Life & Letters • Spring 2016

College of Liberal Arts Magazine 路 Spring 2016

U.S. troops in Brownsville. On June 18, 1916, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson ordered 110,000 National Guardsmen from state militias to the border for patrol duty due to unstable U.S.-Mexico relations and Mexican Revolution violence.

A Border’s Violent Past Photos, eyewitness accounts, archives and artifacts told the story of one of the most violent decades in Texas history in Life and Death on the Border 1910-1920, a recent exhibit at the Bullock Texas State History Museum and the culmination of collaborative research co-led by associate professor of English John Morán González to reckon with a period of state-sanctioned anti-Mexican violence.

While most of the nation’s attention was focused overseas during World War I, the TexasMexico border was facing a full-on race war, worsening at the hands of Texas Rangers and local law enforcement, González says. The single most famous image from the era, “Dead Mexican Bandits,” depicts Texas Rangers with lassos around corpses of “Mexicans” slain during a raid. A postcard of the

image circulated throughout South Texas for years.

Rare artifacts in the exhibit included a saddle that belonged to Francisco “Pancho” Villa and a decoded page of the Zimmermann Telegram, which proposed a Mexican-German alliance in World War I. The violence in Texas would spur the Mexican American civil rights movement and inspire a renaissance of literature, art and music along the Texas-Mexico border.

“It moves the narrative in a direction that opens up discussion on race issues in our state and in our country,” says González, associate director of the Center for Mexican American Studies. “This is a way of reminding people that contemporary issues have very, very long trajectories in U.S. history.”

ABOVE: La Raza Unida Party paraphernalia, 1970s. In the aftermath of this turbulent decade, the Mexican American civil rights movement gained strength. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) was formed in 1929 and the ‘Partido Nacional de La Raza Unida,’ or National United People’s Party or United Race Party, campaigned for better housing, work, and educational opportunities for Mexican Americans throughout the 1970s.

U.S. Troops in Brownsville photo courtesy of Runyon Photograph Collection, the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

La Raza Unida Party photo courtesy of Raza Unida Party Records, Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at Austin.

Dress photo courtesy of the Texas Music Museum.

LEFT: Lydia Mendoza, the most prominent Tejana singer from the 1930s to the 1950s, wore this traditionally styled white dress with red ribbon trim while performing on stage.

Contents Spring 2016

The Campaign for Your Vote Just Add Brand Power A look at the careful campaign strategies used to heighten anxieties, build trust and develop a presidential brand — all in an effort to gain your vote.

Departments 2 Dean’s Message 3 Knowledge Matters

A look at the college’s top news, research and achievements.

What’s So Funny About the Liberal Arts?

A philosopher, a historian and an alumnus shine perspective on the personal and societal meaningfulness of a liberal arts education.

9 Be Kind to Animals

The Gospel of Kindness author Janet Davis discusses America’s first animal protection societies.

12 Books

An Experiment Gone Right Celebrating 80 Years of Plan II

14 Campus Life

How H.T. Parlin’s “experiment” became one of the most distinguished honors programs in the country, with Q&As from the program’s director, an alumna and a student.

31 Architecture of Coexistence

A sampling of notable happenings across campus.

Stephennie Mulder describes her journey to Tehran to receive the Islamic Republic of Iran’s World Award for Book of the Year.

33 Classic Collections BEHIND THE COVER: Photographer Sarah Lim and model Rachael Chaney on set in the Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services Studio during the cover shoot on March 25. Hair and makeup by Ava Martin Riggins.

BACK COVER: “How to do Moribana and Nageire style Ikebana,” in the series Practical Domestic Library, volume 12, published in 1928

by Shufunotomo.

The first sweeping guide to the university’s unique artifacts, including examples from the Department of Classics.

Photo: LAITS photo studio

Dean’s Message

Sharing Ideas of Living

Photo: Maria Arrellaga

The mission of The University of Texas at Austin is to improve our world through research, creative activity, scholarly inquiry and the development of new knowledge. Key to our success in this endeavor is our openness to students and scholars of other countries and in particular Mexico, which shares a long and rich history with both our state and our nation.

Earlier this year, I had the good fortune to travel to Mexico with a UT delegation led

by President Gregory L. Fenves. We were joined by Charles Hale, director of LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, and Luis Urrieta, chair of the LLILAS Mexican Center, and others in a key conversation that will move forward scholarly collaborations with the National Autonomous

UT Austin President Gregory Fenves, College of Liberal Arts Dean Randy Diehl and School of Architecture Dean Frederick Steiner view selections from the archive of the Ibero-American University during their visit to Mexico City on Jan. 29, 2016.

University of Mexico, the largest university in Latin America. It will include important research on gender violence against girls and women in a program named after prominent Mexican anthropologist Marcela Lagarde y de los Ríos, who was recently honored at our college on the occasion of International Women’s Day. We also reaffirmed our commitment to the Matías Romero Visiting Chair in Mexican Studies, administered by LLILAS Benson, as well as our ongoing collaboration with Mexico’s Center for Research and Advanced Study of Social Anthropology to create and foster a partnership for scholarly exchange involving graduate students and their research.

Finally, Professor Hale and I were joined

by Nicole Guidotti-Hernández, chair of our Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies (MALS), to discuss possible collaborations with the history, international studies and literature departments of the prestigious Ibero-American University. The MALS study abroad program for summer 2016 will convene at that university.

The historian Mary Ritter Beard once observed that “travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” As we deepen and broaden our creative and scholarly exchanges across borders, let us hope that our “ideas of living” serve to transform lives for the mutual benefit of our societies.

Life & Letters The College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin publishes Life & Letters for its community of scholars, alumni and friends.

College of Liberal Arts Dean Randy L. Diehl Director of Public Affairs David A. Ochsner Editor Michelle Bryant Art Direction and Design Allen F. Quigley Copy Editor Adam Deutsch Contributing Writers Alicia Dietrich Rachel Griess Emily Nielsen Contributing Photographers Brian Birzer Sarah Lim Contributing Illustrator Caitlin Alexander

Visit us online at lifeandletters.la.utexas.edu Or email us at cola.alum@austin.utexas.edu Postmaster Send changes of address to: Life & Letters College of Liberal Arts 116 Inner Campus Dr., Stop G6000 Austin, TX 78712-1257 Follow us facebook.com/UTLiberalArts twitter.com/LiberalArtsUT youtube.com/LiberalArtsUT

Randy L. Diehl, Dean David Bruton, Jr. Regents Chair in Liberal Arts

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Life & Letters Spring 2016

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Knowledge Matters Remaking ‘Roots’

Anika Noni Rose (Kizzy) and Laurence Fishburne (Alex Haley).

“This is a historian’s dream,” says Daina Ramey Berry, an associate professor of history at The University of Texas at Austin, who served as a technical adviser for the remaking of the television miniseries “Roots.” It will premiere on Memorial Day, airing over four consecutive nights.

The A&E Networks’ HISTORY, A&E and Lifetime channels will simulcast the series, introducing a new audience to the epic historical portrait of American slavery.

It recounts the journey of Kunta Kinte and his family’s will to survive and ultimately carry on their legacy despite hardship.

“Roots” first premiered to an audience of more than 100 million viewers in 1977. It is based on Alex Haley’s 1976 novel, Roots: The Saga of an American Family.

Berry had the opportunity to work with the director on set in Louisiana during filming and provided valuable feedback to ensure historical accuracy.

She recalls the director encouraging her to tell him whether anything was out of place, which helped heighten the crew’s commitment to authenticity. “They have paid attention to every detail.”

The project tapped the talents of both historians and linguists. Part of Berry’s role as technical adviser was to recommend readings and review the script prior to filming.

As a scholar who focuses on 19th century American history and comparative slavery, with a particular emphasis on the role of gender, labor, family and economy among the enslaved, Berry was able to provide perspective on the Africans’ role in the slave trade, marriage and relationships, and the different cultures and traditions among the enslaved.

“One issue is to show the intellectual history of the slaves,” Berry says. “To show

Photo: Steve Dietl

History, African & African Diaspora Studies

their agency.”

In the classroom, Berry describes her teaching philosophy as “a sensory experience.” That philosophy was relevant in her role as technical adviser. She recalls the sights and sounds of walking on the plantation during filming, experiencing the morning fog, walking through the deep trenches, the feel and smell of tobacco used during the plantation scenes.

“All my senses were plugged in,” Berry says. “That was really powerful for me.”

Berry recalls a particularly overwhelming scene with the actor Malachi

Kirby, who plays Kunta Kinte. “I’ve never heard the sound of the whip. That day everybody stopped. Everybody gathered around.”

