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Cover Story

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

March 27, 2023 by Kaulie Watson

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.

The Way of Roger: Poet Roger Reeves ponders history, loss, joy, and the bright side of barbarism

October 21, 2022 by Kaulie Watson

Roger Reeves’ latest poetry collection, Best Barbarian, is part jazz song, part fever dream, part mythic reimagining. “For me, the barbarian is the achievement of something that is recognizably outside and potentially threatening, not because it seeks to be but just because it’s making a way and a life of being possible. It’s about self-love. Being your best barbarian is really about loving yourself, and that is completely different from the normal.”

The Pilgrimage of Professor Latinx: Frederick Luis Aldama and the Making of an Academic Superhero

May 26, 2022 by Emily Nielsen

The origin story of Frederick Luis Aldama, professor of English at The University of Texas at Austin and academic superhero “Professor Latinx,” begins with a bus trip his mother took before he was born. She set out from her home in East Los Angeles toward Guatemala, intending to meet family members she’d only heard about […]

Seegel tweets

Assembling the February 24 Archive

March 28, 2022 by Daniel Oppenheimer

Since the war began, Professor Steven Seegel has tweeted about 12,000 times. He plans to keep going, with the help of international colleagues in the digital humanities, for as long as necessary, in order to build what he’s calling “The February 24th Archive.”

Eric Tang is sitting in a chair and dressed in a blue suit with an open collar. Behind him is a stone staircase on the UT campus.

A People’s History of New York City

January 26, 2022 by Emily Nielsen

Eric Tang’s new course, The Global City, will be offered exclusively during the fall 2022 session of the UTNY program, where UT students spend a semester living in New York City while continuing their studies and gaining work experience with a local internship.

The Misinformation Age

September 17, 2021 by Alex Reshanov

Depending on whom you ask, conspiracy theories are either having a heyday or it’s just business as usual. But whether or not there is a long-term increase happening, certain factors likely influence the ebb and flow of conspiratorial beliefs.

Anna Cash wears a striped red shirt and looks into the camera with a serious expression on her face.

Kind, Curious and Fearless

April 13, 2021 by Emily Nielsen

A Q&A with Anna Cash, a psychology senior from Austin who is passionate about law and justice.

Political themed collage with Statue of Liberty, U.S. Capitol Building, mail-in ballots, unemployment chart, coronavirus, and protest viewed through magnifying glass with American flag background.

2020 Vision: Examining Some of the Country’s Big Issues

October 30, 2020 by Rachel White

Experts from UT Austin’s College of Liberal Arts weigh in on some of the major issues facing our country and the president-elect over the next four years.

A moving illustration of a large scene. In it, we can see vertical windows looking to a peaceful night cityscape, with twinkling stars overhead. The windows are in the shape of a cellphone battery icon, and illustration slowly turns to a bright, cheerful day scene. The buildings all come to life in a bright, multi-colored wash of color. Around the border of the window, we can see stylized illustrations of people in various poses. We see people having fun with computers, people playing with their pets, families, riding bikes, reading. We also see a medical doctor with a mask waving. There are also wires leading from each person that connect with the battery-shaped window in the middle, giving life to the city.

Rebooting Our Lives After COVID-19

May 7, 2020 by Rachel White

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.

Three women sitting in an empty movie theater

It’s More Than a Movie

November 19, 2019 by David Ochsner

There is so much to be learned from film studies — about ourselves and the world around us — if we view it through a liberal arts lens.

Illustration of spacemen examining a large brain with futuristic instruments on some alien world.

Breakthroughs in Brain Health: We’re Closer Than You Think

April 4, 2019 by Alex Reshanov

It might not seem like it when you’ve forgotten your email password for the third time in as many days, but your brain is capable of amazing things. It can instantly process the intricate sensory inputs needed to understand the world while simultaneously conducting motor neurons to navigate these landscapes. It can read complex emotions […]

Illustration of a women yelling with a raised fist against a bright red background. In her shirt, there is a pattern of various women with their fists raised.

Fight Like a Girl:  How Women’s Activism Shapes History

July 3, 2018 by Rachel White

Alice Embree doesn’t know what came over her the first time she stood up against injustice. She just knew it was the right thing to do. Along with her friends Karen and Glodine and the rest of the Austin High School drill squad, Embree had just sat down to order at a restaurant in Corpus […]

graphic of smiley face with camera in one eye

Smile, You’re on Camera: Behind the Lens of 24/7 Surveillance

January 18, 2018 by Michelle Bryant

“Even a strutting exhibitionist has something to hide: certain diary entries, genetic predispositions, financial mistakes, medical crises, teenage embarrassments, antisocial compulsions, sexual fantasies, radical dreams,” writes Randolph Lewis. “We all have something that we want to shield from public view. The real question is: Who gets to pull the curtains? And increasingly: How will we […]

Stylized illustration of a backyard barbecue with all of its guests looking down at their phones and not talking to each other. All the while a fire has begun in the grill and appears to be getting out of control. An excited dog makes off with a link of sausages in its mouth.

