Faculty Spotlight—American Studies Chair Dr. Randolph (Randy) Lewis!
We asked Dr. Lewis a few questions about his role in American Studies, what got him here, and what he loves about it! Continue reading to learn more!
Q: What are you research interests?
A: Like most folks who’ve been doing this for a while, I’ve written and taught about a lot of different things: surveillance technology, documentary film, indigenous media, creative nonfiction, public scholarship, pop music, and urban studies. In addition to writing five books on these topics, I’ve also been making no-budget documentary films for almost 20 years, mostly for academic audiences.
Q: What is the nature of your work? What method(s) do you utilize the most? How does your work align with American Studies?
A: It’s so hard to answer this without sounding like a ponderous old windbag from a Monty Python sketch (“of course in those days I was only a tea boy…”) But I’ll try, ha… Basically, I try to sketch cultural scenes like an ethnographer and then pivot to close readings of films, advertising, art works, or spaces that illuminate the hidden dimensions of the subject. All sorts of “non-research” activities shape my writing as well. Just being in the world is research if you’re looking closely.
Q: Are you currently working on any projects, and if so tell us about them!
A: As chair, my main project has been trying to keep the department safe and sane through the pandemic and to support the great work that my colleagues and students are doing. But I’ve also completed some short documentaries and a book manuscript in the past few years. I made a 30 minute film about Mad Max fandom in the Mojave Desert (see my wild photo below); another film about how Prada Marfa changed the west Texas town whose name it bears; and a third one, a much shorter video essay, that compares Austin and Oslo in terms of urban development. My current book is about cultural fragility in pandemic America. Next I’m doing a collaborative project on Tesla and a small project on “psychedelic cities.” And I’m still running The End of Austin after 11 years because it feels like a rare place where a mix of informal and formal approaches to our city can comingle. It started as a class project in a documentary grad seminar and somehow (well, through a lot of hard work from a lot of people) grew into a website with 250,000 page views and over 100 articles about evolution of the city.
Q: How did you come to American Studies as a discipline?
A: I was taking traditional history courses as an undergrad and was bored out of my mind. It was worse than eating paste. I stuck with it only because I had AP credit in the field and could graduate in three years, which was important to someone with very little money. But one day I landed in an AMS course that was called “The Artist in American Society.” Instead of treaties and diplomats, I was studying Louis Armstrong, Walker Evans, and the radical architecture known as Arcology. It was infinitely more me. I haven’t looked back.
Q: How does American Studies make your work possible?
A: Academia is often a traditional place in terms of methods, expectations, and the essential sameness of the product (peer reviewed journal articles; 15 minute conference papers, etc). That traditionalism has its strengths, but I’m happier in a more eclectic context. I always saw American Studies as the wildly painted house that has the colorful yard art and a bunch of chickens running around amusing the neighbors. I’m lucky to be one of those chickens because I would have been miserable in a traditional department that slotted me into a single niche and yelled “stay put!” At its best, American Studies is a fertile place for movement, experimentation, innovation, and creativity. I love that it has welcomed my mix of projects in different forms (digital, video, and traditional scholarship) and hope that our students feel that same freedom of possibility.
Q: What is your favorite thing about AMS AT UT?
A: The creativity and passion that people pour into their work, and the fact that we are small enough that what any single person is doing can resonate throughout the department. We care about what everyone else is doing. Unfortunately, because I’m chair right now, I can’t ask people how their projects are going because it freaks them out. They assume it’s a scrutinizing gaze of “are you working hard enough?” but really I’m just curious and supportive!
Bonus Q: What is a fun fact about you that you would like your colleagues, peers, and students to know about you?
A: When I was a young grad student doing dissertation research, I endured a 180 hour train trip that looped around much of the US and it only cost me $222 (and my dignity)! Also for fun I play vintage guitars, go to hot rod shows with my partner Monti, talk about life and love with my incredibly smart dog Daisy, dream up cool places to visit, and swim at Deep Eddy.
