Politics

The current chief of the United States Central Command and the former top U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David Petraeus, will speak about his actions as commander of the surge in Iraq, the role of U.S. forces overseas and the latest developments in the surge. The event will be held Monday, March 1, at 5 p.m. at the Student Life Center. Read More

The Vanderbilt Political Review, a non-partisan political journal run entirely by Vanderbilt undergraduate students, will host the first Nashville Intercollegiate Activism Conference on Feb. 27. The one-day conference will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Nashville civil rights sit-ins and will examine how students were able to defeat segregation as well as how students can be involved in social change today. Read More

Several hundred of the nation's top college debate teams from dozens of universities will fill Vanderbilt University campus March 6-8 to determine the winner of the American Debate Association (ADA) 2010 National Championship Debate Tournament. Read More

The current chief of the United States Central Command and the former top U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David Petraeus, will speak about his actions as commander of the surge in Iraq, the role of U.S. forces overseas and the latest developments in the surge. The event will be held Monday, March 1, at 5 p.m. at the Student Life Center. Read More

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, journalist John Stossel and political activist Ralph Nader will deliver public lectures and sign copies of their books at Vanderbilt University March 30-31 as part of the university's annual Impact Symposium. Read More

The 50th anniversary of the Nashville sit-ins, which were an early civil rights movement success and a critical time in the life of Vanderbilt University, will be observed with a symposium featuring some of its participants. Read More

Last fall Vanderbilt students had the rare opportunity in an interdisciplinary class called "The War in Iraq" to take an in-depth look at the facts on the ground in Iraq between 2003 and the present. Humanities 161 was co-taught by political scientist Katherine Carroll and Mike Newton, professor of the practice of law. Read More

Last fall Vanderbilt students had the rare opportunity in an interdisciplinary class called "The War in Iraq" to take an in-depth look at the facts on the ground in Iraq between 2003 and the present. Humanities 161 was co-taught by political scientist Katherine Carroll and Mike Newton, professor of the practice of law. Read More

Count on more political attack ads in 2010 after a Supreme Court ruling lifting the ban on corporation and labor donations, according to Vanderbilt University political scientist John Geer. Read More

Vanderbilt experts David Lewis, John Geer and Thomas Schwartz are available to discuss the one-year anniversary of the Obama presidency and his Jan. 27 State of the Union address. Read More

President Barack Obama, unlike George W. Bush, is not likely to enjoy a surge in public approval after terrorism threats, according to research by Vanderbilt University political scientist Elizabeth Zechmeister and her colleague. Zechmeister, assistant professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, and Jennifer Merolla, associate professor at Claremont Graduate University, are the co-authors of Democracy at Risk: How Terrorist Threats Affect the Public (University of Chicago Press). Read More

Derek John Waller, a retired Vanderbilt University political scientist who taught and wrote extensively about the politics of Communist China, died on Dec. 31, 2009. The Sewanee, Tenn., resident, who was 72, had suffered from pancreatic cancer. Read More

Vanderbilt Centennial Professor of Philosophy John Lachs has proposed that legislators be tested on their specific knowledge of bills under consideration in Congress. Lachs is dismayed that several national lawmakers have admitted recently to not reading the material on which they are voting. Read More

As you consider year-in-review stories and look ahead to the trends of 2010, Vanderbilt University faculty are available to offer perspective on these and other topics. mailto:bruce.barry@vanderbilt.edu Read More

Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics, co-authored by Vanderbilt political scientist Marc Hetherington, focuses on the reasons behind the political realignment of the past several decades. More liberals are voting for Democrats and more conservatives are choosing GOP candidates, Hetherington said. Read More

Watch Christopher Slobogin, Milton Underwood Professor of Law at Vanderbilt, discuss the death penalty and government's ability to implement it fairly. Read More

Recently declassified archival materials offer new insight into the reasons behind the changing dynamics of transatlantic relations since the 1970s, according to Thomas Alan Schwartz, co-editor of The Strained Alliance: U.S.-European Relations from Nixon to Carter. Read More

The recent vote in Congress on health care reform – with only one Republican lawmaker voting yes – provides more evidence of the growing polarization between the parties and the fundamentally different understandings of right and wrong that continue to pull the two major political parties further apart, according to Vanderbilt University political scientist Marc Hetherington. Read More

A little respect could go a long way to preserving democracy in America, says Vanderbilt professor Bob Talisse in his new book. Read More

Kim McMillan, former majority leader in the Tennessee House of Representatives, is the second in a series of Tennessee gubernatorial candidates to address students in Vanderbilt University's "Introduction to American Government and Politics" class. Read More