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Professors Cornfield, Damon, Marcus, Russell, and Scott February 13, 2001
Charge to Caucus 6: To conduct an in-depth review of curricular offerings, programs, research projects, specialized knowledge and other academic activities in our sister Vanderbilt colleges for opportunities for additional synergistic collaboration with CAS at the undergraduate and graduate levels. We have interpreted the charge to mean that we should examine documents, reports, and catalogs of the other three undergraduate colleges as well as the five professional schools of the University with the objective of identifying potential collaborations. We anticipated that such collaborations might be successful programs in other schools which could be enhanced by input from College faculty, or they might be programs in other schools which could be made successful by College input, support or collaboration. Because we recognize our individual limitations to imagine what undertakings of the other schools may have synergistic potential with College faculty, we have cataloged what we find to be the major projects, programs and proposals upon which the other schools are basing their plans for the future. It is our hope that College colleagues with different perspectives may find opportunities for themselves, or others in the College, that we did not identify. This catalog is presented in Appendix III. Initial Caucus discussions identified a major difficulty in our task. We recognized that any serious proposal for joint research or cooperative projects, to be successful, must be supported by the faculty. The enthusiasm for a project must come from the faculty - it can not be imposed from above. The very nature of our charge is to identify projects, or programs, to propose for enhanced support, which would propel them to excellence. This charge requires that the projects were not put forward for such support (to university central) by other schools. Perhaps such a program was not proposed to SAPG because, while it was considered a prospect for excellence, it was viewed as internal to the school. Such a program would be ideal for SAPG if we identified faculty of other schools within the University that could contribute to the success of the program and enhance its prospects for national recognition. Where the Caucus anticipated difficulty was with proposals that had limited support in the school of origin and only potential support (in our judgment) in the College. In these cases, we have endeavored to identify possible synergies and the prospective collaborators. Any resultant proposal to SAPG would have to be formulated and proposed by those with specific expertise in the field.
Procedurally, each school/college was assigned a two-person team. That team reviewed the available documents to identify the most promising programs and/or research projects. The following documents were studied:
We proceeded to develop a list of programs, research projects or other academic activities which we believed had the potential to enhance, and to be enhanced by, interaction with A&S programs, departments or faculty. It should be noted, however, that some of the proposals listed in Appendices I and II were submitted to us by A & S faculty, not identified by us from programs underway in other schools. All of the proposals received, or created by the Caucus, are presented in either Appendix I or in Appendix II. The latter represent proposals more appropriate for another caucus and they have been so forwarded if they were not so submitted concurrently. Those in Appendix I represent proposals that we have formally evaluated, according to the SAP-CAS endorsed criteria for proposals. These proposals are now being forwarded to Caucus I. They warrant consideration for inclusion in the College Strategic Plan and we leave it Caucus 1 to determine what combination of proposals be submitted to SAPG and which of them should be submitted, by way of the Steering Committee, to the Dean of the College for consideration for College funding. Individual Caucus members graded each proposal on each of the ten criteria. Those "raw" scores are presented in Appendix IV. Also in Appendix IV is a table which normalizes the members' scores to make the levels comparable, and presents the average and standard deviation of the normalized scores for the five members for each criterion, for each proposal. We summed these criteria averages to ascertain the score for each proposal. We recognize that this implicitly gives equal value to each of the criteria and we do not believe that the criteria are of equal importance to the future of the College. We did not, however, attach weights to the criteria in order to determine the weighted ranking of the six proposals. Our grade for each proposal is forwarded with the proposal. Our numerical assessment of the proposals was consistent with our qualitative collective judgment that the proposals fell into three groups. This trifurcation placed the Health Institute and the Center for Gender and Sexuality in a top category. The Public Policy Masters Program and the Center for Language Acquisition were just below the top category. The Program in International Relations and the Center for e-Communication formed the lower tier of the six proposals. These latter two proposals were uniformly found to be low with respect to impact on graduate education, broad faculty interest, and enhancement of diversity. We believe that each of these proposals, individually, would add to the strength and reputation of Vanderbilt. The rankings we have provided suggest the relative magnitude of the impact each of the six proposals would have.
Proposals Under Consideration
We present here a catalog of what we find to be the major projects, programs and proposals upon which the other schools are basing their plans for the future. We do not claim that this catalog is exhaustive. We hope it may direct others to study in more detail these strategic plans. We have not summarized the strategic plan of the Nursing School since the body of that plan did not contain information symmetric with plans of the other schools.
Areas of current excellence:
Initiatives:
Medical Center recognized areas for potential synergy
[Note from the summarizer: These areas are "recognized" almost in passing. One does not get the impression that much weight was given to the idea of potential "synergy".].
