Vanderbilt’s Center for Latin American Studies, Conexión Américas and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Mexico Institute are co-sponsoring “Immigration in a Time of Crisis: Downturns and Returns in U.S.-Mexico Relations.” The event will begin with a reception at 5 p.m. and roundtable at 6 p.m.

“As the future of the United States becomes even more intertwined with Mexico, we need to move beyond polarized debates to really understand the human side of political policies and economic trends,” Ted Fischer, director of the Center for Latin American Studies and professor of anthropology, said.

The four panelists are Jorge Durand, professor of social anthropology at the University of Guadalajara and co-founder of the Mexican Migration Project; Katharine Donato, professor and chair of sociology at Vanderbilt; Renata Soto, executive director of Conexión Américas; and David R. Ayón, senior adviser to the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Gary Gerstle, the James G. Stahlman Professor of American History at Vanderbilt, will serve as moderator.

Durand, co-author of Crossing the Border: Research from the Mexican Migration Project, is a visiting resource professor at the Center for Latin American Studies. The Mexican Migration Project, which started in 1982, gathers social and economic information on Mexican-U.S. migration for educational and research purposes.

Donato, whose areas of expertise include international migration between Mexico and the United States and immigrants in the U.S. economy, has collaborated with Durand on several research projects about Latin American migration. These include “Migration in the Americas: Mexico and Latin America in Comparative Context” and “Continental Divides: International Migration in the Americas,” which are being published by the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

Soto is the co-founder of Conexión Américas, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help Latino families realize their aspirations for social and economic advancement by promoting their integration into the Middle Tennessee community.

Ayón, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, has taught courses on politics and U.S.-Latin American relations at various colleges and universities.

Gerstle is a 20th century American historian who teaches and writes about immigration, ethnicity, nationality and the American experience. He wrote American Crucible: Race and Nation in the 20th Century (Princeton University Press) and “George W. Bush’s Vision of a Multicultural America and Why It Failed,” to be published in Historical Essays on the Bush Era (Princeton University Press, fall 2010).

Both the reception and roundtable are free and open to the public. For more information, call 615-343-1837 or click on www.vanderbilt.edu/clas. Video of the roundtable will be available at news.vanderbilt.edu after the event.

Developments in surveillance and security have escalated since the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Torin Monahan, associate professor of human and organizational development and medicine, can discuss the hidden social sorting that is an unfortunate side effect of heightened security and the ways in which surveillance has developed since President Obama took office, particularly the privatization of national security functions and the creation of Department of Homeland Security “fusion centers” for intelligence sharing.  Monahan is the author of Surveillance in the Time of Insecurity (Rutgers 2010). He may be reached at torin.monahan@vanderbilt.edu or (615) 322-8732.

The New York mosque controversy has made the climate toxic everywhere, says Vanderbilt sociologist Richard Lloyd. He says the media’s intense coverage has changed the debate around the construction of an Islamic center in Murfreesboro, Tenn., about 30 miles outside of Nashville. “Murfreesboro had its own local dynamics and normal political debates but those are now being overshadowed by what’s happening in New York.” In the days following Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush and New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani were careful to distinguish Islam from terrorism, but Lloyd says members of the right now have moved further right in very disappointing ways, using the New York mosque controversy to collapse the distinction. An urban sociologist, Lloyd looks at how globalization and immigrant and refugee resettlement affects cities – particularly Southern cities.  Lloyd may be reached at r.d.lloyd@vanderbilt.edu or (615) 322-7509.

Controversy over proposed mosques symptom of ‘authoritarian’ viewpoint

The brouhaha surrounding the building of a mosque near the former site of the World Trade Center is part of a conservative pattern of staking out positions against those who are different, according to Marc J. Hetherington, professor of political science and co-author of Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics. “While in previous decades it was blacks and feminists, more recently it has been gays and immigrants, and now Muslims.” His research has shown that Republicans tend to score high on tests determining an authoritarian viewpoint. Not that all Republicans are authoritarian, he says, but “decades of appeals for states’ rights, law and order, against ERA, gay rights and immigration reform have attracted this particular personality type to the GOP.” Hetherington may be reached at marc.j.hetherington@vanderbilt.edu or (615) 322-6222.

Edward Hirsch reads at Vanderbilt Sept. 16.

MFA Creative Writing program now ranked No. 14 by Poets & Writers magazine

A series of free public readings at Vanderbilt University will kick off this fall with a Sept. 16 appearance by Edward Hirsch, poet, a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and President of the Guggenheim Foundation. His seven collections of poetry include Special Orders (2008); He is also author of the best-selling How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry.

Other prize-winning authors slated to give readings include fiction writers Salvatore Scibona (selected in 2010 as one of The New Yorker’s “Fiction Writers to Watch: 20 under 40”), Peter Ho Davies (on Granta magazine’s Best Young British Novelist list), Aimee Bender (author of much-praised short story collections and novels), and Nashville-based author Lydia Peele.

Well-known poets slated to appear this fall include Molly Peacock, Mary Kinzie, Tom Sleigh, Carl Phillips (also a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets) and Vanderbilt’s Kate Daniels. Daniels, a faculty member at Vanderbilt for 15 years, will be reading poems from her newly published collection, A Walk in Victoria’s Secret. Tom Sleigh will also be interviewed by Alice Quinn, executive director of the Poetry Society of America and past poetry editor at The New Yorker.

The readings, all free and open to the public, are sponsored by the Gertrude and Harold S. Vanderbilt Visiting Writers Program at Vanderbilt. They begin at 7 p.m., most of them in Room 102 of Buttrick Hall on the Vanderbilt campus, 2301 West End Ave. (Carl Phillips’ reading is in the Black Cultural Center Auditorium).

The MFA Creative Writing program at Vanderbilt was ranked No. 14 in the latest listings by Poet’s & Writers magazine, up four slots from last year and in the company of other Top 20 programs at the University of Iowa, Brown University and New York University. The Vanderbilt program, which admits six students each year on full scholarship, was ranked No. 1 for selectivity.

