Affiliated Faculty
Affiliated A&S Faculty
Houston Baker
Distinguished University Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies
Specialties: African American literary criticism & theory; black & Afro-American literature; modernism
Alice Randall
Writer in Residence for African American and Diaspora Studies and English
Specialties: Creative writing; soul food; African-American’s children’s literature; African-American film
Tracy D. Sharpley-Whiting
Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Distinguished Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies and French
Chair of African American and Diaspora Studies
Director of the Callie House Center for the Study of Global Black Cultures and Politics
Specialties: 18th and 19th century literature and culture; Jazz Age; Black diaspora women writers
Sophie Bjork-James
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Specialties: Political ethics; American evangelism; contemporary white supremacy; national movements; critical race theory
Beth Conklin
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Specialties: Ethnographies; anthropology; death & mourning; politics of indigenous rights; religion & ritual
Robert Campany
Gertrude Conway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities
Professor of Asian Studies
Specialties: Late classical and early medieval Chinese religious history; East Asian Buddhism
Gerald Figal
Chair of Asian Studies
Professor of Asian Studies and History
Specialties: Modern Japanese cultural & intellectual history; Postwar Okinawa; war memorialization; critical theory; cultural studies; Japanese animation
Susan Verberne-Sutton
Senior Lecturer of Chemistry
Jennifer Fay
Chair of Cinema & Media Arts
Professor of Cinema & Media Arts and English
Specialties: Film & cultural politics; contemporary cinema of ecological displacement; cinema & film theory
Kathy L. Gaca
Associate Professor of Classical and Mediterranean Studies
Specialties: Women, war, and emergent humanitarian concerns in antiquity & the modern day
Vanessa Beasley
Associate Professor of Communication Studies
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
Specialties: Presidential rhetoric; US political communication; rhetorical criticism & theory
Bonnie J. Dow
Professor of Communication Studies
Dean of Academic Affairs for the College of Arts & Science
Specialties: Rhetoric & representation of the first & second waves of feminism in the US
Claire Sisco King
Associate Professor of Communication Studies
Director of Undergraduate Studies for Communication Studies
Specialties: Critical/cultural studies; gender politics
John M. Sloop
Professor of Communication Studies
Specialties: Rhetorical theory & criticism; public discourse; gender studies
Isaac West
Associate Professor of Communication Studies
Specialties: Rhetorics of law; legal studies; cultural studies; queer/LGBTQ studies; social movements; popular culture
Christopher (Kitt) Carpenter
E. Bronson Ingram Chair and Professor of Economics
Director of the LGBT Policy Lab and Public Policy Studies
Specialties: Public policy interventions on health behaviors
Candice Amich
Assistant Professor of English
Specialties: Transnational performance; feminist aesthetics; poetics & politics; literary globalization studies; postcolonial studies
Lynn E. Enterline
Nancy Perot Chair Professor of English
Director of Undergraduate Studies for English
Specialties: Early modern literature; histories of sexuality; rhetoric & emotion in the English, Latin, Greek, and Italian traditions
Kate Daniels
Edwin Mims Professor of English
Specialties: Art of medical writing; creative writing
Alex Dubilet
Assistant Professor of English
Specialties: Contemporary continental philosophy; critical theory; political theology; philosophy of religion; modern & contemporary political theory; history & theory of Christian mysticism; secularity; secularism; film & film theory
Julia A. Fesmire
Principal Senior Lecturer of English
Specialties: Critical legal theory; world literature; women & gender studies; colonial & post-colonial literature
Teresa Goddu
Associate Professor of English and American Studies
Specialties: Slavery & antislavery; race & American culture; print culture; material & visual culture; genre studies
Jessie Hock
Assistant Professor of English
Specialties: English & French poetry; classical reception history; history of science; materialist thought; aesthetics & poetics; contemporary philosophy & critical theory
Scott Juengel
Associate Professor of English
Specialties: Catastrophic events in literature; relationship between cosmopolitan hospitality, human rights, and novel worlds in romantic era fiction
Vera M. Kutzinski
Martha Rivers Ingram Professor of English
Professor of Comparative Literature
Director of the Alexander von Humboldt in English (HiE) Project
Director of Graduate Studies for English
Specialties: American, Caribbean, and Latin American literary and cultural history; translation studies
Elizabeth S. Meadows
Principal Senior Lecturer of English
Associate Director of the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities
Specialties: Social & material power of literary form in the Victorian period; sexuality & gender
Dana D. Nelson
Chair of English
Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English
Specialties: American literature; citizenship; democracy; US government
Ifeoma C. Nwankwo
Associate Professor of English
Associate Provost for Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships
