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 […]
Fall 2015
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 […]
Journeys
Why do we travel? What impels us to leave behind the comforts of home and endure the indignities of airports or the toils and snares of an interstate highway? We travel because it is in our nature. Humans have always been on the move, sometimes out of necessity — hunting and gathering, or fleeing from […]
Spark Your Interests: Five Liberal Arts Classes That Ignite Critical Thinking
It’s not uncommon for the College of Liberal Arts to break the Registrar’s website. Not on purpose — the interdisciplinary nature of the courses offered in liberal arts do not always mesh well with a system that was designed around rigid department codes. The level of collaboration among faculty members across departments to create in-depth, fascinating […]
Forever Shakespeare: The Making of an Icon
Editor’s note: As the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death approaches, five UT Austin scholars share how they celebrate his work and his ultimate staying power. In 10 years, people won’t care about Kim Kardashian’s face-contouring regimen or that she had 35 million Twitter followers. But William Shakespeare? Four centuries after his death he’s still […]
Happy Birthday to Dante and Don
The party for Dante’s 750th birthday was extensive — he was a Gemini (May 21 – June 21) born in 1265 — with nearly 200 events taking place in Italy and another 173 sponsored by Italian cultural centers around the world. Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti kicked off the festivities by reciting the opening lines 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 […]
Living The Examined Life
The Pro Bene Meritis award is the highest honor bestowed by the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. Since 1984, the annual award has been given to alumni, faculty members and friends of the college who are committed to the liberal arts, have made outstanding contributions in professional or philanthropic […]
Teaching An Understandable World
The Pro Bene Meritis award is the highest honor bestowed by the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. Since 1984, the annual award has been given to alumni, faculty members and friends of the college who are committed to the liberal arts, have made outstanding contributions in professional or philanthropic […]
Leading His Longhorn Family
The Pro Bene Meritis award is the highest honor bestowed by the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. Since 1984, the annual award has been given to alumni, faculty members and friends of the college who are committed to the liberal arts, have made outstanding contributions in professional or philanthropic […]
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 […]