Keep your to-read list up-to-date with our fall book list, featuring a selection of titles from College of Liberal Arts faculty members and alumni.
Fall 2021
Balancing Art and Academia
Lisa B. Thompson is doing great. Not “all right” or “pretty good under the circumstances” or any other common COVID-era reply to the question of “how are you?” Just great. And it’s not surprising. Her life of late is series of awards, achievements and new projects so plentiful that it’s honestly a bit hard to keep track of them all.
Podcast Roundup: Fall 2021
This is a collection of some of our favorite podcasts from liberal arts faculty members. Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe.
Commentary Roundup: Fall 2021
A collection of commentary pieces from faculty members in the College of Liberal Arts that were published this semester. Topics include work, science, politics and more.
Book Excerpt Roundup: Fall 2021
The following are a selection of book excerpts from recently published faculty in the College of Liberal Arts. Read about food and politics in Chile, women in the oil and gas industry, and more.
How Social Dynamics Influence the Gut Microbes of Wild Lemurs
New research from The University of Texas at Austin shows that Verreaux’s sifaka, a species of wild lemur native to Madagascar, have gut microbes that are affected by those they socialize with.
Maya and Angkor Adapted for Climate Change
Societies in Mesoamerica and Southeast Asia whose collapse was thought to have been caused by dramatic changes in climate displayed more resilience and adaptability than previously believed.
Primary Source: Notes for a Napoleonic Scandal
In 1815, William Warden was surgeon of HMS Northumberland as it transported Napoleon Bonaparte to his second (and hopefully final) exile. Well aware that folks back home—or even, possibly, history itself—would be interested, Warden took notes in an old surgeon’s log.
Borderlands Historian Awarded ‘Genius Grant’
Monica Muñoz Martinez has been awarded a MacArthur fellowship, often referred to as the “genius grant.” The award recognizes her work to recover untold histories of racial violence along the U.S.-Mexico border.
A Semester in New York
The UTNY program enables students to live, work and learn in New York City. Read a Q&A with UTNY participant and government senior Hannah Hayes.
A Language for Big Data Neuroscience
Imagine your brain activity displayed on a computer screen — multiple, bustling tabs open, some sparked by a fleeting thought, others derived from prior or underlying behaviors or features. Now imagine a scientist trying to make sense of that activity.
The Misinformation Age
Depending on whom you ask, conspiracy theories are either having a heyday or it’s just business as usual. But whether or not there is a long-term increase happening, certain factors likely influence the ebb and flow of conspiratorial beliefs.
In Memoriam: Teresa Lozano Long
Beloved philanthropist and educator Teresa Lozano Long passed away peacefully on March 21, 2021, with Joe R. Long, her loving husband of 63 years, holding her hand. She was 92.
A Texas Politics Explainer
Many Texans learned a new word this year: quorum. And, no, it’s not the collective noun for a group of opossums. A quorum is the minimum number of assembly members that must be present in order to conduct business. For the Texas House of Representatives, that minimum is two-thirds of its members.
None of Us Make it Without Community
Ashanté Reese discusses her research on food and food access, as well as how she helped mobilize resources for people in need during the winter storm in February.
The Exhibition on Your Screen: Selected Images from “A New Spain, 1521–1821”
A New Spain, 1521–1821, an online exhibition, traces the cultural, social, and political evolution of the Viceroyalty of New Spain from the fall of Moctezuma’s Mexico-Tenochtitlán in 1521 until the rise of Iturbide’s Mexican Empire in 1821.