The schedule of readings:

• Sept. 16, Edward Hirsch, poet
• Sept. 23, Salvatore Scibona, fiction writer
• Sept. 30, Peter Ho Davies, fiction writer
• Oct. 7, Molly Peacock, poet
• Oct. 21, Mary Kinzie, poet
• Oct. 28, Aimee Bender, fiction writer
• Nov. 4, Tom Sleigh, poet (also interviewed by Alice Quinn, Poetry Society of America)
• Nov. 11, Carl Phillips, poet
• Nov. 17, Kate Daniels, poet
• Dec. 2, Lydia Peele, fiction writer

Edward Fischer

Vanderbilt University’s Center for Latin American Studies will expand its collaborations in Tennessee and beyond through world-class research, teaching and community service – thanks to a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

The Center for Latin American Studies has been named a stand-alone Comprehensive National Resource Center for Latin America, one of only 13 to receive the prestigious designation from the Department of Education.

“The Center for Latin American Studies is a place of remarkable energy and innovation,” Carolyn Dever, dean of the College of Arts and Science, said. “The faculty are committed to the synergy of teaching, research and service in a broad range of high-impact programs. With the support of the Department of Education, the center is posed for new leadership in the critical area of Latin American studies.”

Vanderbilt’s oldest and largest interdisciplinary center, originally called the Institute for Brazilian Studies, was created in 1947 to foster educational, cultural, business and other relationships between the United States and Latin America. That mission remains more vital than ever, according to Edward F. Fischer, professor of anthropology and the center’s director.

“We know that the future of the United States has become increasingly intertwined with that of Latin America in everything from energy supplies to what’s on our dinner table,” Fischer said. “This award recognizes the national importance of our unparalleled faculty expertise in key areas of research and public policy ranging from political participation and economic development to languages, history and the arts.”

The center offers an undergraduate major and master’s in Latin American Studies as well as joint degrees with the Owen Graduate School of Management and Vanderbilt Law School. Among the areas of faculty expertise are Brazil, the Maya area, the Andes and African descendant populations in Latin America. The center is a national leader in Portuguese and indigenous language instruction.

The center offers business roundtables, public lectures, teacher workshops and collaborations with regional colleges and universities. During the past three years, more than 200,000 people have attended center-sponsored art exhibits, workshops and other public events.

It also fosters a lively research community on campus by sponsoring colloquia, conferences and a film-and-speaker series with distinguished scholars and government leaders.

The grant will enable the center to fund more graduate students working in Latin America from across campus. Currently, the center awards more than $50,000 annually in summer research awards to graduate students and another $250,000 each year in academic year graduate fellowships.

This year, the center is sponsoring a series of events to examine the impact of liberation theology on Latin American society and politics that will be kicked off with a keynote address from Gustavo Gutiérrez, the father of the movement. In addition, the center will hold a workshop on health care initiatives with a keynote address by the Guatemalan ambassador to the United States. Other events are planned in collaboration with the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Cheekwood, Nashville Public Library and other community organizations.

For more information on the Center for Latin American Studies, visit www.vanderbilt.edu/clas.

Graduate students Chao Liu and R. Jason Pitts

Origin of DEET’s repellent effect confirmed

It now appears that the malaria mosquito needs more than one family of odor sensors to sniff out its human prey.

That is the implication of new research into the mosquito’s sense of smell published in the Aug. 31 issue of the online, open-access journal Public Library of Science Biology.

The experiments described in the paper provide striking new evidence that Anopheles gambiae – the species of mosquito that spreads malaria, which infects some 250 million and kills 900,000 people annually – has a second independent set of olfactory sensors that are fundamentally different from the set of sensors that scientists have known about and have been studying for the last 10 years.

The discovery may help explain a puzzling question that has been plaguing scientists trying to develop new and more effective forms of mosquito lures and repellents.

“The ORs [odorant receptors] that were identified in the lab before don’t respond to a lot of human odors,” says Vanderbilt graduate student Chao Liu, who is the lead author on the paper.  “Now that we have a new set of receptors, we may be able to fill in the picture.”

There is a good chance that this new set of receptors may be specifically tuned to detect a number of the odorants given off by humans, adds co-author R. Jason Pitts, a senior research specialist and graduate student at Vanderbilt. “If this is the case, then it is quite likely that it will play a critical role in attempts to develop improved lures and repellents to control the spread of malaria.”

According to Pitts, they also have preliminary evidence that the mosquito’s olfactory system may include additional families of sensors as well.

Vanderbilt Professor of Biological Sciences and Pharmacology Laurence Zwiebel, who was the principal investigator on the study, heads a major interdisciplinary research project to develop new ways to control the spread of malaria based on mosquito olfaction supported by the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative funded by the Foundation for NIH through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“It’s not at all surprising that the mosquito’s olfactory system is more sophisticated than we thought,” says Zwiebel. “Olfaction is absolutely essential to the mosquito. If the female cannot find a host for a blood meal she cannot reproduce. As a result, mosquitoes have developed an uncanny ability to detect odors. This is true of all species of mosquitoes, not just Anopheles. So it is highly likely that the mosquitoes that spread West Nile, dengue fever, yellow fever and encephalitis also have similar sets of odor sensors.”

About 10 years ago, when the mosquito genome was first sequenced, scientists at Vanderbilt and Yale identified the genes and the structure of one set of Anopheles sensors, called odorant receptors (AgORs). At first, they thought that these receptors had the same basic design as the sensors found in the nose of humans and other mammals. But recent studies have found that the mosquito receptors, along with those of several other insects, have a distinctly different structure.

Researchers have identified about 75 different AgORs that respond to a variety of volatile compounds.  These receptors are expressed on the surface of nerves located in tiny hollow spikes, called sensilla, located on the mosquito’s antennae.  When a target molecule wafts into the interior of one of these sensilla and comes into contact with the AgOR designed to detect it, the receptor causes the nerve to fire, signaling the compound’s presence.