Kirby is joined by a stellar cast including Forest Whitaker (Fiddler), Anna Paquin (Nancy Holt), Laurence Fishburne (Alex Haley), Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Tom Lea), Anika Noni Rose (Kizzy), Tip “T.I.” Harris (Cyrus), Emayatzy Corinealdi (Belle), Matthew Goode (Dr. William Waller), Mekhi Phifer (Jerusalem), James Purefoy (John Waller) and Regé-Jean Page (Chicken George).

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Knowledge Matters

Working Against Yourself

Germanic Studies

Sociology, Population Research Center

Photo: Big Stock

The way children and grandchildren of immigrants learn a language may spell trouble early in school, limiting their opportunities for successful careers and isolating them from society.

Immigration surged during the past few decades in Germany, with workers migrating from Turkey and other countries during the 1960s and ’70s and Russian- and Polishspeakers of German descent arriving during the 1990s. Eventually, German became the family language for many. But according to UT Austin Germanic studies Ph.D. candidate David Huenlich, this “family” language can be quite different from “standard” German.

Huenlich tested more than 60 fourthgraders on their perception of standard German verbs, finding that certain children missed as many as half of the words tested.

He compared the number of missed words to several factors, including each child’s neighborhood and whether the parents were born abroad, and found that the child’s network or social group was the most powerful predictor of how the child would speak.

“I don’t think it’s an effect of multilingualism. I think it has to do with a degree of social isolation over time,” Huenlich says.

“Within their neighborhoods and groups, their language is completely functional — it’s not defunct or deficient. It’s the mother tongue to many in that particular network, but it’s not sufficient to succeed in school.”

Illustration: Big Stock

Isolation Spells Trouble

To make ends meet in the short term, many workers may accept part-time positions, seek work from temporary agencies or take jobs below their skill levels. But a new study shows that these types of employment could penalize workers when they apply for future employment.

In a study published in the American Sociological Review, sociologist David Pedulla submitted and tracked employer responses to 2,420 fictitious applications for 1,210 real job openings in five cities across the United States. All applicant information was held constant except for gender and the applicants’ employment situation during the previous 12 months: full time, part time, a temporary help agency position, a job below the applicant’s skill level or unemployment.

Pedulla found that about 5 percent of men and women working below their skill levels received a positive employer response — about half the response rate for workers in full-time jobs at their skill levels. Similarly, less than 5 percent of men working part-

time received responses. However, parttime employment had no negative effect for women, and temporary agency employment had little effect for either gender.

To learn why, Pedulla surveyed 903 hiring managers about their perceptions and likelihood of interviewing an applicant, given his or her work history. The surveys showed that men in part-time positions were penalized for appearing less committed, and men employed below their skill levels were penalized for appearing less committed and less competent. Women employed below their skill levels were penalized for appearing less competent, but not less committed.

“When it comes to thinking about the opportunities that are available to workers, unemployment is only one piece of the puzzle,” Pedulla says. “Men who are in parttime positions — as well as men and women who are in jobs below their skill level — face real challenges in the labor market, challenges that deserve broader discussion and additional attention.”

Get the latest news: lifeandletters.la.utexas.edu

Life & Letters

Life & Letters Spring 2016

The Gospel of eBay

Thinking Cap Psychology, Population Research Center

Photo: Geoffrey Smith

text. But the sequence of passages, the way the papyrus was flipped and rotated to copy another text on the backside, and the lack of “interruption” in the text led Smith to conclude that this was part of a continuous copy of the Fourth Gospel, making it the first example of a Greek New Testament written on the front side of an unused scroll.

Until now, the theory was that Christians used codices, or what evolved into books, while Jews and non-Christian Romans preferred scrolls. In fact, the only Greek New Testaments to appear on scrolls were written on the backs of previously used scrolls — much as the unidentified Christian text is on this example, which Smith says is too fragmented to identify but invites his colleagues to “debate for decades to come.”

Because of Smith’s analysis, the fragment received a Gregory-Aland designation P134 — a registration code referencing the oldest surviving traces of Christian scripture.

Willoughby Recto: The fragment’s recto (frontside) with lines from John 1.49-2.1, the final portion of the calling of Nathaniel and the beginning of the Wedding at Cana.

Genes and environment both play critical roles in shaping a person’s intelligence, and a longstanding hypothesis in the field of behavioral genetics holds that a person’s potential intelligence, as set by genetics, is more fully expressed in environments that are supportive and nurturing but is suppressed in conditions of poverty and disadvantage.

However, new research by Elliot Tucker-Drob, a UT Austin associate professor of psychology, and the University of Edinburgh’s Timothy Bates indicates that the hypothesis holds true only in the United States.

In a study published in Psychological Science, the researchers combined data on 24,926 pairs of twins and siblings from 14 independent studies in the U.S., Australia, England, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands, finding the relationship among genes, socioeconomic status and intelligence varied depending on the participant’s country of origin.

Genetic influences on intelligence were stronger for Americans raised in higher socioeconomic status circumstances and weaker for Americans raised under impoverished circumstances. But for the people of Western Europe and Australia, genetic influences on intelligence were constant across all levels of socioeconomic status.

The researchers found that other factors influenced the results, such as age of testing, whether the tests measured achievement and knowledge or intelligence, or whether the tests were of a single ability or a composite of cognitive measures.

“We believe that one possible factor contributing to the differences observed may be the quality of the social safety net,” says Tucker-Drob, a research associate in the UT Austin Population Research Center. “The relatively robust social welfare programs in Western Europe and Australia may buffer the suppressive effects of environmental privation on genetic influences on intelligence.”

Illustration: Allen Quigley

Religious Studies A fourth-century papyrus fragment of the Gospel of John, one of about 130 Greek New Testament papyri known to survive today, recently made its serendipitous debut in an online auction — with a starting bid of less than $100.

The fragment, which once belonged to the late biblical scholar Harold Willoughby, was stashed away in an attic for 25 years before a new owner happened upon it while sorting through a stack of papers.

Unaware of what he had found, he posted it on eBay until Geoffrey Smith, a UT Austin assistant professor of religious studies, urged him to stop the sale and allow him to analyze the piece. It turned out to be a fragment from an unused scroll, with lines from John 1.49-2.1 on the front side and an unidentified Christian text written upside down on the back.

At first glance, the fragment appears to be an amulet, or some sort of noncontinuous

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Knowledge Matters

Not Just the Funnies African & African Diaspora Studies

By David Ochsner

For more than a century, comic strips have provided a light-hearted diversion for newspaper readers, although a few were groundbreaking for the insights they offered about society. Peanuts captured Cold War anxieties with the existential musings of chronically depressed Charlie Brown, while the anthropomorphic Pogo and his friends in Okefenokee Swamp provided the era with biting political satire.

Another groundbreaking cartoonist who explored Cold War-era society and politics was Jackie Ormes, long celebrated as the first African American female cartoonist. A sampling of her work was recently on display in the Gordon White Building in an exhibition curated

by Rebecca Giordano on behalf of the graduate student collective INGZ and the Warfield Center.

In her comments on the exhibit, In Heartbeats: the Comic Art of Jackie Ormes, Giordano notes that Ormes used her irreverent and witty comics to tackle major cultural events that centralized the experience of African American women.

“From the House of Un-American Activities to segregated train cars that enabled the Great Migration, Ormes’ vivacious and intellectual characters countered pervasive stereotypes with images of stylish, self-driven and savvy women of color,” notes Giordano.

Ormes (1911-1985) began publishing the strip Dixie to Harlem for The Pittsburgh Courier in 1937, featuring Torchy Brown as a character who moves from the fields of Mississippi to the stage of Harlem’s famed Cotton Club. Ormes went on to publish three other comic series: Candy (1945), a peek into the private frustrations of a witty maid employed by an absent white

woman; a revival of the Torchy character in Heartbeats (1950-54); and her most popular comic, Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger (194556).

Giordano notes that perhaps because of her art and her participation in black leftist intellectual circles of Cold War-era Chicago, Ormes was under surveillance by the FBI, which amassed a file of more than 250 pages from 1948 to 1958. In addition to racial injustice, she also addressed issues related to foreign policy, environmental pollution and war.

Ormes also brought attention to the way African American women used fashion and dress as tools for self-determination and positive self-representation.

Giordano notes that through her comic art, paper doll designs published with Torchy in Heartbeats, and a plastic doll based on Patty Jo, Ormes allowed readers the opportunity to generate narratives of their own and combat racist and sexist caricatures that were prevalent in mainstream media.

Although her comics explored issues of racial injustice, Ormes also took aim at such topics as foreign policy, pollution and war. Her most popular comic, Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger (above) offered comment on the McCarthy hearings.

