April Evans

Cecil Jones, Jr., professor of theatre, emeritus, who taught at Vanderbilt for 29 years, died on March 18 in Nashville. He was 92. Born in Nashville, he completed his undergraduate education at Vanderbilt, graduating with a bachelor of arts in 1951. He went on to earn his master’s degree… Read More

Extensive outreach and fact-finding from Vanderbilt community and beyond shape new curriculum design NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A significant faculty-led effort to redesign the aged College of Arts & Science undergraduate curriculum is nearing completion, aiming to provide a more integrated, inspiring, and enduring program of study for all A&S students. Read More

Mark Wollaeger, a professor of English, emeritus, former director of graduate studies in English, died on his birthday, February 19. He was 66. Wollaeger earned a bachelor of arts from Stanford University in 1979, and a Ph.D. in English from Yale University in 1986. He taught at Yale from… Read More

A group of scholars who work at the intersection of gender and race in the discipline of political theory recently convened for the first time as part of the new Oxford-Vanderbilt Gender, Race, and Political Theory Project. The project is being co-convened by Shatema Threadcraft, associate professor of gender and… Read More

Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholar Suman Mohanty, BA’25, spent her winter break doing something she’s always dreamed of—supporting a community she loves through teaching and medicine. Mohanty, a second-year medicine, health, and society and child development double major, traveled to the Dr. Isac Santra Balniketan Child Care Institution, an orphanage in Sambalpur,… Read More

Today, we’re talking with alumna Halee Robinson who graduated in 2019 with a double major in history and political science. She’s currently a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at Princeton University, studying the carceral state and state violence following the Civil War. Q.  Tell us about… Read More

Today, we’re talking with alumnus Skyler Gordon who graduated in 2016 with a double major in history and classical and Mediterranean studies. He’s currently a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at Princeton University, studying race and racism in the U.S. armed forces. Q.  Can you tell us… Read More

The group recently won the Annie Maunder Medal for outreach or public engagement in astronomy or geophysics from the Royal Astronomical Society KeShawn Ivory, a second-year graduate student working toward a Ph.D. in astrophysics, is co-director of events for Black in Astro, an organization that… Read More

Data gained could help with fire activity predictions and environmental planning NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A newly developed technique is revealing how prehistoric climate change shaped fire activity in California. The new data suggest that increased climate whiplash—change between extreme wetness and dryness—occurred at the same time as increases in fire… Read More

Steven Taylor, assistant professor of physics and astronomy Stephen Taylor, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, has been elected to a two-year term to NANOGrav, an international collaboration dedicated to exploring the low-frequency gravitational wave universe through pulsar timing. See the Q&A below to learn more about… Read More

Nashville, Tenn. — While knowing the ages of stars in the galaxy was once limited to a small number of stars painstakingly analyzed one at a time, a new age-dating method developed by a cohort of Vanderbilt and other researchers now allows for age estimates to occur for tens of thousands… Read More

  Left to right: Gilbert Gonzales, Savanna Starko, John Geer, Alissa Hare, Nathan Schley, Tiffany Patterson, Elizabeth Meadows, Rupinder Saggi, Bianca Manago, Sheri Shaneyfelt, Roger Moore On December 6, the College of Arts and Science recognized nine faculty members for outstanding teaching and advising. These annual awards acknowledge faculty… Read More

Mark Sapir, Centennial Professor of Mathematics (John Russell/Vanderbilt University) Mark V. Sapir, Centennial Professor of Mathematics, died in Nashville on Oct. 8, 2022. He was 65 years old. Sapir, who made significant research contributions in the areas of geometric group theory, semigroup theory and combinatorial algebra, was born in Russia on Feb. Read More

Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science is honored to welcome our newest faculty members for the 2022-23 academic year, who add to our growing community of distinguished scholars. “We’re thrilled to welcome these scholars as they join the talented and accomplished A&S faculty,” said John Geer, Ginny and Conner Searcy Dean… Read More

Second-year biological sciences Ph.D. student Lantana Grub has been named to the U.S. Department of Defense’s National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program (NDSEG). The incredibly competitive program awarded just 165 of 3,142 applicants this year. The program supports students working toward doctoral degrees in science… Read More

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—A four-year longitudinal study of older LGBTQ+ people in the South is being conducted to better identify the sources of stress and resilience for this infrequently studied population. Led by Tara McKay, assistant professor of medicine, health, and society, and her team, the Vanderbilt University Social Networks, Aging,… Read More

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Leaders of Vanderbilt’s LGBTQ+ Policy Lab have provided the first comprehensive evidence on the effects of access to legal same-sex marriage. Their efforts revealed that marriage access impacted the LGBTQ+ community positively in multiple ways. The first-of-its-kind study, published last year, analyzed aspects of both marriage and health in… Read More

The past academic year has been monumental for A&S astronomy faculty, a small cohort achieving on a meteoric scale. Their groundbreaking findings and numerous awards have kept the department at the forefront of the discipline, as they work to enhance the scientific understanding of our universe and train future scientists… Read More