The College of Liberal Arts is proud to announce the 2014 Pro Bene Meritis Award recipients. Robert Henry Dedman, Jr., James Garrison and Judith Perkins were chosen for their outstanding service to the college. Robert Henry Dedman, Jr. is president and CEO of DFI Management, Ltd. and General Partner of Putterboy, Ltd. He is a […]
Features
Q&A: Cognitive Psychologist Art Markman on How to Achieve Your Goals and Make Those Changes Last
The New Year is on the horizon, and just like clockwork many people are dutifully preparing lists of resolutions that will likely be forgotten by mid-January. Art Markman, a cognitive psychologist at The University of Texas at Austin, shows us a better way to make lifestyle changes in his new book Smart Change: Five Tools […]
Plan II Graduate Awarded 2014 British Marshall Scholarship
John Russell Beaumont, a Plan II and architecture graduate, has been awarded a Marshall Scholarship, one of the most coveted study abroad scholarships available. Russell’s scholarship, one of 34 awarded this year, will fund his graduate education and help him pursue his chosen path as an architect or planner specializing in disaster relief. He will […]
15 Minute History Podcast Tops ITunesU Charts
What’s the real story behind medieval witch hunts and demonic possessions? Why did Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha, set forth on a spiritual quest? Listen in as award-winning UT Austin faculty and graduate students unravel history’s enigmas in 15 Minute History, a podcast series created by the History Department’s Not Even Past and the university’s […]
Jeanne and Michael Klein On the Art of Giving
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 […]
Ben Barnes On Pursuing Your Dreams
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 […]
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 […]
Adventures in Online Learning
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 […]
Liberal Arts at Work
Nine Ways to Rev Up Your Career Whether you’ve landed your dream job or find yourself repeatedly pushing the snooze button each morning dreading the workday, a liberal arts education may help you forge a better career path and create an environment for innovation and productivity. If you’re like most employed Americans, you will spend […]
Pushing Forward
Social Scientists Identify New Paths to Mental Health for Trauma Victims On a sunny spring afternoon, Kate Jones was anxiously waiting to see her husband cross the finish line at the most prestigious marathon in the world. Then came the boom. Cheers of excitement immediately turned into blood-curdling screams as hundreds of people rushed from […]
A SURE Impact
Psychology alum credits program for interest in research, pursuing doctorate. The Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) is a summer internship program for undergraduate students interested in research in psychology. The program, which particularly encourages students from traditionally underrepresented groups to apply, provides hands-on training that will make students more competitive for top doctoral training programs. […]
Exploring the Unorthodox
UPDATE: Unfortunately the performance of Landfall by Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet scheduled for this Wednesday, October 16, at Bass Concert Hall has been canceled due to unforeseen circumstances. The “Conversation with Laurie Anderson” on Thursday, October 17, has been canceled as well. Texas Performing Arts will reschedule the performance during the 2014-2015 Texas Performing […]
What I Did During My Summer Vacation…
Globe-trotting liberal arts students share their summer experiences Classes are officially back in session and another summer has come to an end. Liberal arts students made their time away from Austin count by taking on amazing adventures that enriched their academic, personal and professional lives. From an anthropological dig in Belize to a prestigious public […]
When Will My Computer Understand Me?
For more than 50 years, linguists and computer scientists have tried to get computers to understand human language by programming semantics as software. Driven by efforts to translate Russian texts during the Cold War (and more recently by the value of information retrieval and data analysis tools), these efforts have met with mixed success. IBM’s […]
Meteorologist Troy Kimmel Talks Tornadoes and Climate Change
Troy Kimmel is a senior lecturer of Studies in Weather and Climate in the Department of Geography and the Environment. He is a committee member/instant meteorologist for University of Texas Campus Safety and Security, as well as committee chief meteorologist, KOKE FM Radio, Austin. A monster EF-5 tornado roared through the Oklahoma City suburb of […]
Liberal Arts EdX Courses Open for Registration
This fall, students around the globe will have the opportunity to enroll in massive open online courses taught by two top professors in the College of Liberal Arts. Offered through EdX, a major player in the massive open online course (MOOC) movement, the courses are free and open to the public. No longer bound by […]
K-12 Teachers Enhance History Curriculum, Gather New Research at Gilder Lehrman Seminar
This summer, 25 primary and secondary teachers from across the country came to The University of Texas at Austin to hone their skills and gather new research at a weeklong seminar sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History – one of the leading educational foundations in the country. Held June 23 through 29, […]
Neuroscientist Takes the Quantified Self, and Own Brain, to the Next Level
Early this Tuesday morning, and every Tuesday morning through November 2013, neuroscientist Russell Poldrack will wake up, take off his headband-like sleep monitor, and tell it to wirelessly send data about his night’s sleep to a database. Then he’ll log in to a survey app on his computer, and provide a subjective report on how […]
Virtual Gallery Reconstructs Art Exhibit Attended by Novelist Jane Austen
The Department of English at The University of Texas at Austin has launched an online reconstruction of a famous art exhibit visited by novelist Jane Austen on May 24, 1813 – exactly 200 years ago to the day. In a letter to her sister, Austen joked that she would be searching for a portrait of […]
The Appendix: Experimental Journal Showcases History of the Arcane
While sifting through the musty collections of ancient pages at the Smithsonian, Christopher Heaney stumbled upon some fascinating materials on an apocalyptic prophecy by “Benjamin, the Anti Christ,” a San Francisco prophet who foresaw earthquakes, international war and brain paralysis. Unfortunately it didn’t fit into his research topic on Peruvian mummies, so he had to […]
Graduating Senior Paulina Sosa Aims to End Extreme Poverty
Everything changed for Paulina Sosa, a philosophy and psychology double major, when she journeyed to a landfill community in Mexico on a church mission trip. At age 13, she was overwhelmed by a young boy’s desperation for basic needs when she presented him with a couple of trinkets. “I remember thinking that a piece of […]
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 […]
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 […]
Humanities Research
What is the value of humanities research? Why is it a practical component of an undergraduate’s education? The answer is simple. Explorations into literature, philosophy, art, music and poetry teach us how to make sense out of a complex and interdependent world. Whether they’re deciphering ancient manuscripts, unraveling medieval mysteries, or reciting a Shakespeare play, […]