Vanderbilt University College of Arts and Science

Vanderbilt University College of Arts and Science The College of Arts and Science is the oldest and largest school at Vanderbilt University. Collaboration across disciplines permeates everything we do.

We’re a place where students learn enduring, widely applicable habits of mind, build community, and discover who they are and who they want to become. Diversity--of ideas, backgrounds, opportunities, and topics--is foundational to our strength and fundamental to the Arts and Science experience. We are also Vanderbilt’s oldest, largest, and most academically diverse school, with 35 departments and

programs offering more than 60 unique majors and minors in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. Housed within a nationally-ranked R1 university, we pride ourselves on our dual focus on undergraduate teaching and world-changing research. Explore our page to learn more about who we are, or visit our website at as.vanderbilt.edu!

A&S students are bringing new perspectives to the work of Charles Baudelaire.This year, the Fondation Claude Pichois awa...
06/05/2026

A&S students are bringing new perspectives to the work of Charles Baudelaire.

This year, the Fondation Claude Pichois awarded funding to three students pursuing research on the influential 19th-century French poet. A partnership between Vanderbilt’s W.T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies and the Fondation de France, students will receive 5,000 euros each to produce original written work that may be accompanied by an exhibit, public talk, performance, or other research output.

Learn more about their projects 👉 vu.edu/v4cc1

Vanderbilt University Libraries

06/04/2026

Vanderbilt has named Elizabeth Zechmeister vice provost for graduate education and growth initiatives, dean of the Vanderbilt University Graduate School and the director of the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, effective July 1.

Zechmeister succeeds C. André Christie-Mizell, whose five-year term as dean concludes June 30 after a period of devoted leadership and service to graduate education at Vanderbilt.

Learn more: https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2026/06/03/vanderbilt-names-elizabeth-zechmeister-vice-provost-of-graduate-education-and-growth-initiatives-dean-of-graduate-studies/

The College of Arts and Science’s high-energy nuclear physics group continues to excel with prestigious national fellows...
06/03/2026

The College of Arts and Science’s high-energy nuclear physics group continues to excel with prestigious national fellowships and accolades.

Ph.D. candidate Jordan Dias-Gaylor received a DOE Office of Science Graduate Fellowship for her work in experimental high-energy nuclear physics and will expand upon her research with collaborators at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Incoming Ph.D. candidates Isa Fite and Olivia Nippe-Jeakins each received NSF Graduate Research Fellowships. Fite plans to study high-energy nuclear theory, while Nippe-Jeakins will pursue experimental high-energy nuclear physics.

Postdoctoral researcher Henry Hirvonen received the Prize of the PhD Mikael Björnberg Memorial Fund from the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters.

Congratulations to all!

A new study from Julie Ward examines how Florida counties implement the state’s extreme risk firearm law, or “red flag” ...
06/02/2026

A new study from Julie Ward examines how Florida counties implement the state’s extreme risk firearm law, or “red flag” law.

The law is designed to prevent gun violence by temporarily removing fi****ms from people at risk of harming themselves or others; however, researchers found significant variation in how often it is used across counties. These findings provide new insight that could help researchers and policymakers evaluate the law’s effectiveness as a public health tool and raise important questions about equity and access.

Read more: https://as.vanderbilt.edu/news/2026/05/28/new-study-finds-floridas-extreme-risk-firearm-law-applied-differently-across-counties/

Helen Makhdoumian, a Collaborative Humanities Postdoctoral Scholar, has received the prestigious 2026 American Council o...
05/29/2026

Helen Makhdoumian, a Collaborative Humanities Postdoctoral Scholar, has received the prestigious 2026 American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, joining 63 scholars selected nationwide across the humanities and social sciences.

The fellowship will support six to 12 months of full-time research and writing. In her project, “Afterwords,” Makhdoumian will examine how contemporary American Indian, First Nations, Armenian, and Palestinian writers use layered storytelling, or nested memory work, to depict the enduring effects of displacement, settler colonialism, and violence across generations.

Congratulations to Raisa Rexer, associate professor of French, on being selected for the inaugural cohort of fellows for...
05/27/2026

Congratulations to Raisa Rexer, associate professor of French, on being selected for the inaugural cohort of fellows for the National Fellowship on the Future of Liberal Education (NFFLE)!

This highly selective, multi-year program brings together newly tenured faculty members to explore the most pressing challenges facing liberal arts education in the U.S. Rexer will collaborate with leading higher education experts to discuss urgent issues and develop strategies to strengthen liberal education.

Congratulations to Brandt Eichman, the first Vanderbilt faculty member to receive the prestigious Royal Society Wolfson ...
05/26/2026

Congratulations to Brandt Eichman, the first Vanderbilt faculty member to receive the prestigious Royal Society Wolfson Visiting Fellowship! Through December 15, 2027, Eichman will continue his Vanderbilt research at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England; attend conferences and deliver academic lectures; and participate in events hosted by the Royal Society and the University of Cambridge.

Read more about Eichman’s research. 🔗vu.edu/zqh6o

How do we navigate the onslaught of information coming at us, shaped by algorithms, viral narratives, and biases?At Vand...
05/20/2026

How do we navigate the onslaught of information coming at us, shaped by algorithms, viral narratives, and biases?

At Vanderbilt’s McGee Applied Research Center for Narrative Studies, faculty and students tackle that question head-on through interdisciplinary collaborations, media literacy programming, and analysis of more than 62,000 hours of television news. Under Kristy Roschke’s leadership, over the past year the new center has expanded its impact by helping people cut through the noise and engage more thoughtfully with the media shaping our lives.

Read more about the McGee Center’s work and goals.

🔗https://as.vanderbilt.edu/news/2026/04/30/shaping-the-future-of-media-literacy-inside-vanderbilts-mcgee-applied-research-center-for-narrative-studies/

How does violent crime affect an individual’s mental health? New research from Assistant Professor Panka Bencsik examine...
05/19/2026

How does violent crime affect an individual’s mental health?

New research from Assistant Professor Panka Bencsik examined how local violence impacts mental health and stress. By pairing real-time, daily data with local crime reports, researchers found that a person is immediately impacted when a violent crime against another person occurs near their home. This offers new insights into how crime shapes individual well-being, and why it matters for policy and prevention.

Read more: vu.edu/hl618

Assistant Professor Lin Meng has been named an Early Career Fellow by the Ecological Society of America, recognizing her...
05/18/2026

Assistant Professor Lin Meng has been named an Early Career Fellow by the Ecological Society of America, recognizing her research on how vegetation responds to climate and human activity and what those shifts mean for communities.

Her work in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences focuses on phenology, which includes the production of leaves, flowering, and leaf fall. By linking large-scale environmental data with local, lived impacts, her work highlights how even subtle ecological shifts can influence urban environments, public health, and long-term sustainability strategies.

“Some of the changes I study are subtle, but those small shifts add up to real consequences for how people experience cities, from allergy exposure to heat. That connection is what drives my work,” Meng said. “This fellowship gives me room to ask bigger questions and build collaborations that cut across ecology, public health, and urban planning. I want to make these changes more visible in ways that people can actually use.”

Congratulations, Lin Meng!

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