The character of Torchy Brown, first introduced by Ormes in 1937, was featured in Heartbeats (right) during the early 1950s. The story of smart and vivacious Torchy, accompanied by stylish paper dolls, countered pervasive stereotypes of women of color.

Photos courtesy of In Heartbeats: the Comic Art of Jackie Ormes exhibition

Exhibit explores the comic world of Jackie Ormes

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Photo: Big Stock

Life & Letters Spring 2016

Running from Addiction Psychology Exercise may double the chances of quitting smoking for those struggling with emotional distress, according to psychology professor Jasper Smits.

As many as one-third of smokers have high-anxiety sensitivity — fear of anxiety and related sensations — experiencing greater problems with nicotine withdrawal, which is a strong predictor of lapse and subsequent relapse.

In a study published in Psychosomatic Medicine, Smits tested the efficacy of exercise in smoking cessation among this population by randomly assigning 136 smokers with high-anxiety sensitivity to one of two 15-week interventions featuring either exercise or wellness education. Both interventions included thrice-weekly sessions combined with cognitive behavioral therapy and optional nicotine replacement therapy patches.

Exercise sessions required 25 minutes of vigorous work on a treadmill. Wellness education sessions paired healthy lifestyle discussions with weekly wellness goals.

Abstinence was assessed through self-reporting and saliva samples.

At the end of treatment, 26 percent of those who exercised successfully abstained from smoking, and 12 percent who attended wellness sessions abstained. After six months, 23 percent of the exercise group abstained; 10 percent of the wellness education group continued to abstain.

A National Health Interview Survey found that smoking among U.S. adults without psychiatric disorders decreased steadily between 1997 and 2011 (from 24.1 percent to 18.2 percent), while smoking among adults with some form of psychiatric disorder remained relatively stable (43.6 percent to 42.1 percent).

“This group is particularly at risk for cessation failure,” Smits says. “But our findings suggest that exercise can reduce that risk, doubling their chances of cessation success.”

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Knowledge Matters

Lone Star Lizard

Research on the Road Economics For his research on the economic forces that drive the New York City taxi market, economics graduate student Nick Buchholz was selected to participate in the “ReStud Tour,” the highest honor for a graduating doctoral student in his field.

Seven students worldwide were selected

by The Review of Economics to present their research in Europe during the 2016 Review of Economic Studies Tour in May, with stops at the University College London, Humboldt University in Berlin and the European University Institute in Florence.

Buchholz will present his research on the intersection of spatial economics, search frictions and regulation in the context of the New York City taxi market. This research examines the forces that determine where vacant taxicabs choose to locate themselves, where matches are made between taxis and passengers, and which trips are ultimately taken.

“On top of traveling to some incredible places, the ReStud Tour is a great opportunity for me to meet and discuss my research with the economics community in Europe,” says Buchholz. “It also offers a unique chance to get to know my tour mates, who come from different schools around the U.S. and different fields of economics.”

Beneath the Devil’s Graveyard Formation in West Texas, researchers uncovered a fossil of an extinct worm-like reptile and dubbed it “Lone Star” for both its rarity and origin. Its discovery is evidence that Texas was once a subtropical refuge during a great cooling period.

Anthropology professor Chris Kirk and Jackson School of Geosciences alumna Michelle Stocker described their discovery in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology as a newly discovered species of worm lizard, officially naming it Solastella cookei — Solastella being a Latinized form of “lone star” and cookei for William Cook, a botanist who owned the property where the fossil was found. Worm lizard is the lay term for amphisbaenians, a group of long-bodied reptiles with reduced or absent limbs.

The fossil dates back 40 million years to the Late Middle Eocene and bridges a

gap between extinct species found in the western interior of the U.S. and a worm lizard that exists today in Florida. Lone Star was one of many reptile fossils found during the dig, supporting the theory that Texas was a subtropical refuge for species such as coldblooded reptiles that struggled to survive the cooling climate.

This idea is further supported by the presence of a variety of primate fossils in the same area, says Kirk, who has conducted paleontological fieldwork in the Devil’s Graveyard Formation since 2005.

“Primates are generally tropically adapted mammals that prefer warm climates,” Kirk says. “The diverse primate community from the Devil’s Graveyard Formation is another indicator that the Big Bend region of Texas was warm, equable and forested during the Late Middle Eocene.”

Photo: Chris Kirk

Photo: Big Stock

Anthropology

Michelle Stocker and her research team digging at the Dalquest Desert Research Station in Terlingua, Texas.

Life & Letters Spring 2016

9

Illustration: Sol Eytinge

Be Kind to Animals

American Studies

By Michelle Bryant Since Janet Davis’ early childhood in Honolulu, Hawaii, she says she remembers a life surrounded by animals: chickens running around the yard, horse rides, caring for her pet dogs and cats.

“It was a world saturated with animals, the formation of my moral consciousness, if you will,” says Davis, associate professor of American studies at The University of Texas at Austin.

Davis says her latest book, The Gospel of Kindness: Animal Welfare and the Making of Modern America (Oxford University Press, April 2016) — which marks the 150th anniversary of the nation’s first animal protection society, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) — cumulated from her personal interest and unanswered questions from her previous research.

“I wondered about these animal protection soci-

eties,” Davis says. “What were they about? How did they come to be? What kind of social problems gave rise to organized animal advocacy?”

The Power of Photography One catalyst for the animal advocacy movement came in the immediate years after the Civil War — a war fought with horsepower.

“The Civil War was a reckoning of giant proportions of rethinking, fighting and shedding blood over the questions of slavery, citizenship and rights,” Davis says. “Additionally, photography was documenting battlefield carnage more extensively than ever before.”

Mathew Brady and his corps of photographers took upward of a million images scattered around the

The crowded car [Henry Bergh stopping an overcrowded horsecar], from Harper’s Weekly, Sept. 21, 1872.

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Knowledge Matters battlefields — photographing dead soldiers and dead horses side by side.

On Sept. 19, 1862, a couple of days after the Battle of Antietam — the bloodiest day of battle in American history, with almost 23,000 people killed, injured or missing — Brady and his team photographed the dead.

In October, his studio in New York City hosted the exhibition, The Dead of Antietam.

“You see these haunting photographs of horses that had died, people that had died, and you see what Drew Gilpin Faust, historian and president of Harvard University, calls ‘this republic of suffering,’ in immediate, painful detail,” Davis says. “Suffering was endemic in this deeply divided country at war.

“Questions about rights and citizenship were not being applied directly to animals, mind you,” she adds. “No one was thinking about animals as citizens, but they were thinking about animals as suffering fellow creatures.”

The Enforcer Cover of Our Dumb Animals, December 1886; MSPCA-Angell Collection.

During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln appointed shipping heir Henry Bergh to serve as secretary of the legation in St. Petersburg, Russia.

In 1862, Bergh and his wife, Matilda, traveled to St. Petersburg.

“While he was in Russia, he was appalled when drivers would beat their horses,” Davis says. “He tried to intervene and they laughed at him. They would say, ‘Who do you think you are?’

“One day he’s wearing his full legation dress — he has his ribbons and his medals —the formal dress of a diplomat,” she says. “He stands over 6 feet tall, so he’s a spectacular sight to see. He comes striding out in his colorful dress and silks, and he tells a driver

“We speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.” ASPCA motto to stop beating his horse and the driver immediately complies because he now sees Bergh as an authority figure, and Bergh realizes, ‘Perhaps I can use my lace to good measure.’”

When Bergh returned to New York, he enlisted the help of some powerful allies such as Ezra Cornell, a legislator and founder of Cornell University; and ironically John Jacob Astor, the fur magnate.

The New York Legislature incorporated the first animal protection society on April 10, 1866. The next day, an ASPCA officer arrested a driver for stacking bawling calves in a wagon bound for market. Days later, Bergh and his allies spearheaded a new state anti-cruelty law, which was amended in 1867 to prohibit additional forms of cruelty, including blood sports and abandonment.

“Older legislation treated animals purely as

property. New laws still considered animals to be property, but they also recognized an animal’s right to protection and to exist without undo suffering,” Davis says. “This marks a real departure.”

There was a previous animal protection law on the books in New York dating back to 1829, but the big difference was that the ASPCA was vested with the power of enforcement.

“Members of this society could actually arrest people for beating a horse or hurting a dog in public or any number of acts of physical abuse or neglect,” Davis says. “So this is a huge change.”

One historical curiosity Davis came across in her research was the interconnection of the formalized animal and child protection movements. In fact, the animal welfare movement actually came first.

