Shows
Into the COLAverseInto the COLA-verse: Office Hours Session II: Why Comics MatterJoin Dan Oppenheimer of the latest “Into the COLAverse: Office Hours” who talks with Professor Aldama about his comic book odyssey, including his recently published Pyroclast and forthcoming Through Fences, The Absolutely (Almost) True Adventures of Max Rodriguez, and The Steampunkera Chronicles.
2023-11-2949 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 29: Art MarkmanArt Markman, Associate Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and the Annabel Irion Worsham Centennial Professor of Psychology and Marketing, shares his journey first finding his way to a cognitive science degree at Brown, a PhD at University of Illinois, the publishing of numerous books and innovating new cross-disciplinary learning spaces within and outside the classroom. Along the way, he helps answer big questions like what value does a college degree have? How can we innovate in higher education?
2023-11-0849 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 28: Faegheh ShiraziFaegheh Shirazi, professor in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, shares her journey from Iran to the US and the path that led to her research and teaching on the policing, marketing, and creative consumption of clothing, textiles, and food within and beyond Muslim societies.
2023-11-011h 02Into the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 27: Maggie Rivas-RodriguezMaggie Rivas-Rodriguez, director of the Center for Mexican American Studies, professor in the School of Journalism, and founder of Voces Oral History Center, shares her journey from growing up in Devine, Texas, to earning journalism BA and MA degrees at UT Austin, as well as a PhD from UNC, Chapel Hill. These and years of work as a journalist inform her inexhaustible drive to make heard the voices and stories of Latina/o/x agents of change.
2023-10-2537 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 26: Jo HsuJo Hsu, professor in the Rhetoric and Writing, shares their journey from a love of storytelling and fiction reading as a child to an MFA in writing and PhD in Rhetoric at Penn State. Along the way we learn of the power of story to open us to new ways of seeing and experiencing the world—to “constellating homes”—and to the transformative possibilities of language.
2023-10-1834 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 25: Rebecca FalkoffRebecca Falkoff, professor in the Department of French and Italian, shares her journey from an undergrad studying Faust, literary theory, and languages at UPenn to a PhD in Italian Studies at UC Berkeley. Along the way we learn of her rich and expansive research and writing on hoarding—from 19th century Parisian flea markets to Sherlock Holmes to today’s reality TV shows—as well as insights into learning languages, her own literary translation work, and Italian authors such as Dante, Carlo Emilio Gadda, and Elena Ferrante.
2023-10-0445 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 24: Judith CoffinJudith Coffin, professor in the Department of History, shares her journey to French cultural history, especially focused on issues of gender, labor, and material practices of consumption and production. Along the way we learn about the impact of the invention of the sewing machine, the work and reception of Simone de Beauvoir, and so much more!
2023-09-2742 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 23: Anthony K. WebsterAnthony K. Webster, professor in the Department of Anthropology, shares his journey early interests in representation, language, and literature to Navajo poetics. Along the way we learn about linguistic anthropology, processes of attunement, lingual life histories, intergenerational poetic practices, hip hop, and healing of word-arts.
2023-09-2042 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 22: Annette RodríguezAnnette M. Rodríguez, professor in the Department of History, shares her journey from childhood road trips in the Southwest to degrees at the University of New Mexico then Brown. Along the way, we learn of her innovative scholarship, collaborations, and data mapping projects that enrich understanding of historical continuities and inversions that create racialized constructions of belonging and unbelonging in the U.S.
2023-09-131h 01Into the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 21: Mia AlafaireetMia Alafaireet, professor in the Department of English, shares her journey from growing up in Columbia, Missouri, to finding her way to scholarly work that brings together the Great Migration, Harlem Renaissance, and medical health. Along the way she shares with us the importance of writing, reading, and gardening for cultivating Black wellness.
2023-09-0634 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 20: David YeagerDavid Yaeger, professor in the department of Psychology, shares his journey from being a K-8 teacher to a professor today focused on researching teen development and how we might design social and learning environments that encourage the growing of a belief that they can change, rather than the more negatively impactful sense of personality as fixed forever.
2023-05-0324 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 19: Randy LewisRandy Lewis, professor and chair of American Studies Department, shares how East Texas roots and New Jersey upbringing led to BA then PhD degrees at UT Austin where, as scholar and creator, he’s been innovating and expanding multiple fields of inquiry, shedding new light on film, music, and urban studies as well as cultural histories of the Americas.
2023-04-2641 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 18: Ashanté ReeseAshanté Reese, recently promoted to associate professor in the African and African Diaspora Studies Department, shares her journey from growing up in East Texas to Trinity University (BA), American University (PhD) to her innovative scholarly interventions in critical food and food justice studies, Black studies, and Black geographies. Along the way we learn of the significant work done for food sovereignty in Black communities across the country.
2023-04-1939 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 17: Scott GrahamScott Graham, professor in the Department of Rhetoric & Writing, shares his journey from philosophy to rhetoric, bioscience, health practice, and AI. Along the way we learn about the importance of new models for health care practice and delivery (Tweetorials included) as well as the pros and cons of AI systems in our everyday lives.
2023-04-1239 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 16: Samantha PicketteSamantha Pickette, professor in Jewish Studies and Assistant Director to the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies, shares how an early fascination with TV and literature her to become a scholar of representations of Jewishness, especially Jewish femininity in TV. Along the way, we learn about how today’s non-legacy TV increasingly represents the complexity of Jewishness as intersectional (race, gender, sexualities) identities.
