By Viktoria Beck, MPAff ’24, LBJ School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin Most people remember former President Lyndon Baines Johnson as “the Vietnam War president.” There’s no escaping that for LBJ; despite his impressive domestic record, his legacy will forever bear the weight of the war. While LBJ received fair criticism […]
Category: Op-Ed
By Alejandro Hernandez Amidst the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the Ukrainian counter-offensive in September, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) 77th session went mostly under the radar. Citizens around the world usually ignore these sessions, even though the UN is the largest international organization in the world working on the most important challenges […]
Student-Led Divestment Initiatives Drive Change on College Campuses Student and community groups have the power to play a significant role in advocating for divestment initiatives and sustainable goals. Recent examples of campus activism have shown us what students can accomplish. On Feb. 6, 2020, Georgetown University Board of Directors announced that the university would divest […]
“If you take care of the land, the land takes care of you,” said Wenceslaus “June” Provost Jr., a fourth-generation sugarcane farmer from Louisiana. “For me, farming is everything. It’s my life. It was never a job.” Provost spoke to a packed room on Feb. 19 with his wife, Angie, as part of the LBJ […]
Author Garrard Conley kicked off 2018’s Barbara Jordan Week at the LBJ School by coming to speak at its inaugural event. Conley’s new book, Boy Erased, is an autobiographical account of his experience with gay conversion therapy and his complicated relationship with his parents. Conley discussed the psychological manipulation the conversion “counselors” used, the agony […]
Caption: Icelandic Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson baking a cake in an oft-mocked campaign ad. Source: Nútíminn While the United States is still reeling from a 2016 election campaign besmirched by online hatred and international interference, the small island nation of Iceland proves that even countries without raucous political cultures are not immune from the pervasive […]
Barbara Jordan’s Enduring Legacy
Photo: Penn State University It’s been a few months since the 20th Barbara Jordan National Forum, but I have found myself thinking about her every week since then. The LBJ School is littered with images of and references to Jordan. There are photos of her on the walls, a tree planted in her honor outside, […]
Photo: Orin Zebest AUSTIN, Texas – On Monday, February 20th, as part of the 20th Annual Barbara Jordan National Forum (BJNF), the LBJ School of Public Affair’s Pride Policy Alliance hosted a training workshop on identifying and interrupting domestic violence in conjunction with SAFE Austin, with an emphasis on intimate partner violence and sexual assault […]
Photo: Get In The Way Movie “Tell the story. Tell it over and over again.” So exhorts the titular figure at the beginning of “Get in the Way: The Journey of John Lewis,” a new documentary about John Lewis and his participation in the Civil Rights Movement. Filmmaker Kathleen Dowdey’s moving portrayal of this piece […]
On Monday, February 8, 2016, 17 year old David Joseph was shot and killed by a police officer in Northeast Austin. Police say the unarmed teen was naked and acted in an aggressive manner when he charged at Officer Geoffrey Freeman. Austin previously encountered police violence against communities of color in the 2013 shooting death […]