In 1874, a woman seeking help for an abused child in a New York City tenement was frustrated by the reluctance of local law enforcement officers to intervene, so she reached out to Bergh and his chief legal council Elbridge Gerry, who secured an arrest warrant that resulted in a felonious assault conviction.

In 1875, Gerry founded the first Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in New York.

“These activists believed that the least among us, whether human beings or animals, deserve legal protection.” Davis says. “So in new dual humane societies, activists expand their reach to protect the most vulnerable including the aged, children, mothers, the poor and, of course, animals.”

The Educator Unlike Henry Bergh, who was born into great wealth, George Angell, the founder of the Massachusetts SPCA, was not. Angell’s father, a Baptist minister, died when Angell was a small child, and his mother was forced to return to teaching and had to put her son in the care of relatives.

“They wrote to each other all the time,” Davis says.

“I’ve read their letters, and she was constantly worried about young George’s moral development. ‘Have you gone to the revivals? I’m worried about you. The snares of youth are very tempting, and I fear your soul will spiral into damnation.’ He’s eight years old.

“She’d write long motherly letters full of anxiety about the precarious state of his soul and then in the next line: ‘I have sent you the socks,’” Davis adds. “It’s this fascinating mix of moral reckoning and ordinary matters.”

As an adult, Angell read a shocking newspaper story about a horse race from Worcester to Brighton, Massachusetts, in which the horses were raced at top speed for 40 miles. They collapsed and died.

“It was a terrible event, an abusive spectacle,” Davis says. “Angell took decisive action immediately.

In 1868, he creates the Massachusetts SPCA, and he propels the movement in new directions.”

Davis says Bergh would stop drivers in the street and say: “Stop. You may go no farther until you lighten that load.” Crowds would gather and sometimes fights would break out. Angell learned from

Life & Letters Spring 2016

Give Me Shelter Caroline Earle White, the co-founder of the Pennsylvania SPCA and its women’s branch, brought together different strands of the animal advocacy movement by providing more humane forms of capture, shelter and adoption.

“She had cared about animal protection since childhood, but as a woman she worried about the proper course of action,” Davis says. “For Bergh, stopping horses physically with his body was a perfectly appropriate standard of conduct for a man in public in the 1860s, but it certainly was not proper behavior for a respectable lady.”

Every summer, cities across America would conduct massive dog roundups because people thought rabies proliferated in hot weather. Dogs were thrown into wagons, sometimes shot on site or placed in big riverside iron maidens and drowned.

“Gilded Age newspapers frequently chronicled the brutality of the local pound, dog catchers and cases of people — usually poor, immigrant born or people of color — trying to shield their dogs,” Davis says. “In one case, for example, a dog catcher fatally shot a little boy outside in Harlem who refused to give up his pet.”

In response to these social injustices, White and her female colleagues leased the Philadelphia pound and hired their own people. They instituted a year-round schedule for catching strays instead of just focusing on the summer months, and they implemented humane methods of capture.

The pound was renamed a shelter. Food and water were provided for the animals, as well as play areas. Fines were made more affordable. Over time, they emphasized adoption rather than euthanasia.

“It was spearheaded by women working inside the domestic space of the shelter, so again these ideas about proper womanhood were validated, rather than challenged,” Davis says. “They also did not seek the power of prosecution in their state charters. They sought power to create these shelters.

“So this is another strand of the movement that expands nationally. It’s led by women and it endures,” she adds. “It becomes a defining feature of modern animal advocacy.”

The Gospel of Kindness Animal Welfare & the Making of Modern America

Happy Tails On July 23, 2006, a week before Davis kicked off her research travel for the Gospel of Kindness, she got to experience the animal advocacy movement a little closer to home.

She was riding her bike home when two stray dogs approached her.

“They looked at me and started wagging and followed me all the way home. My husband said: ‘no, no, no, and my kids said yes, yes, yes,’” Davis laughs.

After trying to locate the dogs’ owners to no avail, Davis and her family decided to adopt the two dogs, but she still had to travel to the Massachusetts SPCA archives in Boston. Back at home her husband cared for the two dogs not yet housebroken.

“For a solid week, I pored through the archive.

When I left each evening, I’d talk on the phone to my husband while riding a trolley to Cambridge where I was staying. My husband would unleash a volley of complaints about the unruly dogs,” Davis quips.

“Meanwhile, at the MSPCA, the person I worked with who was also in charge of adoptions was saying ‘Bless you. Great job!’

“My dogs are still thriving, and they’ve been with me as I’ve researched and written this book. They’re my buddies: Duke and Lincoln,” Davis adds. “The fact that I would turn first to our local animal shelter upon finding these stray dogs is a testament to the enduring impact of a social movement that began 150 years ago to protect our fellow creatures.”

Oxford University Press, April 2016

By Janet M. Davis, associate professor, Department of American Studies

Humane Education exhibit in Atlanta, Georgia, 1925.

Photograph published in Our Dumb Animals; MSPCA-Angell Collection.

Photo courtesy of MSPCA-Angell Collection

these scenes of urban conflict.

“These public confrontations generated controversy. Critics charged that the ASPCA was picking on poor people whose livelihood was dependent on animal muscle,” Davis says. “As a result, Angell and Bergh, too, eventually realized that education instead of prosecution was a more productive path.”

Angell immediately printed 200,000 gratis copies of the publication Our Dumb Animals. The title reflected an earlier usage of the word “dumb,” as in not being able to speak. The motto for the organization was “We speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.”

Angell had 30,000 copies handed out within Boston, enlisting the help of police officers with distribution. The remainder were mailed to missionary organizations, temperance societies and reformers whose work he respected in other countries and with whom he hoped to create alliances.

“What that did right from the start was to establish a good working relationship with local police,” Davis says. “Then he sent copies to people around the world. People he deemed to be important.

“He was thinking globally about his movement from the beginning,” she adds. “He believed in an ethic of kindness to reimagine who we are as a people.”

In 1889, Angell created the American Humane Education Society, an organization dedicated to the belief that education programs instead of prosecution would foster permanent generational change.

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Knowledge Matters

Books

A History of American Civil War Literature Cambridge University Press, Dec. 2015 Edited by Coleman Hutchison, associate professor, Department of English The first omnibus history of the literature of the American Civil War, A History of American Civil War Literature examines the way in which the war has been remembered and rewritten over time in prose, poems and other narratives.

Debating Early Child Care The Relationship between Developmental Science and the Media Cambridge University Press, March 2016

By Robert Crosnoe, chair and professor, Department of Sociology; and Tama Leventhal Each side in today’s child care debate claims to have the best interests of children at heart. Developmental scientists have concrete evidence to inform this debate, but their message often gets lost or muddied in the media. This book explores media coverage of child care research, what happens to science in the public sphere, and how children’s issues can be used to question parental choices.

Afro-Paradise Blackness, Violence and Performance in Brazil University of Illinois Press, Jan. 2016

By Christen A. Smith, assistant professor, Departments of Anthropology and African & African Diaspora Studies Tourists exult in Bahia, Brazil, as a tropical paradise infused with the black population’s one-of-a-kind vitality. But the alluring images of smiling black faces and dancing black bodies masks an ugly reality of anti-black authoritarian violence.

Afro-Paradise explores the dialectic of glorified representations of black bodies and subsequent state repression in Brazil.

The Oxford Handbook of Hobbes Oxford University Press, April 2016 Edited by A. P. Martinich, professor, Departments of Philosophy, Government and History; and Kinch Hoekstra Twenty-six original articles cover English philosopher Thomas Hobbes’ philosophy of logic and language; his view of physics and scientific method; his ethics, political philosophy and philosophy of law; and his views of religion, history and literature.

Several of the articles overlap in ways that help the reader understand Hobbes from a variety of perspectives.

How Armies Respond to Revolutions and Why

The Cambridge Companion to Latina/o American Literature

Princeton University Press, Feb. 2016

By Zoltan Barany, professor, Department of Government

Cambridge University Press, March 2016 Edited by John Morán González, associate professor, Department of English

This new book argues that it is possible to make a highly educated guess — and even a confident prediction — about an army’s response to a domestic revolt if we know enough about the army, the state it serves, the society in which it exists, and external factors that affect its actions. Case studies in Iran, China, Eastern Europe, Burma and the Arab world reveal the logic behind choices made by soldiers.

This book takes an innovative approach to understanding Latina/o literature not simply as an ethnic phenomenon in the United States, but more broadly as a crucial element of a trans-American literary imagination. Leading scholars present critical analyses of key texts, authors, themes and contexts from the early 19th century to the present.

