Arts And Science

Policymakers in Washington, D.C., increasingly are earning the distrust of the American people, and the current impasse that led to a government shutdown is no exception, according to Marc Hetherington, a political science professor and author of two books on trust and polarization in American government. Read More

Political scientist Bruce Oppenheimer is available to talk about the government shutdown. Read More

Laurel Schneider, a professor of religious studies and gender and women's studies, will speak on "Animal-Vegetable-Mineral: How Do We Think About Relationality After the Genome Project?" at the Oct. 2 Thinking Out of the (Lunch) Box event. Read More

Neuroscientists have identified the location in the brain's visual cortex responsible for generating a common perceptual illusion: seeing shapes and surfaces that don't really exist when viewing a fragmented background. Read More

Evelyn Patterson, assistant professor of sociology, is a recipient of a 2013-2014 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty. Read More

The adventures of ancient Maya mythical heroes will be dramatized in a free marionette show that premieres Sept. 26 at Vanderbilt University's Central Library. Read More

Vanderbilt history and political science professor Gary Gerstle was interviewed extensively for a landmark PBS documentary series on the experience of Latino Americans in the United States. Read More

The Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at Vanderbilt University kicks off its 25th anniversary Sept. 19-20, with scholarship and celebration, including the premiere of a documentary, a reception and a series of panel discussions with former Warren Center fellows. Read More

Read about faculty, staff and alumni awards, appointments and achievements. Read More

Professor Jay Clayton of Vanderbilt University is chatting with me over Skype, but he admits that his attention is slightly divided. He's got Lord of the Rings Online running on a second monitor, and countless players are sending him messages to say hello. Read More

Jon Meacham, author of a noted biography on Thomas Jefferson, and Mark Dimunation, who directed the reconstruction of Thomas Jefferson's Collection at the Library of Congress, will speak at Vanderbilt Sept. 30. Read More

Tiffiny Tung, associate professor of anthropology, is on familiar terms with the dead. She may not know their names, but she can tell you a surprising amount of information about how they lived—and even, on occasion, how they died. Read More

Andrew Graciano, associate professor of art history at the University of South Carolina, will deliver the fall 2013 Norman L. and Roselea J. Goldberg Lecture in Art History at 4:10 p.m. Sept. 26 in Vanderbilt's Cohen Hall. Read More

The Politics of Health Conference Oct. 3-4 at Vanderbilt is a free event that will speak to the scale, urgency and intimacy of health as a critical American economic and political issue. Read More

Acclaimed short fiction writer Deborah Eisenberg will read from her latest work Thursday, Sept. 12, as part of the Gertrude and Harold S. Vanderbilt Visiting Writers Series, which is sponsored by the English Department’s Creative Writing Program. Read More

Forty years after Atari’s digital table tennis game Pong bleeped onto the scene and made video games mainstream entertainment, we’ve become a nation of video gamers. We’re playing games on phones, tablets, computers, game consoles, social networks, and even TVs connected directly to the Internet. Read More

Research conducted at Vanderbilt is featured in "Brains on Trial with Alan Alda," a two-part televised series airing Sept. 11 and Sept. 18 on PBS that explores how the growing ability to separate truth from lies may radically affect the way criminal trials are conducted in the future. Read More

“From a historical perspective, which looks at the American presidency since the end of World War II, Obama’s decision reflects a turning point, the clear triumph of domestic political considerations over foreign policy priorities,” according to Thomas Schwartz, a professor of history and political science at Vanderbilt. Read More

A new, free massive open online course, or MOOC, from Vanderbilt University launching Sept. 9 uses J.R.R. Tolkien and “The Lord of the Rings Online” to explore what happens to stories and films when they are turned into online games. Read More

The fall 2013 edition of Saturday University at Vanderbilt will feature members of the philosophy department lecturing on “Life’s Big Questions and Philosophy’s Answers to Them” on four October Saturday mornings. Read More