Month: November 2010

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer came to Vanderbilt Law School on Nov. 16 to help demystify the workings of the Supreme Court and talk about themes in his newly released book, Making Our Democracy Work, A Judge’s View. Breyer has been a Supreme Court associate justice since 1994. He was… Read More

Anita Mahadevan-Jansen, Duco Jansen and Peter Konrad Using beams of light to allow amputees not only to control but also to feel the movement of prosthetic limbs is the ambitious goal of a new $5.6 million Department of Defense initiative. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is tapping the… Read More

Photo courtesy of National Eye Institute A brain area known to play a critical role in vision is divided into compartments that respond separately to different colors and orientations, Vanderbilt University researchers have discovered. The findings have important implications for furthering our understanding of perception and attention. The research… Read More

Suman Seth The work of former Vanderbilt student Suman Seth was used by the United Nations to develop a measure of gender inequality as one of three “innovative new measurements” in its annual Human Development Report. The 2010 Human Development Report, released Nov. 4, includes the Gender Inequality Index, based… Read More

The Presidency of George W. Bush Gary Gerstle, the James G. Stahlman Professor of American History, has done extensive research about President George W. Bush’s vision for a multicultural world and the steep challenges it faced during his administration. Gerstle’s essay, “Minorities, Multiculturalism and the Presidency of George W. Read More

Think back to a day you may or may not remember so well: your 21st birthday. For most, it’s a day celebrated with a drink. About a month before my Sept. 8 birthday, I was already thinking about “drinking” on my birthday—but not in the way you might think. For… Read More

Gustavo Gutiérrez, author of A Theology of Liberation; History, Politics, Salvation and other ground-breaking works on issues of spirituality and Latin American history, spoke on the Vanderbilt University campus Nov. 8, 2010. Gutiérrez’s address, “Liberation Theology: 40 Years Later,” was sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies, which… Read More

Dawn Turton, executive director of the Vanderbilt International Office since 2007, has been named assistant provost for faculty. Beginning Dec. 1, she will manage the university’s five-year interim review by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and will work with schools to facilitate the recognition of Vanderbilt’s faculty… Read More

Robert Spencer, formerly director of financial planning at Vanderbilt University, has been promoted to assistant vice chancellor for treasury. Effective Nov. 1, Spencer began working directly with the vice chancellor for finance’s office to further advance the professional stewardship of the university’s working capital and debt portfolios. “Robert will… Read More

Members of the Vanderbilt student organization the Alternative Energy Club will present a hands-on training and demonstration about making biodiesel fuel on campus on Thursday, Nov. 11. Small groups of volunteers will be led by members of the Alternative Energy Club in making mini-batches of biodiesel starting with waste vegetable… Read More

A report released this week by the Council of Great City Schools finds black students continue to perform and test at levels significantly below their white counterparts. A new book released this month by Vanderbilt University education professor H. Richard Milner details strategies for closing this persistent achievement gap by… Read More

New research from Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia finds that infants learn little to nothing from popular educational videos and learn the most from face-to-face interactions with their parents and other familiar figures. Read More

Helping foster children’s learning and readiness for school through the federal Head Start program is the goal of a new National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning, created this fall with a $40 million grant from the Office of Head Start. Read More

“The Sixties at 50,” an exhibition of video, photos and other treasures from one of society’s most significant decades, is on display at the Vanderbilt University Central Library and Special Collections. The exhibition was curated by a team of Vanderbilt subject librarians and technology staff under the guidance… Read More

Richard Milner, Betts Associate Professor of Education and Human Development Vanderbilt University education scholar Richard Milner has won the 2010 Carl A. Grant Multicultural Research Award from the National Association for Multicultural Education. The award was presented at the 20th annual international NAME conference in Las Vegas on Nov. 5. Read More

Peabody student Thomas Davis teaching English to Hispanic and minority children Immigration issues are as complex and varied in American classrooms as they are in the courtroom, yet answers on how to tackle these issues are elusive. A special issue of the Peabody Journal of Education released this month brings… Read More

Vanderbilt Hustler: What have the players been doing in the offseason to prepare for this season? Kevin Stallings: I think there are only so many things you can do. You can work on your shooting, you can work on your strength and conditioning, you can work on… Read More

Conventional wisdom says never to look a gift horse in the mouth, but on a normal day seeing patients in the clinic, John Zic, M.D., found himself staring down at a literal gift horse, not quite sure how to react. His patient Beth McDaniel and her husband, Roger, had just… Read More

Watch video of Paul Silvia speaking about “Motivation, Creativity, and (Not) Writing,” Nov. 4 at the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center. Silvia, associate professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, is the author of How to Write A Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive… Read More

Gustavo Gutiérrez, author of A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, Salvation and other ground-breaking works on issues of spirituality and Latin American history, will speak on the Vanderbilt University campus Nov. 8. Gutiérrez’s keynote address, “Liberation Theology: 40 Years Later,” will be at 7 p.m. in Benton Chapel. The… Read More