Arts And Science

Jacob Steenwyk, a sixth-year doctoral student studying biology in The Rokas Lab, is a recipient of the 2022 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award presented by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He is the second Vanderbilt student ever to receive this honor. Read More

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has selected Kimberly Welch, a Vanderbilt scholar of American slavery, race and law, for a New Directions Fellowship that will expand her interdisciplinary research on African Americans and the history of finance. Read More

March 16 marked the one-year anniversary of the day a 21-year-old man went on a shooting rampage at three spas in the Atlanta area, killing eight people—six of them women of Asian descent. The shootings stoked outrage and fear among Asian Americans, who were already experiencing discrimination, racism and hate crimes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The act of violence led to dialogue at Vanderbilt and college campuses across the country and resulted in calls to create more inclusive spaces for AAPI populations.    Read More

Join the Center for Effective Lawmaking for a roundtable discussion touching on questions of race, representation and policymaking in the contemporary Congress. The event will be Thursday, March 31, at 6 p.m. CT at the Student Life Center Commodore Ballroom. Read More

Researchers at Vanderbilt and Arizona State University recently won a two-year, $25,000 National Endowment for the Arts research grant to support a mixed-methods study on the prevalence of arts internships and their role in students’ transition from college to careers. Read More

Concerns about strife in a country far from home are adding worries to a generation already on edge from navigating changes in everyday life due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some ideas for how to help. Read More

Jad Abumrad, creator and host of the "Radiolab" public radio program and podcast, will speak at the Student Life Center on Friday, March 18, as part of the Communication of Science and Technology program’s daylong mini-conference, “Improving Science Communication: The Promise of Science and Humanities Collaborations.” Abumrad’s talk, scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. in Ballroom A, as well as the mini-conference are open to Vanderbilt University faculty, students and staff. Read More

The Engine for Art, Democracy and Justice will present "Artistic Activism and the Power of Collective Resistance," a series of speakers and panels focusing on art as an act of solidarity and resistance, starting March 16 and continuing through 2023. Read More

Chancellor Daniel Diermeier recently shared the manuscript for his forthcoming book on corporate reputation with a small group of faculty whose diverse areas of expertise reflect the cross-disciplinary approach of his academic research. Read More

Vanderbilt and Chalmers University of Technology are teaming up to build a self-driving biological laboratory that uses microfluidics, artificial intelligence and machine learning to create a third-generation robot scientist that designs and conducts the massive number of experiments needed to fully characterize cellular signals and pathways and optimize biotechnologies. Read More

The Tennessee Education Research Alliance, a research-practice partnership between the Tennessee Department of Education and Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development, has named Laura Booker as its new executive director. Booker, a senior lecturer in the Department of Leadership, Policy and Organizations, will succeed Erin O’Hara, who served as TERA’s founding executive director for the past five years.  Read More

Kimberly Welch, associate professor of history and assistant professor of law at Vanderbilt University, has been awarded a 2022 Dan David Prize. The internationally renowned annual award, headquartered at Tel Aviv University, gives prizes of $300,000 each to nine early- to mid-career history scholars whose outstanding contributions expand knowledge of the past, enrich society in the present and promise to improve the future of the world.   Read More

Science’s influence on pop culture is undeniable, and the reverse is equally important. Research led by Jay Clayton, the first literature professor to ever receive funding from the NIH, shows that films portray genetic science as risky far more often than television shows. Read More

Dan Cornfield, professor of sociology, political science and American studies, offers perspective on what’s driving the Great Resignation and what’s next for labor trends in this stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read More

Vanderbilt University Theatre will perform "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot," an imaginary courtroom trial of one of the most infamous biblical figures, Feb. 24–27 at Neely Auditorium. Read More

Second-year Ph.D. student Mayna Nguyen recently combined a longtime hobby with her study of biomedical optics with dazzling results: a playable laser harp that embodies both her love for the instrument and her research into photonics. Read More

Kenneth Catania, Stevenson Professor of Biological Sciences, has received the 2022 American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books in the Young Adult Science Book category for "Great Adaptations: Star-Nosed Moles, Electric Eels and Other Tales of Evolution’s Mysteries Solved." Read More

The College of Arts and Science is launching a dynamic and collaborative effort to reimagine its curriculum for the 21st century, ensuring that Vanderbilt students engage in educational experiences of the highest caliber. Read More

Audrey Arner, a first-year Ph.D. student, recently earned a pilot research grant from Vanderbilt’s Evolutionary Studies Initiative to study the evolutionary mismatch hypothesis in Malaysia. The basis of the research seeks to understand how genetic characteristics that were beneficial to communities in the past could be harmful in a modern environment.   Read More

A team of astronomers has made the discovery of a lifetime that will help answer burning questions on the evolution of stars. The group is led by Keivan Stassun, Evolutionary Studies Initiative member and Stevenson Professor of Physics and Astronomy. Read More