Arts And Science

Caleb Feiring, BA'15, who studied English, economics and history at Vanderbilt, is an entrepreneur with an interesting—and incredibly tiny—place to call home in New York City. Read More

The Vanderbilt experience is woven into the lives of Allyson Maske, BS’92, and Jim Maske, BE’93, MBA’99, who first met as undergraduates. Between them, they have attended four of Vanderbilt’s schools and colleges, and their son, J.D., is a member of the Class of 2028 at Peabody College. The Maskes are on the Parent Leadership Committee and made recent gifts to Vandy United and Opportunity Vanderbilt in support of the university’s Dare to Grow campaign. Read More

The AAVA embodies the transformative power of connection and cultural identity—all from a place of gratitude. It strengthens the presence of the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American community through cultural celebrations and networking events, collaborating with student organizations to connect alumni with current Vanderbilt students. Joy Cox, BA’98, MD’02, is AAVA's president. Read More

Darryl Berger, BA’69, and his family, have hosted the New Orleans Commodore Launch for four decades, marked by hospitality, connection and Commodore pride. Read More

Russell Smith, BA'68, of Washington, D.C., after retiring from his law practice, has joined Associate Professor of Classical and Mediterranean Studies Joseph Rife and his students on international archaeological digs that have made extraordinary finds. Read More

Meet two student-professor teams using AI and social media to take their musical Immersion research to a new level. Read More

Thirty-five years ago, Alan LeQuire, BA’78, became Nashville’s most prominent sculptor with the unveiling of Athena Parthenos. In June, he returned to the Parthenon with a new body of work that celebrates contemporary people and an exhibit focused on Athena. Read More

As a research institution, the two “products” Vanderbilt puts into the world are alumni and the research produced. Whether it’s helping to cure cancer, inspire with art, or promote sustainability, Vanderbilt students learn to apply the combination of practical skills and confidence that can only be gained from experience to a broad range of fields—positioning them to be much more effective in translating their education to results outside the classroom. Read More

'The River Will Be a Part of Us' by Justus Wayne Thomas, BA'80, chronicles the journey of a group of young people from the U.S. and Germany who launched a homemade raft on the Missouri River near Kansas City, determined to float to St. Louis and from there all the way down the Mississippi to New Orleans. Read More

Jeff Martindale, BA'90, was awarded the Six Star Medal in March for completing the original six Abbott World Marathon Majors: TCS New York City Marathon (2010), Boston Marathon (2013), Bank of America Chicago Marathon (2017), Berlin Marathon (2022), TCS London Marathon (2023) and Tokyo Marathon (2025). Read More

Collaboration, community and love for the written word were celebrated at the 2025 Southern Festival of Books, presented by Vanderbilt University in partnership with Humanities Tennessee Oct. 18–19 in downtown Nashville. The free event, the 37th in festival history, brought hundreds of prominent national authors together in dialogue with fellow writers, readers and thousands of Middle Tennesseans. It also marked the first year of an expanded partnership between the festival and Vanderbilt, evidence of the university’s deepening investment in the cultural fabric of the region. Read More

On September 14, 2015, at 4:51 a.m. Central Time, scientists witnessed something no human had ever seen before: two black holes colliding. These black holes, which were 29 and 36 times the mass of the sun, respectively, had been circling each other for millions of years. Their rotations became increasingly faster until they eventually collided and became a single black hole. Since then, scientists have had numerous breakthroughs that deepen our understanding of the universe, and researchers in the College of Arts and Science have been at the forefront, shaping the scientific field of black holes and gravitational waves. Read More

Political propaganda and artificial intelligence–driven misinformation are infiltrating social media accounts, and Americans need to do something about it. That’s the warning revealed in research from two Vanderbilt professors and discussed on this special episode of the Quantum Potential podcast. Read More

For those experiencing writer’s block, or just looking for inspiration, journeying outside and spending time in nature may be the answer. The natural world has a cadence that helps us relax and refocus, allowing creativity to flow. This was the case for Professor of French and Comparative Literature Robert Barsky, who completed a solo bicycle trip across Europe after college. Along the way, he wrote poetry inspired by his travels. Years later, Barsky would draw on this experience as he embarked on a new project to tell the story of the transformative Atlanta Beltline, a 22-mile multi-use trail on a former railway track that encircles the core of Atlanta, Georgia. Read More

Jennifer and Marc Lipschultz have committed a landmark collection of nearly 5,000 photographs, featuring work from hundreds of photographers including Bill Owens, Danny Lyon, Berenice Abbott, Lalla Essaydi and Dorothy Norman, to the Vanderbilt University Museum of Art. In addition to its unique emphasis on photojournalism—including iconic wire press photos from WWII, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement and beyond—the collection also spans urban street photography, portraits and other themes that are ideal for inspiring student immersion and a range of programming. Read More

Ointments like Neosporin contain the antibiotic neomycin, which works great to kill bacteria on the outside of the body when you scrape your knee or have a hangnail. But inside the body, neomycin does more harm than good—kidney and neurological damage and deafness. Research Assistant Professor Bhawik Jain and colleagues in his lab have figured out why that is, and how to stop it. This could make neomycin another tool in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Read More