Specialties: African-American & Caribbean literature and culture; paradigms for intercultural interactions
Bridget E. Orr
Associate Professor of English
Specialties: Cultural encounter & empire in the Restoration and 18th century English theatre; writings about and by New Zealanders, Maori, and Pacific Islanders
Nancy Reisman
Professor of English
Specialties: Creative writing; short fiction
Mark L. Schoenfield
Professor of English
Specialties: Law & literature; romantic constructions of the self
Kathryn Schwarz
Professor of English
Specialties: Shakespearean sexualities; Sixteenth and Seventeenth-century prose fictions; feminist & queer theories
Hortense J. Spillers
Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor Emerita of English
Specialties: Black culture & women; early Republican formations; the early modern black subject
Holly A. Tucker
Mellon Foundation Chair in the Humanities
Professor of French
Director of the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities
Specialties: Narrative medicine; medicine & literature; early history of medicine
Nathalie Debrauwere-Miller
Associate Professor of French and Jewish Studies
Director of Graduate Studies for French & Italian
Specialties: Feminism and Jewish studies; francophone literature
Lynn Ramey
Professor of French
Faculty Director of the Center for Digital Humanities
Specialties: French culture & literature; computing applications for the humanities
Virginia M. Scott
Professor Emerita of French & Applied Linguistics
Professor of Education
Specialties: Dynamic models of multilingualism and impact of critical language awareness on student identity
Meike Werner
Associate Professor of German and European Studies
Chair of French & Italian
Director of Graduate Studies for German, Russian, and East European Studies
Specialties: German literature; print media; intellectual history
Thomas A.J. McGinn
Professor of History, Law, and Classical and Mediterranean Studies
Specialties: Latin literature; Roman law; social history
Catherine Molineux
Associate Professor of History
Specialties: Early modern British Atlantic world; race, slavery, and empire
Ruth Rogaski
Associate Professor of History
Specialties: History of Qing & Twentieth-century China; history of medicine & science, women’s & gender history; social & cultural history in modern East Asia
Arleen M. Tuchman
Nelson O. Tyrone, Jr. Chair in History
Professor of History
Specialties: Cultural history of health & disease; medical constructions of gender & sexuality
Kimberly M. Welch
Associate Professor of History
Assistant Professor of Law
Specialties: Slavery, race, and the law in the American South
Edward Wright-Rios
Mellon Foundation Chair in the Humanities
Professor of History
Chair of History
Specialties: Modern Mexico; Latin America; cultural history; religious change;
Vivien G. Fryd
Professor Emerita of History of Art
Specialties: American art; colonial art history; American studies; gender studies
Tracy G. Miller
Associate Professor of History of Art
Specialties: History of art & architecture in East Asia; ritual & garden architecture; temples
Amy-Jill Levine
Mary Jane Werthan University Professor of Jewish Studies
University Professor Emerita of New Testament Studies
Specialties: New Testament studies & early Christianity; Jewish studies; feminist theology
Adam S. Meyer
Associate Professor of Jewish Studies
Specialties: Twentieth-century American literature & culture; relations between Blacks & Jews
Allison H. Schachter
Chair of Jewish Studies
Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and English
Specialties: Modern Jewish literature & culture; modernism; transnationalism; diaspora studies
Emanuelle Oliveira
Associate Professor of Luso-Brazilian and Afro-Brazilian Literature
Specialties: Afro-Brazilian literature; race relations; the Afro-Diasporic experience; literature of human rights; Brazilian cinema & popular culture
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Health, and Society
Specialties: Critical disability theory; feminist science studies; feminist theory; urban studies; philosophy of science & medicine
Director of Medicine, Health, and Society
Frederick B. Rentschler II Professor of Sociology and Medicine, Health, and Society
Professor of Psychiatry
Specialties: Psychiatry; race & health; history of mental health; gender & politics
Courtney S. Peterson
Senior Lecturer of Medicine, Health, and Society
Director of Undergraduate Major Advising for Medicine, Health, and Society
Specialties: Sociology of mental health; social psychology & gender; sexuality & sexual identity
JuLeigh Petty
Assistant Director, Director of Graduate Studies, and Director of Evaluation for Medicine, Health, and Society
Principal Senior Lecturer of Medicine, Health, and Society
Specialties: Regulation of research ethics; organizational & institutional effects of medical research on HIV clinics; interaction of race, stress, and premedical education
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Health, and Society
Specialties: LGBT health; health disparities; population health; health care reform
Professor of Medicine, Health, and Society
Director of the Center for Research on Men’s Health
Associate Professor of Health Policy
Specialties: Men’s health; health disparities & equity; qualitative research; community-based participatory research
Kelly Oliver
W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy
Specialties: 19th and 20th Century continental philosophy; contemporary French philosophy
Idit Dobbs-Weinstein
Associate Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Studies