Earlier this year the Vanderbilt researchers and their colleagues at Yale succeeded in pairing more than 40 of the AgORs with the specific odorants that trigger them. In the process, the researchers discovered that these receptors are broadly tuned. That is, each receptor responds to a number of different compounds. They also overlap. More than one AgOR responds to individual odorants.

In the new study, Liu and Pitts combined gene-silencing techniques with a new behavioral assay to confirm that DEET, the most commonly used commercial insect repellent, activates of a specific AgOR. Although the synthetic compound appears to affect mosquitoes in several different ways, there is no doubt that this olfactory effect explains much of its effectiveness as a repellent, the scientists say.

Despite all their efforts, however, mosquito researchers have been unable to find AgORs that react to a number of key human odorants, including ammonia, lactic acid and butylamine, all of which are given off by human sweat or breath. Scientists know that the mosquito can detect these compounds: When they “wire” the entire Anopheles antenna they can measure nerve activity when the antenna is exposed to these compounds. The researchers have traced the nerves that respond to several of these human odorants to a specific type of sensilla, called grooved pegs, which seem to lack AgORs.

As a result, last year when scientists at Rockefeller University announced they had discovered a second set of olfactory receptors in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, an animal model for basic genetics, “it was like a light switched on,” says Pitts. Because of the many parallels between the olfactory systems of the fruit fly and mosquito, the Vanderbilt researchers knew it was extremely likely that the mosquito had a second set of receptors as well. So they began searching for them.

The search was successful and the researchers identified genes that code for about 50 versions of the new type of receptor. The new receptors appear to have a slightly different structure from that of AgORs: They are called “ionotropic receptors” (AgIRs) and they closely resemble the type of receptor found in the brain that responds to the common neurotransmitter glutamate.

At this point, the researchers can only speculate about what effect this structural difference has on the way that the AgIRs function as odor detectors. However, they have managed to associate an AgIR with butylamine, a human odorant that AgORs do not appear to identify. Butylamine sensitivity is located in grooved peg sensilla.  The correlation of AgIR to butylamine could indicate that AgIRs are responsible for grooved peg sensilla sensitivities to other human odors such as ammonia and lactic acid, an idea that the Zwiebel lab has begun exploring.

The basic problem facing the mosquito searching for human prey – and the humans who are trying to figure out how it does it – is that none of the hundreds of odors given off by humans are necessarily unique. They are actually produced by the bacteria that live on human skin. But these bacteria live on other animals as well. So the current theory is that mosquitoes must identify a blend of different odorants that provide a unique signature for humans. Determining the way that the AgIRs work may be the key to identifying such a signature and that, in turn, could be the key to developing non-toxic, ecologically benign methods for combating malaria and other mosquito-borne illnesses.

Jonathan D. Bohbot, a former research associate from the Zwiebel lab now at the USDA Agricultural Research Service, graduate student Patrick Jones and research associate Guirong Wang also contributed to the study.

The research was funded by Vanderbilt University and through grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Foundation for the NIH through the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative.

Note: A multimedia version of the story is available on Exploration, Vanderbilt’s online research magazine.

This isn’t boot camp, but it is an orientation. These 20 young men and women are taking their first Army Physical Fitness Test, which they will repeat for practice once a month and must pass once every semester to maintain their ROTC scholarship eligibility. The early-morning workout is something they must get used to as well. Army ROTC meets three times a week in the pre-dawn hours for physical training.

This is the scene that comes to mind when one thinks of ROTC – uniformed students performing coordinated physical tasks. But Vanderbilt’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps – which includes undergraduate and graduate students preparing for required four- or five-year stretches in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps or Air Force – is much more.

Vanderbilt will invest substantial resources over the next few years to its faculty, announced Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos at Fall Faculty Assembly. This will include $15 million per year toward luring new faculty and the creation of 60 new endowed faculty chairs. Read more>>

Fall Faculty Assembly awards announced>>

VU Bookstore to give away $200 prize package

All Commodore fans are encouraged to show their team spirit by wearing black and gold on College Colors Day, Friday, Sept. 3.

College Colors Day was established by the Collegiate Licensing Company six years ago to promote fan loyalty and enjoyment of back-to-school traditions across the country. This year College Colors Day takes place the day before Vanderbilt University’s football season opener against Northwestern at Vanderbilt Stadium.

The Vanderbilt Bookstore is helping to promote this four-year-old campus tradition by offering fans the chance to win a $200 prize package of Vanderbilt merchandise. Interested individuals can go to the bookstore to register for the Sept. 3 drawing.

“We are pleased to join universities throughout the nation by participating in College Colors Day,” Mary Ann Daniel-Kaszuba, marketing specialist with the Office of Trademark Licensing, said. “We hope Vanderbilt fans will go all out to show their Commodore spirit by wearing their favorite black and gold on Sept. 3.”

Gov. Phil Bredesen has officially proclaimed Sept. 3, 2010, as College Colors Day in Tennessee.

To learn more about College Colors Day, visit www.collegecolorsday.com.

Dick Daft, author of The Executive and The Elephant

Vanderbilt management professor gives practical steps to fix leadership flaws

Whether you’re the CEO of a fortune 500 company or just trying to successfully manage yourself, Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management professor Richard Daft says you must learn to control your “inner elephant.”

Daft found that everyone has two sides to his or her personality. The “executive” is objective, rational, and responsible and the “elephant” is emotion-driven, impulsive and habitual. Daft said that truly successful leaders must learn to recognize both sides and follow practical exercises to learn to control their inner elephant and ultimately change a weakness in their behavior.

“I find that virtually every leader has a bottleneck within them, one thing that if they could remove it—if they could be just a little less critical-minded toward other people or if they could be more focused and attentive— they could be a much better leader overall,” said Daft. “What this book does is help them identify that weak link and remove it, so they can be the best leader that they have the capacity to be.”

Daft, an expert in leadership, organizational performance, and change management, combined research in management, psychology, neuroscience and Eastern spirituality, along with years of teaching, executive coaching, and personal application, into a book called The Executive and the Elephant- A Leader’s Guide for Building Inner Excellence.

