Issues

Whatever your political leanings, the acidic divisiveness between—and among—parties in this election cycle has left little for anyone to love. Luckily, I got a break from the daily shouting matches about finger lengths, email servers and Bernie Bros by digging into some of the fascinating, reasoned research around presidential politics being produced by members of Vanderbilt’s esteemed political science department for this issue’s cover story. Read More

In April Andrew East, BE’14, MBA’15, married Shawn Johnson, a gold-medal gymnast in the 2008 Olympics and winner of Dancing with the Stars in 2009. Overnight, East became one-half of a celebrity couple, and pictures of his wedding were splashed across the pages of People and numerous other celebrity magazines. Read More

Two players from the Vanderbilt men’s basketball team were selected in the first round of the 2016 NBA Draft: point guard Wade Baldwin (No. 17 overall to the Memphis Grizzlies) and center Damian Jones (No. 30 overall to the Golden State Warriors) Read More

Decked out in matching red “#BonnaGrannies” T-shirts and sparkly red and blue cowboy hats, the women, all in their late 80s and early 90s, pose for photos and take selfies with many of the 80,000 tattooed festival-goers one-fourth their ages. Read More

By the end of his first year, Donny Everett—Vanderbilt’s hard-throwing, right-handed pitcher—had already become one of the most beloved student-athletes on campus. Then, in early June, on the eve of the NCAA Regional tournament played on campus at Hawkins Field, the unthinkable happened. The Clarksville, Tennessee, native drowned at Normandy Lake, about 70 miles southeast of Nashville. Read More

Seven years ago Steve Kamb, BA’06, combined his love for geek culture with his longtime interest in fitness to create NerdFitness.com, an online resource for deskbound geeks like himself who wanted to get in shape. Read More

In part because much of their work remains classified even after 70 years, the contributions of a group of young Vanderbilt physicists to the Manhattan Project have never received the level of recognition they deserve. Read More

Professor Marshall Eakin discusses how the Zika epidemic, a divided political atmosphere and a weak economy are plaguing Brazil in the lead-up to the 2016 Summer Olympics. Read More

Sure, you’ve heard of the Cronut®. It’s the half-croissant, half-doughnut that took the world by storm a few years ago. But have you ever wondered why you’ve heard of it? It’s because of innovative attorneys like Candice Cook Simmons, who received her law degree from Vanderbilt in 2003. Read More

Forty-six years ago Perry Brandt arrived at Vanderbilt for a seven-year experience that remarkably changed the trajectory of his life. Read More

The Vanderbilt University Alumni Association Board of Directors announces new leadership and the addition of eight new members. On July 1, Perry Brandt, BA’74, JD’77, replaced Patti White, BA’76, as president, and Dan Lovinger, BA’87, became president-elect. Each will serve a two-year term. Read More

The Vanderbilt University Alumni Association Board of Directors is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2016 awards that recognize the diverse talents, accomplishments and volunteer support of outstanding alumni. They will be honored at an Oct. 20 ceremony during Reunion. Read More

As senior vice president for artists and repertoire at Big Machine Label Group in Nashville, Jones represents a who’s who of music stars, including Taylor Swift, Florida Georgia Line, Reba McEntire, and popular newcomers such as Thomas Rhett. Read More

Last spring Carter Hawkins, BS’07, learned about Vanderbilt’s plans to upgrade its baseball facilities. He was among the first former student-athletes to contribute, pledging a leadership-level gift to the $10 million project that will renovate and enhance training areas in Memorial Gym and build out new operations and team spaces for students and coaches. Read More

Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater cast Baker in his latest film, Everybody Wants Some!!—a “spiritual sequel” to his 1993 cult classic Dazed and Confused—about a college baseball team in Texas in the ’80s. Read More

The precarious state of the Edgehill community is captured by James Threalkill’s painting “View from the Neighborhood.” Threalkill, BS’79, previously served as the community services and arts director for the Edgehill Community Center. He writes, “The painting captures a moment when a young student, rather than relaxed and engaged… Read More

Michael Aurbach, professor of art, who has taught sculpture and drawing at Vanderbilt since 1986, is retiring after 30 years. To honor him the Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery exhibited his work from mid-January through early March. The Last Laugh: Selections from Michael Aurbach’s Secrecy Series showed work in… Read More

Want to watch a live concert at Blair? Many student and faculty concerts now are streamed live from Ingram Hall, Steve & Judy Turner Recital Hall, and the Choral Rehearsal Hall from Blair’s live-streaming page at vu.edu/blair-stream. The performances are not archived. Read More

Interactive Writing Across Grades: A Small Practice with Big Results, PreK-5 (2016, Stenhouse) by Kate Roth and Joan Dabrowski, EdD’08 Interactive Writing Across Grades provides a how-to guide for using interactive writing—a dynamic, unscripted instructional method in which the teacher and students work together to construct a meaningful text… Read More

Politics and politicians have never been spared the cartoonist’s pen From Charlie Hebdo to the lampooning of U.S. presidential candidates, political cartoons continue to be a staple of editorial pages. While the rise of digital media—and the decline of newspapers—may have reduced their reach, political cartoons remain one of the… Read More