Vanderbilt University is a private research university of about 6,500 undergraduates and 5,300 graduate and professional students. The university comprises 10 schools, a distinguished medical center, a public policy center and The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center.
Vanderbilt offers undergraduate programs in the liberal arts and sciences, engineering, music, education and human development as well as a full range of graduate and professional degrees.
The university is consistently ranked as one of the nation’s top 20 universities by publications such as U.S. News & World Report, with several programs and disciplines ranking in the top 10.
The horrific collapse of a factory in Bangladesh that killed hundreds sent American scrambling for ways to ensure this doesn't happen again. A professor explains why boycotts are not the answer.
How do we think about something we can’t see and don’t experience in our everyday lives, but seems to be pushing our universe apart ever faster?
NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth, D. Magee, and P. Oesch (University of California, Santa Cruz), R. Bouwens (Leiden University), and the HUDF09 Team
Einstein's theory of gravity says dark energy must be out there, accelerating the expansion of our universe. But what is it and how can we try to figure out more about it?
The Hubble Space Telescope launched 25 years ago in 1990. But O'Dell started on the project in 1972, garnering support for the world's first telescope free of Earth's atmosphere's blurring effects.
Gay couple Andrew Wale (on right) and Neil Allard hold hold each other as they are interviewed by the media after marrying in the first same-sex wedding at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, southern England March 29, 2014.
Reuters/Luke MacGregor
The Presbyterian Church (USA) vote to allow gay marriage will have multiple consequences now and in decades to come.
A volunteer receives a trial Ebola vaccine at the Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine in Oxford, southern England January 16, 2015.
Eddie Keogh/Reuters
Prior to the 1970s, almost all Phase I and II drug trials were conducted on prisoners. Our standards have gotten better since then, but still need revision.
Two views of Ceres acquired by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft ten hours apart on Feb. 12, 2015, from a distance of about 52,000 miles as the dwarf planet rotated.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
With increasing knowledge and familiarity, we'll no longer be able to identify meaningful criteria to keep these good planets down.
Former US Poet Laureate Philip Levine (1928-2015) was down to earth and humble. But he spared no rage towards those he deemed selfish and narcissistic.
Brooklyn Book Festival/Flickr
Kate Daniels, the director of Vanderbilt's creative writing program, recalls the life and work of her mentor, a man "devoted...to creating gritty and empathetic portraits of American blue collar workers."
Some consolidation for what ails you?
lenetsta/Shutterstock
Last week’s release of Black Ice – the memoir of Val James, the first African American to play in the NHL – brought me back to when I was a teenager living in Boston. It was the winter of 1978 – the year…
An aha moment at Truckee Meadows Community College.
flickr.com
Not since the 1960s has a sitting President engaged in issues around higher education as frequently as Barack Obama. He’s had little choice. With runaway student debt, diminishing state and federal investments…
Editor’s note: “The state of the union is good,” and the attitude of President Barack Obama in his annual speech to Congress was upbeat. Good economic news and no more election campaigns were the backdrop…
Editor’s note: “The state of the union is good,” and the attitude of President Barack Obama in his annual speech to Congress was upbeat. Good economic news and no more election campaigns were the backdrop…
Caesars Entertainment argues the credit default swap market is giving at least one holder of its debt a perverse incentive to seek its default.
Shutterstock
In 2009, US trucking company YRC Worldwide faced ruin as it struggled to restructure its debt. With tens of thousands of jobs at stake, the Teamsters union, led by James Hoffa, accused some YRC bondholders…
What will your resolutions be?
Lucas Jackson/Reuters
In setting out our resolutions, we should first step back and take stock of what it is that we really want, what we consider the good life to be, and then think about how best we might achieve it.
What was the celestial body the three wise men followed 2,000 years ago?
epSos.de
The wise men were likely accomplished Greek astrologers, watching the stars for signs of a king’s birth. Technical terms used in the Bible’s description point to a real astronomical event.
There’s a lot to be rebuilt in downtown Havana
Jane Landers
As an historian who grew up in the Caribbean and who has been researching and traveling to Cuba since it was still a Soviet dependent, I have been asked frequently in the last few days my impression of…
In Cecil B. Demille’s The Ten Commandments, Charlton Heston’s Moses is presented straightforwardly as a man certain of his mission.
Wikimedia Commons
The term “reboot” means something particular in the movies. The metaphor is drawn from computers: a “reboot” restarts a machine whose software has malfunctioned. But in cinematic terms a reboot refers…
Privacy is often thought of as the right to be left alone. Yet, our lives are embedded in relationships – with people, with corporations, with government, and with technological devices – that can’t be…
Creativity is almost always viewed as an asset to individuals and organizations. But it can also lead to negative behaviors.
Kraigsta/Wikimedia Commons
Creativity – the generation of novel and useful ideas, products, or solutions – is seen as a valuable trait for people and organizations to possess. Organizations harness it to develop innovative products…
Seattle protests the Ferguson grand jury decision.
Jason Redmond/Reuters
Last week on ABC’s This Week, President Obama said, “My own experience tells me race relations continue to improve,” and “There’s no way to say race relations are worse than 20, 50 years ago.” It’s impossible…
Associate Professor of History; Associate Professor of Political Science; Associate Professor of Sociology; Associate Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University