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Ghosts in the Machine: Digital forensics and the race against the technological clock

Ghosts in the Machine: Digital forensics and the race against the technological clock

Jacques Derrida, the famous philosopher, thought the advent of digital word processing meant the end of the draft. Thorsten Ries and a team of researchers are proving him wrong — and pushing the boundaries of digital forensics in the humanities.

Features

Lisa Moore Is Picking Up What They’re Putting Down

Lisa Moore Is Picking Up What They’re Putting Down

As a young scholar and critic, Lisa Moore was driven by a deceptively simple desire: “I really wanted to see myself in literature and art, because I love literature and art and I felt that it was wrong if my experience had not been represented there.”

Blood in the Water: A Graphic Story

Blood in the Water: A Graphic Story

A graphic story by American Studies Ph.D. student and cartoonist Coyote Shook that explores the shark-related research of American Studies professor Janet Davis, one of Shook’s advisors, in the context of Shook’s own work as well as the broader field of “blue humanities.”

Blog

A Lager Beer Revolution: The History of Beer and German American Immigration

A Lager Beer Revolution: The History of Beer and German American Immigration

German-American immigrants triggered a lager beer revolution during the second half of the 19th century, fundamentally changing US drinking culture.

LLILAS Director Fosters Transformation via Internationalization

LLILAS Director Fosters Transformation via Internationalization

Adela Pineda Franco’s love for language, culture and literature dates back to her childhood in Puebla, Mexico. Now, as the director of the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, she’s bringing that same passion to the Forty Acres and beyond.

Building a Sense of Belonging: Q&A with Stephanie Holmsten

Building a Sense of Belonging: Q&A with Stephanie Holmsten

The word “mentorship” conjures an image of a seasoned professional taking a novice under their wing. But Stephanie Holmsten’s primary focus is on creating communities where faculty of all experience levels can learn from each other.

Global Virtual Exchange Professor Elevates YouTube with International Education

Global Virtual Exchange Professor Elevates YouTube with International Education

University of Texas at Austin psychology professor Michael Domjan has embarked on a mission to make psychology concepts more accessible and engaging for students. Thanks to grants from the Texas Global’s Virtual Exchange (GVE) program, he has launched a successful YouTube channel that does just that. 

Books

Creating Human Nature: Government professor Benjamin Gregg delves into the fraught politics of genetic engineering

Creating Human Nature: Government professor Benjamin Gregg delves into the fraught politics of genetic engineering

For Benjamin Gregg, professor of government at The University of Texas at Austin and author of the new book Creating Human Nature: The Political Challenges of Genetic Engineering, the potential of gene editing technologies is too great to leave it to ad hoc reactions, either from a skittish public, a sensationalistic media, or a heavy-handed state. 

Book Excerpt: How and How Not to Be Happy

Book Excerpt: How and How Not to Be Happy

Could happiness lie in health, wealth, responsibility, or pleasure? Should we settle for imperfect happiness? What would it even mean to attain perfect fulfillment? In his new book, J. Budziszewski separates the wheat from the chaff, exploring how to attain happiness—and just as importantly, how not to.

Teaching & Learning

A Classics Podcast Gets Greek Greats Onto Your Phone

A Classics Podcast Gets Greek Greats Onto Your Phone

The idea for Deborah Beck’s podcast burst forth from her head like the goddess Athena from the head of Zeus. That moment of inspiration has turned into three seasons and counting of “Musings in Greek Literature,” a podcast on classical Greek texts hosted by Beck and a rotating cast of her advanced undergraduate students.

Bringing the Liberal Arts to Texas Prisons

Bringing the Liberal Arts to Texas Prisons

The Texas Prison Education Initiative offers college-credit courses to incarcerated students in the Austin area. The courses, which span subjects from physics to philosophy, are taught by volunteer instructors and offered at no cost to students. Since it began in 2018, the program has served some 230 students in over 400 classes. But there’s still far more demand than they can meet.

Signs of Community

Signs of Community

Deborah White and Michael Wynne see themselves and the ASL program they are building at UT Austin as about more than just language. They are a bridge between the Deaf and hearing communities. Their identity as part of the Deaf community is integral to the way that they teach American Sign Language, which is just as much about understanding Deaf culture as it is about vocabulary, syntax, and grammar.

Research

On the Beauty of Crosswords

On the Beauty of Crosswords

There are at least three big ways in which Robbie Kubala, assistant professor of philosophy at UT Austin, appreciates crossword puzzles. He’s exceptionally good at doing them, for one, and they’re a shared interest with his partner. They’re also an object of philosophical interest.

The Decline and Divergence of Life Expectancy in America: Sociologist Mark Hayward tries to unravel the mystery of why we’re dying sooner

The Decline and Divergence of Life Expectancy in America: Sociologist Mark Hayward tries to unravel the mystery of why we’re dying sooner

Sociologist Mark Hayward explores why one of the wealthiest nations in the world is experiencing such a significant decline in a such a major indicator of well-being.

The End of the Line: “Endlings” and what their stories tell us about the planet, its inhabitants, and ourselves

The End of the Line: “Endlings” and what their stories tell us about the planet, its inhabitants, and ourselves

Here is the basic anatomy of a story: there’s a beginning, a middle, and an end. But what can stories tell us about “endlings,” the last known individuals of their kinds?

Archive

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Spring 2022

The cover of Life & Letters, Magazine for the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas. Fall 2921. Issue no. 37. The misinformation age, Conspiracy theories, irrationallity, and the challenges of being human in a digital age.

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Life & Letters spring/summer 2021 cover with pink background and graduation cap illustration.

Spring 2021

Life & Letters magazine cover with U.S. Capitol building and red, white and blue background.

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