Faculty Research: Dr. Karl Miller and Dr. Janet Davis at Humanities Texas Teachers Institute on 1960s America

Some very cool activities from our faculty this summer: Dr. Karl Miller and Dr. Janet Davis are both participants in the Humanities Texas Institute for Texas Teachers, this year's theme being "America in the 1960s." Dr. Davis gave a presentation yesterday on "Influential Women in the Sixties," and Dr. Miller is today speaking about "Music in the 1960s." Both also led primary source workshops in the afternoons.We just wish we could attend, too!

Faculty Research: Dr. Julia Mickenberg Featured on 'BackStory'

We're pleased to share the news with you that Dr. Julia Mickenberg is featured in a discussion about the history of US - Russia Relations for BackStory, a nationally-syndicated public radio program affiliated with the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Dr. Mickenberg discusses her research relating to women's suffrage in the early 20th century.Here's a summary of the episode, which you can listen to in full here.

In the past year, the White House and the Kremlin have sparred over Syria, the Winter Olympics, and now, the crisis in Ukraine. It can be tempting to view these events through the familiar lens of the Cold War, but in this episode, the History Guys probe the deeper history of our relationship with Russia — and discover moments of comity as well as conflict.They’ll discuss Alexis de Tocqueville’s famous prediction in the 1830s, that the United States and Russia were “two great nations” that would each come to “hold in [their] hands the destinies of half the world.” And they find long-term connections and comparisons between the countries over time. From Civil War-era analogies between freeing American slaves and freeing Russian serfs, to early 20th-century debates over women’s suffrage, Americans have often looked to Russia as a counterpart, if sometimes a cautionary one.

Announcement: UT American Studies Receives $100K Endowment to Support Food Studies Research

The good news continues! Last week, UT AMS department chair Dr. Elizabeth Engelhardt announced that the department has received a $100,000 Presidential Fellowship from Les Dames D'Escoffier Dallas Chapter to support dissertation research on Texas, women, and food culture.LDE is an organization of professional women who work in the food, fine beverage, and hospitality industries; Dr. Engelhardt says that their support, the first of its kind for the department, will "play a leading role in increasing the stability of the department into the future, inspiring other such endowments as we work with development and other donors." Additionally, it, in combination with the recent merging of Texas Foodways into UT AMS, "will help put UT Austin on the map as a leader in food studies in the humanities."Thanks to LDE's Dallas Chapter for their support!For the full press release, click here.