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Faculty contact: Carolyn Dever, Department of English The study of gender and sexuality is of strong interest to researchers and teachers across the Vanderbilt community, and both nationally and globally, in contexts ranging from medicine to politics to art, concern with the cultural implications of gender and sexuality is a vital area of growth and innovation. Research in such questions has historically occurred across traditional disciplinary boundaries. It is therefore both fitting and urgent that Vanderbilt invest in a university-wide forum for the many scholars here concerned with gender and sexuality from the sciences and social sciences, the humanities, the arts, and the law. At present, our work takes place in a range of local contexts, and we therefore propose a widely-conceived program that will consolidate and strengthen the far-flung resources that already exist at Vanderbilt. An established center that will help to launch the proposed Program in Gender and Sexuality is the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality, endowed in 1995 and directed by Professor Amy-Jill Levine of the Divinity School. However, the Carpenter Program is limited in its ability to sponsor initiatives in the area of gender and sexuality that do not focus on issues related to religion. Prof. Levine has expressed an interest in more interaction with scholars studying the area from other perspectives and other schools of the university, and our proposed program would link her program with other strong areas of research around campus in what we are sure will be a fruitful and exciting interaction. One such site of connection is the nascent Women's Studies Research Center at Vanderbilt University, which is in the process of establishing itself following its endowment last year with a small fund from Chancellor Joe Wyatt. In response to our proposal for a centralized, interdisciplinary Program in Gender and Sexuality, Mona Frederick, Director of the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, has offered her facilities as a site for seminars and conferences in the field. And finally, we understand that as part of the Strategic Academic Plan, faculty from Peabody College have proposed the establishment of the Learning Sciences Institute, which will focus in part on diversity issues, a concern that would overlap productively with the aims of the Program in Gender and Sexuality. The program proposed here capitalizes on the momentum indicated by the recent establishment of both the Carpenter Program and the Women's Studies Research Center, and in concentrated interested in gender and sexuality on the part of faculty working in widely different disciplinary contexts. Because the program we propose represents a university-wide initiative, it will draw on the diversity of expertise available across the range of Vanderbilt schools. That breadth, combined with impressive depth in particular areas, will help to produce uniquely innovative scholarship and teaching. The program described here will foster a range of positive effects for the Vanderbilt community. It will increase the university's research profile in an important and highly visible arena that will in turn help Vanderbilt recruit new faculty as well as graduate and undergraduate students. It will enhance teaching on both the graduate and undergraduate levels. It will offer advice and support for the administration's recently proposed campus center for lesbian, gay, and bisexual students. And it will promote campus diversity by sponsoring research and teaching initiatives offered in the spirit of inclusion, that seek to expand our understanding of how the study of gender and sexuality can work in opposition to misogyny, homophobia, and racism. Initiatives to be implemented as part of a Program in Gender and Sexuality include:
The following faculty members have endorsed the proposed Program in Gender and Sexuality as part of the strategic plan: From the College of Arts and Sciences:
From the Blair School:
From the Divinity School:
From the Law School:
From Peabody
From the Medical School:
From the Nursing School:
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The Owen Graduate School of Management was the first in the country to offer electronic commerce classes. Owen remains the leader in the highly competitive marketplace of graduates specifically prepared to create, utilize and manage firms involved in electronic commerce. Last year more than 25 percent of Owen's graduating class went on to jobs in the e-commerce sector. Owen's electronic commerce program was recently rated Number 1 in the world by the American Universities Admission Program. Owen is also home to eLab, a pioneering Internet marketing research center. The Owen leadership position in this field could be enhanced by the University creating a Center which would incorporate faculty from the A&S Department of Economics, from the School of Law (specializing in intellectual property rights), from the School of Engineering (Computer Science Department), and perhaps from the Medical School, specializing in www development and utilization. E-businesses today are attracting many of the brightest and most creative minds. The Owen School is taking advantage of this development. There is potential for other schools to take advantage of Owen's lead while reinforcing their leading role. Faculty in the Law School specializing in commercial law, telecommunications, cyberspace law and intellectual property rights could buttress underlying legal issues. A course in this field specifically designed for J.D. candidates could enhance the already strong placement prospects for graduates of the Law School. Similarly, the inclusion in a liberal arts education of a course which embraces and explores the increasingly complex world of electronic commerce would be most attractive. The Internet has driven investment markets in recent years and created new value in a burgeoning economy. At the same time, it has raised substantive and fascinating economic questions. To cite one example, the Internet delivers goods (software, information, music, and video) at practically zero cost, and so challenges previous notions of price competition. New payment mechanisms provide for smaller economic transactions and make different pricing strategies feasible: pay-per-listen, subscription, and permanent ownership