Arts and Science Research Centers
Arts and Science Research Centers | Arts and Science Cores | Interdisciplinary Centers
Through major strategic investments by the university and through the generous support of our alumni and benefactors, the College of Arts and Science serves as a home to major centers, institutes, and initiatives that advance knowledge and impact through research, application, action, and community engagement.
Center for Effective Lawmaking
The Center for Effective Lawmaking was created in 2017 to advance the generation, communication, and use of new knowledge about the effectiveness of individual lawmakers and U.S. legislative insitutions.
Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies (CLACX)
The Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies fosters research and teaching that examines borders and intersections through comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives. With over 100 affiliated faculty, CLACX covers a wide range of research topics that aim to educate undergraduate and graduate students, K-16 educators, the business community, and the general public about Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx communities.
Center for Research on Inequality and Health
The Center for Research on Inequality and Health conducts cutting-edge, multi-disciplinary research to understand the causes and consequences of health-related inequalities. A joint effort between the College of Arts and Science and the School of Nursing, the center brings together scholarly strengths in population health science; LGBTQ+ health policy; gun violence; and economic and social inequality—and explores how they impact health.
Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions
The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions was created in 2009 to support systematic theoretical and empirical research on questions central to the survival and flourishing of democratic institutions in the United States and abroad.
Latin American Public Opinion Project
The Latin American Public Opinion Project came to Vanderbilt with its director, Mitchell Seligson, after 18 years at the University of Pittsburgh, where he held an endowed chair and founded LAPOP. Seligson, his colleagues, and his students have systematically surveyed the citizens of Latin America on their political views—specifically on democratic values and their behaviors related to democracy.
Noncommutative Geometry and Operator Algebras
The Noncommutative Geometry and Operator Algebras research group consists of faculty members, postdocs, visitors, and graduate students with scientific interests in noncommutative geometry, the theory of subfactors, von Neumann algebras, K-theory of operator algebras, operator theory, coarse geometry, index theory, analysis on manifolds, controlled topology, stratified spaces, harmonic analysis, quantum computing, and quantum information theory.
Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities
The Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities began its programs in 1988 under the auspices of the College of Arts and Science, with the help of many generous supporters. Since then, the center has served as a place where faculty and students from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences gather to share ideas and teach one another. The Warren Center sponsors teacher training, lectures, and publications designed to promote the importance of the humanities in today's world.
Rogers Center for the American Presidency
The Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Center for the American Presidency pioneers an innovative approach to the U.S. presidency, thinking expansively about the presidency as both an institution and an idea. Scholars explore the presidency not only from the vantage point of the Oval Office, but also the way it transforms—and is transformed by—movements, people, and events across the world. The Rogers Center brings together scholars of the presidency from across the country in conferences and workshops that support cutting-edge research on executive power. The center also provides financial support to Vanderbilt undergraduate and graduate students studying the presidency.
Vanderbilt Center for Languages
The Vanderbilt Center for Languages emphasizes the importance of learning new languages as a stepping stone to community exploration and cultural exchange. The center hosts frequent coffee hours and weekly tutoring sessions to help all students practice and master their chosen languages.
Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education
The Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education unites physical scientists and engineers from across campus who have interest in working at the interface between the physical sciences, engineering, and biological sciences. VIIBRE researchers focus primarily on research in cellular instrumentation and control, technology-guided therapy, biological applications of nanosystems, and cellular/tissue bioengineering and biotechnology.