Humanities

Katie Crawford, Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair, professor of history, and chair of the Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies, has been named the interim director of the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities. Crawford’s appointment follows the five-year leadership of Holly Tucker, Mellon Foundation Chair in the Humanities and professor of French, who is stepping down to pursue her research and new trans-institutional projects. 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

Vanderbilt University secured four National Endowment for the Humanities grants totaling $330,696 to support projects ranging from Yiddish literature to the preservation of Special Collections. The grants highlight Vanderbilt’s leadership in humanities research and were facilitated by the university’s Research Development and Support team. Read More

On National Humanities Alliance’s advocacy day in D.C., through a series of meetings and a social media campaign, Vanderbilt students advocated for federal funding to support the National Endowment for the Humanities. This effort was part of the Robert Penn Warren Center’s Humanities in the Real World: Undergraduate Advocacy Fellowship in collaboration with Vanderbilt’s Office of Federal Relations.  Read More

Allison Schachter, an associate professor of Jewish studies, English, and Russian and East European studies, developed a new theory about the role of women who made lasting and meaningful contributions to Jewish culture and history in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Read More

Lenn Goodman, professor of philosophy and the Andrew Mellon Professor of Humanities, has co-authored a new book, Coming to Mind: The Soul and Its Body (University of Chicago Press). Goodman and D. Gregory Caramenico contend that the soul works not as a rival, but in partnership with the brain. With… Read More

Watch video of Edward L. Ayers, President and Professor of History at the University of Richmond, present this year’s Harry C. Howard Jr. Lecture on Thursday, October 18 in Flynn Auditorium. His talk is entitled “The Humanities in Our Times.” Prior to his appointment at the University of Richmond, Ayers… Read More

More than 150 professors and graduate students from across the nation with expertise in Southern writing and related topics will gather in Nashville March 29-31 for the Society for the Study of Southern Literature’s biannual conference. Read More

Jonathan Metzl was born into medicine but is drawn to the humanities. He’s still insisting on having it both ways. Read More

Student Kirsten Ayers was one of four students to win the MLK Reflections essay and video contest. Vanderbilt University has recognized four students –Kirsten Ayers, Chelsea Goodly, Marwah Shahid and Ravi Singh – with a monetary award for excellence in capturing the spirit of the life and legacy… Read More

Scholars from Duke, UC-Berkeley and Columbia will look at slavery and its afterlives during a daylong symposium at Vanderbilt University. Read More

  Operation at BP Macondo spill in Gulf of Mexico (photograph by J Henry Fair, 2010) Noted photographer and environmentalist J Henry Fair will give a talk on and do a slide presentation of images from “Industrial Scars,” his exploration of the detritus of consumer society through large-scale aerial… Read More

Adam Hochschild (Photo courtesy of Media Sparks) Writer and journalist Adam Hochschild will give a lecture titled “’Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch . . .’: What Scholars Can Learn from Novelists – and Journalists – about Storytelling,” on Thursday, Feb. 24, at 7 p.m. in Room 114 Furman Hall… Read More

Carlo Goldoni's Servant of Two Masters premieres Feb. 18 at Neely Auditorium. (Vanderbilt University Department of Theatre) The 18th-century farce The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni premieres at Neely Auditorium at Vanderbilt University on Feb. 18.   The central character, the servant, is constantly hungry.  When an opportunity… Read More

Do your children think you work too much and don’t spend enough time with them? If so, their perception could lead to bullying behavior, according to research by Vanderbilt University sociologist Andre Christie-Mizell. “Our behavior is driven by our perception of our world, so if children feel they… Read More

Ambassador Atallah Shabazz, daughter of civil rights leader Malcolm X, will give a talk, “Melting Pot: Cultural Diplomacy/Multi-National Patriotism,” at Vanderbilt University Thursday, Feb. 10, at 8 p.m. in Room 103 of Wilson Hall. Her lecture is among several free, public events scheduled at Vanderbilt University during February – Black History Month. Read More

Mitchell Seligson, Centennial Professor of Political Science (Vanderbilt University/Steve Green) Despite one of the worst worldwide economic crises in the past half-century, support for democracy among those in Latin America and the Caribbean has not been eroded, according to the results of the latest AmericasBarometer survey. The… Read More

Tina Packer and Nigel Gore bring Women of Will to Ingram Hall Feb. 3 (Photo courtesy of Shakespeare & Company) Women of Will will be performed at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 3, at the Ingram Hall, Blair School of Music, on the Vanderbilt campus. The performance… Read More

Dr. Jonathan M. Metzl Vanderbilt University’s innovative center that links the study of medicine to other disciplines will be headed by Dr. Jonathan M. Metzl, an expert in American culture, psychiatry and medical humanities. Metzl, currently director of the Program in Culture, Health and Medicine at the University of… Read More

We all know how to spot a macho guy – right? He’s a man’s man with a certain swagger and a way with the ladies. Well, social scientists have a different opinion – one that perpetuates stereotypes about black, Hispanic and certain homosexual men. In social science circles, a… Read More