of rights to listen. Recent headline-making cases have demonstrated that the complexities of intellectual property include legal and economic components. The Napster case raises questions relating to compensation for artists and publishers. New transaction mechanisms such as the e-Bay auctions require economic investigation of such concerns as these: Do ascending-bid auctions produce more revenue than sealed-bid auctions? Do multi-attribute auctions produce more efficient outcomes than standard negotiations between buyers and sellers? Viewing the potential for e-commerce more broadly, political scientists might be interested in determining the advantages and implications of voting on line. The Fine Arts Department might investigate pre-testing of an art show on line. The potential for supporting the proposed Center for the Creative Arts for virtual theatre seems immense. This proposal is to fund a senior faculty position, perhaps a University Chair, which encompasses expertise in economics, law, and computer science with specific application to the electronic commerce industry. The scholar would coordinate the creation of an "Electronic Commerce Center", thereby enhancing the cooperation of A&S, Law and Engineering, as well as the informatics group in the Medical Center, in the Owen research program. The Center would also develop a curriculum open to students in the various schools. The various schools would be taking advantage of the excellent reputation in the field established by the Owen School and Owen would have its leadership position buttressed within the disciplines. Vanderbilt's Department of Economics already boasts one young scholar distinguished in this research field. Professor David Lucking-Reiley has published several essays on topics in electronic commerce and has won several grants to extend his investigations. In conducting experimental auctions on the Internet, he routinely includes undergraduates as well as graduate students. He has pioneered field experiments in which he varies the reservation prices and other dimensions of his auctions to measure effects on settlement prices and revenues. Other faculty members in Economics have interests in e-commerce are Malcolm Getz (currently working on a book on digital libraries) and James Foster (has expressed interest in the study of electronic technology and development economics). The department has several experts in the related fields of game theory, law and economics, and the effects of markets on consumer welfare. The University chair will be expected to develop and teach one or more undergraduate courses in the area of electronic commerce. The holder of the endowed chair will effectively coordinate the strong interests in electronic commerce across campus, bringing intellectual leadership to the University and beyond in this exciting area of investigation. The advances that Owen has made in this area could be carried over to A & S. Dean Elledge recently shared with me an announcement that Brandeis University is the first to create a Net Studies Program in the U. S. They have established a liberal arts curriculum in Internet Studies. New courses include Virtual Opera, Visual Culture, and Law and Society in Cyberspace. A Brandeis spokesman feels that "This really is a different frontier because it's geared so heavily toward undergraduates, and not to building businesses on the Internet." The same article (Patrick Healy, Globe Staff) reports that "A few universities have research centers devoted to the Internet, including Harvard, Yale, and the University of Washington. But Brandeis's minor is the first focused on the liberal arts, with a premium on the study of theWeb." It does seem that the University has an opportunity to be ahead of the wave, given Owen's successful investment in e-commerce. We could become know for leadership in this emerging field. Potential faculty participants:
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One of the major gaps in the undergraduate curriculum at Vanderbilt University is the absence of any program that would specifically prepare students for graduate training and careers in diplomacy, international organization and international business. A number of universities offer such programs, the best being Georgetown, but also a number of other institutions such as Colgate and Syracuse. Vanderbilt has several leading scholars who have published widely in the broad area of international relations, including those in the Law School. Bringing these individuals together into a coherent program could greatly enhance the University's reputation with a minimal investment and provide new opportunities for undergraduates and graduate education. The individuals below are committed to bringing such a program to fruition if we are encouraged to do so by the University. Below we outline a three-year plan. A NEW UNDERGRADUATE MAJOR The model we would follow would be that of the Latin American and European Studies major, except that we would anticipate within two years a fairly significant number of majors. The focus would be on relations among states and the politics, economics, and history of the international system. Students would be required to take 36 credits to complete the major. We would require an introductory course (from political science) with students then taking six credits from specific courses in each of three areas: political science, economics, and history. In addition, students would be required to take 6 credits in a cognate in one of the following: social psychology and negotiation, law, or conflict studies. The latter would involve faculty from departments that we have not yet contacted-e.g. in Owen, seniors might do work in the area of negotiation as well as international finance; in Divinity, students might do work on ethnics, or faculty from these schools might teach undergraduate courses. In anthropology, there are a number of leading experts on war, conflict, and peace. At this time, we have a commitment from Bill Smith in psychology to cover the first cognate area. Under a separate proposal, the Law School has agreed under certain circumstances to teach undergraduate courses in a "law and politics" program, and these would include courses in international or transnational law as well as conflict resolution that we would want to include as part of this program. Lastly, we would encourage (but not require) students to have