Author Archives: Ashley Salinas

Submit to the Texas Undergraduate Research Journal

The University of Texas at Austin Undergraduate Research Journal (Texas URJ) is now accepting submissions for the 2018 volume. We accept original works of any discipline from undergraduate students of the University of Texas. Former students may also submit papers that were fully written during their undergraduate studies, and their work may be considered for publication up until a year after the student graduated.

Every article selected for final publication will appear in the next annual volume of the Undergraduate Research Journal, and each author will receive a printed version of the full journal. Examples of work in past URJ volumes can be found in the Archives.

The deadline for manuscript submission is December 23rd, 2017 at 11:59 pm. The submission form is available online at texasurj.com/submit. Articles will be reviewed on a rolling basis by editors and University faculty of matching research areas.

Please reach out to Shadhi Mansoori at editor.in.chief@texasurj.com with any questions. The Texas URJ Facebook page also posts updates about deadlines and upcoming opportunities.

LAH 350: Philanthropy/Non-Profit Orgs Registration

Charitable giving in the United States topped 370 billion dollars in 2016, and over 70% of those dollars came from individual giving. Is this money well spent? Unfortunately, only some charities are effective. This course will cover the scope and diversity of the nonprofit sector, as well as individual patterns of giving and volunteering.  A significant portion of the course will focus on providing students with the tools and skills to evaluate charitable programs for effectiveness using social scientific techniques.

Based on their own evaluations, students will have the opportunity to distribute significant funds, at least $25,000 (provided through The Philanthropy Lab and individual donors), to charitable organizations. Students will be placed into groups that will do extensive research on a category of nonprofits, ultimately deciding which charities will receive funds through discussion and debate.

If you would like to take this new LAH 350 course, please email Dr. Pam Paxton ppaxton@prc.utexas.edu to express your interest.

Apply to the Humanities Honors Program

Humanities Honors: Design Your Path

In the Humanities Program, motivated and curious students develop their own major around their specific interests.  Students blend a range of courses and disciplines connected by a single theme, going beyond the traditional disciplines associated with the Humanities.  Each unique major culminates in a senior-year honors thesis—the student designs a project, conducts in-depth research, and works closely with a faculty supervisor.

To learn more about the Humanities Program and the application process, please come to one of our upcoming information sessions: Tuesday, November 14th at 3:30 pm or Wednesday, November 15th at 11 am in CLA 2.606 (the Normandy Scholars room).   Please RSVP to:  https://goo.gl/forms/qBOGqROMiqwEIVQT2

Spring 2018 LAH Lower Division Courses

Our lower-division honors class list. For access to registration, sign up in the book at the front desk.

ANT 301 30530 Physical Anthropology- Honors Kirk, E

 ANT 307 30725 Culture & Communication-Honors Slotta,J

C C 303 32452 Intro to Classical Mythology-Honors 

E 314L 34325 4-Texts and Contexts-Hon Hines, Z

ECO 304L 33575 Introduction to Macroeconomics-Honors (LAH seats reserved) Mostashari, S

GOV 312L XXXXX Issues and Policies in American Govt Roberts To be ADDED Unique number coming soon!

GRG 304E 36825 Enviro Sci Changing World- Honors Meyer, T

HIS 314K 38820 History of Mexican Americans in the US-reserved LAH seats Zamora,E 

HIS 317L 38900 17-Read US History Between Lines-reserved LAH seats Restad

RHE 309S 43665 Crit Reading & Persuasive Writing-W-Honors Harrision, Hannah

SPN 610D 45760 Intermediate Spanish II-Honors Whitehead

Conference on Democratic Reform in Europe

This conference will bring to Austin the leading figures of the new movement for Democratic Reform in Europe, including the former finance minister of Greece and author of the global bestseller, Adults in the Room, Yanis Varoufakis, the recent French presidential candidate, Benoit Hamon, the rising Labour MP from Yorkshire, Chi Onwurah, the former Vice Prime Minister of Poland, Grzegorz Kolodko. These leaders will join distinguished academic experts including Kunibert Raffer (University of Vienna), Giuseppe Sacco (LUISS University of Rome), Brendan O’Leary (University of Pennsylvania), Jorge Uxo (University of Madrid) and Henning Meyer of Social Europe, among others.

This is the fourth in a biennial series of Texas conferences on European issues, which have in past years explored the crisis of the Eurozone, the Greek crisis and the relationship of the South American Summer to European problems. It will engage senior American experts as well, including Michael Lind, Jeremi Suri and James Galbraith of the University of Texas at Austin, Damon Silvers, Policy Director of the AFL-CIO, and Pavlina Tcherneva of Bard College, a leading advocate of Modern Monetary Theory.

An additional  focus of this conference is the emergence of young leaders in addressing the European crisis. These will include Philip Pilkington of Ireland, Clara Mattei of Italy and the New School, Daniel Munevar (a Colombian resident in Sweden and former adviser to the Greek finance ministry), and Tuomas Malinen of the University of Helsinki, Finland.