2023-04-0545 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 15: Hervé PicheritHervé Picherit, professor in the Department of French & Italian, shares his journey from growing up in a Francophone family in Wyoming to writing, researching, and teaching French literature and film. He shares wonderful new insights into well-known French authors such as Marcel Proust and Louis-Ferdinand Céline as well as lesser knowns from WWII and those writing sci-fi like Henri Barbot.
2023-03-2932 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLA-verse: Office Hours Session I: Has Academia Ruined Literary Criticism?Join UT Profs Frederick Luis Aldama (English), Domino Perez (English), and Steven Mintz (History) as they discuss and deliberate the current state of literary studies and the humanities generally within and outside the university.
2023-03-2257 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 14: Adela PinedaAdela Pineda is an award-winning scholar and Lozano Long Endowed Professor in Latin American Literary and Cultural Studies. In this episode, Frederick talks with Adela about her origin story and what events led her to her field. They discuss visual technologies, literature, film, and the Mexican Revolution.
2023-03-0100 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 13: Lars HinrichsLars Hinrichs, professor in the department of English, invites us on a journey from the University of Freiburg to UT Austin and how language evolves (especially varieties of English) from within and shaped by different communities.
2023-02-2200 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 12: Jossiana Arroyo-MartínezJossianna Arroyo-Martínez, professor in the departments of Spanish & Portuguese and African and African Diaspora Studies, takes us on a journey deep into how Latin American and Hispanophone Caribbean cultural traditions at once work within and against colonial legacies and its destructive race, sexuality, and gender stereotypes that continue to operate today in social media and big televisual events like the Superbowl.
2023-02-1500 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 11: Paola BonifazioPaola Bonifazio, professor in the department of French and Italian, discusses how the Italian film industry helped promote the modernization of Italy in and through its active shaping of identity and behavior of Italian people. She also shares insight into the huge popularity of photoromance magazines (graphic storytelling that uses photographs instead of drawings) in Italy, digging into how they were used to promote political, religious, and social agendas in the making of Italian culture and society.
2023-02-0800 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 10: Janet DavisJanet M. Davis, professor in American Studies and University Distinguished Teaching Professor, shares her journey from the Midwest to UT classroom and her exploration of American culture and nation building, from railroad and big top circus spectacles to founding of animal rights. We end with a discussion of the social and political implications of the 1975 film, Jaws.
2023-02-0100 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 9: Janine BarchasJanine Barchas, professor in English and Regent's Council Centennial Professor in the Book Arts, shares how she became fascinated with the literature and all things (eyeglasses, donkey carriage, and pianos) to do with Jane Austen, including for instance how cheap reprints grew working class readerships.
2023-01-2500 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 8: David SosaDavid Sosa, professor in the department of Philosophy and the Louanne and Larry Temple Professorship in the Humanities, shares his journey as Cuban-American family in Providence Rhode Island and continuing legacy of studying philosophy, explaining the divisions between the different traditions and movements of philosophy including those that look to the cognitive sciences to understand more deeply our actions and behaviors in a world increasingly turned upside down.
2023-01-1700 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 7: Bassam SidikiBassam Sidiki, professor in the department of English, shares his journey from growing up in Karachi tohis scholarly work today focused on postcolonial studies, bioethics, and medical humanities. Along the way he shares with us new ways of understanding such beloved authors as Bram Stoker, Joseph Conrad, Jack London, and Mark Twain, and so much more.
2023-01-1000 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 6: Jorge PérezJorge Pérez, professor in Spanish and Portuguese and Peter T. Flawn Centennial Professor, talks about his work on films made in Spain during Franco’s dictatorship and the new wave of films made post-Franco regime, including especially how film and fashion cohere and begin to shape new sets of ideas, values, and beliefs construct cultural identities.
2022-12-0100 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 5: Erika BsumekErika Bsumek, professor in American History and Eugene C. Barker Centennial Chair, shares her journey from histories shared across dinner tables as a child to become a scholar of environmental history, especially focused on consumerism, land resources, dispossession, race relations, and federal policy.
2022-11-2300 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 4: Kiril AvramovKiril Avramov, professor in Slavic and Eurasian studies, discusses the relation between politics, information, and psychology, including especially information that’s weaponized in post-Soviet Russia in the 2000s as well as the use of counter digital measures deployed by the people to push back.
2022-11-1600 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 3: Deborah BeckDeborah Beck, professor in the department of Classics, shares her journey from her childhood filled with reading Greek myths to her studies of speech and aesthetics in Greek poetry today, especially enriching understanding about how different storytelling devices that shape say the Homeric epic cue and trigger different emotion and thought processes in specifically directed ways.
2022-11-0900 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 2: Heather HouserHeather Houser, professor in English, shares insights into her journey to become a scholar of literature and what environmental fiction and nonfiction can shed light on our climate crisis and open new pathways implementing solutions.
2022-11-0200 minInto the COLAverseInto the COLAverse – Episode 1: Elizabeth “Liz” ScalaElizabeth “Liz” Scala, professor in English and the Ellen Clayton Garwood Centennial Professor, discusses how her early fascination with the ornate illustrated novels along with Nancy Drew led her to become a scholar of early modern literature. We learn, too, why language, themes, and told-from-margins stories of Chaucer and Shakespeare among others continues to resonate with life today, including Taylor Swift.
2022-10-2600 min