Today: Talk By UT AMS PHD Tevi Troy

Today, at 5 PM in Batts 5.108, UT AMS grad Tevi Troy is giving a talk called "Shall We Wake the President":

The history of presidential response to disasters shows that ideology has little to do with how presidents deal with the unexpected. Tevi Troy looks at the evolving role of the President in dealing with disasters, and how our presidents have handled disasters throughout history. He also looks at the likelihood of similar disasters befalling modern America and details how smart policies today can help us avoid or better respond to future crises.

Dr. Troy is the author of the book What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted: 200 Years of Popular Culture in the White House, makes frequent radio and television appearances, and is the President of the American Health Policy Institute. You can read one of his recent articles, on the myth of the 3 AM phone call, at his site. If you'd like to RSVP for today's talk, you can do so here. 

Tonight: Author Marlon James

Novelist Marlon James, author of the Booker Prize–winning A Brief History of Seven Killings, talks about why he writes TONIGHT,  Thursday, September 22, at 6:30 p.m. at Jessen Auditorium in Homer Rainey Hall. New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani described A Brief History of Seven Killings as "epic in every sense of that word: sweeping, mythic, over-the-top, colossal and dizzyingly complex. It's also raw, dense, violent, scalding, darkly comic, exhilarating and exhausting." James's other novels include John Crow's Devil and The Book of Night Women.Members of the Harry Ransom Center receive priority seating and complimentary parking. Signed books will be available for purchase at the event.Doors open at 5:50 p.m. for members and at 6 p.m. for the general public. Members must present their membership cards for priority entry; one seat per membership card. Members arriving after 6 p.m. will join the general queue. Complimentary parking for members is available at the University Co-op garage at 23rd and San Antonio streets.If you want to sample some of James's writing, you can read his essay "From Jamaica to Minnesota to Myself," here. 

UT AMS Grad Student Julie Kantor Featured in Ukrainian Anthology of American Poetry

UT AMS grad student Julie Kantor has three poems in translation featured in a Ukrainian anthology of young American poets. The book, titled Anthology of Young Poetry of the U.S.A, was largely "assembled, compiled, and translated by Taras Malkovych, a young Ukrainian poet who lived in NYC researching young U.S. poets as a Fulbright Scholarship holder."Julie was also recently featured on The Conversant, in conversation with poet Jesse Nathan.Below, we've included 1 of 2)W/Out Trees, one of Julie's poems from the Anthology of Young American Poets:

Sun stuck in leaf-thick tops buried-in so close they adjoin at once separate ends, not knowing space right above we feel blood the vital force of the body, what I give what I can will become yours; the enclosure from sky opens up as 24th street doesn’t end but is interrupted by the 101. You do not talk back to me. What I give, what I can and doesn't become, and you do what you want with it. I still remember now I didn’t understand, I called it useless, the day you ripped out the tree, you said it had to go.

Natalia Molina Talk Tomorrow

Tomorrow, September 20th, at noon, Dr. Natalia Molina, Associate Dean of Arts and Humanities, and Professor of History, at the University of California, San Diego, will give a talk based on her recent book, How Race Is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical Power of Racial Scripts, which examines Mexican immigration--from 1924 when immigration acts drastically reduced immigration to the U.S. to 1965 when many quotas were abolished--to understand how broad themes of race and citizenship are constructed. These years shaped the emergence of what Professor Molina describes as an immigration regime that defined the racial categories that continue to influence perceptions in the U.S. about Mexican Americans, race, and ethnicity. Through the use of a relational lens her work demonstrates that racial scripts are easily adopted and adapted to apply to different racial groups.Dr. Molina's talk, which will be in GWB 2.206, is part of the MALS lecture series and is free and open to the public.