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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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?