The six mental mistakes every leader makes:

1. Reacting too quickly
2. Inflexible thinking
3. Wanting control
4. Emotional avoidance and attraction
5. Exaggerating the future
6. Chasing the wrong gratifications

All of these are tied to a person’s emotional and impulsive side, or their elephant.

“The whole idea of the executive is to be objective and not to interpret things just based on your own likes and dislikes, your own hang-ups, your own issues. You have to be able to detach from that and be able to see the other point of view, the big picture, with some level of objectivity. When people can be in that place, they make wonderful decisions. It’s when they get anchored in their own neediness, their own greed, they get into trouble.”

Daft said that people can remove a lot of inner struggle by being in the moment and accepting their “elephant” but not let the elephant control them or their behavior.

Daft said that real change can only come from practice. He describes more than a dozen exercises that are grounded in practical application to help leaders control their elephant and change bad behaviors. He then gives examples of leaders who tried each individual approach and how it impacted each person. A few exercises include engaging and writing down your intentions; slow down your reaction time to think; and repeat a mantra.

“I’ve worked with a lot of executives who know what they should be doing, they’ve gotten feedback that they should do something differently or act differently with their employees, but they’re unable to execute the new behavior. I wrote this book not so much to tell them what to do, but how to change the behavior,” said Daft.

Daft has published 12 books, dozens of articles, and presented at more than 45 universities around the world. He also developed and managed the Center for Change Leadership, is a former associate dean at Owen, and is a fellow of the Academy of Management.

Daft is currently studying high performance mental models – which include cognitive models of high performing managers – and examining high performance management systems. He is also studying transactional versus transformational communication to engage people in organizational change.

“I know it sounds touchy feely, this idea of introspection and looking within, but it is so powerful. Know thyself. Know thyself has real power because once you know yourself, you can manage yourself. As long as you’re blind to your own bad habits, you’ve got no chance to be a strong leader,” said Daft.

Vanderbilt film series spotlights global perspective on film

International Lens, the ongoing film series at Vanderbilt University, will feature films from around the world during the fall 2010 semester. Most screenings are free and open to the public.

This semester’s lineup opens with a crime thriller from Hong Kong, includes a U.S. documentary about the legalities surrounding music sampling and the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker. The university will also be a host for the International Black Film Festival of Nashville Sept. 29-Oct. 2, a ticketed event.

Most of the screenings utilize 35mm prints.

All films are shown in Sarratt Cinema at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

The schedule:

Infernal Affairs

Saturday, Aug. 28

NOTE: screened at midnight in The Commons Multipurpose Room.

Presented by: the VIP Global Discovery Project

Hong Kong (2002) Directors: Wai Keung Lau and Alan Mak

When a corrupt cop (Ming) and an undercover cop (Yan) find themselves under the roof of the same Triad crime boss (Sam), both the Triads and the police can smell moles in their departments, and Ming and Yan are forced to confront one another.

Thai, Cantonese, English with English subtitles. Rated R. 101 mins. Funding provided in part by The Commons. DVD.

The Good the Bad the Weird

Wednesday, Sept. 1

Presented by: Korean Students and Scholars Association

South Korea (2008) Director: Ji-woon Kim

Set in the 1930s Manchurian desert where lawlessness rules, a bounty hunter, a bandit and a train robber fatefully meet. Their chase across Manchuria for a mysterious map escalates, growing as unpredictable as it is good, bad or weird.

Korean with English subtitles. 130 mins. Funding provided in part by the Korean Students and Scholars Association.

Copyright Criminals

Thursday, Sept. 2

Presented by: Jennifer Lena, assistant professor of sociology

USA (2009) Directors: Benjamin Franzen and Kembrew McLeod

Is sampling and scratching theft or merely traditional cultural appropriation? That’s the central question of this documentary that focuses on sample-based sound collage in hip-hop, which has become a multibillion-dollar global industry and has sparked lasting, devastating copyfights. There will be a Q & A with director Kembrew McLeod after the screening.

English. Not Rated. 54 mins. Funding provided by the Sociology Department. DVD.

Ward No. 6

Tuesday, Sept. 7

Presented by: Irina Makoveeva, Mellon Assistant Professor of Russian

Russia (2009) Directors: Aleksandr Gornovsky and Karen Shakhnazarov

Russia’s nomination for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2010, Ward No. 6 premiered at the 2009 Moscow International Film Festival. Based on Anton Chekhov’s 1892 novella, the film tells the story of Doctor Ragin, who works at a provincial psychiatric clinic and ultimately ends up among his patients in his own asylum. Set in contemporary Russia, this psychological drama showcases how easy it is to become what we fear most.

Russian with English subtitles. Not Rated. 83 mins. Funding provided in part by the Germanic and Slavic Languages Department.

Bilal’s Stand

Thursday, Sept. 9

Presented by: Leadership Development and Intercultural Affairs

USA (2010) Director: Sultan Sharrief

The phrase “it takes a village” is no overstatement when it comes to writer-director Sharrief’s community-coordinated feature debut set in contemporary Detroit. Based on his personal experience, Bilal’s Stand is bursting with heart. When Bilal, a high school senior in Detroit, wins a scholarship to college, he is forced to decide whether he will continue in his family’s long-owned taxi stand, or take a chance at social mobility.

English. Not Rated. 99 mins. Funding provided by the Office of Leadership Development & Intercultural Affairs. DVD. There will be a Q & A with the film director Sultan Sharrief after the screening.

Ingeborg Holm

Wednesday, Sept. 15

Presented by: Paul Young, associate professor of English, director of Film Studies Program

Sweden (1913) Director: Victor Sjöström

A tale exalting maternal suffering in a merciless social system, the titular heroine (Hilda Borgström) is put through a wringer of disease, bankruptcy, workhouse toiling and the loss of her children. For its age, the film shows remarkable sophistication and depth of characterization, as well as skillful photography and editing. Any rawness in style only heightens the gripping and heart-rending drama in this historical and cinematic classic.

