Randy 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.  

Ashanté 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.

Samantha 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.

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.