Read more about books at ShelfLife@Texas, UT Austin’s book blog

Life & Letters Spring 2016

The Human Rights State Justice Within and Beyond Sovereign Nations

Le livre des écorchés Proust, Céline et la Grande Guerre

University of Pennsylvania Press, April 2016

By Benjamin Gregg, associate professor, Department of Government

CNRS Éditions, April 2016

By Hervé G. Picherit, assistant professor, Department of French & Italian

Proposing a metaphorical human rights state that operates within or alongside a nation state, Gregg describes activist networks that encourage local political and legal systems to enforce human rights. Geographic boundaries and national sovereignties would remain intact but diminished to the extent necessary to extend human rights to all persons, without reservation, across national borders.

Picherit offers a parallel reading of the works of Marcel Proust and Louis-Ferdinand Céline as an epic, composite account of the Great War’s catastrophic nature. It is in answer to this social catastrophe that Proust and Céline each reimagined fundamental notions such as the self, the world, fiction and the sacred and proposed to their readers the basis for a new “way of being in the world.”

The Future of Crime and Punishment Smart Policies for Reducing Crime and Saving Money

The Politics of Dependency U.S. Reliance on Mexican Oil and Farm Labor

Rowman & Littlefield, July 2016

By William R. Kelly, professor, Department of Sociology This book explores why American criminal justice policy has been a failure, but more importantly where we need to go to effectively reduce recidivism and save money.

Criminal offenses commonly involve mental illness, substance abuse, neurodevelopmental impairments and intellectual deficiencies. Kelly discusses a variety of procedural, organizational, statutory, fiscal and cultural changes necessary to implement meaningful criminal justice reform.

University of Texas Press, June 2016

By Martha Menchaca, professor, Department of Anthropology The United States and Mexico trade many commodities, the most important being indispensable sources of cheap, reliable energy — crude oil and agricultural labor.

Mexico’s economic dependence on the U.S. is well known, but The Politics of Dependency makes a compelling case that the U.S. is also economically dependent on Mexico.

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The Birth of Theater from the Spirit of Philosophy Nietzsche and the Modern Drama Northwestern University Press, May 2016

By David Kornhaber, assistant professor, Department of English Friedrich Nietzsche’s love of the theater was among the most profound and prolonged intellectual engagements of his life, yet his transformational role in the history of the modern stage has yet to be explored. This account demonstrates how Nietzsche reimagined the theatrical event as a site of philosophical invention that was at once ancestor, antagonist and handmaiden to philosophy itself, laying the groundwork for a bold new direction in modern theater.

Brand Islam The Marketing and Commodification of Piety University of Texas Press, Aug. 2016

By Faegheh Shirazi, professor, Department of Middle Eastern Studies From food products to fashions and cosmetics to toys, a wide variety of commodities today are marketed as “halal” (permitted, lawful) or “Islamic” to Muslim consumers both in the West and in Muslim-majority nations.

However, many of these products are not necessarily created to honor religious practice or sentiment and instead are profit-driven, exploiting the rise of a new Islamic economic paradigm, “Brand Islam,” as a clever marketing tool.

14

Knowledge Matters

Campus Life 1 Warfield Center Opens its New Gallery John L. Warfield Center for African & African American Studies The Warfield Center celebrated the opening of its new gallery Feb. 11 with an exhibit

by African American polymedia artist Eto Otitigbe, Patience on a Monument. The exhibit was curated by Myron M. Beasley and used sculpture, performance and installation to raise questions about issues of race, technology, politics and human interaction.

The new gallery, located in the Jester Building, was created to study the art and material culture of the African diaspora.

2 International Women’s Day and Feminism in Contemporary Mexico Mexican anthropologist and feminist Marcela Lagarde y de los Ríos emphasized ensuring a life free of violence for women during her March 8 keynote speech at the Glickman Conference Center. At the event, UT Austin and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (National Autonomous University of Mexico) signed a letter of intent to create an international collaborative program to study gender violence, named for Lagarde.

Photo: Thomas McConnell Photography

LLILAS Benson, Center for Women’s & Gender Studies

3 Naomi Klein: This Changes Everything

Photo: Daniel Cavazos

Author and activist Naomi Klein lectured Nov. 11 at the Lady Bird Johnson Auditorium as the eighth C.L. & Henriette Cline Visiting Professor in the Humanities. Nearly 1,000 attended Klein’s public talk about her latest book, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, where she discussed how economic policies contribute to environmental disasters and how people are working to challenge such policies. During her professorship she also met with students for a Q&A session and led a Faculty Fellows seminar.

Photo: Emily Nielsen

Humanities Institute, English

Life & Letters Spring 2016

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4 Run for the Water

Photo courtesy of Sean Theriault

Government Government professors Sean Theriault and Bethany Albertson moved their online American government class out of the virtual classroom by encouraging their students to sign up for the Run for the Water, highlighting personal fitness and a global cause. Each run participant’s registration fee provided clean water for one person in Burundi, Africa. More than half of the 1,200 students enrolled in the course participated in the Nov. 1 event, either by running or by serving as event volunteers.

5 Leadership is a Contact Sport: Management Lessons from the NFL McCombs School of Business, College of Liberal Arts, Plan II Honors

Photo: Graham Kunze

On Feb. 26, the Texas Enterprise Speaker Series hosted Plan II alumnus Daron K. Roberts for a discussion on leadership and management strategies that he learned from his time coaching in the NFL. Roberts is the founding director of UT Austin’s Center for Sports Leadership & Innovation, the first university-based institute dedicated to developing leadership and character curricula for high school and collegiate athletes.

6 NEA and NEH Mark 50th Anniversary

Photo: Jay Godwin

College of Liberal Arts On Dec. 7, Jane Chu and William Adams visited the LBJ Library to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Lyndon Johnson’s creation of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). From left, Mark Updegrove, LBJ Library director; Doug Dempster, dean of the College of Fine Arts; Gary Gibbs, Texas Commission on the Arts executive director; Jane Chu, NEA chairman; Gregory L. Fenves, UT Austin president; William Adams, NEH chairman; Randy Diehl, dean of the College of Liberal Arts; and Michael Gillette, executive director of Humanities Texas. Adams also addressed a noon luncheon sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts.

16

THE

CAMPAIGN VOTE FOR YOUR

Just Add Brand Power!

After months of being bombarded by pollsters, campaign ads and the most outlandish sound bites on repeat, the moment will come for you to finally cast your ballot.

Whom will you choose?

By Rachel Griess • Photography by Sarah Lim

Life & Letters Spring 2016

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Makeup & Hair: Ava Martin Riggins • Model: Rachael Chaney

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The Campaign for Your Vote

he presidency is the one office that represents the American people: all their wishes, dreams, desires, hopes, fears and everything else,” says history professor H.W. Brands. “The president is supposed to stand for everything that America wants in the world, everything that Americans hope to have.”

But in a country of 324 million people, Americans’ wants and dreams are subjective. “We often speak of the ‘American People.’

There is no ‘American People.’ There are lots of different people with lots of different ideas,” Brands says.

So, oftentimes voters are told what they should want and need through careful campaign messaging that is structured to fabricate needs, heighten anxieties and trigger unsolicited desires for certain policies — all to convince voters that only one candidate can be trusted with the job.

the growing distrust for parties as a result of polarization, which has roots in a realignment that took place in the 1960s. Prior to that, both parties were what Brands describes as philosophical coalitions consisting of liberal and conservative Democrats and liberal and conservative Republicans.

The change came when President Lyndon Johnson embraced the cause of the civil rights movement, alienating many southern conservative Democrats, who believed that the federal government overstepped its boundaries on an issue that should be handled by the state.

“In terms of polarization in politics, it is more extreme now than it was for most of American history,” Brands says. “Nowadays it’s impossible to get the kind of bipartisanship that was possible in the 1960s, even as late as the 1980s.”

Since then, Republicans have become the more conservative party on economic, social and racial issues, and the Democrats more liberal.

It’s a double-edged sword, Shaw explains. On one hand, there is gridlock. But on the other, the parties offer clear alternatives for different issues and are more ideologically consistent and coherent than they were in the 1960s.

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT “Presidents are like soap, toothpaste or any other product,” says government professor Daron Shaw, referencing The Selling of the President, written by Joe McGinniss about the 1968 campaign.

“You’re constructing an image, you’re selling an image and you’re contrasting that image with the competition.”

In the metaphor, presidential candidates are the products of political parties, sold to voters with a promise of addressing and fixing the most pressing problems that face the country and the world today — be it foreign, domestic or economic.

But behind every candidate’s proposed solution hides a partisan agenda rhetorically disguised to sway nonpartisan voters to choose a candidate rather than a party.