Specialties: Aristotle; Medieval Judaism; political philosophy; philosophy of history; critical theory
Brooke A. Ackerly
Professor of Political Science
Specialties: Feminist methodologies; feminist theory; political thought; intersections of environmental/economic/gender justice
Ellen Armour
E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Chair in Religion and Gender and Sexuality
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Associate Professor of Feminist Theology
Director of the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality
Specialties: Feminist theology; theories of sexuality, race, gender, disability, and embodiment; contemporary continental philosophy
Richard McGregor
Associate Professor of Religion and Islamic Studies
Specialties: Islamic intellectual & mystical traditions; Qu’ran interpretation; Sufism; study of Islam
Bonnie Miller-McLemore
E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Religion, Psychology, and Culture, Emerita
Specialties: Religion, psychology, and culture; practical theology; women and childhood studies; pastoral care
Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
Specialties: History of African-American religion; religious consciousness & the body
Laurel C. Schneider
Professor of Religious Studies
Specialties: Modern and postmodern Christian thought; gender theory; sociology of religion; Native American religious studies; postcolonial theory; queer theory
Laura M. Carpenter
Associate Professor of Sociology
Specialties: Gender, sexuality, health, and medicine
Amy Cooter
Senior Lecturer of Sociology
Specialties: Nationalism; race & ethnicity; gender
Shaul Kelner
Associate Professor of Sociology and Jewish Studies
Specialties: Jewish diaspora studies; contemporary Jewish political identities
Holly J. McCammon
Professor of Sociology and Law
Specialties: Social movements; women’s legal rights; political sociology
Richard N. Pitt
Associate Professor of Sociology
Specialties: Academic identity; professional identity; religion
Terrie Spetalnick
Lecturer of Sociology
Specialties: Intersectionality; citizen agency; social justice
Earl E. Fitz
Professor of Spanish & Portuguese and Comparative Literature
Specialties: Brazilian literature; comparative literature; Spanish-American literature; Inter-American literary studies
Cathy L. Jrade
Chancellor’s Professor of Spanish
Specialties: Modernismo and modern Latin American poetry
Christina Karageorgou-Bastea
Associate Professor of Spanish
Specialties: Critical theory; Latin American literature; utopian literature; Spanish literature
Michelle N. Murray
Assistant Professor of Spanish
Specialties: Spanish literature; film; literary theory; gender studies; cultural studies
Elena Olazagasti-Segovia
Principal Senior Lecturer of Spanish and Portuguese
Specialties: Contemporary Spanish women novelists; Latina writers; Puerto Rican women writers
Benigno L. Trigo
Professor of Spanish
Specialties: Latin American literature; women’s writing; psychoanalysis; Puerto Rican studies
Associate Professor of Theatre
Director of Undergraduate Studies for Theatre
Specialties: Cultural roles of theatre designers during the modern development of their profession
Senior Lecturer of Theatre
Costume Designer and Costume Shop Manager
Specialties: History of fashion
Affiliated Faculty Across Vanderbilt
Melissa Snarr
E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Associate Professor of Ethics and Society
Specialties: Religion; social change; political ethics
Dean of the Divinity School
Distinguished Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society
Specialties: Christian ethics; cultural theory & studies; postmodernism & social postmodernism; womanist theology
Melinda F. Brown
Librarian for Inclusion Initiatives and Gender and Sexuality Studies
Director of the Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center
Specialties: Third wave feminism and history of the US
Colin Dayan
Robert Penn Warren Professor in the Humanities
Professor of Law
Specialties: American literature; English & French Caribbean literatures; Haitian historiography; American legal scholarship
Tracey E. George
Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs
Charles B. Cox III and Lucy D. Cox Family Chair in Law and Liberty
Professor of Political Science
Specialties: State judicial systems; judicial elections; multi-district litigation; legal education; contract law
Joni Hersch
Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair Professor of Law and Economics
Co-Director of the Ph.D. Program in Law and Economics
Specialties: Labor economics; discrimination; law & economics
Sara E. Igo
Andrew Jackson Chair in American History
Professor of Law, Political Science, and Sociology
Dean of Strategic Initiatives for the College of Arts & Science
Specialties: Modern American cultural & intellectual history; history of the human sciences; sociology of knowledge
Luis Leyva
Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education
Specialties: Math education; gender studies; higher education
Cynthia Cyrus
Vice Provost for Learning and Residential Affairs
Professor of Musicology
Specialties: Historical musical literacy; women’s monastic writings
Melanie Lowe
Associate Professor of Musicology
Specialties: 18th-century music; difference; electropop; scholarship of teaching
Rolanda L. Johnson
Assistant Dean for Diversity & Inclusion and Academics
Associate Professor of Nursing
Specialties: Health promotion of African-Americans; black racial identity; genetics; obesity