Lectures

Watch video of Van Jones, a pioneering leader in the clean-energy movement and author of The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, speaking at Vanderbilt University Oct. 19. Jones’ talk, “Rebuild the American Dream: Green Jobs and Beyond,” is the 2011 Harry C. Howard… Read More

Watch video of the Oct. 17 talk “Bless Her Heart – How One Good Southern Girl Changed the World,” by Shelby Knox. Shelby Knox is nationally known as the subject of the Sundance award-winning film, The Education of Shelby Knox, a 2005 documentary chronicling her teenage activism for comprehensive sex education… Read More

Watch video from the October 5 Thinking Out of the Lunchbox event. David Hess, professor of sociology, spoke on “Building the Local Living Economy.” Two of the great problems facing our 21st-century world are the economic and environmental crises. Increasingly we see that proposed solutions link economic development with the… Read More

Watch video of the first Green Bag Luncheon Series, “Cooking with Sustainable and Local Food from the VU Farmers’ Market,” which took place on September 21. The presenters were Stacey Kendrick, coordinator of health promotion for faculty/staff health and wellness at Health Plus, and Jeff Themm, director of the Nashville… Read More

Watch video of Jonathan Metzl, director of the Vanderbilt Center for Medicine, Health and Society speaking on “The future of the Vanderbilt Center for Medicine, Health and Society” Sept. 21, 2011. Read More

Watch video of the Sept. 6 Chancellor’s Lecture Series. Associate Professor of Musicology at the Blair School of Music Jim Lovensheimer presented “Why Musicals Matter” Sept. 6 at Vanderbilt University as part of the 2011-12 Chancellor’s Lecture Series. Lovensheimer illustrated how we can learn a lot about ourselves as a… Read More

The changing Arab world, challenges for U.S. tax policy, world architecture and current perspectives on the American Civil War are among the varied fall offerings by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Vanderbilt. The non-credit classes are geared toward older adults who want to pursue lifelong learning in a stimulating… Read More

Watch video of Jay Michaelson, executive director of Nehirim (a nonprofit which builds community for LGBT Jews, partners and allies), speaking Aug. 4 on “Queer Scholarship and Queer Activism: Liminality, Identity and the Plight of the ‘Good Gays.’” In cooperation with the Human Rights Campaign, the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender,… Read More

Feminist theologian Mary E. Hunt spoke Aug. 1 as part of the Summer Institute for Seminary Students, sponsored by the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender and Sexuality and the Human Rights Campaign. Watch video of Hunt, co-founder and co-director of the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual, speaking on… Read More

Watch video of Bruce McCandliss, the Patricia and Rodes Hart Chair of Psychology and Human Development, speaking at the Commencement 2011 Faculty Seminars. McCandliss carries out research that seeks to connect our understanding about changes in children’s brain structure and function to specific aspects of education. This work asks questions… Read More

Watch video of G. Kane Jennings, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, speaking at the Commencement 2011 Faculty Seminars. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Auburn University in 1993, his M.S. in Chemical Engineering Practice from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1996, and his Ph.D. in Chemical… Read More

Watch video of James Maiello, senior lecturer in music at Blair, speaking at the Commencement 2011 Faculty Seminars. Maiello’s research interests include plainchant, medieval and Renaissance music, and the philosophy of music education. In addition to presenting research at both musicology and interdisciplinary conferences in the U.S. and Europe, his… Read More

Watch video of Edward Fischer, professor of anthropology and director of the Center for Latin American Studies, speaking at the Commencement 2011 Faculty Seminars. Professor Fischer has an impressive list of scholarly articles and has written or edited seven books, including Cultural Logics and Global Economies: Maya Identity in Thought and… Read More

Watch video from the May 4 Thinking Out of the Lunchbox event. Mark Schoenfield, professor of English, spoke on “Love, Death, and Form in the Modern Sonnet.” Since the Renaissance, the sonnet has been an especially beloved form for the writers and readers of English poetry, and if these 14… Read More

Watch video of Vanderbilt University’s class of 2011 Commencement ceremony. About 2,843 graduates were expected to attend Commencement. Degrees were scheduled to be awarded to 1,734 undergraduate and 1,904 graduate students. The main ceremony, featuring the annual address to graduates from Chancellor Zeppos, was moved to Memorial Gym due to… Read More

Watch video of Wangari Maathai, the 2004 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and founder of the environmentally conscious Green Belt Movement, receiving Vanderbilt University’s prestigious Nichols-Chancellor’s Medal May 12 during Senior Day. The Nichols-Chancellor’s Medal, which includes a cash prize, is one of the university’s highest honors and is… Read More

Watch video of Edward DeMarco, Acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, speaking on “Maintaining Housing Finance in a World of Uncertainty.” The passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is considered the most sweeping change to financial regulation since the Great Depression. It was… Read More

Watch Father Ernesto Cardenal, an acclaimed poet and liberation theologian, giving a reading of his poetry May 1. Cardenal recited poems from his recent collection The Origin of Species and Other Poems in Benton Chapel on the Vanderbilt campus. Cardenal, acknowledged as one of Latin America’s greatest living poets, is… Read More

Watch video of Pat Schroeder speaking at Vanderbilt April 29. Schroeder, an outspoken advocate for women’s and family issues while serving in the U.S. House of Representatives for 24 years, spoke at Vanderbilt University’s Central Library. The former congresswoman’s talk was titled “24 Years of House Work…and the Place Is… Read More

Watch video of Marshall Eakin, professor of history at Vanderbilt University, speaking April 27 on “The Americas in the Age of Revolution, 1776-1836,” as part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. The revolution that created the United States was only one of many American revolutions. From 1776 to 1836, wars for… Read More