Anthropology

A university requires more than professors, administrators and students to run properly. The preparation of food, maintenance and cleaning of facilities, landscaping and groundskeeping work, and thousands of other essential tasks build the foundation o... Read More

“Creating cuisines is about building community through agriculture and bridging the local with the global,” said Ted Fischer, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Anthropology, during the opening session of “Food for Thought”—a free program presented by V... Read More

Is love real? Does it make you sick? From their unique perspectives across the arts and sciences, hear three Vanderbilt professors’ hot takes on age-old questions of love. Featured: Matthew Congdon, assistant professor of philosophy; Ashleigh Maxcey, senior lecturer and research assistant… Read More

By Jenna Somers   A transdisciplinary team at Vanderbilt University seeks to identify Tennessee communities at risk of exposure to toxic man-made chemicals in their drinking water. In response to a 2024 regulation from the U.S. Environmental Prote... Read More

Directly north of The Hermitage, on a slight rise at the edge of the wooded bottomland near a creek, investigators confirmed what they had seen on a historic map: a cemetery where an estimated 28 bodies of enslaved individuals who lived on the property... Read More

Tiffiny Tung, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Social and Natural Sciences, professor of anthropology and vice provost for undergraduate education, has been named a senior fellow in the Pre-Columbian Studies program at Harvard’s Dumbarton Oaks.... Read More

With a prestigious new grant, archaeologist Ari Caramanica will explore what ancient people can teach us about dealing with the most pressing environmental issue of our time. Read More

A new Vanderbilt University study challenges traditional views on childhood, emphasizing the role of cultural, social and historical factors in shaping policies on children’s health and well-being. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in collab... Read More

Steven Wernke, associate professor and chair of anthropology, has developed GeoPACHA (Geospatial Platform for Andean Culture, History and Archaeology), a web application that allows researchers to map archaeological sites in the Andes at a greater scale than ever before. GeoPACHA has enabled new discoveries about past human… Read More

Today, June 19, marks 156 years since Union Army General Gordon Granger proclaimed freedom from slavery in the state of Texas—the last state where the Emancipation Proclamation was enforced. At the time, an estimated 250,000 people were still enslaved in Texas. What began as an annual celebration in Texas’ Black… Read More

Founded in 1987, the College of Arts and Science’s Department of Anthropology has been a leader in Andean archaeology, an important subdiscipline that studies some of the world’s earliest human settlements. In recent years, the department has maintained that leadership position by diversifying its small Ph.D. cohorts… Read More

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… Read More

Vanderbilt’s College of Arts and Science has long had connections to Latin America. Through the Center for Latin American Studies, the work of Latin American specialists in departments such as history and anthropology, and numerous student and faculty research trips, the college has forged strong… Read More