On April 19, 16 liberal arts student researchers presented their projects to faculty and staff members, college administrators and Dean Randy Diehl at the Dean’s Research Reception. The annual event is a part of UT Austin’s Undergraduate Research Week, which is hosted by the Senate of College Councils and the Office of Undergraduate Research in […]
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Wise Wanderer: Alina Tonu Travels to Cambodia
Studying abroad is central to a liberal arts education, allowing students to experience culture and perspectives that differ from their own firsthand. The Wise Wanderer scholarship was established to fund Liberal Arts Honors students traveling abroad, providing them with the opportunity for personal and academic development. The students selected receive $5,000 to organize and plan […]
Wise Wanderer: Helen Heston Visits Egypt
Studying abroad is central to a liberal arts education, allowing students to experience culture and perspectives that differ from their own firsthand. The Wise Wanderer scholarship was established to fund Liberal Arts Honors students traveling abroad, providing them with the opportunity for personal and academic development. The students selected receive $5,000 to organize and plan […]
Liberal Arts Council President Reaches Out: Q&A with Miles Wilson
Miles Wilson is a Middle Eastern language & cultures and religious studies senior. He’s also the president of the Liberal Arts Council, an organization of students who “serve as the official student voice and governing body for the College of Liberal Arts.” Learn about Wilson and his commitment to the LAC, as well as the […]
In Memoriam: Barbara Harlow, 1948-2017
The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness, could we but see, and to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look. -Fra Giovanni Only a handful of scholars embody relevant driving forces within multiple […]
The Polls Didn’t Fail: Seven Observations about Polling and the 2016 Election
2016 may very well be the year of the underdog. It was for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who were down 1 to 3 to the Golden State Warriors, but came back to win game seven of the NBA Finals. It was for the Chicago Cubs, who were one game away from extending a 109-year World Series […]
Breaking Their Silence
Women’s role in early American cinema is often overlooked, but English assistant professor Donna Kornhaber — recently named a 2016 Academy Film Scholar —hopes to change that with her research on female writers who shaped the American silent film industry. Kornhaber received a $25,000 grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Educational […]
Solving an Ice-Cold Case: How Lucy Died
Sharp, clean breaks on the right arm of the oldest, most famous fossil of a human ancestor reopened the coldest cold case in human evolution. Lucy, a 3.18-million-year-old specimen of Australopithecus afarensis — or “southern ape of Afar” — is among the oldest, most complete skeletons of any adult, erect-walking human ancestor. Since her discovery […]
Pattons ‘Invest’ $20 Million in the Liberal Arts
Bobby Patton Jr. enjoyed matching wits with some of the university’s top professors when he was a Plan II Honors student back in the early 1980s, but after two years in the program he switched his major to business administration, perhaps thinking he needed a more career-oriented education. What he didn’t realize at the time […]
Liberal Arts Abroad: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Experiencing other cultures firsthand is an essential part of a liberal arts education, and studying abroad is an exceptional way to do that. When students study abroad, they connect with other people, learn to think in new ways and develop skills to help them in the professional world. Javonna Hamilton, a psychology junior from Dallas, […]
The Untold Stories of Modern Warriors
The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it. – Thucydides Oftentimes, we are met with spectacular images of war, depicting valiance and vilifying enemies; but these stories, some say, lack an honest narrative. While soldiers […]
Split Decision: Two Students Awarded Inaugural Randy Diehl Prize in Liberal Arts
Graduating seniors Danielle Brown and Olivia Migacz have been selected as the first recipients of the Randy Diehl Prize in Liberal Arts. The award was established by liberal arts donors to support a graduating senior who is committing the year after graduation to service for the greater good, be that through work for a nonprofit […]
Living with Purpose and Passion: In-Depth with 3 Dean’s Distinguished Graduates
