Unity

In remembrance of the 20th anniversary of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy will host a virtual discussion, “9/11: Two Decades Later,” on Friday, Sept. 10, at noon CT. The event will feature faculty historians and legal scholars Jon Meacham, Samar Ali and Ganesh Sitaraman. Read More

The Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy and Vanderbilt University Medical Center will host “Vaccine Hesitancy: The Politics of Public Health in Tennessee,” a virtual event, on Wednesday, Aug. 18, at noon CT. Read More

U.S. Rep. David Price, who has represented the fourth district of North Carolina through seven White House administrations, shared insights about the changes he has witnessed in Congress during an online discussion with Vanderbilt political scientists Alan Wiseman and Larry Bartels on June 28. Read More

The Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy will host a virtual discussion on Monday, June 28, at noon CT about the evolution of the U.S. Congress and how to find issues of common ground in a time of polarization. The discussion will feature current U.S. Rep. David Price and Vanderbilt political scientists Alan Wiseman and Larry Bartels. Registration is required.  Read More

Presidential rhetoric expert Vanessa Beasley presents the history of the U.S. president's annual address to Congress—and what to expect in tonight's address. Read More

Research Snapshot: Eunji Kim finds that politics have become more like sports than ever before: It is easier to watch partisan news when your political party is winning. Est. reading time: 75 seconds. Read More

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

Legislative effectiveness scores are at the core of the research conducted at the Center for Effective Lawmaking, co-directed by Vanderbilt‘s Alan Wiseman. Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Gary Peters, D-Mich., along with Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and retired Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., were the most effective Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the recently completed 116th Congress, according to new research from the center. Read More

A panel of Vanderbilt political science faculty explored the factors that led to the Jan. 6 riot in a virtual event, “Dissent, Disorder and Democracy: What Led to the U.S. Capitol Insurrection.” Hosted by the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy, the panel also engaged with the event’s serious implications for the strength of the nation's democracy. 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

The deep partisan divide in Tennessee has never been more apparent than on the questions of whether citizens will get the COVID-19 vaccine and curb holiday travel at the height of the global pandemic, according to the latest Vanderbilt Poll-Tennessee. The poll also found a deep chasm between registered voters on the legitimacy of the results of the presidential election. Read More