A monster EF-5 tornado roared through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore on May 20, 2013. The twister boasted winds exceeding 200 miles per hour as it ravaged schools and neighborhoods, killing dozens of people and injuring hundreds. In its wake, many are questioning the relationship between tornadoes and climate change, and whether these monster […]
Marion Mark On the Meaning of Education
Pro Bene Meritis 2013 The Pro Bene Meritis Award is the highest honor bestowed by the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. First granted in 1984, it is given each spring to alumni, faculty and friends of the college who are committed to the liberal arts, have made outstanding contributions […]
Toyin Falola On Telling Africa’s Story
Pro Bene Meritis 2013 The Pro Bene Meritis Award is the highest honor bestowed by the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. First granted in 1984, it is given each spring to alumni, faculty and friends of the college who are committed to the liberal arts, have made outstanding contributions […]
English Alumna Alyssa Ramirez Found Inspiration, Employment Through Undergraduate Research Position
Many liberal arts alumni speak fondly of formative professors and classes that helped shape their career path, and Alyssa Ramirez, who received her B.A. in English from The University of Texas at Austin in 2010, is no exception. During her time at the university, Ramirez worked as an undergraduate research apprentice for her favorite professor, […]
Q&A: Doctoral Student Explores History of Science in Southeast Borderlands
Cameron Strang, a doctoral student in the Department of History, has been generating a great deal of interest among fellow historians with his research on skull collecting and scalping in the early American borderlands. He argues that science of the nascent United States was not exclusively from institutions in the Northeast, but that it incorporated […]
Physician, Humanitarian Paul Farmer Addresses Human Healthcare Rights
Dr. Paul Farmer, a world-renowned medical anthropologist and physician, spoke about social medicine, global health and healthcare as a human right at an April 22 campus event hosted by the Humanities Institute. Farmer, who holds the Humanities Institute’s sixth C. L. and Henriette Cline Centennial Visiting Professorship in the Humanities, addressed a packed ballroom in […]
Q&A: Professor and Poet Kurt Heinzelman on Adelaide Writer’s Week
Kurt Heinzelman, English professor, founding co-editor of The Poetry Miscellany and advisor and editor-at-large for Bat City Review, has been publishing poetry for 30 years in such journals as Poetry, Poetry Northwest, Massachusetts Review and Southwest Review. Recently, Heinzelman was invited as a featured author to Adelaide Writers’ Week, an important part of the larger […]
A Space to Call Home
Take a walk through the new College of Liberal Arts Building, and the building feels as fresh and modern as it feels warm and lived-in—an impressive feat for a place that just opened in January. “This is our shot at greatness,” says Randy Diehl, dean of the College of Liberal Arts. “This building ensures that […]
Ancient DNA Opens Aztec Cold Case
For centuries, the fate of the original Otomí inhabitants of Xaltocan, the capital of a pre-Aztec Mexican city-state, has remained unknown. Researchers have long wondered whether they assimilated with the Aztecs or abandoned the town altogether. According to new anthropological research from The University of Texas at Austin, Wichita State University and Washington State University, […]
Supernatural Explanations More Accepted as We Age
Reliance on supernatural explanations for major life events, such as death and illness, often increases rather than declines with age, according to a new psychology study from The University of Texas at Austin and published in the June issue of Child Development. “As children assimilate cultural concepts into their intuitive belief systems — from God […]
Teenage Alcohol Abuse May Be Cause, Rather than Effect, of Isolation and Poor Grades
Rather than gaining “liquid courage” to let loose with friends, teenage drinkers are more likely to feel like social outcasts, according to a new sociology study from The University of Texas at Austin. The study — conducted by Robert Crosnoe, professor of sociology, and Aprile Benner, assistant professor of human development and family sciences — […]
Hope for Peace in the Middle East
Jason Brownlee, associate professor in the Departments of Government and Middle Eastern Studies, has received a $109,484 grant to examine peace-building efforts in Egypt. The funding, provided by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), will enable Brownlee to determine whether the rise in Egypt’s anti-Coptic violence comes from underlying social tensions or from lack […]
