Mia 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.
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Into the COLAverse – Episode 19: Randy Lewis
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.
Into the COLAverse – Episode 18: Ashanté Reese
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.
Into the COLAverse – Episode 17: Scott Graham
Scott 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.
Into the COLAverse – Episode 16: Samantha Pickette
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.
Into 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.
Into the COLAverse – Episode 5: Erika Bsumek
Erika 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.