some experience in a study abroad program. The London program already provides this outlet, but we would also explore sending our majors to summer programs in other countries where they could take IR courses taught in English by Vanderbilt faculty as well as improve their language skills in what for some will be a second foreign language. The program itself will not have any language requirements beyond the University's language requirement, but many students will exceed that requirement. Time Frame: Year 1 THE GRADUATE COMPONENT Such a program would provide a basis for faculty to work together to provide better graduate and in some cases professional training to students. We initially envision graduate students in political science and history will use the program to strengthen their training by bringing in interdisciplinary training for other A&S departments and the LAW, OWEN, and DIVINITY schools. These may be expanded to graduate students in other departments. Inter-school cooperation will be worked out in detail, and at this point the only plans along these lines are between A&S and LAW as exemplified by the Law and Politics proposal. Eventually we would hope to be in a position where professional students will be taking some graduate courses. We do not see the program itself offering any graduate degrees, but rather facilitating interdisciplinary training. However, this does not foreclose the possibility of developing some joint MA program with one of the professional schools down the road. Time Frame: Year 2 RESEARCH Interdisciplinary programs are important not only for teaching, but for research breakthroughs. Political science has assembled a team of internationally visible scholars who focus on the causes of war and the conditions of peace. A number of other individuals within the University have published important work in these and related areas. We will try to bring these individuals together to create a Center for the Study of Violence, War, and the Peaceful Resolution of Disputes. If such a center is to be created it must be from the bottom up through intellectual exchange, learning about each others' work, and working on common problems. We will use existing University opportunities to build a working intellectual community on these three research problems by applying for support through the Robert Penn Warren Center and the University Central Research Scholar Grants Program (for lectures and symposia). A start-up fund of modest size would be useful both to attract faculty and help defray the overhead costs in setting up the program. The initial intellectual focus of the Center will on the causes of war, and on for resolving conflict. We hope to be able to bring in grant money for individual and group projects from NSF, NIH, and NEH. This might also be an area where the University might be able to raise private funds once the Center proved itself. Time Frame: Year 3 THREE-YEAR PLAN We anticipate putting together the undergraduate program next year, the graduate program the following year, and the research Center in the third year. In this process, we hope to have intellectual exchanges, including some lecture series in place for faculty next year so as to build a base. During the process we also expect to make links with other interested faculty in the University, e.g. in English, Peabody, and the Med School.
John Vasquez (Political Science)(co-ordinator)
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From: Â Â Â Cliff Russell Subj: Â Â Â Â MMP Proposal
Students applying to the program must have earned a Bachelor's degree in a relevant specialty and should have taken at least one course in a) micro-economics, b) calculus, c) statistics, and d) American government (or an alternative course appropriate for international applicants). Applicants who lack one or more of these prerequisites will be considered but will be required to take the prerequisite course(s) before beginning the program.
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CENTER FOR LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND DIVERSITY EDUCATION
Objective:
Rationale: The three modern foreign language departments (French & Italian, Germanic & Slavic, Spanish & Portuguese) have recognized the growing demand for specialists in the field of second language acquisition (SLA). Virginia Scott in French, Angela Lin in German, and Maria de la Fuente (who will join the faculty in the fall of 2001) in Spanish work both independently and collaboratively to direct the undergraduate language programs as well as to supervise and mentor graduate teaching assistants. Graduate level courses in second language acquisition and foreign language pedagogy are offered regularly. In addition, there is a standing College SLA committee (Chaired by Virginia Scott) whose members review various aspects of language teaching and learning. The Department of Teaching and Learning at Peabody is currently involved in enhancing their program in language and literacy. In particular, they are in the process of searching for a scholar in early childhood language and literacy with a focus on students for whom language is a special issue, such as second language learners and children from impoverished backgrounds. Several faculty members are already working in this field: Dale Farran has done work on language development and the transition to school for children who live in poverty; Vicki Risko has just published a book on diverse language learners; David Bloome works on young children and family patterns of literacy learning; Debbie Rowe is well known for her work in reading and writing acquisition. The Departments of Psychology, both in A&S and at GPC, can offer additional valuable collaboration. Research in normal and abnormal development, first language acquisition, and cognition and learning are critical to understanding issues related to diversity education. In fact, medical research in neuropsychology may also offer insight into issues related to language acquisition and its impact on diverse populations. Vanderbilt University can offer distinct resources to the development of a Center for Language Acquisition and Diversity Education. Peabody College's long-standing reputation of excellence as well as the recognized strength of the language departments in A&S are ready to act cooperatively to develop 1) areas of research, 2) curricular innovations, and 3) community outreach.