Words with Friends
Pro Bene Meritis 2012 The Pro Bene Meritis Award is the highest honor bestowed by the College of Liberal Arts. It is given each spring to alumni, faculty and friends of the college who are committed to the liberal arts, who have made outstanding contributions in professional or philanthropic pursuits, or who have participated in service […]
What Big Eyes You Have
Maximum running speed is the most important variable influencing mammalian eye size other than body size, according to new research from anthropology associate professor Chris Kirk and physical anthropology doctoral student Amber Heard-Booth. “If you can think of mammals that are fast like a cheetah or horse, you can almost guarantee they’ve got really big […]
Pioneering Heart
Pro Bene Meritis 2012 The Pro Bene Meritis Award is the highest honor bestowed by the College of Liberal Arts. It is given each spring to alumni, faculty and friends of the college who are committed to the liberal arts, who have made outstanding contributions in professional or philanthropic pursuits, or who have participated in service […]
From History to Haiku
Pro Bene Meritis 2012 The Pro Bene Meritis Award is the highest honor bestowed by the College of Liberal Arts. It is given each spring to alumni, faculty and friends of the college who are committed to the liberal arts, who have made outstanding contributions in professional or philanthropic pursuits, or who have participated in service […]
On the Record
Pro Bene Meritis 2012 The Pro Bene Meritis Award is the highest honor bestowed by the College of Liberal Arts. It is given each spring to alumni, faculty and friends of the college who are committed to the liberal arts, who have made outstanding contributions in professional or philanthropic pursuits, or who have participated in service […]
And the 2012 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards Go To…
Eight faculty members from the College of Liberal Arts received the 2012 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, the UT System Board of Regents’ highest teaching honor, which recognizes extraordinary educators from system institutions. The University of Texas at Austin instructors, who represent a diverse set of disciplines and expertise, each received monetary awards of $25,000. The […]
Lebermann Foundation Announces $2.5 Million Gift to Nationally Ranked Plan II Honors Program
The Lebermann Foundation, established by former University of Texas System Regent and Plan II student Lowell H. Lebermann Jr., is donating $2.5 million to The University of Texas at Austin to help recruit top students for the Plan II Honors Program. Recently ranked among the top honors experiences in the country, Plan II is a […]
Books: Fall 2012
Fall 2012 titles from our college community.
Memories for the Future
When humans learn, their brains relate new information with past experiences to derive new knowledge, according to psychology research from The University of Texas at Austin. The study, led by Alison Preston, assistant professor of psychology and neurobiology and research affiliate in the Center for Learning and Memory, shows this memory-binding process allows people to […]
Third Time’s the Charm for Keene Prize Recipient
Fiona McFarlane, a James A. Michener Center for Writers (MCW) graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin, has won the $50,000 Keene Prize for Literature for her short story, “A Fortunate Man.” A finalist in 2010 and again in 2011, McFarlane finally took the grand prize this year when her story was chosen […]
South Asia Institute Initiates Partnership with Women’s University in Pakistan
The South Asia Institute (SAI) at The University of Texas at Austin has initiated a three-year partnership with Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU ) in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, which is made possible by a $999,600 grant from the United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. The partnership will concentrate on the professional development of FJWU faculty members, […]
History Alumnus Awarded Pulitzer Prize
In Brief: History When graduate students in the History Department met with John Lewis Gaddis on March 6, they thought they were going to participate in a discussion with an eminent Cold War historian. They did not realize they were meeting with a soon-to-be Pulitzer Prize-winner. Gaddis, the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and […]
A Changing Landscape
Eva Longoria addresses the power of “Latinidad” at the 2012 Lozano Long Conference Actor, activist and philanthropist Eva Longoria delivered the keynote address at the 2012 Teresa Lozano Long Conference “Central Americans and the Latino/a Landscape: New Configurations of Latino/a America,” on February 25. The conference, organized by the Lozano Long Institute for Latin American […]