Silent. Not Rated. 72 mins. Funding provided by Film Studies Program. DVD.

Little Town of Bethlehem

Tuesday, Sept. 21

Presented by: Allison Schachter, assistant professor of Jewish Studies

Israel, Palestine (2010) Director: Jim Hannon

This riveting documentary film follows the story of three men of three different faiths and their lives in Israel and Palestine. The story explores each man’s path of non-violent struggle in lockstep with Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. For them courage is found not in taking up arms, but setting them down once and for all and extending a hand in peace. Unscripted and unrehearsed, discover the humanity lurking behind an ancient cycle of violence.

Arabic, English. PG-13. 75 mins. Funding provided by Jewish Studies. DVD.

Looking for Cheyenne

Thursday, Sept. 23

Presented by: Office of LGBTQI Life

France (2005) Director: Valérie Minetto

Cheyenne, a young unemployed journalist whose welfare payments are about to be cut off, decides to leave Paris to live a marginal life in the country. She leaves behind Sonia, the woman she loves. Sonia tries her best to forget Cheyenne, but it’s not easy. How do you reconcile what you want with what you can have?  Who you love with what you spurn? In her exploration of other lovers, Sonia finds herself incapable of living with and without Cheyenne.

French with English subtitles. Rated R. 86 mins. Following the screening a panel of students, faculty and staff will moderate a discussion about how the issues highlighted in the film affect our lives.

The Ring

Saturday, Sept. 25 NOTE: screened at midnight in Commons MPR

Presented by: The VIP Global Discovery Project

Japan (1998) Director: Hideo Nakata

Following the death of her niece under mysterious conditions Reiko, a journalist, decides to investigate an urban legend that says a person will die exactly one week after having watched a supposedly “cursed” video cassette. Based on the novel “Ringu” and generated a sequel, prequel and an American remake “The Ring.”

Japanese with English subtitles. Not Rated. 96 mins. Funding provided in part by The Commons. DVD.

The Horse Boy

Tuesday, Sept. 28

Presented by: ITVS Community Cinema–Nashville Public Television, Nashville Public Library, Hands On Nashville and Nashville Film Festival

Society of Middle Tennessee, Saddle Up! and Center for Understanding

USA (2009) Director: Michel Orion Scott

A deeply moving story of a family willing to go to the ends of the earth to help their son’s autism, and of a boy learning to connect with the world for the first time.

93 mins. DVD. A panel discussion will follow.

International Black Film Festival of Nashville

Hosted in part at Vanderbilt University by the Bishop Johnson Black Cultural Center, Film Studies Program and the Office of the Dean of Students.

Wednesday, Sept. 29 – Saturday, Oct. 2, times and locations vary

NOTE: This is a ticketed event; for ticket prices, all venues and schedule, visit the website.

The International Black Film Festival of Nashville (IBFFN), established in 2006, showcases the work of emerging and skilled independent filmmakers, actors, composers, screenwriters, directors and other film industry professionals. IBFF strives to insure culturally accurate depictions in film with special emphasis on providing a forum for unheard, unseen and unknown viewpoints, and to showcase the rich creativity and diversity found in communities of color locally, nationally and internationally.

A Town Called Panic

Saturday, Oct. 2

NOTE: This family matinee will be screened at 2 p.m. Join us before the film for a special children’s art activity from 1 to 2 p.m. in Sarratt lobby.

France (2009) Directors: Stephane Aubier and Vincent Patar

Expanding upon a cult TV series, this 75-minute joyride combines deadpan slapstick and surrealist Belgian stop-motion animation. The main characters are plastic toys Cowboy, Indian and Horse, who improbably live together in a town called Panic. Various bizarre and surrealistic adventures await them, as the utterly silly but meticulously worked-out plot of “A Town Called Panic” gets under way.

French with English subtitles. Not Rated. 75 mins.

The Class

Tuesday, Oct. 5

Presented by: Derek Bruff, assistant director, Center for Teaching

France (2008) Director: Laurent Cantet

The center doesn’t hold at Francoise Dolto Junior High, a Paris public school in the troubled 20^th arrondissement. The school’s chaos unravels unglossed and unalloyed, through a cast of real students and teachers, and puts the question of why we learn, what we learn and from whom we learn under siege.

French with English subtitles. PG-13. 128 mins.

Il Decameron

Wednesday Oct. 6

Presented by: Andrea Mirabile, assistant professor of Italian

Italy (1971) Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini

This adaptation of nine stories from Bocaccio’s Decameron renders the tales of lecherous clerics, scheming merchants and errant lovers in an era of budding industrial capitalism, sexual repression and moral hypocrisy.

Italian, German with English subtitles. Not Rated. 112 mins. Funding provided in part by the Department of French and Italian.

Drácula

Thursday, Oct. 7

Lecture and Film Presented by: Michael Sims, editor of Dracula’s Guest: A Connoisseur’s Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories

USA (1931) Director: George Melford

Vampire folklore and scary stories have long fascinated readers. In his presentation, “Don’t Wake the Dead,” Michael Sims shares amazing (and hilarious) stories about why so many people once believed in the undead returning from their graves to prey upon the living, and about how such peasant folklore inspired stories, novels, plays and finally movies. Sims follows vampires’ outrageous rise to celebrity that culminated in the first great vampires movies—F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922) and two simultaneous versions of Dracula. To accompany the lecture, International Lens will screen the Spanish-language version of Drácula that was filmed on the same sets and at the same time as the English-language, Bela Lugosi version. The English version was filmed during the day and the Spanish version at night. Although this version was shot in Spanish, it became a mixture of dialects because the cast came from Mexico, Spain and Central and South America.

Spanish, Hungarian with English subtitles. Not Rated. 104 mins. DVD. Held in conjunction with The Southern Festival of Books.

