College and an adjunct associate professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis, takes us through Shakespeare's comedies, tragedies, and romances to show how mercy evolves in each genre, highlighting great triumphs--and disasters--along the way.

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An Adult Choice? Corporate Responsibility and the Global Face of Tobacco

Tobacco has been a global industry for more than a century. But in the era of corporate social responsibility, how do tobacco companies justify their push to sell even more cigarettes around the world? Trade agreements like the currently proposed Trans Pacific Partnership make it easier for tobacco corporations to flood markets in low- and middle-income countries, where 80% of the world's billion tobacco users live. Peter Benson, an anthropologist from Washington University in St. Louis and author of Tobacco Capitalism, weighs in.