Vanderbilt Magazine

Growing up, Anana Upton, BS’21, spent endless hours in hospitals as her younger brother underwent care. That experience spurred a passionate drive in her to elevate the quality of health care available to underserved communities while also educating them about their medical choices and affording them the dignity they deserve. Read More

Blair Wilson, BA’74, whose family has deep ties to Vanderbilt University and its Blair School of Music, has endowed the Mark Wait Piano Scholarship to support students studying piano performance at the Blair School. The merit-based scholarship is named in honor of Dean Emeritus Mark Wait, who led Blair from 1993 to 2020.    Read More

To continue the legacy in education to which Bess Parks owes her own career, she wants to give back to those who need help paying for higher education. Through the establishment of two charitable remainder unitrusts and a retirement plan beneficiary designation, she’s found a way to do that and honor the memory of her mother, also a teacher. Read More

Rabbi Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus, a professor of religion at Wheaton College, has written extensively on food rituals and Jewish food for more than 20 years. His book "Gastronomic Judaism as Culinary Midrash" was published in 2018 (Rowman & Littlefield). He defines midrash as “a way of interpreting traditional stories and practices in new ways,” food being one of them. Now, he's turning his attention to Thanksgiving food myths and rituals. Read More

Amid the rush of the new academic year, we’re also preparing for a rare opportunity to pause and reflect. In 2023, Vanderbilt will mark the 150th anniversary of our founding—our Sesquicentennial. We’re planning a yearlong commemoration in which our entire Vanderbilt community will be invited to consider our past and, especially, to envision our future. Read More

Recently revived with NFL Hall of Famer Peyton Manning as host, College Bowl originally aired from 1959 to 1970, pitting teams of college students against each other every Sunday afternoon on NBC. In a bid to win five weeks in a row and thereby be declared a “retired undefeated champion,” teams answered rapid-fire questions on a mix of topics, from cold, hard facts to pop culture trivia. Read More

Psychologists and psychiatrists have sometimes struggled to keep up with the multiplying mental health challenges posed by the pandemic and other recent events, but through studies and interventions, Vanderbilt faculty members are providing new insights into the crisis—as well as the best evidence-based solutions for overcoming it. Read More

Jonathan Vastine, No. 13, a sophomore infielder on the baseball team, celebrated a walk-off home run during the inaugural Smashville Showdown charity softball game—featuring a mix of Nashville Predators players and Vanderbilt student-athletes—at Hawkins Field on Sept. 19. Waiting at home plate were the rest of Team Ville, who… Read More

Terrance Dean, assistant professor at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, died Aug. 11 after an illness. He was 53. Read More

William J. Adcock, BE’50, the first Vanderbilt basketball scholarship recipient and a member of the Vanderbilt Athletics Hall of Fame, of Kirkwood, Missouri, died July 29, 2022. Read More

Vanderbilt University Theatre will explore themes related to teenage pregnancy and the Black experience during the 1950s with its latest production, Unfinished Women Cry in No Man’s Land While a Bird Dies in a Gilded Cage. Read More

When Jennifer Janes arrived at Vanderbilt Blair School of Music in 1998, she had two career paths in mind—veterinary medicine and teaching piano at the college level. Her abiding interest in horses and veterinary medicine eventually won out. Today, Dr. Janes is an associate professor of veterinary anatomic pathology at the University of Kentucky Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. Read More

Anighya Crocker, BMus’21, came to Vanderbilt as a multiracial, first-generation college student with big dreams to serve the community through public office and music. His Vanderbilt experience as a double major in Law, History and Society and music performance has helped him to hone both of those dreams. Read More

Erwin Charles Hargrove Jr., professor of political science, emeritus, and a former director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies, died Oct. 11 in Nashville. Read More

On a weekend blessed by perfect fall weather, nearly 6,000 alumni and their guests returned to Vanderbilt Oct. 6–9 for Reunion, the first since 2019. Read More

Alexis Garcia, BA'99, is executive vice president for the film group at Fifth Season, formerly Endeavor Content, the production company behind movies such as Cha Cha Real Smooth, Ambulance, The Peanut Butter Falcon and the Academy Award-recognized The Lost Daughter. Read More

Vanderbilt-related authors will have a strong presence at the 2022 Southern Festival of Books: A Celebration of the Written Word, which takes place at War Memorial Plaza and Nashville Public Library Oct. 14–16. Read More

Karl Zelik, associate professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering and of physical medicine and rehabilitation, is using smart technology to tackle one of the most common and often debilitating problems for millions of people: back pain. His work includes a partnership with the U.S. military. Read More

Vanderbilt Magazine talks with Associate Professor of History Paul Kramer about his Writing for Social Change course, in which students complete their own pieces of social reporting on issues that matter to them, and why this kind of writing is, as he says, “necessary for any kind of substantial democracy.” Read More

Tommy Oswalt, BA’20, did not come to Vanderbilt with a mapped-out plan for his major. That initially made him nervous, but the first-generation college student jumped in with an open mind and a passion for building community—paving the way for a successful career. Read More