Society And Culture

In partnership with Vanderbilt’s Department of English and MFA Program in Creative Writing, the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy is soliciting poems from students currently enrolled in any Tennessee college or university. Students may submit a poem in the style of their choosing that explores what unity through American democracy means to them. Read More

The Medieval Academy of America has elected William Caferro, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of History, to its 2023 Class of Fellows. Read More

The Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy will host CBS Chief Washington Correspondent Major Garrett and David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, to discuss their book, The Big Truth: Upholding Democracy in the Age of the Big Lie, on Tuesday, Jan. 31, at 11 a.m. at the Scarritt Bennett Center. Read More

The Vanderbilt Blair School of Music has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts to receive a Grants for Arts Projects award of $20,000. Led by professor Douglas Shadle, the grant will fund “Florence Price: A Celebration,” a series of performances honoring classical composer Florence Price.  Read More

Major Jackson, professor of English, director of creative writing and holder of the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities, has been named the new host of the celebrated poetry podcast The Slowdown, produced by American Public Media in partnership with the Poetry Foundation. Read More

Emmy Award–winning journalist Byron Pitts, co-host of ABC’s Nightline, will be the keynote speaker for Vanderbilt’s 2023 Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemorative event on Monday, Jan. 16, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Blair School of Music’s Ingram Hall. Other activities planned for VU’s commemoration include a Joint Day of Service on Saturday, Jan. 14, and the Nashville MLK Day March and Convocation on Monday morning. Read More

The humanities, creative expression and artistic inquiry at Vanderbilt are poised to see new engagement, reach and impact spurred by increased investments through the university-wide Discovery Vanderbilt initiative. Read More

Allison Schachter, associate professor of Jewish studies and English, was awarded the Fenia and Yaakov Leviant Memorial Prize in Yiddish Studies from the Modern Language Association of America. Read More

Tennessee Republicans favor Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over former President Donald Trump to be the party’s presidential nominee in 2024 by double digits, according to the latest statewide Vanderbilt Poll, which also found shifting public attitudes around access to abortion. Read More

A new co-edited volume by Vanderbilt researchers is a tribute to the late Katie Geneva Cannon, who in 1974 became the first African American woman ordained in the United Presbyterian Church. Cannon’s work lays the groundwork for continued discussions on moral thought among scholars today.   Read More

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine recently appointed Associate Professor of Psychology and Human Development Lisa Fazio as a member of the Committee on Understanding and Addressing Misinformation about Science. Read More

Vanderbilt Blair School of Music’s Blair Big Band is among 10 outstanding college jazz orchestras from across the nation invited to participate in the third annual Jack Rudin Jazz Championship. The event, which will be Jan. 14 and 15 at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, will include workshops, performances and a high-level collegiate competition. Read More

A $700,000 grant awarded to institutions that collaborate to administer the Engine for Art, Democracy and Justice program in Tennessee is designed to allow advancement of the program’s reach and enhance the visibility of the arts in Nashville and across the state. Read More

Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor and associate professor of ethics and society, has edited and published Religion, Race, and COVID-19: Confronting White Supremacy in the Pandemic, an anthology exploring the countless challenges, racially charged acts, setbacks, triumphs and newfound hope through the eyes of individuals living through one of the most pressing, perplexing social crises in recent memory—the global COVID-19 pandemic.  Read More

At the coffee shop, we are asked to pay more, sometimes a lot more, for “quality.” But how do we determine the quality of a sensory experience? Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Anthropology Ted Fischer’s research examines the quest for quality among always-changing tastes. He discusses it in this Q&A—just in time for International Coffee Day on Oct. 1. Read More

The Vanderbilt Blair School of Music has secured $5 million in funding for the pilot phase of a comprehensive scholarship, the Blair Community Scholars Program, which will recruit highly talented students from underrepresented and vulnerable backgrounds. Read More

We Shall Overcome: Civil Rights and the Nashville Press, 1957-1968, a photography exhibition on loan to Vanderbilt Divinity School from the Frist Art Museum, illuminates key moments in Nashville’s struggle for racial equality, including the leadership of the Rev. James Lawson. Read More

Joerg Rieger, Distinguished Professor of Theology, Cal Turner Chancellor’s Chair of Wesleyan Studies and founding director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice, discusses why Labor Day is an opportunity to reflect on the past and future of labor while examining economic inequalities that are still prevalent. Read More

Vanderbilt University faculty members Jane Landers, Alex Jahangir and Christopher Slobogin are scheduled to speak at “TEDxNashville: The End of Impossible” at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center Aug. 27–28. A limited number of free tickets are available, and Vanderbilt community members can get 25 percent off the price of individual general admission tickets to the event. Read More

A pair of U.S. Department of Education grants totaling $1.7 million awarded to Vanderbilt University’s Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies will allow for innovation in curriculum and promotion of public awareness about Latin America.  Read More