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Department of African and African Diaspora Studies

Political themed collage with Statue of Liberty, U.S. Capitol Building, mail-in ballots, unemployment chart, coronavirus, and protest viewed through magnifying glass with American flag background.

2020 Vision: Examining Some of the Country’s Big Issues

October 30, 2020 by Rachel White

Experts from UT Austin’s College of Liberal Arts weigh in on some of the major issues facing our country and the president-elect over the next four years.

Edmund T. Gordon presents the Racial Geography Tour.

Retracing UT’s Complicated Racial Past

July 6, 2020 by Caroline Barta

Taking graduation photos in front of Littlefield Fountain and singing “The Eyes of Texas” at a packed home football game are common bucket-list experiences uniting UT Austin’s students and alumni. Still, most people don’t realize the controversial history behind these traditions. For the last 20 years, anthropologist and founding chair for UT’s Department of African […]

A moving illustration of a large scene. In it, we can see vertical windows looking to a peaceful night cityscape, with twinkling stars overhead. The windows are in the shape of a cellphone battery icon, and illustration slowly turns to a bright, cheerful day scene. The buildings all come to life in a bright, multi-colored wash of color. Around the border of the window, we can see stylized illustrations of people in various poses. We see people having fun with computers, people playing with their pets, families, riding bikes, reading. We also see a medical doctor with a mask waving. There are also wires leading from each person that connect with the battery-shaped window in the middle, giving life to the city.

Rebooting Our Lives After COVID-19

May 7, 2020 by Rachel White

The world’s new reality amid the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing us to confront issues and critically think about how to revive communities slowly, safely and sustainably.

Illustration of a women yelling with a raised fist against a bright red background. In her shirt, there is a pattern of various women with their fists raised.

Fight Like a Girl:  How Women’s Activism Shapes History

July 3, 2018 by Rachel White

Alice Embree doesn’t know what came over her the first time she stood up against injustice. She just knew it was the right thing to do. Along with her friends Karen and Glodine and the rest of the Austin High School drill squad, Embree had just sat down to order at a restaurant in Corpus […]

Illustration of the interior of a restaurant filled with millennials on their computers or devices. An old mural of an African-American jazz band overlooks the scene, suggesting gentrification.

A Right to the City

July 2, 2018 by Rachel White

Just south of Manor Road on Airport Boulevard, there’s a dimly lighted blues club where new and old East Austin meet. There, at the Skylark Lounge, local African American piano icon Margaret Wright plays happy hour on Thursday and Friday nights, giving city newcomers a taste of the bygone culture that once engulfed Austin’s eastern […]

graphic of smiley face with camera in one eye

Smile, You’re on Camera: Behind the Lens of 24/7 Surveillance

January 18, 2018 by Michelle Bryant

“Even a strutting exhibitionist has something to hide: certain diary entries, genetic predispositions, financial mistakes, medical crises, teenage embarrassments, antisocial compulsions, sexual fantasies, radical dreams,” writes Randolph Lewis. “We all have something that we want to shield from public view. The real question is: Who gets to pull the curtains? And increasingly: How will we […]

Black and white photograph of the Jefferson Davis statue in sculptor Pompeo Coppini's studio.

A Monumental Decision: What to do About Jefferson Davis and the Challenges of Commemoration?

May 2, 2017 by Victoria Davis

Let’s talk about statues, or one statue in particular, and all of the trouble a cold, hard, unfeeling thing can cause. Imagine you are the president of a very large, prestigious institution, representative of the spirit and aspirations of a region. Your greatest benefactor, a former regent and a veteran, stipulates in his will the […]

Surreal illustration of a church in Austin amid a neighborhood. A ghostly mist floats above the church and into the grey sky. The apparition is in the shape of a profile of an African-American’s face.

Leaving Home: Austin’s Declining African American Population

November 21, 2016 by Victoria Davis

In December of 2015, author and former Austin resident Ellen Sweets wrote a farewell letter to Austin that was published in TribTalk: Ever since I decided to leave Austin, I’ve tried to write a farewell devoid of anger and frustration, and every time I’ve had to move on to writing something else. A Facebook post. […]

Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award Medal

Regents Honor Outstanding Teaching

December 4, 2014 by Michelle Bryant

Four liberal arts professors received the 2014 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards. They were among the 27 faculty award winners of the UT System Board of Regents’ highest teaching honor, which recognizes extraordinary educators from system institutions. The awards program is one of the nation’s largest monetary teaching recognition programs in higher education, honoring outstanding performance in the […]

Domino Perez and Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernandez

New Department Focuses on Latino, Mexican American Experience

December 4, 2014 by David Ochsner

Building Upon a 44-Year History of Mexican American Studies at UT A new academic department that takes 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 […]

UT Faculty Chronicle Texas Cultural History. Photo by Micheal O'Brien.

UT Faculty Chronicle Texas Cultural History

November 4, 2013 by Jessica Sinn

Texas Bookshelf is a 16-book series that will be published by University of Texas Press chronicling the state’s rich culture and history. The five-year project is set to launch in 2017 and will cover a diverse range of topics—from the Tejano experience to Texas food culture to performing arts. This is the first project undertaken […]

The Nightengale

Digging Up The Past, Close To Home

September 18, 2010 by Molly Wahlberg Leave a Comment

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 […]

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