A look at some of the most notable happenings across the college

beauty

Agatha Oliverira and Natasha Mevs-Korff participate in beauty, a public endurance piece performed Nov. 13 on the West Mall. The piece explored women’s relationships to each other and to their hair.

Originally performed in Lagos, Nigeria, as part of artist Wura-Natasha Ogunji’s Guggenheim Fellowship, this iteration of beauty included students as well as artists from the greater Austin community and explored themes of gender, race and sexuality. Photo by Sonsereé Verdise Gibson.

Foodways of Mexico

Benedicta Alejo, a chef who specializes in Mexican cooking, prepares corundas, a traditional corn-based food of Michoacán.

Benedicta Alejo, a chef who specializes in Mexican cooking, prepares corundas, a traditional corn-based food of Michoacán. Photo by Mari Correa

Benedicta’s specialty, a 7-point corunda. Photo by Mari Correa

Foodways of Mexico – The Michoacán Dinner: Behind the Scenes was held Sept. 17 and brought together a group of chefs to engage in conversations about food from Michoacán and cooking for the Authentic Mexico Gourmet Gala.

Benedicta’s specialty, a 7-point corunda. The typical corunda has only three points.

BBQ&A

Audience members at Texas Banned Books: Questions and Answers (TXBBQ&A) on Sept. 26 participate in an activity gauging their experiences with censorship.

Audience members at Texas Banned Books: Questions and Answers (TXBBQ&A) on Sept. 26 participate in an activity gauging their experiences with censorship. Photo by Travis Willmann

The event was an interactive roundtable discussion about the real, relevant state of censorship in Texas and was held in the Perry-Castañeda Library during Banned Books Week.

The conversation centered on Texas schools and values, books in prison, freedom of the press and the right to read.

Commencement

“There is no better preparation to today’s world than the liberal arts. Success is easier if you understand the origins of yourself and your community.” –Devin Geoghegan

Devin Geoghegan. Photo by Flash Photography

Commencement speaker and liberal arts alumnus Devin Geoghegan speaks to the College of Liberal Arts fall 2013 graduates on Dec. 7 at the Frank Erwin Center.

Geoghegan graduated in 2000 with a B.A. in history, English and Liberal Arts Honors. After graduating from UT, he worked at Lehman Brothers in New York as an analyst before starting his first hedge fund.

Today, Geoghegan manages his own $440 million energy hedge fund—Nexus Asset Management—with two other partners.

Humanities Research Award Symposium

American Girls in Red Russia clipping from EveryWeek Magazine. Image courtesy of Milly Bennett Papers, Hoover Institution.

Julia Mickenberg. Photo by Emily Nielsen

Julia Mickenberg, associate professor of American studies, presents her research, The New Woman Tries on Red: Russia in the American Feminist Imagination, 1905-1945, featuring this American Girls in Red Russia clipping from EveryWeek Magazine. The 2014 Humanities Research Award Symposium was held Feb. 28 to celebrate the humanities with presentations from 2010 Humanities Research Award recipients. The $15,000 award was established in 2009 by Dean Randy Diehl in response to a shortage of grants for humanities research.

Ann Patchett

On Jan. 23, bestselling novelist Ann Patchett spoke in the Joynes Reading Room for a Plan II Honors event. Photo by Matt Valentine ©

On Jan. 23, bestselling novelist Ann Patchett spoke in the Joynes Reading Room for a Plan II Honors event. Patchett, one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World,” is the author of six novels and three nonfiction books. She has received many awards and fellowships for her writing, including England’s Orange Prize, a PEN/Faulkner award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her work has been translated into more than 30 languages.