The Wedding Song

Tuesday, Oct. 12

Presented by: Lisa Weiss, lecturer in French

France, Tunisia (2008) Director: Karin Albou

A seductively fluid and tactile drama explores love and identity in the intense friendship of two 16-year-old girls, both preparing for marriage in Nazi-occupied Tunis in 1942. Against a background of marching jackboots and falling bombs, the girls’ bond becomes a compelling love story that will be tested not only by personal grudges but also by cultural differences.

French with English subtitles. Not Rated. 100 mins.

I’ve Loved You So Long

Tuesday, Oct. 19

Presented by: Virginia Scott, associate professor of French

France (2008) Director: Philippe Claudel

After 15 years in prison, 40-something Juliette is given a second chance at life when her sister (Lea) takes her in to her home. Working through family tensions and reintegration with society, Juliette learns she’s still very much a prisoner within herself.

French with English subtitles. PG-13. 117 mins.

Saviors in the Night

Wednesday, Oct. 20

Presented by: Jay Geller, associate professor of modern Jewish culture

Germany, France (2009) Director: Ludi Boeken.

Based on memoirs of Marga Spiegel, courageous farmers in Westphalia, Germany, hide the Spiegel family from Nazis throughout the end of WWII, saving them from deportation and extermination camps in the east.

German, French with English subtitles. Not Rated.  95 mins. Funding provided by the Holocaust Lecture Series.

Persepolis

Tuesday, Oct. 26

Presented by: Esfandiar Zafar, senior director, Information Technology Services

France, Germany (2007) Directors: Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi

Adapted from two best-selling autobiographical graphic novels, this animated work tells the comic yet harrowing story of a girl coming into her own under the political upheaval in Iran. The society she thought she lived in has disappeared, and she finds little relief bouncing through European cultures.

French, German, Persian, English with English subtitles. PG-13. 96 mins.

When the Road Bends: Tales of a Gypsy Caravan

Wednesday, Oct. 27

Presented by: Gregory Barz, associate professor of ethnomusicology; faculty head of house, North Hall, The Commons

USA (2007) Director: Jasmine Dellal

This concert film/cultural documentary follows the 2001 U.S. “Gypsy Caravan” tour, which showcased five bands from four countries: Macedonia, Romania, India and Spain. The film captures electrifying performances and takes us behind-the-scenes where the groups, divided by language and musical interest, find inspiration through a common passion for music.

English, Spanish, Romany, Romanian, Macedonian, Hindi with English subtitles. Not Rated. 110 mins. Funding provided in part by North House, The Commons.

A Night of Experimental Film

Saturday, Oct. 30

Presented by: Film Studies Program and Office of the Chancellor

With special guest P. Adams Sitney, professor of visual art, Princeton University and author of Visionary Film, the definitive account of American avant-garde film.

The Agronomist

Tuesday, Nov. 2

Presented by: Colin Dayan, Robert Penn Warren Professor in the Humanities

USA (2003) Director: Jonathan Demme

Haitian radio journalist and human rights activist Jean Dominique is captured in a rightly affectionate and illuminating profile which draws from footage of Haiti’s vivid and tumultuous past under the Duvalier dictatorship, prior to Dominique’s assassination in 2000.

English. PG-13. 90 mins. Funding provided in part by the History Department. DVD. Presented as part of Memory, Cinema, Archive: Focus on Haiti by The Public Archive. The series expands the work of The Public Archive by considering how film addresses questions of historical memory, political redress and the economy of archive and representation.

Fearless

Wednesday, Nov. 3

Presented by: Vanderbilt Undergraduate Chinese Association

Facilitated by: Peter Lorge, senior lecturer in history

China (2006) Director: Ronny Yu

Based on the life of Chinese martial arts fighter, Huo Yuanjia, who learns through personal tragedy and social alienation, the difference between pride and self-worth, of sportsmanship and brutality. Through his radical self-discovery, he transforms the sport of martial arts and becomes an unforgotten hero in China.

Japanese, Mandarin, English with English subtitles. PG-13. 103 mins.  Funded in part by the Vanderbilt Undergraduate Chinese Association.

The Man by the Shore

Tuesday, Nov. 9

Presented by: Peter James Hudson, assistant professor of history

France, Canada (1993) Director: Raoul Peck.

When an 8-year-old girl witnesses the torture practices of Haiti’s corrupt government leader Janvier, a story of trauma and terror unravels through the eyes of one coming to understand the threats and savageness that surrounds her.

Haitian Kreyol with English subtitles. Not Rated. 106 mins. Funding provided in part by the History Department. Presented as part of Memory, Cinema, Archive: Focus on Haiti by The Public Archive.

Katyn

Wednesday, Nov.10

Presented by: Frank Wcislo, dean of The Commons, associate professor of history

Poland (2007) Director: Andrzej Wajda

The film by Andrzej Wajda—a renowned veteran of Polish cinema and a recipient of the 1999 honorary Oscar—tells a long-silenced story of the Katyn massacre following the near-simultaneous Soviet and German invasions of Poland in 1939. Approximately 20,000 Polish officers, who represented the country’s intellectual elite and therefore constituted a potential threat to Poland’s sovietization, were captured, imprisoned and murdered under Stalin’s order. Officially, this tragic event was a forbidden topic in Poland and the source of continual distrust between the Poles and the Soviets.

Polish, Russian, German with English subtitles. 121 mins. DVD. Funding provided in part by the Germanic & Slavic Languages Department.

Aristide and the Endless Revolution

Tuesday, Nov. 16

Presented by: Peter James Hudson, assistant professor of history

USA, Switzerland (2005) Director: Nicolas Rossier

Mystery still surrounds the abrupt 2004 departure of Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Did he resign or was he forced into exile? This documentary reveals the web of hope, deceit and political violence that has brought the world’s first black republic to its knees.

English. Not Rated. 84 mins. DVD. Funding provided by the Center for Latin American Studies as part of the year-long program on Liberation Theology and the History Department. Presented as part of Memory, Cinema, Archive: Focus on Haiti by The Public Archive.

