Life & Letters Magazine

Department of Middle Eastern Studies

Peace in the Middle East…ern Studies Department

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Over 20 years ago, UT Austin’s Department of Middle Eastern Studies (MES) was characterized by intense volatility and internal conflict. After re-structuring itself around the principles of transparency, democracy, and egalitarianism, the department is now a bastion of support, respect, and cheerful collegiality.

The Value of the Liberal Arts

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Those of us who teach in liberal arts colleges are passionate about the value of a liberal arts education. But for those outside of academia – even for those who might have received a degree in UT’s College of Liberal Arts – the precise meaning of “liberal arts” can be murky.  What, exactly, is meant by […]

Leaf Through a Good Book

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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.

Speaking the Same Language

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Jonathan Kaplan, an assistant professor in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, noticed an influx of Afghan refugees at his daughter’s elementary school, which inspired him to create the Refugee Student Mentor Program (RSMP) in December 2014. The RSMP is a partnership between UT Austin’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the Austin Independent School […]

Using Your Mellon

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The College of Liberal Arts has a long and proud tradition of preparing its graduate students to teach and conduct research in the humanities at colleges and universities around the world, and we are particularly proud of our many placements in the nation’s top institutions. However, over the past two decades academic positions in the […]

In Memoriam: Barbara Harlow, 1948-2017

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The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness, could we but see, and to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look. -Fra Giovanni   Only a handful of scholars embody relevant driving forces within multiple […]

Architecture of Coexistence

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Stephennie Mulder, an associate professor in the Departments of Art and Art History and Middle Eastern Studies, was invited to Tehran, Iran, in February 2016 to receive the country’s World Award for Book of the Year from the Iranian Ministry of Culture, which was to be awarded in a ceremony by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Her […]

Crossing Mental Boundaries

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The writer Lawrence Durrell once observed that travel is among the most rewarding forms of introspection, and students who study abroad bear this out. When they leave their comfort zones and experience life and learning in another culture, they return home knowing a lot more about themselves. Study abroad gives students context to better understand […]

Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an

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It was a chance discovery of a 1782 broadside—advertising a play performed in Baltimore about the Prophet Muhammad—that piqued the curiosity of Denise Spellberg, professor of history and Middle Eastern Studies. She wondered, why did Americans perform this play during the Revolutionary War? More importantly, the historian of Islamic civilization asked, what did early Americans know […]

Hope for Peace in the Middle East

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Jason Brownlee, associate professor in the Departments of Government and Middle Eastern Studies, has received a $109,484 grant to examine peace-building efforts in Egypt. The funding, provided by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), will enable Brownlee to determine whether the rise in Egypt’s anti-Coptic violence comes from underlying social tensions or from lack […]

Humanities and the Military

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Sgt. Jeremy Couch and two fellow Texas Army National Guard soldiers enter the home of an Afghan family looking for information about escaped prisoners. In one corner, they see a Quran and a prayer rug. In another, a pair of rifles. Almost as soon as the soldiers sit down, they are besieged by demands for […]

Professor Aaron Bar-Adon created Hebrew linguistics field

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Jerusalem, Israel — “Beresheet bara elohim et hashamayim veet haaretz (In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth),” reads aloud Professor Aaron Bar-Adon in his rich, careful Hebrew, reminding the audience of possibly the most famous text from Genesis in the Old Testament. “This is the drama of the creation of the world,” […]

Retired Faculty: Spring 2011

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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 […]

Learning Hebrew Gothic

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Middle Eastern Studies professor wins award to study literary genre No one has ever studied it before. In fact, most scholars didn’t even recognize its existence. But thanks to the newly created Humanities Research Award, Karen Grumberg will be the first scholar to investigate the literary genre of Hebrew Gothic. Grumberg, an assistant professor in […]

A Towering Mystery Solved

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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

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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, […]