In her most recent study, anthropologist Circe Sturm returned to her own backyard in East Texas. Sturm’s family hails from Sicilian roots, specifically a cluster of more than 1,000 Sicilians who settled in Bryan, Texas, around the turn of the 20th century. This enclave has managed to preserve many Sicilian traditions, including an annual ritual in which a single Sicilian-Texan family hosts 800 guests […]
Department of Anthropology
Millennial Nation
A Generational Look at Education, Money and Work Empathetic. Impatient. Innovative. Unfocused. Rational. Naive. Excited. These are the words millennials in the College of Liberal Arts use when they’re asked to describe themselves. However, it’s a question they’re not often asked. Plenty of people, from journalists to researchers to employers, are looking to define who […]
UT Faculty Chronicle Texas Cultural History
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 […]
Extinct Ancient Ape Did Not Walk Like a Human, Study Shows
For decades, the movement of an ancient ape species called Oreopithecus bambolii has been a matter of debate for scientists. Did it walk like a human across its swampy Mediterranean island or did it move through the trees like other apes? According to a new study, led by University of Texas at Austin anthropologists Gabrielle […]
What Big Eyes You Have
Maximum running speed is the most important variable influencing mammalian eye size other than body size, according to new research from anthropology associate professor Chris Kirk and physical anthropology doctoral student Amber Heard-Booth. “If you can think of mammals that are fast like a cheetah or horse, you can almost guarantee they’ve got really big […]
Dig This
Undergrads who conduct research in the field are more likely to thrive in the classroom For three College of Liberal Arts undergraduates, conducting research with professors provided the skills they needed to succeed and helped them discover just what they wanted to do next. “Undergraduate research gives you an experience that you’d almost never get […]
Retired Faculty: Spring 2011
More than 30 College of Liberal Arts professors from more than a dozen departments have retired over the past year, after spending decades serving their students and the university community. Retirees include Linguistics Professor Robert King, who was the founding dean of the College of Liberal Arts and served in that post from 1979–1989 and […]
In Memoriam: Spring 2011
Norval Glenn, professor emeritus of sociology, who taught for 47 years at the university, died Feb. 15. He was 77 years old. A prominent scholar of family sociology, Glenn wrote extensively on marriage and divorce, aging and the life course, and methods and survey data analysis. In 2008, he co-directed the first nationally representative sample […]
Two MacArthur Fellows, One Maya Signature Class
Professors draw from experiences to teach To put things in perspective, a college student has a higher probability of being struck by lightning than of being taught by one MacArthur Fellow, much less two. So when MacArthur Fellows Nora England, a linguistics and anthropology professor in the College of Liberal Arts; and David Stuart, an […]
Learning from Lemurs
Anthropologist studies primates, boosts local economy in Madagascar Ten thousand miles away on the island of Madagascar, University of Texas at Austin anthropologist Rebecca Lewis delves into the unusual world of a long-legged, white lemur. But before she can observe the animal’s behavior and collect data, Lewis must often put her business acumen and a […]
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, […]
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 […]