Keynotes will be given by Benoit Hamon and Chi Onwurah, and a special panel will be devoted to the Democracy in Europe Movement, led by Yanis Varoufakis — who is, in addition, a former member of the faculty of the LBJ School.

***Please be advised that LBJ School of Public Affairs events may be photographed and/or filmed. Your attendance constitutes your authorization for the School to use your photograph, voice, or other likeness for purposes related to the mission of the LBJ School including but not limited to marketing and promotion in both print and electronic forms.***

Register here!

New Joynes Reading Room Events (and free books!)

First, this Wednesday, October 18, the Joynes Reading Room will host visiting poet Sam Sax at 7 p.m. Pulitzer-Prize winner Terrance Hayes selected Sax’s first book, Madness, as winner of the National Poetry Series. Madness was published this month by Penguin, and I have some free copies of the book to give away to UT honors students who inquire in person at the front desk of the Joynes Reading Room in Carothers. The reading Wednesday night is free and open to the public.
Also, the Joynes Reading Room will host a luncheon with visiting novelist Valeria Luiselli on Thursday, October 26th at 11 a.m. in CRD 007A. Luiselli is the author of several award-winning novels, including The Story of My Teeth. She also recently published a nonfiction book, Tell Me How it Ends, about the immigration crisis of 2014, when unaccompanied minors fleeing violence in Central America arrived in the US seeking asylum. Luiselli worked as a translator, interviewing the children and trying to decipher their confusing accounts of violence and displacement. UT Honors students may sign up for the luncheon and receive a free book by visiting the front desk of the Joynes Reading Room in person. (Students will not be expected to have completed reading the book before the luncheon, but are encouraged to read a portion of it.)

Panel Discussion on “Hue 1968- A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam”

Registration is now open for the panel discussion with author Mark Bowden on his new book Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam. This event is free and open to the public, but advanced registration is required. Please click here to complete your registration and reserve your tickets.

Mark Bowden is the author of thirteen books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Black Hawk Down. He will be joined in discussion by UT Professor of History Mark Lawrence and LBJ Professor of Ethical Leadership Howard Prince. The event, which will be held on Thursday, October 26th at the AT&T Conference Center Room 203 at 5pm, is co-sponsored by the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the Student Veterans Association. Mr. Bowden will sign copies of his book following the conclusion of the talk.

Mark Bowden, an Atlantic Monthly national correspondent, is an author, journalist, screenwriter, and teacher. His book Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War (1999)—an international bestseller that spent more than a year on the New York Times bestseller list—was a finalist for the National Book Award. Bowden also worked on the screenplay for Black Hawk Down, a film adaptation of the book, directed by Ridley Scott. Bowden is also the author of the international bestseller Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Outlaw (2001), which tells the story of the hunt for Colombian cocaine billionaire Pablo Escobar. Killing Pablo won the Overseas Press Club’s Cornelius Ryan Award as the best book in 2001 and is currently being adapted for film, with Bowden again writing the screenplay. He is also the author of Doctor Dealer (1987), Bringing the Heat (1994), Our Finest Day (2002) and Finders Keepers (2002).

Howard Prince is a clinical professor and holds the Loyd Hackler Endowed Chair in Ethical Leadership at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Previously he served as the founding dean and professor of leadership studies in the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies and also held the George and Virginia Modlin Endowed Chair in Leadership Studies. Dr. Prince also served as the first professor and head of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York. As a young Army officer, Dr. Prince became a highly decorated combat veteran. After serving for more than 28 years in the U.S. Army, he was advanced on the retired list to brigadier general upon his retirement in 1990 and was presented with the U.S. Army’s highest award for service, the Distinguished Service Medal. He is best known for his work on ethical leadership, leader development and creating university-based leadership education programs.

Mark Atwood Lawrence is Associate Professor of History, Director of Graduate Studies of the Clements Center for National Security, and Distinguished Fellow at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his B.A. from Stanford University in 1988 and his doctorate from Yale in 1999. After teaching as a lecturer in history at Yale, he joined the History Department at UT-Austin in 2000. Since then, he has published three books, The Vietnam War: An International History in Documents (Oxford University Press, 2014), Assuming the Burden: Europe and the American Commitment to War in Vietnam (University of California Press, 2005) and The Vietnam War: A Concise International History (Oxford University Press, 2008).

Free Screening and Discussion of Ava DuVernay’s 13th

The Humanities Institute is hosting our Fall 2017 Difficult Dialogues Public Forum on October 30th. This year, we will be screening Ava DuVernay’s award-winning 13TH, a documentary that explores the U.S. prison system and its roots in slavery, at 6PM in the Avaya Auditorium (POB 2.302). Following the screening, we will host a panel of faculty speakers and a criminal justice organizer from Grassroots Action. During the panel session, students will have a chance to practice engaging in dialogue with each other on the topic.
Our public forums are primarily geared toward undergraduates interested in methods of conducting dialogue on difficult topics, and are linked to our Difficult Dialogues courses (although students do not need to be enrolled in a DD course to attend!). A link to RSVP can be found here, and the event information on our website can be found here.