Eighty years after John Steinbeck wrote the classic American novel The Grapes of Wrath, it remains a hardy perennial on many high school reading lists. But a casual survey of sixty-six upper-division English majors at the University of Texas in March of this year reveals that forty-nine students have not read the novel and that […]
literature
News & Notes: Fall 2009
Debate and Individual Event alumni looking to reconnect The university’s debate and individual events (IE) teams have an illustrious history on campus. Both groups have won numerous championships and both feature outstanding alumni. Still, there has not been an alumni association for these successful teams… until now. Are you a former debate team member? Did […]
Books That Changed America
Scholars explore seminal works that shaped our nation’s history Have you ever stayed up all night reading a book you just couldn’t put down? Felt unreasonably annoyed when a well-meaning friend interrupts your reading time? Found that a book that you’ve read changed your mind and challenged you to change the world you live in? […]
We the People
Meet the Historians who Present and Preserve America’s Stories From the American colonial heritage to World Wars I and II to modern business, the Department of History brings together some of the nation’s most recognized scholars to examine the grand narrative—and individual stories—of the United States. The scholars have built a top-ranked history department and, […]
Event Spotlights: Fall 2008
Crisis in Darfur: Nigerian Nobelist Wole Soyinka Urges International Community to Remember the ‘Tree of Forgetfulness’ When Tola Mosadomi, assistant professor of Middle Eastern Studies and affiliate of the Warfield Center for African and African American Studies, was an undergraduate student at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, she sometimes saw poet Wole Soyinka walking […]
Research Briefs: Fall 2008
Why Pregnant Women Waddle The human spine evolved differently in males and females in order to alleviate back pressure from the weight of carrying a baby, according to anthropologist Liza Shapiro whose findings were first documented in Nature. The researcher believes the adaptation first appeared at least two million years ago, in the early human […]
The Bard and the Human Condition
Shakespeare soothes the soul and sharpens the mind For decades, David B. Cohen pored over the plays and sonnets of William Shakespeare. He repeatedly read and enjoyed live and recorded performances of the great writer’s works. The professor of psychology at The University of Texas at Austin recognized themes and insights in Shakespeare’s writing he […]