Schools, Programs, and Departments with an investment in this proposal:
Faculty with a potential investment in this proposal:
Proposed financial investment:
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Athough Vanderbilt is a relatively small research university, we have a major and highly ranked medical center located adjacent to the main campus--an unusual arrangement that greatly facilitates contacts with other parts of the University. We also have in the College of Arts and Science and several other schools of the University a substantial number of faculty whose work relates in interdisciplinary ways to current or historical studies in health, healthcare, biomedical science, medicine, and related topics. There is strong enthusiasm in A&S, medicine, nursing, law, Peabody, Owen, VIPPS {which already has a major commitment to healthcare issues), and the Kennedy Center, for creating an Institute in Medicine, Health, and Society that could administer programs devoted to various aspects of our common interest. In addition, the Institute hopes to affiliate with the Vanderbilt-Meharry Alliance, which will bring a broad and diverse group of students and potential faculty affiliates to our programs. Below we offer SAPCAS four initiatives that together would comprise the Institute. Others could be added under the Institute umbrella as the Institute develops. For example, John Tarpley, Professor of Surgery, and his wife have inaugurated a Spirituality and Medicine Project that may eventually wish to affiliate with the Institute.
A list of proposed faculty affiliates accompanies each of the four proposals. Together, these faculty member--drawn from almost every school of the University--will comprise the interdisciplinary core of the Institute. The Institute in Medicine, Health, and Society will create a shared set of programs that will mutually enrich the work of faculty across the various schools within the Vanderbilt community. Medical faculty will have the opportunity to lend their expertise to projects in the humanities and social sciences. Humanists and social scientists will be encouraged to join teams based at the medical center working on projects relating to epidemiology, treatment efficacy, and other issues affecting public health, health policy, and patient care. A current example of this sort of collaboration elsewhere is the participation of the medical historian Howard Kushner, now at Emory, in a major study of the epidemiology of Kawasaki disease. A local example is Ellen Clayton's interdisciplinary seminar in Genetics and Mental Health, currently meeting once a month at the Warren Center. Research projects growing out of such collaborative endeavors should be strong candidates for funding from the NEH, the NIH, and the Templeton Foundation. However, in order to realize our collective potential we need an Institute on the ground at Vanderbilt to coordinate and further our proposed programs. We propose the hiring of a distinguished director from outside the University at the rank of chaired professor in Liberal Arts and Science, who would be assisted by a faculty committee. He or she would have a reduced teaching load in order to concentrate on administering the Institute and raising funds for its further development. The coordinators of each center would be drawn from existing faculty. The Institute would have a significant impact on education at Vanderbilt. At the undergraduate level, some of the centers will devise new courses that will fulfill the AScience and the World@ requirement for the undergraduate core and add to our now modest offerings in the program in Science, Technology, and Humanities. In addition, we plan to develop a new undergraduate minor in Health, Society, and Culture, and upper-level courses that will be of interest as electives to pre-med students, majors in biosciences and social sciences, and many other undergraduates. In addition, some of the center programs will help improve Vanderbilt=s current weak standing in terms of online pedagogies by providing links between biosciences and the humanities. Students and faculty who tend to exclude humanistic study from the purview of online technologies will be encouraged to think more inclusively. Mary Teloh, Special Collections Librarian of the Eskind Biomedical Library, has offered to affiliate with the Institute as bibliographic consultant to provide research assistance and bibliographical support to Institute members and programs, insofar as her regular duties allow. At the graduate level, the Institute will develop a new interdisciplinary M.A. Program in Health, Society, and Culture; encourage interdisciplinary work in its field of interest by students in regular PhD Programs, provide a base for students pursuing a special interdisciplinary doctorate in its field of interest; and provide training in social sciences research methods. More details on the M.A. program appear in an appendix at the end of this proposal. The Institute will facilitate the work if its component centers as follows:
Programs we envision as part of the Institute are:
Other programs that are more specific to the component centers are mentioned in the attached center proposals. The creation of a Vanderbilt Institute for Medicine, Health, and Society offers an exciting opportunity to grow on Vanderbilt=s traditional strengths as a University-College. On the one hand, the interdisciplinary study of health, culture, and society has produced highly innovative scholarship, often tied to fundamental methodological debates in the humanities and social sciences. It is now beginning to emerge as an exciting field for graduate training. The ongoing controversies over the role of biotechnology and the provision of health care have given the field increased visibility. They also present us with an opportunity to provide a service to the society at large by helping to develop a rigorous intellectual foundation for these exchanges. On the other hand, the field has tremendous potential appeal to undergraduates, as the perennial popularity of Professor Arleen Tuchman=s medical history courses in A&S demonstrates. Some of its core questions, especially in medical ethics, can form a significant part of a general liberal education. Our proposed program will enrich the intellectual life of the University from the most basic undergraduate courses through to the most far-reaching collaborative faculty research. We propose that the Chancellor appoint a campus-wide committee during 2001-2002 to refine the Institute plan and budget. After the Institute has received final approval, this committee would also make preliminary arrangements for the Institute=s creation, and conduct an international search for its director.