Can We Talk?: Why Discourse is Dying in America

May 2, 2017 by Rachel White

I’ll have to admit that I was a bit perplexed when I heard linguistic anthropologist Elizabeth Keating say, “There is a very strong preference for agreement in conversation in the U.S.” I couldn’t believe my ears — even the Pew Research Center pegged political polarization as the defining feature of modern U.S. politics. And it’s […]

Surreal illustration of a church in Austin amid a neighborhood. A ghostly mist floats above the church and into the grey sky. The apparition is in the shape of a profile of an African-American’s face.

Leaving Home: Austin’s Declining African American Population

November 21, 2016 by Victoria Davis

In December of 2015, author and former Austin resident Ellen Sweets wrote a farewell letter to Austin that was published in TribTalk: Ever since I decided to leave Austin, I’ve tried to write a farewell devoid of anger and frustration, and every time I’ve had to move on to writing something else. A Facebook post. […]

A tongue-in-cheek photo of a smiling woman holding a brightly branded "Vote" box against a red background. The box reads, "The Campaign for Your Vote: Just Add Brand Power!" (America's Choice).

The Campaign for Your Vote: Just Add Brand Power

May 9, 2016 by Rachel White

After months of being bombarded by pollsters, campaign ads and the most outlandish sound bites on repeat, the moment will come for you to finally cast your ballot. Whom will you choose? “The presidency is the one office that represents the American people: all their wishes, dreams, desires, hopes, fears and everything else,” says history […]

Surreal illustration in a simple style of a woman sitting in a plane seat while she writes in clouds on the window with her pencil.

Journeys

November 2, 2015 by David Ochsner

Why do we travel? What impels us to leave behind the comforts of home and endure the indignities of airports or the toils and snares of an interstate highway? We travel because it is in our nature. Humans have always been on the move, sometimes out of necessity — hunting and gathering, or fleeing from […]

Black and white photo of the Brooklyn Bridge shrouded in a white fog.

Bridge to Somewhere

April 30, 2015 by David Ochsner

Connecting STEM and the Humanities to Fix America’s Failing Infrastructure The next time you get behind the wheel, consider this: The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave our major urban highways a big, fat “D” on their infrastructure report card. A “D” on a report card usually means you’re getting grounded, and in a […]

A simple drawing of the Austin skyline. A large doctor's stethoscope looms in front of the skyline bracketing the words, "Keeping A Pulse on Population Health."

Keeping A Pulse On Population Health

November 21, 2014 by Sarah Muthler

A few years ago, a Plan II Honors student in Marc Musick’s sociology lecture came to him with a question. Musick had been talking about the shortage of doctors in rural and inner city areas. The student had grown up in the Rio Grande Valley and hoped to go on to medical school. Why, he […]

Photos of Adrian Audain (anthro sr), Macarena Jaraiz (American studies & IRG soph), Manjari Subramanian (psych jr); BOTTOM ROW: Michael Villanueva (IRG soph), Angelica Cruz (history soph) and James Barrington (gov & Air Force ROTC sr).

Millennial Nation

April 24, 2014 by Emily Nielsen

A Generational Look at Education, Money and Work Empathetic. Impatient. Innovative. Unfocused. Rational. Naive. Excited. These are the words millennials in the College of Liberal Arts use when they’re asked to describe themselves. However, it’s a question they’re not often asked. Plenty of people, from journalists to researchers to employers, are looking to define who […]

Illustration of little men jumping, climbing, and swinging between online icons, like a mail icon, a lock icon, an arrow, a sheet of paper, and a paperclip.

Adventures in Online Learning

October 29, 2013 by Emily Ball Cicchini

Exploring the Acronym Jungle of MOOCs, SMOCs and Beyond When Professors John Hoberman and Daniel Bonevac sat down with a small development team in January to create two new online courses, the possibilities of “what if” and “could we” electrified the room. The goal: to deliver 72 hours of traditional coursework in an engaging and interactive […]

Image of sky bridge connecting the new building to the Student Activity Center makes an ideal study spot.

A Space to Call Home

April 1, 2013 by Molly Wahlberg Leave a Comment

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 […]

Lars Hinrichs

Do You Speak Texan?

December 1, 2012 by Jessica Sinn Leave a Comment

Despite drastic changes to the iconic accent, most Texans will continue to use their twang in the right situation Since this story was featured in Life & Letters last spring, English Professor Lars Hinrichs’ research on the evolution of the iconic Texas twang has been featured in several national media outlets, including TIME, NPR and […]

Boy playing baseball with robot.

Whatever Happened to the American Dream?

October 26, 2012 by Jessica Sinn Leave a Comment

International historian Jeremi Suri looks back at America’s greatest visionaries to show how our nation can achieve greatness again Some of America’s greatest triumphs were built on dreams. Without dreamers, Neil Armstrong wouldn’t have walked on the moon, proving the sky isn’t the limit. Steve Jobs wouldn’t have transformed the way we work, play and communicate through […]

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