“Parties are brands, and the brands are really damaged,” Shaw says.

According to the Pew Research Center, nearly 40 percent of voters are unaffiliated with a major political party. Some see

THE COMPETITION Although the parties have become more ideologically aligned, the public has not.

“Public opinion tends to be fairly centrist, with pockets of extremists on both sides of the issue,” Shaw says. “They side one way or the other, but they aren’t intense in their opinions, and that hasn’t changed much since the 1970s.”

But although the public remains more “reasonable,” the elites and candidates running for office take more consistent and extreme positions, Brands says.

“There’s something about politics that brings out the unreasonableness in people,” Brands says. With the loss of competitive districts that promote competition within each party during

Most Important Problem Facing the Country Today 15

14%

Percentage

11% 10

10%

9%

8% 6%

5

1,200 registered Texas voters were asked, “What would you say is the most important problem facing this country today?” This figure includes the six problems the public deemed most important, with a margin of error +/- 2.83 percentage points.

From the February 2016 University of Texas/ Texas Tribune Poll.

0 The economy

National security/ terrorism

Federal spending/ national debt

Political corruption/ leadership

Immigration

Income inequality

Life & Letters Spring 2016 primaries, partisan cohorts are pushed to their “zealous” extremes.

“Redistricting has had a terrible effect of insulating and isolating our elected officials,” says Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, a lecturer of Mexican American and Latina/o studies.

“You end up with politicians that are so Republican or so Democrat because of their districts, with no incentive to work together.”

As a result, the “centrist,” “reasonable” public is forced during the general election Daron Shaw to choose between two ideologically distinct candidates, making it less likely for partisans to favor a candidate of a different party and forcing unaffiliated voters to choose a side.

“Polarization at the mass level is largely about attitudes toward the political parties that put these candidates up,” Shaw says. “What you see is Republicans think worse of Democrats, and Democrats think worse of Republicans than they did in the 1970s.

And there’s less defection in the elections.”

In turn, candidates have to work against the negative stigma surrounding their party by promising the moon to their voters and shifting the negative focus to the other side of the aisle.

“I’ve long thought that Americans would start being less disillusioned by their presidents when they start to insist on being spoken to as adults by candidates,” Brands says, but voters don’t want to hear from realistic candidates.

“Candidates who take a more realistic view get either shouted at or voted down in the primaries, because primaries in some ways are just a way for people to register their emotions rather than to make any kind of substantive decision,” he says.

Shaw agrees: Campaigns have always been and continue to be negative and trivial.

“The means by which these brands are established and sold has become kind of nasty, and the process has become somewhat uglier than it used to be,” Shaw says. “But you have to keep people interested and involved. That’s the price you pay for popular democracy.”

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“Presidents are like soap, toothpaste or any other product.

You’re constructing an image, you’re selling an image and you’re contrasting that image with the competition.”

TARGET AUDIENCE Much like a marketing campaign, a successful political campaign consists of a plan to win, Shaw says. It identifies whom a candidate will speak to and what he or she will say.

“Candidates need to identify which people will help them achieve their minimum winning coalition,” he says. “In the general election, identifying constituencies is critical to deciding whether

Republicans or Democrats win.”

Setting strong partisans aside, both parties will turn their efforts to the more moderate and unaffiliated voters, with a special focus on Latinos and middle-class whites, Shaw explains.

“After 2012, the conversation was that the Democrats were the party of the future because all of their voters were a growing portion of the electorate, while Republicans were becoming less prominent,” Shaw says.

The U.S. census indicates that the Latino population has grown to become the nation’s largest ethnic minority, with an increase of 1.15 million Latinos added to the nation’s population between July 2013 and July 2014 alone. The non-Latino white population has shrunk, and the black population has remained steady.

“But, demographics are not destiny,” DeFrancesco Soto says, noting that the Latino population is disproportionately young. The average age of a non-Latino, white person is 48; the average age of a Latino is 27; and the average age of a U.S.-born Latino is 18.

“The good news is the electorate has been growing,” she says.

“The bad news is we’re probably not going to see a lot of impact in this election because young people don’t vote — black, white or brown: young people don’t vote.”

In another report from the Pew Research Center, a record number of Latinos —27.3 million — are eligible to vote in the 2016 election; however, 44 percent of those voters are millennials.

Although many people assumed young voters to be Democratic after the Obama elections, Shaw says they are more distinguished by their disaffection with politics, and he thinks

20

The Campaign for Your Vote

there are other constituents that campaigns should focus on.

For Democrats, it is middle- and lower-middle-class white voters who are socially conservative but support liberal government-spending programs. For Republicans, it is suburban voters such as those in the collar counties surrounding Philadelphia and Detroit.

“There’s a growing obsession with ‘waitress moms’ and ‘NASCAR dads,’ and ‘soccer moms’ and ‘office park dads,’” Shaw says, laughing it off as a “marketing fight” between campaign consultants. Nonetheless, he says micro-targeting voters in such ways will result in more support from the middle class as a whole.

And Latinos are no different, DeFrancesco Soto explains. Too often these voters are cast as a monolithic group when in fact nearly half of Latinos are unaffiliated with either party.

“We cannot lose sight of the diversity of Latinos — not just ethnically, but in terms of their ideology,” DeFrancesco Soto says.

“At the same time, there are unifying, cultural ties within the Latino community. So, we have to embrace the diversity while recognizing commonalities by harnessing the power of micro targeting.”

MANAGING MEDIA To home in on subgroups of unswayed voters, candidates turn to the media to get their names and messages out through broadcast, print, online and social media.

“Media has always been important in politics, especially in influencing the middle,” DeFrancesco Soto says. “Media is very powerful with the fence sitters.”

This is where campaigns get expensive, Shaw says. Though there is a rise in cheaper online campaigning tactics, television advertising continues to dominate the budget.

“There’s a bit of a food fight between online and television advertising,” Shaw says. “Television folks will tell you that no matter what online presence you have, television is the main means by which you carry messages to voters; and the online folks will tell you that they can target messages more effectively and at a much cheaper cost.”

Brands says this election is seeing the rise of “the mediadriven candidate,” those who are taking advantage of free publicity and the cheapest promotional tactics, such as using social media.

This brings about the idea that someone could “tweet his way to the White House,” Shaw says. Though social media is powerful and pervasive, Shaw says he would advise candidates to reinforce their brands through wholesale politics, such as TV ads, and retail politics — going person to person to get the vote out. However, Shaw warns that the rogue operations and biased content may throw a wrench in the micro-targeting machine, creating more clutter for candidates to cut through to get to their constituents.

“This proliferation of media goes both ways. It’s good because you have all these outlets, but it’s bad because there’s so much clutter,” DeFrancesco Soto says.

With all the competing outlets, media opt for telling stories that sell the most papers rather than the stories that create the most informed public. The media’s stake is not to elect the best president; it’s to sell ads, Brands says.

“The partisan media is more striking than it was 50 years ago, but it’s like it was 200 years ago,” he says, pointing out that 19th century newspapers were attached to political parties. “It is different than it was in the 1960s when there were fewer papers and only three TV news networks operating under the Fairness Doctrine.”

But much like the 19th century, people subscribe to publications and seek stories that underline their ideas surrounding

“Emotions matter in politics — enthusiastic supporters return politicians to office, angry citizens march in the streets, a fearful public demands protection from the government.”

Bethany Albertson, author of Anxious Politics

certain issues. And according to assistant professor of government Bethany Albertson, people gravitate toward news that reinforces emotions such as anxiety.

“We have a highly emotive media environment,” she says. “I don’t want to blame the media too much, but there are so many outlets and stories to choose from, that we need to recognize the way that anxiety biases the way we engage with that environment.”

CRAFTING THE MESSAGE “Emotions matter in politics — enthusiastic supporters return politicians to office, angry citizens march in the streets, a fearful public demands protection from the government,” reads the opening line of Albertson’s book Anxious Politics: Democratic Citizenship in a Threatening World, which she co-wrote with Shana Kushner Gadarian of Syracuse University.

In the book, Albertson and Gadarian examine how political anxieties affect public life in regard to the way people consume political news, whom they trust and what policies they support.

“The dominant idea was that anxiety is good for democracy because it causes people to learn,” Albertson says. “We were trying to reconcile that with what we knew about how politicians strategically use anxiety, which didn’t make us think that anxiety is always good for democracy.”

Life & Letters Spring 2016

Anxious Politics Democratic Citizenship in a Threatening World Cambridge University Press, Sept. 2015

By Bethany Albertson, assistant professor, Department of Government; and Shana Kushner Gadarian

Albertson argues that people resolve anxiety related to politics by seeking out threatening information and trusting policies and politicians that promote a sense of protection. She says that partisanship “colors” what voters might view as protective.