Starting in 2003-2004, we plan to launch an interdisciplinary M.A. program in health, society and culture, overseen the Institute's faculty committee. Our current timetable calls for submitting the proposal to the graduate school in 2001-2002. If it is approved, we would begin to publicize it the following summer and would admit the first candidates in the spring of 2003. It would have a 6-hour core colloquium taught in rotation by Institute affiliates, a general examination that would require students to integrate material from the different disciplines, and a thesis. The remainder of a student's schedule would consist of 24 hours of appropriate regular courses, following a contract approved by the committee. The courses would include an area of concentration, normally within one subdiscipline such as medical ethics or medical anthropology, and additional courses drawn from the other fields. The clientele for such a program would basically consist of two groups-- future academics and present or future health-care providers or managers--though we would not rule out other interested and qualified candidates. We may ultimately wish to create a regular M.D./M.A. program. We anticipate that the length of the program would have to be flexible to accommodate the divergent needs of different students. M.A.-Ph.D. students would normally be expected to complete all requirements over two academic years plus the following summer. One academic year plus the following summer would be the norm for full-time students, and any fellowship aid we offered would be for this period of approxiimately 12 months. Degree candidates who are health-care professionals from the greater Nashville area would be expected to take a minimum of one course a semester. We should also consider the possibility of allowing medical professionals to take appropriate courses (including the colloquium) for postgraduate credit without pursuing the master's degree and ultimately developing a more formal postgraduate CME credit.
OF HEALTH AND HEALING (CCHSHH) This Center will balance the Institute's emphasis on the United States in the twenty-first century by promoting the study of health and health care in other times and places. Although certain broad commonalities can be traced through many different cultures and historical periods -- for example, the idea of disease as a disruption of the body's natural balance -- different cultures have often had radically disparate conceptions of the body, health and disease, and therapeutics. In the modern era, biomedicine coexists in many parts of the world with traditional medical systems, such as Ayurvedic medicine in the Indian subcontinent and the various forms of classical Chinese medicine in East Asia. In the West, the continued growth of alternative medicines, some of them borrowed from Eastern traditions, has also promoted medical pluralism; so has the arrival of immigrant groups from the non-Western world. Even biomedicine itself has not only evolved over time but also varies among industrialized societies, as Lynn Payer has shown in Medicine and Culture: Varieties of Treatment in the United States, England, West Germany, and France. Some of these differences, including the divergent rates at which surgeons perform Caesarian sections and hysterectomies, have important implications for patient care. Others, such as the preference for different dosage forms -- more pills in America, more parenterals (for injection) in Germany, more suppositories in France -- may be fraught with cultural significance. In our multicultural society, the ways in which members of different ethnic groups respond to biomedicine and its institutions have been both a source of practical concern and the subject of a growing body of scholarship. This issue has gained considerable public prominence, thanks in part to Anne Fadiman's prize-winning book on the experience of Hmong refugees from Laos who settled in the United States but strongly resisted assimilation: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. FACULTY AND ADMINISTRATION
MISSIONS AND FUNCTIONS:
RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO THE CCHSHH:
The field of biomedical sciences has, in the view of some researchers, changed more since the Second World War than in several centuries before that. Particularly with the advent of the new computer technology and the new possibilities for interaction created by online networks, many researchers in the humanities and biosciences alike are revising our definitions of what constitutes life, what it means to be human, and how one measures the validity of research in fields related to bioscience and human biology. Some biologists, physicists, and humanists are studying the intriguing parallels between natural selection as it occurs in biological systems over time and a similar, seemingly spontaneous capacity for "evolution" in computerized systems. Others are studying the way human identity may be evolving as a result of the impact of the genome project, the potential for cloning, and other forms of biomedical engineering, and as a result of the pervasiveness of online technology in our culture more generally. The Center for Bioscience, Technology, and the Humanities will study the profound impact of these new fields of scientific study on the humanities. How have humanistic disciplines already changed as a result of the new scientific work, and how can or should they be altered further? In addition, the Center will allow for the exploration of ways in which the perspectives of scholars in the humanities can be used productively to reconceptualize and refine the paradigms by which scientists in the biomedical field conduct their research. One important area is, of course, ethics. Professor Ellen Clayton of the Center for Genetics and Health Policy in the Medical School is interested in working with scholars in the humanities in the area of biomedical ethics and other areas in which the new genetics can affect human health and social interactions (see her attached proposal). Similarly, the very basic work on the structure of the "Double Helix" done by Watson and others has been critiqued by Donna Haraway and other cultural critics for its inattention to important gender issues that might, if attended to, have altered the dynamics of the "Double Helix" model at the time it was created, and that continue to challenge scientific "master narratives" in ways that are productive for both the sciences and the humanities. Other interesting questions for further exploration suggest themselves: how, if at all, have literary and other forms of narrative changed as a result of the new synergies between biomedical science and the humanistic disciplines? How has, or might, the discipline of psychoanalysis alter as a result of new definitions of the human? Psychoanalytic thinking is an important element of scholarship and teaching for many faculty in Divinity, Liberal Arts and Science, Owen, Peabody, and, of course, some elements of the Psychiatry Program at the Medical School. A Center for Bioscience, Technology, and the Humanities will provide a forum for many areas of the campus to come together in studying the cultural impact of the new work and find creative new ways to apply it. FACULTY AFFILIATES
ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE
RESEARCH INITIATIVES
IMPACT ON TEACHING AND TRAINING
LIAISON, OUTREACH, AND PUBLICATION
CENTER FOR HEALTH AND HEALTHCARE IN SOCIETY
Vanderbilt lacks a faculty peer-review process for identifying and nurturing inter-disciplinary faculty research groups. Such an "inductive" organizational process would help to promote major, collaborative inter-disciplinary research projects among small groups of faculty members, and enhance training in social science research methods and teaching in this broad inter-disciplinary field of the Institute. In a nutshell, the CHHS would have the following mission, structure, resources and functions: CHHS mission: to nurture and stimulate inter-disciplinary and transinstitutional social science research, training and teaching synergies among VU faculty, and to facilitate the integration of social science empiricism into the Institute's curricular programs and, more generally, into the undergraduate and graduate educational programs in the University. CHHS structure: CHHS is a component center of the proposed Institute. Staff and participants include a Research Director (a faculty member), Faculty Committee [RC] (6 faculty members, including the Research Director, who are representative of the relevant disciplines), and Faculty Working Groups [FWGs]. The Research Director and RC operate the Center. Each FWG consists of an inter-disciplinary research team of VU faculty selected by the RC for a time-limited and budgeted affiliation with CHHS. Institute resources available to the CHHS:
CHHS functions:
TO: Â Â Â Â Â Â The strategic planning committees of the College of Arts and Science The Center for Genetics and Health Policy, which was established a little more than a year ago and is located within the Vanderbilt Medical Center, seeks opportunities to collaborate with the College of Arts and Science as it moves forward with its strategic planning. The Center, which will soon be moving into dedicated space in Light Hall which will be contiguous with the Programs in Human Genetics and Genetic Medicine and currently is actively recruiting faculty members with expertise in a wide variety of areas including social sciences and the humanities, is already engaged in many activities that could include the College. The motivation for the creation of the Center was the recognition that the ways in which genes affect human well-being will have a profound impact on the practice of medicine and on society in general. This knowledge can be used for great good. It will be possible, for example, to determine which individuals will benefit more from one therapy than another and which individuals need to avoid certain exposures in order to remain healthy. But the possibility of understanding more clearly how individuals differ from each other in the information encoded in their DNA also presents the possibility of great social harm. People in all sectors of society already fear, with some reason, that genetic information will be used to deny access to health insurance and employment. Already, people are becoming almost fatalistic, believing that genes determine one=s fate, failing to realize that human health and well-being is also powerfully influenced by the environment and society. The Center is devoted to developing policies to maximize the good and minimize the harm that comes from the understanding and use of genetic information. Efforts are already underway to develop the needed policies, but the results to date have uniformly been inadequate. That the appropriate policies have not yet been developed is not surprising. The problems are complex and profound, raising such issues as how to limit inappropriate discrimination and the nature and possibility of human responsibility. Developing solutions that fully address these problems requires a deep and thorough understanding of a broad array of disciplines that affect and are affected by views about how genetics affect human well being, including not only medicine and science, but also law, philosophy, literature, politics, social sciences, and theology. Because no one person can provide all these insights, it will be necessary to bring together a group of people who have different particular skills as well as a willingness to learn about and respect the insights provided by other disciplines. Vanderbilt is uniquely situated to bring together the people and resources needed to develop a genetics and health policy center that will be in a leader in developing the needed solutions. Within the Medical Center, Vanderbilt is already developing or has in place cutting-edge programs in genetic epidemiology, with an emphasis on the genetic factors that contribute to the development of complex diseases, many of which are neuropsychiatric, clinical genetics, genetic medicine, pharmacogenomics, mouse genomics, and developmental biology. As a result, expertise already exists regarding the scientific challenges presented by some of the most controversial issues in the country. Vanderbilt also has numerous faculty who are deeply engaged in debates about how this type of information should be used. To name just a few other than myself, John Phillips, III, M.D., is a national leader in the medical genetics community, serving on the board of the American College of Medical Genetics and the advisory board of Mendelian Inheritance in Man; he has conducted research about the social impact of new genetic tests and has had a prominent voice in the debates about these new tests. Brigid Hogan, Ph.D., a