Seven 1984 alumni share about their time on the Forty Acres
Features
How Austin Became the Live Music Capital of the World
The slogan became official in 1991, but the city’s reputation as a music mecca has its real roots in the early 1980s
“It’s Always Our Decision Who We Are”
Bob Solomon and Kathleen Higgins’ ‘80s Love Story
A Defining Moment
1984 marked a turning point in the anti-apartheid movement at UT Austin
Crossword: 1984 Is Anybody Watching?
For our special “Class of 1984,” we asked Kyle Mahowald, assistant professor of linguistics here at UT, to construct a crossword puzzle
Kingship, Godship, Scholarship
Azfar Moin locates the roots of secularism in the sacred kingship of Emperor Akbar
Poetry, Goats, Revolution
Oksana Lutsyshyna’s new novel explores a little-known Ukrainian protest movement and the weight of change
Democracy Then
Classicist Naomi Campa on how studying the past can illuminate the present.
We Have the Best Stories
Ward Keeler on life as an anthropologist.
A Selfless Art
A wanderer (and COLA alum) puts down roots and grows communities.
Pictures Snapping into Place
Steven Hoelscher brings a geographer’s critical eye to the study of photography and history.
How Maps Can Kill: Lessons in Critical Cartography
Steven Seegel exposes the distortions, biases, and hidden agendas behind the seemingly objective art of cartography.
Old Threads, New Threads
Faegheh Shirazi weaves a career in cultural textiles.
The Scholar and the Artist
Cherise Smith looks at Michael Ray Charles looking at the world.
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.”
Austen in Austin
When UT Austin’s Harry Ransom Center, world-renowned for its rare books and manuscripts, wanted to tell a fresh story about Jane Austen, it needed to team up with an Austen scholar willing to go places the HRC couldn’t. That scholar? Janine Barchas.
Ghosts in the Machine: Digital forensics and the race against the technological clock
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 Oracle of the Enlightenment
How did one of the 18th century’s greatest students of Rome become its foremost voice for balance and moderation in the construction of the modern state?
The McCrackenaissance
A few things to know about Elizabeth McCracken: She’s hilarious on Twitter. She likes to spend her mornings swimming in Austin’s Barton Springs Pool. She’s not wild about the term “autofiction,” and her new book, “The Hero of This Book,” is definitely a novel, not a memoir.
Laws of the Lands: Exploring the World’s Constitutions
There are almost two hundred countries with constitutions currently in existence, and their contents vary considerably. The Comparative Constitutions Project has been documenting and analyzing them for almost two decades, creating a set of resources for scholars and non-scholars along the way.
Iran and Back Again: Talking with Nahid Siamdoust
Nahid Siamdoust left Iran with her family toward the end of the Iran-Iraq War, after an Iraqi bomb hit her elementary school, killing a number of students. In the decades since, she has lived a truly global life.
![[Monday 12:57 PM] Oppenheimer, Daniel J Pencil drawing by Adeoye Hassan, from a reference photo by Michael Efionayi. Courtesy of Toyin Falola.](https://lifeandletters.la.utexas.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/TF-pencil-art-scaled-e1674856516773-475x320.jpg)
May my child become like Toyin!
College of Liberal Arts alumnus Vik Bahl talks to his mentor, African and African Diaspora Studies professor Toyin Falola, about Falola’s globe-spanning career as a scholar of African and a building of the discipline of African Studies.
K-Drama, K-Pop, K-Places: The Research of Youjeong Oh
Oh investigates how Korean cities and regions use popular culture, particularly television dramas and K-pop, to promote themselves to an expanding audience of ardent fans. But pop culture is always a bit of a gamble, and it’s not always clear who — or where — benefits from sudden stardom.
The Way of Roger
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.”