Anthropology

A university requires more than professors, administrators and students to run properly. The preparation of food, maintenance and cleaning of facilities, landscaping and groundskeeping work, and thousands of other essential tasks build the foundation of every place of learning. Even so, conversations between these two worlds can be rare, and when they do occur, might be scaffolded by hierarchical ideas about work. One program, sponsored by the Curb Center in collaboration with Forklift Danceworks, seeks to change this.  Read More

“Creating cuisines is about building community through agriculture and bridging the local with the global,” said Ted Fischer, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Anthropology, during the opening session of “Food for Thought”—a free program presented by Vanderbilt University and the Frist Art Museum. This series brings together Vanderbilt faculty, Frist curators and local leaders to explore cultural and societal issues through art. The Spring 2025 season focused on two Frist exhibitions: Farm to Table: Art, Food, and Identity in the Age of Impressionism and Tennessee Harvest. Read More

By Jenna Somers   A transdisciplinary team at Vanderbilt University seeks to identify Tennessee communities at risk of exposure to toxic man-made chemicals in their drinking water. Yolanda J. McDonald In response to a 2024 regulation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Tennessee Department of Environment… Read More

Directly north of The Hermitage, on a slight rise at the edge of the wooded bottomland near a creek, investigators confirmed what they had seen on a historic map: a cemetery where an estimated 28 bodies of enslaved individuals who lived on the property during the Jacksonian era are interred. Part of the research came from efforts by the Vanderbilt Institute for Spatial Research, directed by Steve Wernke, professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology at Vanderbilt. Read More

Tiffiny Tung, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Social and Natural Sciences, professor of anthropology and vice provost for undergraduate education, has been named a senior fellow in the Pre-Columbian Studies program at Harvard’s Dumbarton Oaks. The fellowship underscores Tung’s notable contributions to anthropology and Andean archaeology. Read More

Since 2020, Vanderbilt archaeologist Michelle Young has directed the Cinnabar Roads Project, which explores ancient exchange routes used to transport cinnabar, a powdery mineral made of mercury and sulfur that was extracted and processed for pigment. Young’s two major research initiatives approach mapping ancient networks of interaction and mobility between the highland region and the coast, employing a variety of methods at different scales. Under her leadership, the Cinnabar Roads Project has registered more than 100 archaeological sites in the Huancavelica region. Read More

With a prestigious new grant, archaeologist Ari Caramanica will explore what ancient people can teach us about dealing with the most pressing environmental issue of our time. Read More

A new Vanderbilt University study challenges traditional views on childhood, emphasizing the role of cultural, social and historical factors in shaping policies on children’s health and well-being. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in collaboration with the World Health Organization, the “Rethinking Childhoods” study by the Vanderbilt Cultural Contexts of Health and Wellbeing Initiative proposes a more inclusive approach to health policy, incorporating global perspectives to redefine childhood beyond Western norms.  Read More

Steven Wernke, associate professor and chair of anthropology, has developed GeoPACHA (Geospatial Platform for Andean Culture, History and Archaeology), a web application that allows researchers to map archaeological sites in the Andes at a greater scale than ever before. GeoPACHA has enabled new discoveries about past human occupation in the region that will be featured in six articles in the February issue of the journal Antiquity. Read More

Steven Wernke, associate professor and chair of anthropology, has developed GeoPACHA (Geospatial Platform for Andean Culture, History and Archaeology), a web application that allows researchers to map archaeological sites in the Andes at a greater scale than ever before. Read More

See how more than 200 students and faculty came together through 19 interdisciplinary hands-on courses to turn the historic Vaughn home into a living laboratory, unveiling "hidden narratives" of Vanderbilt's and Nashville's past. Read More

Join students and faculty from the Department of Anthropology to learn more about Vanderbilt’s early history through archaeological excavation on the grounds of a service workers’ cabin once located behind the first faculty residences on campus. Ongoing investigations at the Vaughn Home (currently the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities) will be open to the public on Saturday, Oct. 14, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Read More

With colleagues from Meharry Medical College, Tuskegee University and the World Health Organization, T.S. Harvey and Ted Fischer will examine the manifold contributions of the cultural context of health to emerging and persistent health inequalities. Read More

Isotope analysis of ancient Peruvian teeth gives anthropologists a clearer image of how cooperating societies function. Read More

Carwil Bjork-James is an expert on indigenous environmental rights issues and conflicts that arise when governments seek to develop indigenous territories, and has studied this conflict since 2010. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers found a place where early Americans paused on their migrations south and "settled in for a good long while," suggesting a slower pace of settlement than originally believed. Read More

Internet posts by white supremacists websites have spiked in concert with the presidential campaign. Read More

In the latest VUCast: See why undergrads are digging on campus and what they're finding in the ground; hear actress Reese Witherspoon discuss her new venture in Nashville; and watch the student video asking people to rethink stereotypes. Watch now! Read More

Vanderbilt students are stepping back in time by digging in the dirt and getting class credit for it. They are doing an archaeological dig behind an on-campus 1870’s home of a Vanderbilt University professor and his family. Students are searching in the dirt to find items from the servants who… Read More

Anthropologist Sophie Bjork-James can provide context to the white supremacist beliefs believed to have motivated Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof. Read More