The Commons Reading

Vanderbilt faculty, students and staff are invited to nominate a book for next year’s Commons Reading for the Class of 2020. Read More

"The Madonnas of Echo Park" by Brando Skyhorse has been selected as the next Commons Reading, an annual tradition for incoming first-year students. Read More

Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof will speak at Vanderbilt University Thursday, Jan. 31. Along with his wife, journalist Sheryl WuDunn, Kristof is author of the 2009 book "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide." Read More

"Half the Sky," a 2009 book shedding light on injustices faced by women in Asia and Africa, has inspired Human Identities: Global, Local, Personal, a campuswide initiative at Vanderbilt for the 2012-13 academic year. (image by Nicholas Kristof) Half the Sky, a documentary film inspired by the acclaimed book… Read More

Workers at a ready-made-garment factory in Bangladesh. (image courtesy of Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights) Three international labor activists will discuss the transformative potential of philanthropy in the women’s human rights movement on Wednesday, Sept. 19, at Vanderbilt. Kalpona Akter and Babul Akhter, co-founders of the Bangladesh… Read More

A tradition among first-year students to read and discuss a common text has inspired a campuswide initiative called “Human Identities: Global, Local, Personal,” designed to raise nuanced dialogue about gender and sexuality across the Vanderbilt community. Read More

The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons at Vanderbilt offers a scenic home for first-year students. (Vanderbilt University/ John Russell) All Vanderbilt faculty, students and staff are invited to help select The Commons Reading for the Class of 2017. The Commons Reading is a book that is mailed to all rising… Read More