Releases

The racially motivated riots in France during the fall of 2005 proved that despite its homogenous image, racial tensions are alive and well in Europe. The newly emerging field of Black European Studies is beginning to examine these racial tensions by studying the history and the current experience of blacks in the culture of Europe. Read More

Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will speak about leadership at a March 26 breakfast sponsored by the Cal Turner Program for Moral Leadership in the Professions at Vanderbilt Divinity School. Read More

Edward L. Rubin announced that he is stepping down from his position as dean of Vanderbilt University Law School effective June 30. Rubin said he will continue to teach and write as a member of the faculty. Read More

Christian beliefs have been used to support the myths that promote violence against women and to counter those myths, says theologian Rev. Traci C. West. During the annual Antoinette Brown Lecture at Vanderbilt University on March 26, West will address how Christian theology and activism can be used to make the world safer for women. Read More

The development of the institution of marriage at the beginning of recorded history will be examined by a professor from Vanderbilt Divinity School during a three-part class. Read More

New research by Vanderbilt professor of law and economics Joni Hersch found that housework not only reduces the salaries of women, but also affects some men's wages. She also found that women's salaries are negatively impacted by housework regardless of profession. Read More

Connie Vinita Dowell, a Vanderbilt University graduate with three decades of experience working in academic libraries, will begin her new position as the university's first dean of libraries on March 2. Dowell previously served as dean of the library and information access at San Diego State University. Read More

Ellen H. Fanning, Stevenson Professor of Biological Sciences at Vanderbilt University, has received a 2009 Humboldt Research Award. Read More

New research from Vanderbilt University's Peabody College offers guidance for teachers to help them improve writing instruction in the primary grades and develop stronger student writers. Read More

A team of Vanderbilt scientists have invented the world's smallest version of the periscope and are using it to look at cells and other micro-organisms from several sides at once. Read More

A new way to negotiate the differences between the Hindu, Christian and Buddhist traditions will be proposed during a public lecture by a Vanderbilt Divinity School professor on March 10. Read More

Vanderbilt University plans to calculate the university's carbon footprint this spring through a greenhouse gas emissions inventory. The inventory will determine the amount of the six greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere that comprise the "carbon footprint" from Vanderbilt in an average year, based on 2005-2007 data. Read More

As the Obama administration begins its quest to right the economy through government spending, a counter story of recovery comes from admirers of the Reagan administration. President Reagan's admirers point out that he was also faced with a horrible economy upon his inauguration which, they assert, Reagan cured with deep tax cuts. Read More

Nineteen incoming first-year students have been chosen as the newest members of the Ingram Scholarship program. The 19 are among more than 450 high school seniors who applied for the prestigious program. Read More

Vanderbilt University researchers have discovered that early visual areas, long believed to play no role in higher cognitive functions such as memory, retain information previously hidden from brain studies. The researchers made the discovery using a new technique for decoding data from functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI. The findings are a significant step forward in understanding how we perceive, process and remember visual information. Read More

Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist today announced the establishment of a collaboration that seeks to make education a top priority for Tennessee. The State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), a nonpartisan initiative, hopes to jumpstart education reform efforts across the state. Vanderbilt will serve as a research partner to SCORE. Read More

The day that robot playmates help children with autism learn the social skills that they naturally lack has come a step closer with the development of a system that allows a robot to monitor a child's emotional state. Read More

Students helping other students learn has been proven to boost academic achievement and social skills in students with and without disabilities. A new book by Vanderbilt University researchers, Peer Support Strategies for Improving All Students' Social Lives and Learning, based on over 20 years of research in the field, offers teachers practical guidelines for implementing these peer support strategies in the classroom. Read More

Hundreds of Vanderbilt students will hit the dance floor Feb. 13-14 during Dance Marathon, a 14-hour student-run event to raise money for the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt and the Children's Miracle Network. Dance Marathon will be held from 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 13, until 9 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 14, at the Student Recreation Center on Vanderbilt's campus. The event is open to the public and all proceeds from Dance Marathon will go to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. Read More

John Murphy, a national expert on presidential campaign speeches and rhetoric, will present "A New Birth of Freedom: Barack Obama and the Rhetorical Uses of History" on Monday, Feb. 16, at 4:10 p.m. at the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center at Vanderbilt University. Read More