Social Sciences

Undergraduate students at A&S have unique opportunities to conduct a wide range of research, discovery, and scholarship during their time on campus. As an undergraduate researcher, Pax Poggi BA’25 studies the intersection of mathematics and consciousness. Hear about his work with the integrated information theory of consciousness,… Read More

From participating in high school student government to leading as AASA President, Vanderbilt Chancellor’s Scholar Jack Mok (BA’22 Political Science & Economics) has dedicated his academic career to finding belonging and giving back to the community through advocacy. Read More

“Leadership is a choice – a title doesn’t entitle you to anything.” That is the belief of Patrick Leddin, associate professor of the practice of managerial studies, as he guides readers through the journey to becoming a successful leader in his new book, The 5 Week Leadership… 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

Women’s History Month is both an opportunity and an invitation: an opportunity to learn more about an often-hidden side of history and culture, and an invitation to develop a new awareness, concerns, and habits of learning that can carry through the rest of the year. As part of the College… Read More

Holly McCammon, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Sociology 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… Read More

Samar S. Ali, JD’06, BS’03, has joined the faculties of the Department of Political Science and Law School as a research professor focusing on international law and conflict resolution. Samar S. Ali, JD’06, BS’03, has joined the Vanderbilt faculty as a research professor in political science and… Read More

Vanderbilt University’s first ROTC cadet corps poses for a farewell photo near what is now the main entrance to campus. They left shortly after to serve in World War I. A little more than one hundred years ago, rows of young men stood at attention for a portrait in front… Read More

William Schmid Growing up, William Schmid excelled at math and science. He assumed that meant he was destined for a career in engineering: after all, his father was an engineer, and most of the people in his immediate family had studied the subject in college. “It seemed like the obvious… Read More

Joshua D. Clinton, Abby and Jon Winkelried Chair and Professor of Political Science (John Russell/Vanderbilt University) On election night, tens of millions of Americans will turn on their televisions, log onto the internet, or pick up their smartphones for a unified purpose: learning the identity of the next President of… 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

Are student loans a smart way to pay for college? Is pawning jewelry ever a good way to acquire extra cash? And why do humans have so much trouble making smart financial decisions? Economics faculty Paige Marta Skiba and Lesley Turner are researching the answers to… Read More

Noam Lupu (Steve Green/Vanderbilt University) New research from Associate Professor of Political Science Noam Lupu challenges several common assumptions about white working-class support for President Donald Trump. Lupu conducted the research, outlined in the article “The White Working Class and the 2016 Election,” with… 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

Amidst all the uncertainty caused by COVID-19, one constant has held: researchers across the College of Arts and Science have dedicated their efforts to understanding the virus, how to control it, and how it impacts our communities. Jennifer Trueblood, associate professor of psychology, and… Read More

Dara Johnson insists she wants to spend time after graduation on a bus—a mobile dental clinic, to be exact. The Montgomery, Alabama, native is well-versed in the power of buses for social change. From Rosa Parks to the Freedom Riders, buses have been a potent symbol of change in Johnson’s… Read More

Faculty from the Department of Political Science traveled to Taiwan in January to witness one of the country’s most significant presidential elections to date. Professor Josh Clinton, Associate Professor Brett Benson, and Assistant Professor Brad Smith were part of a larger academic delegation invited by Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign… Read More

In middle school, Allison Booher (BA’21) already knew she wanted to be a doctor. Since then, she has set out on a pursuit to make it a reality. When Booher enrolled at Vanderbilt, she charted out a traditional path to medical school as a biochemistry major in the College… Read More

Vanderbilt’s LAPOP lab for international survey research has received a $10 million, five-year U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) grant to support its influential AmericasBarometer survey and related activities. The grant is the third received from USAID, which has a long-standing collaborative relationship with LAPOP. LAPOP… Read More

A standing-room-only crowd packed the Flynn Auditorium on November 14 to hear Nobel Laureate Esther Duflo deliver the David Steine Lecture in Economics, sponsored by the College of Arts and Science Department of Economics. Duflo, who is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor… Read More