The College of Liberal Arts is proud to announce the 2015 Pro Bene Meritis Award recipients. Peggy Beckham, Austin Gleeson and President Bill Powers were chosen for their outstanding service to the college. Peggy Beckham is an alumna of the Plan II Honors Program. A lifelong member of the Liberal Arts Advisory Council, she has […]
Features
Judy Perkins on Finding Joy in Life and Learning
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 in professional or philanthropic […]
Creating Your Own Noble Purpose
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 in professional or philanthropic […]
Inspiring Lifetime Readers
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 in professional or philanthropic […]
Budding Economists Launch Journal
The University of Texas at Austin is one of just four schools in the nation to publish its own economics undergraduate research journal. The Developing Economist was founded by students at UT Austin and published its inaugural issue in the spring of 2014, though the process of creating it began much earlier. Members of UT […]
Keeping A Pulse On Population Health
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 […]
The Road to Gender Equity: Still Under Construction
Christine Williams has heard her share of conflicting arguments about gender equality in the sociology course she’s taught for more than two decades at The University of Texas at Austin. But there is always one question that gives her pause: “Women have achieved equality, so why is feminism relevant?” “I’m always taken aback when students […]
Food for Thought
Government Professor Bartholomew “Bat” Sparrow first got the idea to teach a class about food from his wife, who had worked at Whole Foods for eight years. The result was an undergraduate course—“The Politics of Food in America”—that uses food as a lens through which to view the entire U.S. political system. “The idea was […]
From Bryan to Sicily: Public Scholars Join Academy to Community
In her most recent study, anthropologist Circe Sturm returned to her own backyard in East Texas. Sturm’s family hails from Sicilian roots, specifically a cluster of more than 1,000 Sicilians who settled in Bryan, Texas, around the turn of the 20th century. This enclave has managed to preserve many Sicilian traditions, including an annual ritual in which a single Sicilian-Texan family hosts 800 guests […]
Garza Maps His Future with GIS Internship
As a kid growing up in San Antonio, Nathan Garza spent a lot of time hiking trails. His home Boy Scout troop organized and led the Mission Trail Hike for years. Scouts from all over San Antonio and the surrounding areas would gather at Mission Espada and begin their two-day hike to the Alamo. At […]
Philosophy Professor Emeritus Norman Martin Receives Major Decoration From French Government
Professor Emeritus Norman M. Martin (philosophy and computer science) has received a singular recognition: the French government has awarded him the title and decoration of Chevalier de l’Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur (Knight of the National order of the legion of honor) for his service during World War II. The decoration, which is the highest in France […]
Executive Session: Q&A with Student Body President Kori Rady
The College of Liberal Arts is no stranger to student body presidents—in the past 20 years, only two presidents of the University of Texas Student Government weren’t students in the college. Studying the liberal arts has a way of shaping leaders. UTSG’s 2014-15 president is Kornel “Kori” Rady, a government and corporate communication major from Houston, […]
Leadership Program Aims to Bridge Political Ambition Gap
Women have come a long way since the mid-20th century. They’re surpassing men in college enrollment, in voting booths and in the general U.S. population. Yet while women have been making great strides in the past few decades, they still have a long way to go in the political sphere. Currently, women hold just 18 percent […]
Sociology Department Celebrates 100-Year Anniversary
The Department of Sociology celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, and looking back at the department’s many achievements during the past century, this is a milestone worthy of a big celebration. In addition to its top national rankings, the department is home to an impressive number of eminent social scientists and notable alumni —from Charles […]
Explore UT’s Caddo Collection
Many Texans know the Caddo Tribe gave the state its name—Tejas is the Spanish spelling of the Caddo word taysha, which means friend or ally. But did you know that The University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Archeological Research Lab (TARL) safeguards one of the most extensive Caddo collections in the world? “The records and collections of […]
New Groundbreaking Department to Focus on Latino, Mexican American Experience
The first-ever academic department in the U.S. to take a comprehensive look at the lives, cultures and histories of Mexican American and Latino populations has been established at The University of Texas at Austin. The Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies (MALS) will ultimately offer undergraduate and graduate degrees that focus on the interdisciplinary […]
UTeach Summer Program Hones Skills for Teaching English Abroad
The Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) summer course is providing students with internship opportunities in Querétaro, Mexico and Daegu, South Korea. UTeach-Liberal Arts founded the program in the summer of 2013 based on the recommendations of liberal arts students and graduates who expressed interest in a course that would allow students to go […]
Examining the Economic Self
Many people dream of getting rich, of leaving the drudgery of work for a life of financial freedom. Daniel Fridman, an assistant professor of sociology and the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, investigated how groups of people in New York City and his native Buenos Aires attempt to take control of their […]
Liberal Arts Student Lands Summer Internship at U.S. Embassy in Madrid
Living and working in the capital of Spain for 10 weeks is one way Spanish majors can stay sharp over the summer. Megan Palombo, a Spanish and advertising senior, traveled more than 5,000 miles to intern at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain. This summer, she was able to increase her knowledge of foreign affairs, […]
Q&A with Ecosickness Author Heather Houser
Take a look at your surroundings. Are you sitting in a climate-controlled office next to a window overlooking a sea of traffic? Or are you skimming this article on a porch swing underneath a shady oak tree? Whether you’re surrounded by wide open spaces or a concrete jungle, your environment is significantly affecting your emotional […]
High School Students Experience University Life Through Summer Program
This summer, more than 65 high school students from around the country and across the globe made their way to The University of Texas at Austin to experience life on a college campus. The Summer @ UT/COLA Pre-College Program was designed to help students transition from high school to college, and is the first program […]
Government Alumna Gives Back During 40 for Forty
On April 3 and 4, 2014 Longhorns everywhere had exactly 40 hours to raise $40,000 through a new effort that included email, phone, social media and a student fundraising event. 40 Hours for the Forty Acres offered a challenge to encourage alumni and students to join in and give back. The culmination of the fundraising […]
All the World’s an Opera Stage for English Alumnus Speight Jenkins
Many of us go through college without a clear career path in mind. But a lucky few have the great fortune of knowing their true calling at a very young age. For Speight Jenkins (BA, English ’57), that passion was opera. It all began in the early 1940s when a first grade teacher introduced his […]
Millennial Nation
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 […]
Q&A with Beth Mooney
Banking on Liberal Arts Beth Mooney, History ’77, is the chairman and CEO of KeyCorp, making her the first female chief of a top 20 U.S. bank. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, she oversees more than 15,000 employees and $91 billion in assets. She has been named one of the most powerful women in banking by […]