“Anxiety doesn’t cause people to trust indiscriminately. Rather, it’s targeted to those organizations or individuals who are useful, given the subject of their anxieties,” Albertson says.

In other words, each party “owns” different issues. Political parties differ in terms of how much they are trusted with certain political issues. Their book uses the example of immigration as an issue area where anxiety benefits the Republican Party.

“Democrats will always trust Democrats more, and Republicans will always trust Republicans more,” Albertson says. “But if you get a Democrat anxious about immigration, it will push them more toward trusting Republicans, which is a sign that they own the issue.”

She says Democrats are more trusted on issues such as health care and climate change.

“Candidates want to promote anxieties that they are well positioned to calm people about,” Albertson says. “Candidates should pick issues that advantage their party.”

The book describes two types of threats. Unframed threats, such as a terrorist attack, pose imminent concern about bodily harm and result in widespread vulnerability and trust for whomever is in charge. Framed threats, such as immigration, vary based on what political elites tell voters and whether that message resonates.

The topics stirring up the most anxiety this election cycle are immigration, foreign policy and economics, Albertson says.

Republicans appealing to more conservative voters might address frustrations surrounding rapid demographic changes.

Republicans courting the Latino vote may use moderate views on immigration to appeal to anxieties surrounding a pathway to citizenship, says DeFrancesco Soto, emphasizing that the tone on immigration is a gateway to gaining support among Latino groups.

“For Latinos, the top issue is the economy,” she says. “But the tone of immigration is kind of a slippery concept for Latinos. If they don’t like a candidate’s tone, they aren’t going to support the rest of what he or she has to say.”

Democrats might frame messages on economic inequality to address anxieties of economic hardship, pointing out how the system is rigged or stacked against a certain group and offering policies to protect voters from it, Albertson says.

“There’s a lot of anxiety on both sides of the election so far. It seems like we don’t have a politician out there with a positive message,” she says.

And she might be right.

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THE PITCH “It’s easy to control what we talk about, but not how we talk about it,” says psychology professor James Pennebaker.

He and psychology graduate student Kayla Jordan analyzed candidates’ language throughout the 2015 and 2016 debates using a program called Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), which measures about 80 psychological dimensions.

According to their analysis, candidates’ use of risk-oriented words is greater in the context of foreign policy and immigration, using words such as avoid, defense, danger and disadvantage.

Using words in this way raises the issue of fear mongering in politics.

Because it is hard to judge when candidates are being cynical and when the threat is real, fear mongering can be an appealing and effective tactic, says government professor Bruce Buchanan.

“You wouldn’t hear that sort of an alarmism coming out of a president,” he says. “You may hear alarmism from a candidate because a candidate is not responsible for anything unless he or she is elected. But fear mongering can stimulate support.”

When it comes to appealing to the public as a whole, however, Buchanan suggests that rather than selling fear, candidates should walk the walk and talk the talk of a U.S. president.

“You’re auditioning for the presidency, which is an office that is responsible to all the people,” he says. “You have positions that you are advocating for, but you also want to speak as if you are aware that you are seeking to become president of all the people.”

By plugging in past presidential inaugural speeches into LIWC, Pennebaker and Jordan determined how presidential language should sound.

“Presidents tend to use more articles, prepositions, positive emotion and big words,” Pennebaker and Jordan wrote in their blog, Wordwatchers (wordwatchers.wordpress.com).

These candidates may be judged by voters to be better suited for the office than candidates who sound less presidential, they add.

Buchanan, who conducts in-depth research on presidential approval ratings, agrees that no matter what policies a candidate may be pushing, the key is likeability.

“The currency of the presidency is popularity,” he says. “The American people judge them in the here and now based on what they’re doing, whether they like their smile, traits and acts, as well as some sort of short-term kind of result.”

Plenty of literature supports the idea that people support charismatic leaders, those who are friendly and powerful, Pennebaker says. But another argument suggests that it depends on the context. Pennebaker adds that if voters feel threatened, they may flock toward someone who is more task-oriented and focused rather than a “buddy.”

“Every state has a different agenda and a different personality or profile, so to speak,” Buchanan says. “It’s tricky because you can’t appear as blatant as a chameleon, changing your identity just to please some current audience.”

Come Nov. 8, a person’s vote will go to the candidate who looks and sounds most like a president, despite the fact that he or she has never been one, Buchanan says.

“America will choose a person well prepared in policy, who projects self-confidence, gravitas and dignity, which most people think are required for the presidency,” he says. “The candidate whose proposals seem to be logical solutions to the problems that Americans are worried about: domestic, economic and foreign.”

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What’s So Funny About the Liberal Arts?

By David Ochsner • Illustrations by Caitlin Alexander

We’ve all heard the jokes about liberal arts majors, inspired by stereotypes that students in the humanities, social sciences and languages are destined to lives of underemployment: The science major asks, “Why does it work?”

The engineering major asks, “How does it work?”

The business major asks, “How much will it cost?”

The liberal arts major asks, “Do you want fries with that?”

What the joke suggests is that choosing a non-liberal arts major is a practical choice that leads to a practical career. Not only is this implication untrue, it undermines the reason we established universities in the first place.

“Utilitarian arguments are easier to make because they are so prima facie — doing this will get you this,” says Jeremi Suri,

professor and Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs in the Department of History and the LBJ School.

“But higher education doesn’t really exist for those purposes. If all we cared about was material accomplishment, we wouldn’t have a democracy, because democracy is not purely about materialism; it’s about meaningfulness.”

A Search for Meaning Just ask Larry Temple (BBA 1957, LL.B 1959), who knows a thing or two about higher education. A respected Austin attorney who among other things has served as chairman of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and president of the Texas Exes and the LBJ Foundation (where he is currently chairman), the

Life & Letters Spring 2016

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What’s So Funny About the Liberal Arts?

unassuming Temple will tell you that he made a “terrible mistake” when he switched his major from the liberal arts to business administration.

He is not suggesting that business administration is a poor choice for a major, but looking back at his turn from the liberal arts made him realize that there was more to going to college than pursuing a career.

“I remember a great quote from (German statesman) Konrad Adenauer: ‘We all live under the same sky, but we don’t all have the same horizon.’ I always thought that what a great university can do and should do is change a person’s horizons — to expose students to the classics, to expose them to history, to expose them to all of the areas that are the foundation of learning and education,” says Temple. “That is what liberal arts has always done and still needs to do.

“I do think there’s learning for the sake of learning, for the fun of learning, for the general benefit of people,” says Temple, who served on the committee that defined UT Austin’s core values and purpose. “We talk about the university’s core values and core purpose — transforming lives for the benefit of society — you benefit society by the educational process. It’s not just to have specific training.”

Rather, it is in the liberal arts where a student finds what Suri calls meaningfulness, the ability to connect one’s activities — whether you are a businessperson, teacher, farmer, lawyer or politician — to higher principles, higher ethics and higher virtues. It is what makes the American system of higher education unique because its purpose is much more about making citizens and leaders than making workers.

“We’re different because we believe you need something more … to be a great citizen and leader, to be in touch with this deeper discussion about justice and equality and liberty — key words in our history — that’s what an educated person is,” says Suri. “That is why Sam Houston and (Mirabeau) Lamar wanted to have a great

The Seven Liberal Arts, Francesco Pesellino and Workshop, c. 1450.

The sciences and humanities got along just fine in the Middle Ages, when the liberal arts were considered central to a university education. Rooted in the classical tradition, the seven liberal arts in the 15th century consisted of the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) and the quadrivium (geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and music).

university in Texas. It was not because they simply wanted people to know more of what they already knew; it was that they wanted to expose them to different things.”

Nurturing Leaders Suri says that when Texas settlers sought to establish a “university of the first class,” they wanted people of Sam Houston’s caliber who would be able to go toe to toe with their northeastern rivals on any issue.

“We send people to universities — and we always have — to develop that breadth of vision and that integrative capability, to work with very different kinds of people,” he says. “You develop that by reading some of the best ideas that have ever been articulated, from Plato and Shakespeare forward, and coming into contact with and learning about ideas that are very different from your own.

“The way you go toe to toe with someone if you have a different point of view is to actually understand his or her point of view,” says Suri. “No matter what your politics are, your community needs people who are able to draw on the best of ideas and are comfortable interacting with people who have different ideas.

That’s the world we live in.”

Paul Woodruff has been thinking a lot about leadership these days. A Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Philosophy and former dean of the School of Undergraduate Studies, he is currently finishing a book that addresses what universities should do to justify the claim that their graduates are prepared to be leaders.

