Obama Touts Higher Education at Campus Appearance Flashing a “Hook ‘Em” hand sign and touting the importance of higher education, President Barack Obama spoke to hundreds of students, faculty and guests at Gregory Gymnasium on Aug. 9. The receptive — sometimes raucous — crowd included local and state officeholders, both Democrats and Republicans. Obama reminisced […]
Fall 2010
Q&A: Beauty Shop Politics
Historian Sees Beauty Shops as Birthplace of Activism “While there is a very vibrant scholarship in African American history and African American women’s history, the issue of entrepreneurship is something that has sometimes been ignored,” says Tiffany Gill, while sitting down with us to discuss her book, “Beauty Shop Politics: African American Women’s Activism in […]
Avatars in Education
Liberal Arts professors and students use digital environments to explore the possibilities of thinking As universities increasingly explore the educational value of digital environments such as the blogosphere, Google maps or Second Life, students and faculty are working to understand what it means to learn in new ways. “Before I typed something, I needed to […]
Getting Ahead While Giving Back
Liberal Arts students committed to helping others and researchers explain why After Sly Majid graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a degree in government in 2004, he landed a secure job at an insurance company with a comfortable office and handsome salary. But day after day, Majid continued to feel empty and restless. […]
Major Gift Makes Liberal Arts Building a Reality
University of Texas alumnus James Mulva supports ROTC programs More than four decades ago, The University of Texas at Austin and its Naval ROTC program gave James Mulva the education, discipline and support that would help shape his future. Today, he is giving back, helping to shape the future of the university, the College of […]
A Towering Mystery Solved
Why ancient alphabets adorn a university icon When then-Harvard University Professor John Huehnergard and his wife and colleague Jo Ann Hackett first visited The University of Texas at Austin last year, they couldn’t help but notice the ancient Phoenician and Hebrew letters that adorn the Tower. After all, Hackett, a Hebrew scholar, and Huehnergard, who […]
Book News: Fall 2010
Pioneering With A Pen For creating the most vivid and vital portrayal of the American experience in microcosm, Creative Writing graduate Nora Boxer has won the $50,000 Keene Prize for Literature. Her story “It’s the song of the nomads, baby; or Pioneer,” was selected from 61 submissions in drama, poetry and fiction. Laconic in style, […]
In Memoriam: Fall 2010
Kate Gartner Frost Kate Gartner Frost, professor emeritus of English, died July 25 at age 71. A scholar of the English and European Renaissance, Gartner Frost came to The University of Texas at Austin in 1974. She is the author of “Holy Delight: Typology, Numerology and the Autobiographical Tradition in John Donne’s Devotions Upon Emergent […]
Government Department Turns 100
In the age of Obama, the Tea Party and global financial uncertainty, the Government Department is helping its students and the rest of the world make sense of the political changes under way. Celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, the department has faculty members whose expertise ranges from Texas politics to political theory, from Latin […]
Plan II Graduates Can Do it All Over for 75th Anniversary
The Plan II experience will begin next March, as it has for 75 years, with a course in world literature. That will be followed by philosophy, then the junior seminar and senior thesis. Professors will include world-renowned historians H.W. Brands and David Oshinsky as well as such University of Texas icons as former Plan II […]
Population Research Center Draws from Many Fields
When it opened its doors in 1960, the Population Research Center (PRC) was the exclusive domain of sociologists. Who else, after all, was qualified to research demographics, migration issues and population trends? The answer, it turns out a half-century later, includes the likes of psychologists, economists, anthropologists, geographers and political scientists, all of whom are […]
Naval ROTC Students Dedicated to Service and Sacrifice
Celebrating 70 Years The Naval ROTC program at The University of Texas at Austin was barely a year old when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States was thrust into World War II. The unit’s emphasis onservice and sacrifice was evident immediately. Young men lined up on campus to become part of the first […]
Adventures in Internships
Graduating seniors test the waters in internships around the world The word “internship” often conjures images of frantic coffee runs, mind-numbing busywork and countless hours in front of the copy machines. But for many liberal arts students at The University of Texas at Austin, it evokes memories of globetrotting adventures, new friends and transformative experiences. […]
In Brief: Fall 2010
The Play’s the Thing To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the English Department’s Shakespeare at Winedale program, alumni reunited this summer and performed scenes from several of the Bard’s plays. Among them was Kathryn Blackbird, class of 1984 and 1986. She used a mirror in the century-old hay barn near the idyllic country town of […]
Border Views
New video series taps university’s expertise on illegal immigration, border violence As Americans continue to debate immigration reform, border enforcement and Arizona’s recent legislation, College of Liberal Arts experts are helping to shape the discussion through a unique online video series. “Border Views,” which debuted this summer, showcases faculty members discussing such topics as the […]
Digging Up The Past, Close To Home
Artifacts, descendants tell story of freed slaves in Texas Recovering a forgotten history of African American life was motivation enough for anthropology graduate student Nedra Lee and her peers to brave the Texas summer heat while excavating an old farmstead in southern Travis County. “Working outdoors always brought a few surprises. There were always toads […]
A New Professor Answers an Old Question About a Great University
Each morning as I head to my office in the Gebauer building, I walk past the classical letters that adorn the outside walls of the Tower. Those letters — in Phoenician, Hebrew, Greek and Latin — and the accompanying hieroglyphic symbols are a reminder of the intellectual pursuits that are at the heart of The University […]
Being Somebody
Humanities Alumna Builds a School in Belize Days before Heidi Baker Curry opened the first high school on the island of Caye Caulker, Belize, in 2008 she received a knock at her door from a teenage boy known for selling marijuana on the island. He wanted to attend the school, he said, and started by […]
A Veteran’s Dedication
Frank Denius’ commitment helps students understand World War II Each spring, Frank Denius meets with a group of about 20 University of Texas at Austin students who are about to leave for Europe as part of the Normandy Scholar Program. And each fall, Denius — the noted philanthropist, businessman and decorated World War II veteran — meets […]
The Son of Texas
W. Parker Frisbie inspires colleagues and students Twenty-five years ago, W. Parker Frisbie stumbled into the field of mortality research by accident. The young sociology professor’s interest in mortality, the study of death in a population, was piqued when a graduate student asked him to chair her dissertation committee. “At that time, we had no […]
The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship
Ellen Temple known for commitment to loved ones “Once upon a time, a very special 18-year-old girl came into my life, and she has been there ever since,” Frances Vick said about her friend and 2010 Pro Bene Meritis recipient Ellen Temple during the April 22 awards reception. “My experiences here have shaped my life […]
For the Greater Good?
Citizens with strong national ties willing to die for countrymen Imagine a runaway trolley hurtling down the tracks toward a handful of people. If it continues on its course, it will kill the group of innocent bystanders. You’re given two options to save the day: throw a switch and kill only one person, or sacrifice your […]
Breaking Down the Walls
Interdisciplinary faculty seminar brings University’s resources to the public As one of the worst environmental disasters in history unfolded in the Gulf of Mexico this spring, it was only fitting that the Humanities Institute’s Faculty Fellows Seminar was completing a year of studying “Intellectual Life at Moments of Crisis.” To promote intellectual exchange across disciplines, […]