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Vanderbilt has a campus broadcast facility with a dedicated fiber optic line for live TV interviews and a radio ISDN line. The News Service number ((615) 322-2706) has 24/7 on call information. Visit our website to view this information online and to view other experts-at-a-glance. Visit our news website where you can also access our online searchable database of experts. (Last updated May 2010)

Immigration Policies · Radical Politics · Intercultural Communication

Robert Barsky, editor of AmeriQuests; professor of French and comparative literature

Barsky is working on a research project on immigrant incarceration —“Issues of Inter-Cultural Relations among Inmates Held for Immigration Concerns”— and can speak to the idea of making first entry a felony. Prior to joining Vanderbilt, Barsky taught at Yale University’s Center for International and Area Studies. He has authored many articles and two books on refugees and immigration policies. His book Arguing and Justifying looks at why people flee their country seeking refuge elsewhere. He is the founding editor of AmeriQuests, a Vanderbilt journal that focuses on dislocation and relocation in the Americas. He is also author of two books on Noam Chomsky and an expert on the beat writers and radical politics.

Immigration’s Impact on “New Destination Cities”

Dan Cornfield, professor of sociology

Cornfield looks at how “new destination cities” in the interior states are dealing with integrating documented and undocumented immigrants into their communities. While cities like New York, Miami, Chicago and Houston have historically been at the forefront of immigration issues, Cornfield says the “formerly secluded” interior states are now dealing with immigration’s implications for social services, health care, employment and the prospects for unionization. Cornfield led an immigration study looking at Nashville, Tenn., one of the new destination cities, during which researchers surveyed service providers and members of immigrant communities in cities of comparable size to Nashville – Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., and Memphis.

Crime · Deviance · Violence and Television · Gangs

Gary Jensen, professor of sociology

Jensen has 30 years’ experience in the study of crime and delinquency. He is the author of a textbook on delinquency and youth crime. He studied the impact of the invention of television on violence and found that divorce rates and alcohol use, not television, were the main causes of increased homicides.

Videos and Young Children

Georgene Troseth, associate professor of psychology

Troseth studies toddlers’ and infants’ use of video, and can tell parents what they need to know about exposing their young children to videos. Troseth provided input to Sesame Workshop on the infant DVD series. Her articles on this subject include “Young Children’s Use of Video as a Source of Socially Relevant Information,” published in May 2006; “TV Guide: 2-year-olds Learn to Use Video as a Source of Information” and “Getting a Clearer Picture: Young Children’s Understanding of a Televised Image.”

Bullies

Maury Nation, assistant professor of human and organizational development

Nation’s clinical research focuses on understanding and preventing violence and bullying among school-aged children. He can discuss the characteristics of bullies and victims and the short- and long-term consequences of peer harassment. The Centers for Disease Control is currently using principles that Nation developed to evaluate all grants related to intimate partner and sexual violence. He has written or co-authored numerous articles on adolescent behavior touching on topics such as empowering victims of bullies, the community’s role in preventing adolescent drug abuse, predictors of adolescent substance abuse and gun ownership among middle school students.

Immigration · Race and Higher Education

Stella Flores, assistant professor of public policy and higher education; assistant professor of sociology

Flores can discuss the impact admissions and financial aid policies have on immigrant students, demographic changes in higher education, Latino students and community colleges, and how current immigrant migration patterns are affecting the education system. She is the author of numerous papers on Latino educational opportunity and racial shifts in higher education. Her work was cited in the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court Gratz v. Bollinger decision on affirmative action in higher education admissions.

  • Phone: (615) 343-2131, University News and Communications: (615) 322-2706
  • Email: stella.m.flores@vanderbilt.edu
  • Bio: Biography

Race and Mental Health · Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Health · Racial and Ethnic Relations · Athletes and Race

Tony Brown, associate professor of sociology

Brown’s research interests include racial and ethnic disparities in health, communication patterns during pediatric medical encounters, the race socialization process within black families and changes in the manifestation of whites’ racial prejudice. He has looked at the virtually unexplored link between racism and mental health problems, and the perceptions and experiences of racial discrimination. One study explores how racial antagonism creates novel mental health problems typically ignored in psychiatric settings. His study, “There’s No Race on the Playing Field: Perceptions of Racial Discrimination among White and Black Athletes,” explores white and black college athletes’ perceptions that racial and ethnic discrimination is no longer a problem. The study’s findings buck more than 70 years of social science trends relating to perceptions of racial discrimination – whites and blacks have never agreed regarding perceptions of racial and discrimination since researchers first began tracking social science survey data in the 1930s.

Racial Issues · Hip-Hop Culture · Feminism

Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting, director, African American Studies

Sharpley-Whiting wrote the book Pimps Up, Ho’s Down: Hip Hop’s Hold on Young Black Women for New York University Press. She can comment on a variety of race-related issues, including criticism of poor blacks by celebrities like Bill Cosby and the effects of hip-hop culture on young black women. The former print and runway model served as an editor on The Black Feminist Reader and The Speech: Race and Barack Obama’s ‘A More Perfect Union.’

Reparations · Race and Society · African Philosophy · African-American Philosophy

Lucius Outlaw Jr., professor of philosophy; associate provost, undergraduate education

Outlaw is the author/editor of numerous publications, including a collection of essays titled “On Race and Philosophy” and has written a monograph, “Race, Reason and Order.” He also maintains an electronic database of biographical and bibliographical information on philosophers of African descent, past and present, from which he prepared the “International Directory of Philosophers of African Descent.” He is a member of the American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division; the North American Society for Social and Political Philosophy; the Society for African Philosophy in North America and the Society of Philosophers in America.

Sexuality and the Bible · Gender Issues · Discrimination · Jewish-Christian Relations · New Testament · Homosexuality · Judaism

Amy-Jill Levine, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies

Levine examines the literary, historical and cultural implications of Scripture to understand how, when and why various interpretations arise. With a frequent dash of humor, she exposes anti-Jewish, sexist, heterosexist theologies and other forms of prejudice that directly impact people’s lives. Her numerous books and articles address such topics as Christian origins, formative Judaism and the “Historical Jesus.” She is the editor of a 12-volume series, A Feminist Companion to the New Testament and Early Christian Literature and is a featured lecturer in audio/video projects for the Teaching Company’s Great Lectures Series.

Art Public Policy · Government and Private Sector Support of Art · American Cultural Heritage · Folk Art · Performing and Studio Arts

Bill Ivey, director, Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy

Ivey, past chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, is widely credited with restoring bipartisan congressional and public support for the NEA during his tenure as chairman in the 1990s. He served from 1971 to 1998 as director of the Country Music Foundation and was elected to two terms as chairman of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS). In 1994 he was appointed to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities where he was a major contributor to A Creative America, an analysis of American cultural life. As director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy, he oversees the study and development of policy relating to government and private sector systems used in the creation, support and distribution of the arts. He served as Team Leader for Arts and Humanities on the Barack Obama Presidential Transition Team. Ivey’s book, Arts, Inc.: How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights, has been described as “not just a vital book about the arts but a vital book about democracy.”

Struggles Over Culture in America · Preservation of Culture · Federal Arts Policy · Social Conditions that Promote Achievement in Art, Science and Business

Steven Tepper, associate director, Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy

Tepper has served as consultant to numerous institutions including the National Humanities Center, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, and many foundations. He has published articles on the sociology of art, cultural policy and democracy in journals including Review of Policy Research, Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society and International Journal of Cultural Policy. His research and teaching has focused on creativity in society; conflict over art and culture; and cultural participation.

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