The discovery of a near 3,000-year-old platform, built among wetlands and rivers of the Mexican tropical forest, offers new insight into the Maya’s early communal development. The site, called Aguada Fénix, is the earliest and largest known monumental structure built by the Maya and challenges the existing narrative that the Maya civilization developed gradually, with […]
Three Ways Kids Can Learn through Play at Home
Children’s lives revolve around social interactions that help them figure out what it means to be a member of their family and community. But recent shelter-in-place efforts have limited many of these routine yet vital experiences — especially because young kids can’t video call or text their friends as freely as others. “Social interaction is […]
Rebooting Our Lives After COVID-19
The world’s new reality amid the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing us to confront issues and critically think about how to revive communities slowly, safely and sustainably.
Ask the Experts: What are the impacts of COVID-19?
To learn more about the impacts of the global pandemic, we asked the experts within the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin.
Ancient Alteration
Evidence showed that the Maya faced environmental pressures and responded to by converting forests to wetland field complexes and digging canals to manage water quality and quantity.
Attitude Adjustment
Boosting academic success does not have to derive from new teachers or curriculum; it can also come from changing students’ attitudes about their abilities, according to the latest findings from the National Study of Learning Mindsets published in Nature. The experimental study involved more than 12,000 ninth graders from 65 public high schools across the […]
The Taco Truck: Author Takes His Research to the Streets
Robert Lemon examines the evolution of taco trucks and how it transforms U.S. cities.
A Matter of Life and Death
In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in August, sociologists Mark Hayward of UT Austin and Isaac Sasson of Tel Aviv University examined the intersection of education, cause of death and life expectancy across gender and race. Overall, life expectancy declined by an average of two months from 2010 to […]
The Protection of Being Known
Anthropology Ph.D. candidate Allison McNamara studies lesser known primate species that face risks of extinction.
Three Questions to Ask When You’re Stressed Out
From big class presentations and midterms to navigating the social scene and balancing a large workload, the school year — and life in general — brings on stress, but asking yourself three questions can help fight anxiety with curiosity rather than panic. Jasper Smits, a psychology professor and director of the Anxiety & Stress Clinic […]
Why the most popular candidate in a close election will probably lose
The Presidential elections of 2000 and 2016 were controversial, in part, because it seemed like the wrong person won. In 2000, Republican George W. Bush defeated Democrat Al Gore by 5 electoral votes after losing the popular vote by about 540,000. And in 2016, Republican Donald Trump garnered 27 more electoral votes than Democrat Hillary […]
Don Graham Commentary: “The Grapes of Wrath” has Outlived Its Relevance
Eighty years after John Steinbeck wrote the classic American novel The Grapes of Wrath, it remains a hardy perennial on many high school reading lists. But a casual survey of sixty-six upper-division English majors at the University of Texas in March of this year reveals that forty-nine students have not read the novel and that […]
Grading Brain Health: How Educational Experiences Impact Cognitive Functioning Later in Life
High school experiences follow you long after you’ve graduated, shaping your professional success and even your health. Now, researchers are investigating how it could contribute to your future brain health and maybe even impact your likelihood of getting Alzheimer’s Disease. University of Texas at Austin sociologist Chandra Muller researches how educational experiences shape life course […]
The Earth’s Keepers: How Religion Can Guide Environmentalism
If you knew in the next life you’d become a tree, you might hesitate before you cut one down. Or if you were to become one of the ocean’s fish, perhaps you’d be more careful about how you dispose of certain plastics. That’s Karma, at least as it’s applied in an environmental context, which might […]
Healing With Humanity
The Pro Bene Meritis award is the highest honor bestowed by the College of Liberal Arts. Since 1984, the annual award has been given to alumni, faculty members and friends of the college who are committed to the liberal arts, have made outstanding contributions in professional or philanthropic pursuits or have participated in service related to the college. […]
Trolling the U.S.: Q&A on Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election
It’s been more than two years since the 2016 presidential election, and the United States is still piecing together Russia’s propaganda-filled interference in U.S. political conversations on social media. According to a February 2018 poll by The University of Texas at Austin and The Texas Tribune, 40 percent of Texans believe Russian interference played a […]
New Year, Same You: Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail
After we’ve spent all our money on gifts and stuffed ourselves to the brim with endless holiday treats, it’s no wonder many of us see the new year as an opportunity to become a little less broke and little more fit. But come next December, most of us will find ourselves back in the same […]
America’s Ongoing Housing Crisis: Q&A with “Owned” Film Maker Giorgio Angelini
Fifty years after the passing of the Fair Housing Act, people across the United States continue to face an uphill battle to homeownership. “Owned, a Tale of Two Americas,” directed by University of Texas at Austin history alumnus Giorgio Angelini attempts to get at the root of the U.S. housing crisis, which erupted in an […]
Beyond the Battlefield: The war rages on, but this time it’s personal
The Thorazine haze was beginning to fade when Glenn Towery was discharged from Oakland Naval Hospital. For the last however-many days he had felt listless, “like a non-human being,” making him forget why he was even there in the first place. Before that, he occupied a hospital cot in the Philippines, next to an injured […]
Joan Neuberger: A Pioneer in Digital History
One of the most fundamental tasks for any university is to foster research that creates an impact beyond its campus. For historians, much of that work takes place in the growing fields of public and digital history. These scholars use innovative digital tools to make historical research relevant and accessible to a broader community. Now, […]
Here Comes the Song: The Personalities Behind Your Favorite Beatles Lyrics
If Paul McCartney would have written “Yesterday” based on the first words that came to his mind, the song would sound like a concupiscent teen singing about breakfast: Scrambled eggs, oh, my baby, how I love your legs… The melody of the song, which has been broadcasted on American radio more than 7 million times […]
Professor’s Play “Monroe” Reveals the Ripple Effect of Racial Violence
If every action produces a series of consequences, imagine life if slavery or Jim Crow had never existed. Now, consider what has happened because they’ve existed. That’s where the idea for Lisa B. Thompson’s play “Monroe” sparked. “I want audiences to consider the ripple effect of racial violence on families and communities and how that continues for generations,” says […]
Decoding the Language of Love
“She looked at him through the light. She saw the pride and the interest on that handsome, poetic face, with the edgy cheekbones under the scruff, as he’d worked through the day without shaving. She saw both in his eyes, pure gray in candlelight.” –Excerpt from “Year One” by Nora Roberts The secret to romance […]
Four Reasons Everyone Should Study History
In the past, STEM and the arts and humanities have largely been taught as unconnected disciplines, but there is more overlap between fields than many realize. Erika Bsumek, an associate professor of history in the College of Liberal Arts and a 2018 recipient of the Regent’s Outstanding Teaching Awards, wants to help students see how […]
The Future is Female: Young Women Inspired to take on NEW Leadership™ Roles
With more running for political office than ever before, women have moved beyond breaking ceilings and on to breaking records. But there’s still more work to be done. This year, more than 2,500 women filed for national- or state-level candidacy in a bi-partisan effort to increase female representation in politics nationwide, where women currently hold […]