Rooted in authentic connection and engagement, Vanderbilt’s residential college experience is a special aspect of student life at the university. Undergraduate houses and colleges are led by faculty, with their families and pets, who live with students, creating another vibrant layer of learning and community. Meet the university’s newest faculty heads of house and heads of college in this special series.
Brittany Chase, lecturer in ethnomusicology and assistant dean for nondegree programs at Vanderbilt Blair School of Music, is the faculty head of Gillette House on The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons.
Chase’s research focuses on American popular music, contemporary Christian music, and hip-hop music and culture. She is also a Vanderbilt alumna, having earned a degree in American studies with a minor in corporate strategy. She was also a four-year member of the Vanderbilt Spirit of Gold Marching Band and its service organization, Tau Beta Sigma.
- Name: Brittany Chase
- Residential college: Gillette House
- Years at Vanderbilt: 12 total (Eight as a faculty member and four as a student!)
- Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri
- Favorite song: “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” by Stevie Wonder
- Favorite book: Scary Close by Donald Miller
- Favorite food: Thai food! (Chicken pad thai and yellow curry for the win.)
- Favorite spot on campus: This will sound strange, but ever since my first year in undergrad, it’s been the top of the Terrace Place Garage that overlooks the Nashville skyline. Very cool! Aside from that, the Highland Quad lawn holds a lot of sweet memories for me.
- What are you most looking forward to for the upcoming academic year? I’m looking forward to meeting the students in Gillette House and getting to know them throughout the year. I’m also excited to have a solid community around me and hoping people might join for my weekend morning walks to get coffee with my sweet pup.
- Why did you want to be a faculty head of house? I’ve been a Faculty VUceptor for the last six years and enjoyed getting to know students in a more personal and real way. This seemed like an amazing opportunity to continue that experience more deeply, and I love being able to help build community and relationships with people. I’m big on deep chats and lots of laughs!
- What do you value about the residential college experience? I love the humanizing aspect of the residential college experience. We are all just normal people who desire connection, and I value the opportunity for students and professors to view one another as just regular people who live normal lives. We are all just out here figuring things out!
- What does your family think about living on campus? My Australian shepherd, Dexter, is very excited about his new big backyard and the many MANY squirrels running around that he can attempt to catch (unsuccessfully).
- Tell us a funny or poignant experience you’ve had at Vanderbilt? When I was an undergraduate student, I was sitting in Sarratt Cinema in an American Popular Music class wondering how the professor got to teach about this stuff for a living. I asked him on the last day of class how he got to be “right here,” standing in the cinema doing this job. After he told me the path of becoming an ethnomusicologist, I went on to get my degree in that field. Full circle, I literally stand “right there” in Sarratt Cinema teaching American Popular Music, and it’s the coolest, most surreal thing!
Brittany Chase with best friends she met as a first-year student at Vanderbilt. “To this day, we talk every day and even got matching tattoos last summer in 2023,” Chase said. (Submitted photo)
Brittany Chase helping during Move-In when she was a Vanderbilt student (Submitted photo) - Read about other faculty heads of house and heads of college in this special series.
- Learn more about Vanderbilt’s residential colleges