The Hurt Locker

Wednesday, Nov. 17

Presented by: Katherine Carroll, assistant professor of political science, director of Public Policy Studies, and Paul Young, associate professor of English, Director of Film Studies Program

USA (2008) Director: Kathryn Bigelow

In the chaos of Iraqi urban warfare, an elite Army bomb diffuser becomes addicted to war. It is about war as a drug and a soldier as reckless as he is comfortable in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb.

English, Arabic, Turkish with English subtitles. Rated R. 131 mins.

Romero

Wednesday, Dec. 1

Presented by: William Fowler, associate professor of anthropology

USA (1989) Director: John Duigan

Romero is the true story of the Catholic priest Archbishop Romero who lived in El Salvador during the political unrest in the 1980s. Despite persecution, Romero continues to speak out against the atrocities the government is committing against the people of El Salvador, until his public assassination in 1980.

English. PG-13. 102 mins. DVD. Funding provided by the Center for Latin American Studies.

Sarratt Cinema is located on the first floor of the Sarratt Student Center. The Multipurpose Room is on the second floor of The Commons on Vanderbilt’s Peabody Campus.

The International Lens film series is coordinated by the Office of Arts and Creative Engagement and the Office of International Student and Scholar Services in collaboration with Vanderbilt University academic departments, centers and programs.

Parking for Nashville community members for International Lens screenings in Sarratt Cinema is available at no charge in Zone 2 lot 2 on West End Avenue. Please avoid parking in spaces that are reserved. If the lot is full, metered parking spaces are also available on West End.

There is no charge after 6 p.m. for parking at meters along West End Avenue.  All other parking meters on campus are enforced around the clock so do not park at these meters.

Free parking for films at The Commons is available in Zone 1 lot 77 located on Horton Avenue at 18^th Avenue South.

For parking maps and additional information visit www.vanderbilt.edu/internationallens or call 322-6400.

Vanderbilt student volunteers came out in full force to help the class of 2014 move into the Commons. Hear from students and parents on this exciting and emotional day.

See photos from move-in »

Contact: Emily Pearce   ·   Amy Wolf   ·   (615) 322-2706

Patients, students and members of the public seeking more information on medical stories should call Vanderbilt University Medical Center News Office at 615-322-4747.

Vanderbilt's video production unit has won eight regional Emmy awards and earned 21 nominations since 2007 for videos produced for VUCast, Vanderbilt's news network.

Eavey, who conducted the study with former Harvard colleagues Josef Shargorodsky, Sharon Curhan, and Gary Curhan, said the results are troubling because hearing loss in adolescents is on the rise and researchers don’t have any hard evidence to explain why.

“What jumped out at us was the fact that hearing loss increased a lot,” Eavey said. “Overall it went from 15 percent of adolescents to 20 percent of adolescents.”

“You already are looking at one in 20 adolescents who has a notable hearing loss and one in 5 is showing signs that they are on the route to having hearing loss.”

The prevalence of any hearing loss increased from 14.9 percent in 1988-1994 to 19.5 percent in 2005-2006.

“One could have hypothesized the opposite,” Eavey said. “There are vaccines out now that can stop bacterial meningitis and they also help get rid of some cases of ear infections, so that incidence is down.

“The knee-jerk answer that one might conclude, although supporting data is not clear, is that the increase is caused by loud volume.”

Hearing loss in young persons can compromise social development, communication skills and educational achievement, according to the authors.

“We can modify noise exposure, and that’s where I think we can at least try and put some brakes on, whether it is coming from noise-induced hearing loss or not,” Eavey said. “We are looking at the front wall of an epidemic and we can help to prevent the loss to allow the kids to enjoy their ears and their great music a lot longer.”

Eavey, who also chairs the Department of Otolaryngology, said parents and children should pre-set their electronic music devices to somewhere between one-half and two-thirds maximum volume because any sound over 85 decibels (dBs) exceeds what hearing experts consider to be a safe level, and some MP3 players are programmed to reach levels as high as 120 dBs.

“As parents, we can’t hear how loud their music is when they have the earbuds in so this is an important step,” he said. “I can tell you that if you hear the music coming from their headphones it is too loud, but an easier way to know for sure is to preset the device. This will still allow them to listen to and enjoy their music but will safeguard against ear-damaging volume levels.”

Watch the VUCast Extra report to learn more about this study.

Media Contact: Craig Boerner, (615) 322-4747
craig.boerner@vanderbilt.edu

Media Contact: Craig Boerner, (615) 322-4747
craig.boerner@vanderbilt.edu

Contact: Emily Pearce   ·   Amy Wolf   ·   (615) 322-2706

Patients, students and members of the public seeking more information on medical stories should call Vanderbilt University Medical Center News Office at 615-322-4747.

Vanderbilt's video production unit has won eight regional Emmy awards and earned 21 nominations since 2007 for videos produced for VUCast, Vanderbilt's news network.

Tango Buenos Aires

Tango Buenos Aires, Afro Cuban All Stars and Trisha Brown Dance represented

Great Performances at Vanderbilt celebrates its 36th season in 2010-2011 with a seven-event lineup including international offerings Tango Buenos Aires and the return of the Cuban orchestra Afro Cuban All Stars. Other events include a national preview performance by New York’s David Dorfman Dance Company and The Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile, formerly of Nickel Creek, highlighting the band’s new release Antifogmatic.

Other performances include the iconic modern dance company Trisha Brown celebrating its 40th anniversary. The series also pays homage to Mexico’s bicentennial with the Grammy award winner Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano in a tailored Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) repertoire with the addition of a locally constructed community altar.

Subscription packages for the entire Great Performances series are on sale at Sarratt Student Center and www.vanderbilt.edu/greatperformances. Prices range from $196 to $224 and will be available through Sept. 3. Single tickets go on sale Sept. 10 and range from $29 to $37. Vanderbilt students and staff can get discounted rates with deep subscription savings. Tickets for non-Vanderbilt students are $10 with identification at Ticketmaster outlets and at the box office. Call (615) 322-2471 for more information:

The complete list of performances:

David Dorfman Dance Company relives 1973 with Sly and the Family Stone in Prophets of Funk-Dance to the Music, 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 24, in Langford Auditorium.

The Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile (formerly of Nickel Creek) visits campus for Parent and Family Weekend with their version of country classical chamber music, 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 9, in Ingram Hall.

Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano, Dia de los Muertos. The university celebrates the bicentennial of Mexico with the Grammy award winner and fifth generation legend Natividad “Nati” Cano, celebrating the Day of the Dead. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 3, in Langford Auditorium.

2b Theatre performs Invisible Atom, which tells the story of fortune and misfortune in a tale that covers everything from economics to classical physics. The company recently garnered the 2010 Herald Angel award at Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival. Noon and 7:30p.m, Friday, Feb. 25, in VU Student Life Center Ballroom.

Tango Buenos Aires, Fire and Passion. One of Argentina’s great cultural exports, Tango Buenos Aires offers authentic Tango, created for the Jazmines festival at the famous cabaret, Michelangelo, with live music under renowned band leader, Osvaldo Requena. 7:30 p.m, Thursday, March 17, in Langford Auditorium.

Afro Cuban All Stars. Following in the vein of legendary Cuban orchestras such as Los Van Van and the Buena Vista Social Club, the group has become known as one of the greatest orchestras today. The group revisits Great Performances after a seven-year hiatus. 8 p.m. Friday, April 1, in Langford Auditorium.

Trisha Brown Dance Company, Pygmalion. The iconic choreographer celebrates the company’s 40th anniversary in a story of love and magic based on Jean Philippe Rameau’s opera (1748) as originally told in Ovid’s Metamorphosis. 8 p.m. Friday, April 8, in Langford Auditorium.

For complete season details visit www.vanderbilt.edu/greatperformances.

Media Contact: Bridgette Kohnhorst, (615) 322-0849
bridgette.kohnhorst@vanderbilt.edu

Vanderbilt was also noted on lists of national universities that deliver the best value for their cost and a new survey of high school guidance counselors. Its engineering school was ranked No. 36 among engineering schools whose highest degree awarded is a doctorate.

“Vanderbilt’s commitment to its core mission of education and research attracts the most remarkable faculty and students in the world,” said Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos. “We are pleased to be recognized again as one of the great national universities on several levels.”

Vanderbilt tied with Rice University on the best national universities list, which was headed by Harvard, Princeton and Yale Universities at Nos. 1, 2 and 3.

Vanderbilt was ranked No. 11 on the Great Schools, Great Prices list, which compares academic quality with the net cost of attendance for a student who receives the average level of need-based financial aid. The first-time High School Counselors’ Picks list ranked Vanderbilt at No. 19.

The Vanderbilt School of Engineering tied with three other schools at No. 36 on rankings, headed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, of the best engineering programs where the highest degree is a doctorate. This improved on the School of Engineering’s No. 40 ranking last year.

Vanderbilt was also noted for economic diversity among its students, with 11 percent of the student body receiving federal Pell grants, most of which are awarded to people with family incomes under $20,000.

Highlights of the college rankings will be published in the September issue of U.S. News & World Report, available on newsstands Aug. 31.

There will be a sea of new faces around Vanderbilt University’s campus beginning at 7 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 21, when about 1,500 freshmen move into The Commons, Vanderbilt’s first-year student community. The students will move into residence halls known as “houses”—each of which is headed by a faculty member that lives in an apartment in the house. A band of volunteers consisting of upperclass students, faculty and staff greet the new Commodores and their families and help them move in–with the entire effort wrapping up around noon. Upperclass students also move on to campus throughout the weekend.

Move-in weekend can generate a lot of potential waste when all of the cardboard boxes, plastic bags and covers and Styrofoam packing materials start to add up. To improve the environmental impact of move-in, Vanderbilt is offering plastic film, cardboard and Styrofoam recycling. Last year, the university offered molded Styrofoam recycling for the first time and filled two 26-foot trucks in addition to recycling 7.5 tons of cardboard. Film recycling is being added this year, which means plastic bags, comforter cases and similar items will be recycled.

The university will also set up water stations rather than handing out water bottles to families and students to help reduce waste.

WHAT: Students return for move-in weekend at Vanderbilt University. Move-In goes green with plastic film, cardboard and Styrofoam recycling and use of water stations rather than water bottles to reduce waste.

WHERE: Freshmen will move into The Commons, Vanderbilt’s first-year student community located on the southeastern side of campus near the Peabody College of education and human development.

WHEN: Move-in for freshmen is scheduled from 7 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Aug. 21. Upperclass students will also move in throughout the weekend.

Two Vanderbilt projects, One Hundred Oaks and The Commons Center, recently earned Excellence in Development awards from the Urban Land Institute’s Nashville District Council.

Winners were selected based on criteria considering various design factors, such as land use, contribution to the community, financial practicality and sensitivity to the environment.

The Vanderbilt Health/One Hundred Oaks facility was honored for its adaptive reuse of space and The Commons Center was lauded for its achievements in green development.

“The Urban Land Institute has taken a leadership role in promoting sustainable land use and development,” said Keith Loiseau, Vanderbilt University architect. “Vanderbilt is honored to be recognized by them.”

Entries included public and private projects and commercial and residential developments.

The Urban Land Institute is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit research and education organization supported by its members focused on providing leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide.

For more information about The Urban Land Institute, visit http://www.uli.org/.

Buster Olney, BA’88, is a senior writer and baseball analyst at ESPN. Tyler Kepner, BA’97, is a national baseball writer at The New York Times. Sports Illustrated is home to two Vanderbilt alumni—Mark Bechtel, BA’93, who is a senior editor, and Lee Jenkins, BA’99, a senior writer. Dave Sheinin, BS’91, is a national baseball writer at The Washington Post. And Clay Travis, JD’04, MFA’08, is a columnist for FanHouse and also hosts a daily radio show on the highest-rated sports talk station in the country, Nashville’s 104.5 The Zone.

Their opinions vary, but not their passion for the games they cover.