Summer 2017

As the chairmen of the first five Impact sym­posia, we are delighted when articles about this important and unique Vanderbilt institution are published, most recently the “Speak Up” article written by Andrew Maraniss in the Spring 2017 issue. Read More

In 2015, King started MACRO, a media company focused on developing content for multicultural audiences. The company’s first major project was the movie Fences, directed by Denzel Washington and nominated for four Oscars last year. Read More

in the latest book by Vanderbilt Professor of French Holly Tucker—City of Light, City of Poison: Murder, Magic, and the First Police Chief of Paris (2017, Norton)—she recounts the true-crime saga of a string of murders that plagued Paris in the late 1600s—and how the city’s first police chief stopped them. Read More

By Bryant Palmer, BA’95 JON KRAUSE   It’s 1994, and I’m in the offices of the Vanderbilt Hustler at 10 a.m. on a Wednesday. I spend as much time here as anywhere else on campus, but not usually this early. I’ve got a phone interview, not with a dean… Read More

When she finally applied her "brain soup" technique to the human brain, Herculano-Houzel discovered we have an average of 86 billion neurons. Surprisingly, though, the neuron density is the same as in other primates, showing a clear evolutionary pattern from monkeys to humans. “We somehow manage to have this large brain with a large number of neurons; but it’s still just a regular primate brain,” says Herculano-Houzel. Read More

Visual artist Mel Chin, BA’75, was named this year’s Peabody College Distinguished Alumnus. (Courtesy Mel Chin) Visionary artist Mel Chin, BA’75, was honored during Commencement May 12 by Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of education and human development with the 2017 Distinguished Alumnus Award. Born in Houston in… Read More

Mark L. Schoenfield, professor of English, is among 173 scholars, artists and scientists in the United States and Canada to be awarded a 2017 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. Assistant Professor of Cinema and Media Arts Jonathan Rattner’s film The Interior won the Michael Moore Award for… Read More

The program cover for the Verlaine celebration featured this watercolor illustration by artist László Barta(1902–1961) under the name of Brutus, for a 1936 edition of a collection of Verlaine’s poems titled “Hombres.” Poet Paul Verlaine rocketed between emotional highs and lows, between a life of complete freedom… Read More

James Berkenstock (top right) and his wife, Jean, co-founded the Midsummer’s Music Festival in Door County, Wisconsin, dedicated to the chamber repertoire. (Courtesy Midsummer’s Music Festival) Some people believe the life of a musician is nomadic, traveling the world and playing in all kinds of venues. However, James… Read More

Emily Manchester Townes, BA’50, has preserved her brother’s war letters by compiling them into a family history. A portrait of John Manchester hangs behind her. (DANIEL DUBOIS)   When John Speier Manchester left Vanderbilt halfway through his sophomore year in December 1942 to enlist in the U.S. Navy, he… Read More

Like the rest of Nashville, Vanderbilt was bitten by the hockey bug as the city’s 20-year-old NHL expansion team, the Predators, battled the Pittsburgh Penguins in June for this year’s Stanley Cup. University photographer John Russell, who shot much of the action for the Nashville team (including the photo seen here), even helped enlist Vanderbilt’s mascot, Mr. C., to rally Preds fans in the final days of the championship series. Read More

Today, Holman plays an integral role as senior director of programs at Harvest Hands, a community development organization that promotes healthy living, spiritual formation and economic development in South Nashville. Read More

As the campus buzzes with the arrival of new students (and the university made sure they were outfitted with solar eclipse glasses), I think about the spectrum of history embodied in an institution like Vanderbilt. What school traditions or past stories will ignite the imaginations of these newest Commodores? Read More

Alumni Association President Perry Brandt, BA’74, JD’77, offers several tips for proper etiquette. Read More

Senior running back Ralph Webb is closing in on the goal line of ending his college career as the second-leading rusher in SEC history, behind Georgia’s Herschel Walker. Read More

Kayla Overbeck, a sophomore on the Vanderbilt women’s basketball team, spent part of her summer in Udine, Italy, playing for the USA Women’s U19 Team in the FIBA World Cup that captured the silver medal. Read More

Professor of Law Ganesh Sitaraman believes the United States is facing a stark choice: Either continue along the current path of rising economic inequality and risk oligarchy, or rebuild the middle class and reclaim the republic that the Founding Fathers originally envisioned. Read More

By Ryan Underwood, BA’96 John Arnold (BRENT HUMPHREYS) When financial traders talk about buying low and selling high, what they really mean is that they’re looking for an edge, a profitable move that nobody else in the market has discovered. This is how Warren Buffett made his money. Starting… Read More

In 2013 Motayed co-founded the digital design firm Havenly, which for $199 develops floor plans for customers seeking affordable chic. Read More

Laura Chauvin, BS’87, has a heart for helping others. And as a human and organizational development major while at Vanderbilt, her interest in humanitarianism flourished. Read More