Jon Meacham

The Aspen Institute’s Socrates Program will host a virtual conversation, “Is National Unity Possible?” on Thursday, April 1, at 1 p.m. CT featuring the co-chairs of the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy: former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Vanderbilt faculty members Samar Ali and Jon Meacham. Read More

Prominent scholars, journalists, historians and activists gathered virtually for a daylong symposium discussing the fight for equity. “Racial Justice, Freedom and Activism in Nashville and Beyond: Then and Now” was hosted by Vanderbilt University on March 26.  Read More

Vanderbilt University announced today that alumni Carolyn Thomas Rogers, BA’75, and Robert Moss Rogers, BA’75, have made a $5 million gift to establish the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Center for the American Presidency in the College of Arts and Science. Read More

The co-chairs of The Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy appeared on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" Feb. 4 to discuss the university’s nonpartisan initiative that aims to elevate research and evidence-based reasoning in the national discourse. Read More

On the heels of the launch of The Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy, several Vanderbilt University faculty have been tapped for their expertise relevant to the Biden administration’s transition, the presidential inaugural address and the predominant theme of unity in America. Read More

The Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy debuted an exclusive conversation series featuring a tone-setting discussion on the redemptive power of reason and evidence in American politics with former vice president Al Gore and presidential historian Jon Meacham, followed by a dialogue between Meacham and Condoleezza Rice, the 66th Secretary of State, on the project’s first case study. Read More

Former Vice President Al Gore and the 66th Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice each will provide timely conversations with Vanderbilt’s Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian and biographer, on Thursday, Jan. 14, to support the debut of the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy. Read More

After months of exploring how higher education could play a meaningful and active role in bridging longstanding partisan fissures, Vanderbilt University today launched the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy, which aims to strengthen the nation’s democratic institutions by advancing evidence-based research in the national discourse on unity. Read More

Former U.S. Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Gen. Colin Powell called for a return to civility, communication and compromise in domestic politics and foreign relations during the Vanderbilt Chancellor’s Lecture on Nov. 16. Read More

Madeleine K. Albright and Colin L. Powell—the 64th and 65th United States secretaries of state, respectively—will discuss the future of U.S. global relations as part of Vanderbilt University’s first Chancellor’s Lecture Series event of the 2020-21 season. Read More

Vanderbilt University alumni were offered the unique opportunity this fall to hear two of the country’s foremost political science experts, John Geer and Jon Meacham, discuss the U.S. presidential election in the four-part webinar series, “The 2020 Election: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” Read More

This election night, Sam Feist, BA’91, will perform one of his more unusual duties as head of CNN’s Washington Bureau. Assuming the results are clear-cut, he will—in consultation with CNN’s statisticians and political scientists—call the winner of the presidential race for the network. It is a responsibility he has held since 2004, and one that he does not take lightly. Read More

Jon Meacham, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Professor of the American Presidency, implored Americans to embrace “the best parts of our soul” and let history “be our guide” during a nationally televised speech Aug. 20. Read More

A leadership trait shared by many of America’s most admired presidents has been their courage to expand, challenge and even walk away from their base of supporters when necessary to uphold the nation’s founding principles. That was among several “Lessons of Presidential Leadership” discussed by Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham during a Chancellor’s Lecture Series event on Thursday afternoon.   Read More

The Faculty Senate will host a community conversation for faculty and staff from noon to 1 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 1, to discuss themes from the Chancellor’s Lecture Series event with presidential historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham taking place the prior evening. Read More

“Lessons of Presidential Leadership” will be the focus of a conversation between presidential historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham during a Chancellor’s Lecture Series event Oct. 31. Read More

Former Tennessee governor Bill Haslam has joined Vanderbilt’s faculty as a distinguished visiting professor of political science this fall. Haslam will bring a practitioner's perspective to a popular undergraduate course on political leadership co-taught by Vanderbilt professors John Geer and Jon Meacham. Read More

President George W. Bush spent the day at Vanderbilt on March 11, surprising a history class and visiting a student veterans club before speaking to a capacity crowd at Langford Auditorium that evening. Read More

The Chancellor’s Lecture Series partnered with The Center for Effective Lawmaking to bring Kaiser and Frank to campus. As part of the visit, the two met with students and faculty across different departments on Thursday. Read More

The Chancellor's Lecture Series is partnering with The Center for Effective Lawmaking to bring former congressman Barney Frank and journalist Bob Kaiser to campus for an in-depth discussion about the U.S. legislative process on Wednesday, April 10. Read More