Africa

Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo, a lover of movies and a student of Africa, had a vision to introduce St. Louis audiences to films from Africa. The goal, she said, was to showcase the hidden talents of African filmmakers and the diversity of the continent’s nations and cultures. 

Three WashU researchers studying human-wildlife interaction in the forests of Madagascar have approached their research in a unique way – one that recognizes that protecting wildlife requires protecting people.

Sifting through the seemingly endless sands of Ethiopia’s Afar Rift, researchers have uncovered telling remnants of a long-lost human ancestor.

Growing up in a world saturated by fear of HIV and AIDS, WashU Public Health’s Massy Mutumba developed a commitment to help her country fight the HIV epidemic.

Proscovia Nabunya, an associate professor at the Brown School, has received a $5 million federal grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to streamline mental health treatment and HIV medication support for adolescents living with HIV in rural Uganda.

Xuehua Zhong, a professor of biology and the Dean’s Distinguished Professorial Scholar, has received several major federal grants to advance her pioneering work in plant epigenetics, the molecular processes that regulate gene expression without altering DNA.

A new study from Washington University in St. Louis, published October 15 in Communications Biology, presents compelling evidence to support the hypothesis that humans evolved from an African ape-like ancestor.

In the hot southern Egypt sun, a monument to modern ambition bisects the Nile — a massive rockfill dam once hailed as a triumph of engineering, anticolonial defiance and national pride. But beneath the surface of this vast construction lies a deeper, more complex story — one of displacement, Cold War deal-making, pan-Arab solidarity and shifting landscapes both physical and political.

Eight recent alumni and one current student of Washington University in St. Louis earned Fulbright awards to travel abroad to teach English or to conduct research in the 2025-26 academic year.

Across all Washington University in St. Louis campuses, scores of researchers share a drive to understand the natural forces that shape our climate, health, culture and physical world.