INTERDISCIPLINARY GROUPS, PROGRAMS AND CENTERS

History sponsors the Forum for the History of Science, Medicine and Technology, which brings together scholars who share a common interest in exploring the role of science, medicine, and technology in the development of the modern world.  Our faculty, whose research ranges across historical fields and research methodology, share a commitment to facilitating the integration of science, technology, and medicine into historical study, regardless of regional or temporal specialization.  The Forum sponsors guest speakers, internal lectures, and the opportunity for intellectual exchange among faculty and students – from within the department and across the university.   The Forum is closely linked with the Science Studies Seminar at the Robert Penn Warren Center.  This interdisciplinary group comprises faculty from the hard sciences, social sciences, and humanities with a shared interest in the history and sociology of scientific thought and practice, issues of scientific methodology and its application across disciplines, and the social function of scientific knowledge. The group meets on the fourth Monday of each month at the Warren Center.  Please contact Ole Molvig (History) to be added to the group listserv.

With the Department of English, History co-sponsors multiple activities in the area of British Studies, covering a wide interdisciplinary range.  The main disciplines are history, literature, art history, and religion, but the program embraces the humanities, social sciences, and professional schools.  British studies sponsors guest lectures, symposia, and film series to which faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students are invited.  In addition, a new initiative with Warwick University will facilitate intellectual exchange between faculty members and graduate students, and provide opportunities to study abroad at a major British university.

Together with the Law School, History co-sponsors an occasional law-history workshop.    Past topics have included “Race, Law, and the Atlantic World” (April, 2009) and “States, Tribes, and the Nation in Nineteenth-Century America” (March, 2010).

Many other opportunities for interdisciplinary engagement can be found elsewhere.  The Department of Political Science sponsors a Social and Political Thought Workshop. The Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities houses on-going seminars in areas ranging from circum-Atlantic studies to postcolonial theory, science studies, and early modern cultural studies.  A partial listing of other centers and programs whose activities would be of interest to historians would include the Center for Latin American Studies, the Center for Medicine Health, and Society, the Max Kade Center for European and German Studies, and the programs in African American and Diaspora Studies, American Studies, Asian Studies, Jewish Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies.    International Lens, a film series with a global perspective, uses film screenings as a forum to promote conversation among Vanderbilt’s diverse community of students, faculty, and staff. Each film is introduced by a commentator, usually a Vanderbilt faculty member, and is followed by a discussion.  Many of these sessions will be of interest to historians.