Month: April 2011

During the past year and a half, hard-working volunteers have encouraged classmates to come back and give back to Vanderbilt. This past fall, the university welcomed 5,777 Vanderbilt alumni, spouses and friends to campus for Reunion and Homecoming. Our volunteers worked hard to meet fundraising goals and, in the end,… Read More

Cairo seemed like a sure bet for Sloane Speakman’s study abroad. After all, “no real political movement had taken place in the last 30 years.” My study-abroad experience began much like anyone else’s. I spent months preparing personal statements, making travel plans, and preparing for the cultural transition. I would… Read More

Goodman is interviewed by anchor Chuck Roberts on CNN’s companion news channel HLN. DEANNE GOODMAN, BA’04 Deanne Goodman calls herself a “backpack journalist”—and she could well be the face of 21st-century journalism. As local editor for AOL Patch in Carlsbad, Calif., Goodman shoots video, takes photos and writes news… Read More

Kyser Miree (front) during a ski trip with his fraternity brothersWhen one of their own was murdered less than a year after he walked across the stage to receive his diploma, Kyser Miree’s Vanderbilt friends reacted with shock and grief. And then they got busy working on a way to… Read More

Vanderbilt is closing in on its initial goal of raising $100 million in gifts and pledges by June 30, 2011, for Opportunity Vanderbilt, the university’s initiative to eliminate need-based loans in financial aid packages. At press time donors had contributed $99 million for additional endowed scholarships. The university first announced… Read More

Amelia Winger-Bearskin, right, performs “Flowers” in Manila, Philippines, for the 2010 Tama Tupada International Action and Media Art Festival. When performance art is bad, it’s really bad, Assistant Professor in Art Amelia Winger-Bearskin says by way of explaining why people seem to hate her chosen art form. Because people know… Read More

The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White (2011, Penguin) by Daniel J. Sharfstein, associate professor of law The idea of someone transitioning from black to white, without science or surgery, seems hard to grasp on the surface. Yet, Vanderbilt Law School… Read More

Watch video of a Feb. 8 talk by Mandy Carter, one of the leading African American lesbian activists in the country. In “Justice or Just Us?” she discusses the LGBTQI movement’s difficulty in acknowledging paths blazed by the women’s movement and the Black Civil Rights movement, challenging everyone to… Read More

(last updated 2:50 p.m., April 5) (Vanderbilt University/Bill Randles) Electricity remains out along Greek Row due to a blown transformer. Due to the severity of the damage done to a transformer, Vanderbilt will use a temporary generator for the next two to three days to power  the Tarpley, West… Read More

Research from Peabody College faculty members Donna Ford and Rich Milner is featured in the latest volume released by the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Read More

There is a new dark-horse entry in the cosmological sweepstakes. Cosmologists Alan Guth, left, and Paul Steinhardt In the last 50 years, the Big Bang theory has gradually become the standard scientific model for how the universe began and has been written into the grade school science… Read More

Electricity remains out this evening along Greek Row due to a blown transformer. High winds that swept through the Vanderbilt campus shortly after 2 p.m. April 4 left the area buildings without power. Read More

(Jenny Mandeville / Vanderbilt) View update on this story. Several trees were downed and power knocked out to some areas of the Vanderbilt campus as a result of high winds that accompanied a storm that swept through campus shortly after 2 p.m. April 4. Only one, apparently minor, injury… Read More

This year’s Commencement will incorporate cool technology, sleek branding and armchair viewing Tricky names should ring out more accurately at Vanderbilt’s Commencement exercises this year. Finding a comfortable place to watch the festivities also will be easier. Innovative new technology to correctly announce graduates’ names will free up Vanderbilt’s… Read More

The Center for Teaching’s new fellowship helps junior faculty craft their curriculum Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman knows a lot about economics, the Talmud, rabbinic ordination and more. But when he arrived at Vanderbilt in 2009, there was something he wasn’t quite ready to handle despite his three master’s degrees and Ph.D. “I… Read More

It’s one thing to get a paycheck. It’s quite another to turn around and give some of that paycheck back to your employer. I mean, please. Who does that? Read More

Faculty and Staff News and Notes Read More

Vanderbilt held its first “Rite of Spring” celebration May 7-9, 1971, when the Cultural Affairs Council sponsored three days of activities open to the campus and Nashville communities. The free event offered something for everyone Read More

If you hear a booming voice singing Beethoven’s Ninth or Verdi’s Requiem in Wesley Place Garage one morning, it’s probably Carl Johnson practicing his repertoire for the Nashville Symphony Chorus. Read More

Although an evaluation of existing treatments for children with autism spectrum disorders found positive results in some studies, better information is needed to target the right treatments to specific children. Read More