Dialogue Vanderbilt

Beginning this month, 250 Conversations on America: Civil Discourse in Action will bring together students, faculty, staff, alumni and the broader community for a wide-ranging series of public events and smaller conversations across Vanderbilt’s Nashville and New York City campuses. Led by Dialogue Vanderbilt, the initiative will serve as the university’s signature contribution to the national celebration, modeling how to “agree and disagree better” at a moment of profound civic complexity. Read More

The leaves of trees lining our beautiful campus are blazing with autumnal color. Even these ancient arbors offer us a powerful example. Standing firmly rooted, they embrace change. Like all in our Vanderbilt community, they dare to grow. Spread the word about great things happening at Vanderbilt. Stay connected to our work and to one another’s, and share with us your own big ideas. Read More

Engaging in thoughtful dialogue is not only essential in today’s society, but also is a trademark of the Vanderbilt experience, which begins with the first-year experience on The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons. On Sunday, Sept. 14, author Jacqueline Woodson spoke to a packed Langford Auditorium for the 19th Annual Lawson Lecture and offered a master class for the Class of 2029 on using storytelling to foster discourse and find connection, continuing the 2025–26 first-year programming theme of “Stories that Connect Us.”   Read More

As the fall semester begins, Vanderbilt welcomes a new class of students ready to engage with ideas, explore identity and build community. One of the university’s signature efforts to support this journey is Dialogue Vanderbilt—a campus-wide initiative that advances the university’s enduring commitment to constructive dialogue and civil discourse, rooted in our core beliefs of free expression and institutional neutrality. It equips the Vanderbilt community with the tools and opportunities to engage in respectful, thoughtful conversations—across differences and on any topic. Read More

The National Center for Science Education has named Vanderbilt University’s Evolutionary Studies Initiative as one of its 2025 recipients of the prestigious Friend of Darwin award. This national honor recognizes ESI’s outstanding contributions to advancing public understanding of evolution through interdisciplinary research, education and outreach. Read More

Excellence, the first principle set forth in the updated Code of Bylaws approved by Vanderbilt’s Board of Trust, along with our other two guiding principles—academic freedom and free expression, and growth and development—drives our core purpose: to provide transformative education and pathbreaking research. It is our foremost commitment and our steadfast promise in all that we do. Read More

University leaders, faculty, students and invited guests gathered at the McGee Applied Research Center for Narrative Studies to celebrate its new home at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries’ Central Library. The interdisciplinary center promotes media literacy by providing essential resources to evaluate the objectivity of news coverage, digital media and other narratives.  Read More

Vanderbilt's Dare to Grow Campaign has surpassed its initial fundraising goal, underscoring the incredible generosity of Vanderbilt’s donors and the widespread enthusiasm for the university’s vision. This early achievement has established a launching pad for bolder, more far-reaching impact throughout the remainder of the campaign. Read More

Inspired by the spirit of civil discourse, Lise and Ed Spacapan generously support the Dialogue Vanderbilt Student Advisory Board, an intentional effort to consistently advance and more deeply imbed the university's long-held values of free expression, civil discourse and institutional neutrality across campus and beyond. Read More

Vanderbilt University's College Republicans and Democrats came together for an Insight Debate on the intersection of faith and governance, exemplifying the school's commitment to “dialogue across difference" in pursuit of understanding.  Read More

This summer, Vanderbilt’s incoming first-year students will take on a new challenge: learning to listen with curiosity. As part of the 2025–26 Martha Rivers Ingram Commons programming theme, “Stories that Connect Us,” students will conduct interviews during the summer with members of their communities, practicing the skills of thoughtful listening and engaged dialogue.  Read More

By Jenna Somers Climate Champions Fellows touring Vanderbilt’s campus South Asian university students who won Climate Champions Fellowships through the Student Society for Climate Change Awareness’s Climate Tank Accelerator visited Vanderbilt University in February, supported by a U.S. State Department grant. The fellows were from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan,… Read More

Nearly 150 parent and alumni leaders gathered on campus Feb. 28 and March 1 for Vanderbilt’s eighth annual Volunteer Leadership Weekend. Attendees of the weekend events included representatives from many alumni and parent groups across the university. Read More

The Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy has asked Republicans in a quarterly national poll since June 16, 2023, if they consider themselves supporters of the Make America Great Again or MAGA movement. In that first poll, 37 percent of respondents identified more with the MAGA movement than with the traditional GOP. Now, the share of MAGA identifiers within the GOP has swelled to 52 percent—a majority—for the first time in the poll.  Read More

Vanderbilt University has announced that it will host its first public programming in New York City: "Vanderbilt in the City: Conversations on America," beginning March 6. The three-event series, planned for Vanderbilt University–New York City, 440 W. 21st St., in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, will open the university’s doors to the New York City community. Read More

Dialogue Vanderbilt will commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the Scopes 'Monkey' trial with a series of events starting on Feb. 11. The case, which riveted nations across the world in 1925, involved Tennessee high school teacher John T. Scopes, who was accused of teaching the theory of evolution in his classroom—a violation of state law. Read More

Vanderbilt community members interested in expanding their intercultural competency and learning how to better engage across and within differences are encouraged to sign up to be part of the Vanderbilt Unity Lab’s spring 2025 cohort. Participation in this research is open to all Vanderbilt faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students and postdocs. Read More

Free speech was at hot topic at a recent Lunch and Learn hosted by Dialogue Vanderbilt. Greg Lukianoff, New York Times bestseller and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, led the discussion with Vanderbilt students at the Jean and Alexander Heard Central Library on Jan. 14. Read More

This semester, Dialogue Vanderbilt engaged more than 4,500 people through events, debates and workshops. More than 450 students participated in Insight Debates, tackling topics like institutional neutrality and the impact of TikTok. The program also brought compelling visitors to campus and hosted initiatives like the first-ever free speech debate competition with eight participating universities, which was part of the Global Free Speech Summit. We are thrilled to build on this success and deliver even more transformative programming in 2025.   Read More

After the election results were announced, Dialogue Vanderbilt organized a tabling event outside of Rand Dining Hall that encouraged students to share their insights about what a post-election world looks like. The activity was followed by a breakfast hosted by the Dialogue Vanderbilt Student Advisory Board on Nov. 8 that included a discussion on political beliefs and a post-election world. Read More