leader in developmental biology, has played a major role in understanding the implications of research using human embryos and embryonic stem cells. Under the leadership of Bill Stead, Vanderbilt is deeply involved in developing procedures to ensure the appropriate protection of medical records privacy. In the College, the Sociology Department has just hired a new faculty member who has worked on a project at the University of Michigan to understand how beliefs about genetic contributions to intelligence and work habits contribute to public perception sof affirmative action. Professor Jay Clayton in the Department of English has discussed representations of genetics in contemporary literature and film in forums as diverse at the English Institute at Harvard and the National Human Genome Research Institute. Thus, a rich foundation already existed on which to base a truly robust, broad based policy center. The Center is already involved in education. Investigators in genetics are currently developing a graduate program in genetics that will train both pre- and post-doctoral students. The resounding success of the Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) Programs at both the National Institute of Health and the Department of Energy both in providing political and popular support for genome research and in enhancing the understanding of the implications of genomics makes clear that scientists must be aware of discussions about the broader social impact of their work and must recognize that they need to take part in these debates. Jonathan Haines, the Director of the Program in Human Genetics, and I are working to develop courses and seminars that fully integrate the teaching of science and its consequences for students at both Vanderbilt and Meharry Medical College. In the longer term, the Center will have post-doctoral positions in genetics policy. The Center is also engaged in public outreach. Working with the Turner Program in Moral Leadership and the Divinity School, we are organizing a public forum on the hypersusceptible worker, exploring the implications of mutations that make individuals more susceptible to workplace toxins as well as a breakfast for local religious leaders to begin a dialogue about the implications of discoveries in genomics for different religious traditions. Both these events will be held this spring. Future events may include a discussion of public perceptions of the connections between genetics and race and ethnicity. The Center needs a strong collaboration with the College of Arts and Sciences if it is to achieve its goals, a fact I have understood from the inception of this project. Here, as well, steps have already been taken. Deans Infante and Venable were apprised about and expressed their support of this project in both its inception and implementation. The Center, in collaboration with the Robert Penn Warren Center, is sponsoring a faculty seminar this year to explore genetics and mental health. Karen Campbell in the Sociology Department and I studied the views of mothers of boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy about the prospect of genetic testing and about their systems of social support and disclosure. I have given lectures in many aspects of the undergraduate curriculum, including courses on Human Biology and Genetics and Literature and in the Branscomb curriculum. I have also consulted with faculty in the college who are exploring these issues in their own classes. Nonetheless, greater collaboration with and support from the College is needed, including:
I look forward to discussing these and others opportunities for collaboration between the Medical Center and the College of Arts and Science.
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The link below opens a pdf file which represents the steps involved in the Caucus reaching a consensus with respect to the relative priority we attribute to the six proposals generated by the Caucus. After several iterations of the proposals, each member of the caucus took the weekend to reread the proposals subsequent to the many revisions. Each member assigned a judgment (from a low of 1 to a high of 10) for each proposal for each of the ten criteria adopted by SAP-CAS. Thus, sixty separate judgments were determined independently by each of the five members. Those three hundred judgments are recorded in Table I. Since the important aspect of the judgments is the relative assignments among proposals, the individual judgments were normalized (so that the total of the sixty judgments for all five members was the same). The resultant normalized values are presented in Table II. The normalized results were distributed to members prior to our final meeting. The objective of the final meeting was to reach a consensus on the relative merits of the six proposals. We had earlier considered giving different weights to the ten criteria. [A high score on criteria six - the magnitude of the investment - is a measure of cost and ought not be prominent in our measure of benefit.] We determined, ultimately, not to use different weights for the ten criteria. The caucus chair, a social scientist, sought to reach agreement on each of the ten criteria for each of the six proposals. Level heads prevailed. It was observed that the ranking resulting from the average of the normalized judgments placed proposals four and six significantly above the others - as had virtually every member individually. Proposals three and five had almost identical scores and were well above the scores of proposals one and two. The Caucus felt that these relative rankings expressed our individual views rather well. We, thus, conclude that both the Vanderbilt Institute for Medicine, Health and Society and the Center for Gender and Sexuality receive our highest endorsement. The Public Policy Masters Program and the Center for Language Acquisition and Diversity Education are highly meritorious and they are endorsed by the Caucus. We feel that there is significant merit in the proposals for an International Relations Focus and an E-Communication Center, but that these either need further elaboration, more general faculty support, or are not likely to have broad enough impact to warrant the highest level of endorsement.
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   Demographic research regarding non-native speakers of English in the middle-Tennessee region