Society And Culture

Americans’ general faith and trust in democracy has stabilized in the first half of 2022, remaining relatively flat through the second quarter, according to the most recent Vanderbilt Unity Index. Read More

Women’s autonomy is a multi-dimensional concept that includes the ability to participate in economic and familial decisions, be involved in a community, and be free from actual or threatened violence. Under this definition, protests against femicide functionally demand greater women’s autonomy. This Insights report seeks to understand key predictors of support for women’s autonomy to better understand the context in which protests for greater autonomy occur. Read More

A pilot program launching at Vanderbilt Blair School of Music this summer will teach middle and high school students how to create music scores for video games. The program, called Music Tech, is designed to pave pathways to Blair, particularly for students in underserved communities who may not otherwise visit campus or interact with the music community.    Read More

In two unique courses offered by the Divinity School, students explore issues around incarceration and punishment alongside 14 death row inmates at Tennessee’s Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. Read More

As the summer blockbuster Elvis hits movie theaters June 24, Vanderbilt professor Kathryn Plummer relives an early career opportunity to play with the legend—and discusses how her experiences recording with some of the music industry’s greats translate into a unique teaching tool in the classroom.    Read More

A four-year longitudinal study of older LGBTQ+ people in the South is being conducted to better identify the sources of stress and resilience for this infrequently studied population. Read More

Vanderbilt students who are part of the inaugural Vanderbilt Choral Scholars program spent a week in cathedrals in the United Kingdom to better understand the community impact of church music in Europe.    Read More

Leaders of Vanderbilt’s LGBTQ+ Policy Lab have provided the first comprehensive evidence on the effects of access to legal same-sex marriage. Their efforts revealed that marriage access impacted the LGBTQ+ community positively in multiple ways. Read More

A $5 million gift from Suzanne Perot McGee, BS’86, Patrick K. McGee, BS’85, and their family to the College of Arts and Science at Vanderbilt University will establish a new center dedicated to analyzing the media, using the cutting-edge tools of data science. Read More

The research of New Testament scholar Richard Batey, BD'58, PhD'61, into the ancient city of Sepphoris in Galilee broadens ideas about Jesus and gives a new perspective for understanding the Gospels. Read More

Chancellor Daniel Diermeier called on all Vanderbilt alumni and current parents to be ambassadors for the university during a virtual “State of the University” address on May 24. During the livestreamed event, Diermeier also participated in a Q&A session moderated by Tim Warnock, BA’84, president of the Vanderbilt Alumni Association Board. Read More

In a sign that malaise over rising inflation and stressors related to pandemic recovery could be influencing Tennesseans’ attitudes toward elected leaders, support for President Joe Biden and Gov. Bill Lee has dropped among registered voters, according to the most recent statewide Vanderbilt Poll. Read More

Leaders at the forefront of systemic change make a difference by thinking about how to shift old patterns that have kept people marginalized. Thirteen students nominated by deans across Vanderbilt this year got the chance to engage in such big-picture thinking as participants in the Cal Turner Program for Moral Leadership’s interprofessional student fellowship. Read More

Vanderbilt Blair School of Music is among the winners of "DownBeat" magazine’s 45th annual Student Music Awards. For the first time in school history, the program received four awards in the same year, bringing its total number of awards from the magazine to nine over the past four years. Read More

Cindy D. Kam has been named dean of faculty affairs in the College of Arts and Science. Kam, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Political Science and director of the Research on Individuals, Politics and Society Lab, steps into the role as Kamal Saggi, Frances and John Downing Family Professor of Economics, moves into a new leadership position in the Office of the Provost. Read More

Art, research, social justice, and community are the cornerstones that support the life and work of sociology Ph.D. candidate Megan Jordan, MA’19. Read More

For the first time since the Vanderbilt Poll–Nashville was established in 2015, more than half of respondents say they believe the city is headed in the wrong direction. Davidson County voters are concerned about affordable housing and crime, but give positive marks to Mayor John Cooper and other local leaders. Read More

Vanderbilt University legal scholar Michael P. Vandenbergh has been named a 2022 Andrew Carnegie Fellow and has been awarded $200,000 to support his research into overcoming political polarization to address the causes of climate change and the issues it is creating. Read More

Michael Kurek, who served 14 years as chair of the Department of Music Composition at Vanderbilt Blair School of Music, is only the second person to hold the distinction of composer laureate of Tennessee Read More

Blair School Dean Lorenzo F. Candelaria sees opportunities to revolutionize the experience of classical music in ways that cultivate new and diverse audiences for the art form. In some cases, it means taking the music to unexpected places.  Read More