Each spring, 12 graduating seniors in the College of Liberal Arts are named Dean’s Distinguished Graduates. The award honors students for their leadership, scholarly achievements and service to the community. The acknowledgment of the Dean’s Distinguished Graduates has become an integral part of the college’s spring commencement ceremony, with more than 400 students recognized since […]
Be Kind to Animals
Since Janet Davis’ early childhood in Honolulu, Hawaii, she says she remembers a life surrounded by animals: chickens running around the yard, horse rides, caring for her pet dogs and cats. “It was a world saturated with animals, the formation of my moral consciousness, if you will,” says Davis, associate professor of American studies at The University of Texas at Austin. […]
Remaking ‘Roots’
“This is a historian’s dream,” says Daina Ramey Berry, an associate professor of history at The University of Texas at Austin, who served as a technical adviser for the remaking of the television miniseries “Roots.” It will premiere on Memorial Day, airing over four consecutive nights. The A&E Networks’ HISTORY, A&E and Lifetime channels will […]
Not Just the Funnies: Exhibit explores the comic world of Jackie Ormes
For more than a century comic strips have provided a light-hearted diversion for newspaper readers, although a few were groundbreaking for the insights they offered about society. Peanuts captured Cold War anxieties with the existential musings of chronically depressed Charlie Brown, while the anthropomorphic Pogo and his friends in Okefenokee Swamp provided the era with […]
An Education for Life
Michael Stoff was raised in Merrick, New York, and was the first in his family to graduate from college. He received a bachelor’s in history and American studies from Rutgers College, and a master’s of philosophy in history and doctorate of philosophy in history from Yale University. He has taught at UT Austin for 36 […]
No Stone Unturned
Zachary Stone is a Plan II senior from Dallas, Texas. He has served as the chief justice of UT Austin’s Student Government, been published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and will be attending the UT Austin School of Law on a Massey Scholarship, the school’s top merit award. Why Plan II? […]
Under the Microscope: Undergraduate Research Week 2016
The fields of study within the College of Liberal Arts are vast, and the number of topics that merit in-depth investigation are seemingly endless. Each year, liberal arts undergraduates at UT Austin get first-hand experience in conducting academic research that can have an impact on themselves, the academic community and even society as a whole. […]
2013 HRA Recipients Wrap Up Their Research
Established in 2009 by the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin, the Humanities Research Award supports faculty efforts to complete an in-progress research project in the humanities by awarding select tenured and tenure-track faculty with $5,000 for three consecutive years, for a total of $15,000. Below are […]
Getting It Done: Q&A with UTurn Mentor Kelley Doll
The transition to college can be a rough one, and it’s not unusual for students to end up on academic probation after their freshman year. Government senior Kelley Doll took time away after her tough first year to regroup. She worked full time and use online courses at a community college to reestablish a good academic […]
Making a Mayacene
Clues from Ancient Maya Reveal Lasting Impact on Environment Evidence left by ancient Maya in the tropical lowlands of Central America suggests that human-influenced climate change predates the Industrial Revolution. By looking at the Maya’s effects on climate, vegetation, hydrology and the lithosphere from 3,000 to 1,000 years ago, UT Austin researchers propose that the […]
All Grown Up
What it Means to be an Adult Chances are at some point in your life, you have been told to “grow up” or “start acting your age.” Faced with the pressures of paying bills, holding down a steady job and frequenting home improvement stores, it’s easy to see why adulthood may have lost some of […]
Open a Door for a Longhorn Intern
Learning by doing — what we call experiential learning — is at the heart of a liberal arts education, and that is why our students can be found working as interns in a variety of businesses and organizations in Texas and across the globe. That is also why the College of Liberal Arts is partnering […]
Chatting in Chatino
Graduate Students Revive Early Languages In Rural Oaxaca In a rural village between two rivers outside of Oaxaca, Mexico, Ryan Sullivant walked door to door like a salesman, asking neighbors to conjugate verbs. The village, Tataltepec, is one of few within a small mountainous area between Oaxaca and the Pacific coast where a dwindling population […]