Social Stories

At Vanderbilt, Anighya Crocker found the freedom to pursue all of his passions, double-majoring in voice performance and law, history and society. Next, he is looking toward law school and politics—and maybe a run for governor of Tennessee.      Read More

Centennial Professor of Philosophy John Lachs will retire and receive emeritus status on Aug. 15, after more than 50 years of teaching at Vanderbilt University. Lachs’ thought-provoking lectures have been perennial favorites among not only students, but also many alumni, who eagerly have signed up for his numerous appearances at Reunion and Vanderbilt chapter events. Read More

A special virtual Giving Day concert on Wednesday, April 7, at 6 p.m. CT will feature headliners Grace Potter and Chris Mann, BMus’04, along with drop-in appearances from some of your favorite Commodores, including faculty, alumni, students and more. Read More

Ryan Boyette is using his Peabody master’s degree to further the work of the education nonprofit To Move Mountains, which he and his wife, Jazira, launched a few years before coming to Nashville. Read More

Identical twins Jade and Jazmyn Ayers have immersed themselves in literature and personal narratives for years, leading to majors in English as well as a creative way to pair storytelling with another of their passions: medicine. Read More

The Vanderbilt community will welcome a diverse panel of renowned civil rights and social justice activists, journalists, historians and scholars for an examination of Nashville’s role as an intellectual center of the struggle for racial justice, then and now. The daylong virtual symposium will be held on Friday, March 26, starting at 9 a.m. CT and is open to the public. Read More

Vanderbilt University announced today that it will host in-person Commencement ceremonies for the Class of 2021. The events, which will adhere to campus safety protocols, will take place May 15–16. Read More

Vanderbilt will honor the struggles and celebrate the achievements of women of all nations and cultures in March during Women's History Month. The Margaret Cuninggim Women's Center, in cooperation with other campus partners, will host a full calendar of events. 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

Vanderbilt’s annual celebration of Black History Month—a time to acknowledge and appreciate the history, experience and accomplishments of Black people on the university's campus, across the country and globally—will include presentations, panel discussions, play readings, yoga sessions and more, most to be held virtually. Read More

The inaugural Vanderbilt Changemakers event featured a discussion with Owen Graduate School of Management alumni Nat Robinson, MBA’07, JD’18, and Tori Samples, BMus’12, MBA’18, about the company they created to provide virtual banking services to refugees and migrants. Read More

A series of trans-institutional courses designed through the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities is using Vanderbilt’s campus as a living lab, giving students—future historians, architects, archaeologists, curators and engineers among them—unique hands-on experiences. Read More

Vanderbilt University will celebrate the grand opening of the National Museum of African American Music on Saturday, Jan. 30, with a virtual concert from Vanderbilt Blair School of Music featuring works by Black composers. The concert will begin at 8 p.m. CT and will be broadcast from Blair’s livestreaming page. Read More

The Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center is partnering with student organizations and campus leaders to celebrate the start of Black History Month on Monday, Feb. 1. Read More

Vanderbilt University has announced the addition of an undergraduate minor in data science beginning with the fall 2021 term. The new trans-institutional, interdisciplinary data science minor will be shared by all four undergraduate schools and colleges, and students will be able to begin declaring the minor this spring. Read More

For the second time, cancer researchers at Vanderbilt have discovered a protein that—when genetically manipulated to impede it from interacting with a gene responsible for cancer genesis—effectively melts tumors in days. Read More

New bicycle lanes on Jess Neely Drive and Vanderbilt Place are aimed at improving safety and rider experience on campus, and supporting Vanderbilt’s goal of increasing bike commuting and enhancing bike path infrastructure at the university. Read More

Two Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management alumni will discuss the company they created to provide banking services to refugee populations. The event, "Vanderbilt Changemakers: Leaf Global Fintech," will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 27, from 11 a.m. to noon CT. Read More

Ethiopian American novelist Dinaw Mengestu gave an impassioned personal view of growing up in an immigrant family in the United States during his keynote address for this year’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative event, hosted in partnership with the Vanderbilt Chancellor’s Lecture Series. 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