‘EDI’

exterior of Calhoun Hall, a gray stone and red brick building

Department of Medicine, Health, and Society expands collaborative potential with new hires

Apr. 20, 2021—In 2007, Vanderbilt’s College of Arts and Science launched an innovative new major called Medicine, Health, and Society (MHS). From attracting just 40 enrollees in its first year, the interdisciplinary program has grown rapidly into one of A&S’s most popular majors. More than 700 undergraduate students are now studying toward an MHS degree, and MHS...

four students work on a film project outdoors on the Vanderbilt campus with white blooming dogwood trees in the background

Cinema and Media Arts students use capstone projects to develop themselves as world citizens

Apr. 20, 2021—For students in the Department of Cinema and Media Arts (CMA), senior year involves an important rite of passage: the capstone seminar. Required for every CMA major, the seminar brings together the department’s unique blend of theory and practice. While most film departments around the country focus on training either film scholars (theory) or filmmakers...

New research uncovers crucial role of activist lawyers in expanding women’s rights

Mar. 8, 2021—The history of women’s rights in the United States is inextricable from the history of social movements. In the nineteenth century, married women fought for legal personhood and the right to own property independent of their husbands. In the early 1900s, women mobilized for the right to vote. And beginning in the 1960s, “second-wave” feminists...

Hand-drawn image in charcoal or pencil of three female figures, bottles, papers, trees, and a large leaf

Love of Hebrew and Yiddish leads Allison Schachter to hidden stories of women authors

Mar. 2, 2021—Allison Schachter, an associate professor of Jewish studies, English, and Russian and East European studies, never intended to end up in her current field. After studying French and Hebrew as an undergraduate, she entered graduate school for comparative literature and planned to focus on seventeenth-century drama. But her love of learning new languages repeatedly drew...

Group photo of faculty at the dedication of Vanderbilt's Callie House Research Center: Vanderbilt's Houston Baker, Tiffany Patterson, Tracy Sharpley-Whiting, Allice Randall, and Gilman Whiting, and University of Pennsylvania's Mary Frances Berry, all dressed in black, gray, and white

Tiffany Ruby Patterson: Raising the voices of the unheard

Feb. 17, 2021—From a young age, Associate Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies Tiffany Ruby Patterson loved to learn. She read voraciously throughout her childhood: a set of World Book encyclopedias purchased by her uncle, an entire library left behind by the former owner of her family’s apartment building. That early love of books continued into...

Associate Professor of Chemistry Renã Robinson, wearing a white lab coat and safety goggles, bends over to look at materials being shown to her by a student wearing a blue lab coat and safety goggles, while two other students, wearing goggles and lab coats, work in the background in Robinson's chemistry lab

Renã Robinson: Helping others through the power of research and representation

Feb. 11, 2021—For Associate Professor of Chemistry Renã Robinson, science has long been about helping people. She was an avid scientist-in-training throughout her childhood and went to college intending to become a cardiac surgeon. But when she got close to the end of her undergraduate career, she said, “I realized I just didn’t have another 12 years...

Persistence in a pandemic: College of Arts and Science students work for social change through nonprofit organizations

Oct. 30, 2020—Though the COVID-19 pandemic scuttled many students’ original summer 2020 plans, College of Arts and Science students adapted quickly. Through technology, creativity, and determination, they found ways to expand their horizons and continue preparing for life after Vanderbilt. Students Rashmi Bharadwaj and Joe Miller both want to make an impact on society. This summer, they...

Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, The Wond’ry collaborate on undergraduate coffee studies program

Sep. 29, 2020—Americans love coffee: according to Statista, two-thirds of us drink at least two cups per day. Many people, however, are unaware that the popular drink has a complicated past—and present. Together with The Wond’ry, the College of Arts and Science’s Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities aims to close that knowledge gap. Beginning this...

Gilman Whiting and students from his capoeira class pose, masked and socially distanced, on lawn in front of Wilson Hall

Professor uses centuries-old martial arts form to educate students about Brazilian democracy

Sep. 15, 2020—On a hot, muggy August evening, a group of masked students followed Gilman Whiting, associate professor of African American and Diaspora Studies, onto the lawn in front of Wilson Hall. There, they took up socially distanced positions and began working their way through a series of exercises designed to encourage rhythm, flexibility, balance, and cooperation....