“I started out to write a book about leadership, not to defend the liberal arts or make an argument on behalf of them,” says Woodruff. “I found that all of what is really important is primarily found in the liberal arts — how to communicate, understanding

Life & Letters Spring 2016 the human situation, history, literature, social science. Business schools use social science, but social science really belongs to us, organizational psychology belongs to us, and sociology belongs to us.”

He says the humanities, rooted in ancient times, are even more important than the social sciences for giving future leaders the knowledge and understanding they are going to need in a complex and rapidly changing world.

“My book begins with this sentence: ‘Alexander the Great had Aristotle.’ You can go from there … whom do you have?”

Bridging a Divide Underlying the jokes about liberal arts majors is the notion that students face a distinct choice between a STEM field (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and a liberal arts education. Some even view them in conflict, particularly when money and resources are at stake.

Increased specialization in the professions, particularly during the second half of the 20th century, has partly contributed to this rift. After the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957, it was scientists we wanted, not poets.

However, few considered that scientists might actually need poets and vice versa.

“Science is part of the humanities. Scientists traditionally were humanists,” says Woodruff, who believes it was a mistake when some universities, including UT Austin, divided their arts and sciences colleges into liberal arts and natural sciences. “The silo effect is terrible for students and faculty … there are so many areas in which we need to be talking across colleges, and it’s really hard to do sometimes.”

Indeed, Suri maintains that it is the mixing of arts and sciences that fosters true innovation at American universities.

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“You are not a true innovator just because you’ve seen a problem in a new way and you found a market for it. That’s obviously important, but you are an innovator because you’ve brought together big ideas from different places,” he says. “That is the Steve Jobs story. It’s not that he created a new kind of computing, but he innovated in the way we think about it.”

Suri says the liberal arts prepare students to be lifelong learners who are able throughout their lives to adjust and to learn so that they can be innovative in their work as well as in the variety of jobs they are able to master. He adds that most people who have successful careers have five to six different kinds of jobs.

“This notion that you are going to get a higher education to prepare for a job and that we are going to measure your institution by the earning power of your graduates … is absolutely silly, even in the most utilitarian terms,” Suri says. “The most exciting and well-compensated jobs 10 years from now are jobs that don’t exist today. If we are training people when they come into the university for the job we see being there in four years, we’re training them to be behind.”

Nevertheless, with the rising costs of higher education there is tremendous pressure on students — whether self-imposed or from parents — driving them toward areas of study that they believe will land them lucrative jobs, especially if there are loans to pay off.

“There is a wonderful inclination among a lot of students that when they get to the university and realize there is a whole big world out there they have not seen before that they would like to explore and expand their minds,” says Temple. “But then they ask, ‘How am I going to pay for all of that?’”

He says if a state really wants an institution of the first class, it has to be a priority of government and business leaders alike to take the lead in talking about investment in higher education as a benefit of society, and to find a way for financial aid programs to lessen the burden on students who want to study in the liberal arts.

It would help if leaders looked at actual data instead of

26

What’s So Funny About the Liberal Arts?

relying on common stereotypes. For example, a recent study by the Association of American Colleges and Universities found that liberal arts majors, at peak earning ages, earn about $2,000 more than pre-professional and professional majors.

In the July 29, 2015, issue of Forbes, George Anders writes that the “useless” liberal arts degree is becoming tech’s hottest ticket.

He notes that of 3,426 LinkedIn members who graduated from Northwestern University and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, only 30 percent were in engineering, research or information technology. The other jobs, ranging from marketing to business development, “were held by people who majored in psychology, history, gender studies and the like, and they quickly surpass the totals for engineering and computer science.”

Anders adds: “Run the numbers on recent graduates of Boston University, The University of Texas at Austin or any of the University of California campuses, and the hiring pattern in Silicon Valley is seen to be broadly similar.”

Unfortunately, when it comes to state aid for public universities, the political rhetoric overwhelmingly suggests that states should invest in STEM rather than the liberal arts.

“There are people out there who want to convert our major universities into trade schools; that is the danger we’ve got to fight and avoid,” says Temple. “If they say a university education is about training to get a job, that really does convert it into a trade school as opposed to an educational enterprise.”

The danger of tying higher education to jobs and economic growth has been on his mind for some time. When the Board of Regents conferred the Santa Rita Award on Temple in 1989 following his work as chairman of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, he delivered a speech that is still widely circulated today. The following year the board established the Larry Temple Scholarship Endowment, awarding scholarships to

Photo: Jay Godwin

Larry Temple (center) speaks with Larry Temple Scholarship winners during a tour of the LBJ Library Oval Office replica on Jan. 19, 2016.

“The purpose of our educational enterprise is for both the advancement and the transmission to the next generation of human knowledge. That human investment is postponed only at our peril.” Larry Temple

students in the College of Liberal Arts.

“When I received the Santa Rita Award, I was trying to combat what I was hearing at the time that we needed to expand higher education everywhere so people could bring in new industries,” he says. “I was trying to say that in my view that was not the purpose of higher education at a great university.”

In his speech, he observed that education is integral to the entire economy of a nation and is essential to commerce and industry. It generates the organizations and the tools and technology to support civilization. But they are byproducts that come out of an intangible product — the expansion of human knowledge. He continued: ... I suggest that when we grapple with the public policy issues of education in Texas, we should never lose sight of the real reason we are doing it. We are doing it not just for the economic benefit of Texas. That’s an investment that all too easily could be postponed from one budget cycle to another. Rather, the purpose of our educational enterprise is for both the advancement and the transmission to the next generation of human knowledge. That human investment is postponed only at our peril.

For the Sake of Learning The liberal arts are not about getting everyone to agree on the solutions, but rather to recognize certain commonalities in the world that define who we are as human beings, says Suri. That’s where the interesting conversation occurs, but society too often jumps to solutions without first understanding the human realities.

An engineering major can answer the question, “How does it work?” But a liberal arts major puts the “it” — whether “it” is a computer, a fighter jet or a cloned embryo — into a human context. By the same token, liberal arts majors also need a basic understanding of the sciences. This is not a new idea. In medieval European universities, the seven liberal arts were grammar, rhetoric and logic (the trivium); and geometry, arithmetic, music and astronomy (the quadrivium).

“We are teaching people at the university to be thinkers and learners. To be a thinker or learner in our society means you have to read a lot and write well, and you have to understand many scientific principles, how computing and modern communications work,” says Suri. “You don’t have to be able to fix your car, but you better understand the political implications of where you build roads and where you don’t build roads. It’s in the thinking, learning, and learning how to learn that STEM and the liberal arts come together.”

That is why Larry Temple values today’s core curriculum, which wasn’t in place when he was an undergraduate: “The reason we have liberal arts for all students —whether they ultimately go into business administration or engineering or pharmacy — is that they get that undergirding of a broader education.”

It is an education that not only imparts knowledge and skills, but also leads one to new horizons and a richer, more meaningful life.

“That’s one of the reasons people in life, after they are out of college, go to museums to see art — it’s not to make money, it’s not a part of their job,” says Temple. “The reason people read for pleasure, visit museums or go to lectures is because they want the enjoyment of learning for the sake of learning. To stay informed for the purpose of staying informed. That is beneficial to us personally and as a society, and the genesis of that comes from the liberal arts part of a college education.”

And there’s nothing funny about that.

27

An Experiment Gone Right Celebrating 80 Years of Plan II What began as H.T. Parlin’s “experiment” to offer a new way to the bachelor’s degree has become one of the most distinguished honors programs in the country. To mark the occasion of its 80th anniversary this academic year, the program’s director, an alumna and a student share how Plan II has affected their lives and what it means to pursue a lifelong education.

Interviews by Emily Nielsen • Photography by Brian Birzer

28

An Experiment Gone Right

An Education for Life Michael Stoff was raised in Merrick, New York, and was the first in his family to graduate from college. He received a bachelor’s in history and American studies from Rutgers College, and a master’s of philosophy in history and doctorate of philosophy in history from Yale University. He has taught at UT Austin for 36 years and has served as the director of Plan II for a decade.

PREVIOUS PAGE: Michael Stoff and Plan II senior Thomas Boswell in the Plan II Honors Suite.

How does Plan II distinguish itself as an elite program?

We believe Plan II provides a “Renaissance education for the 21st century.” Our curriculum grounds students in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and mathematics. We stress lucid writing, thorough research and analytical thinking. Unlike many other honors programs, Plan II is a degree plan and a full-blown major. One of our students described it as the “Swiss Army knife” of education. His point was that Plan II had equipped him to do anything. We like to say, amending the words of our founder, Dean H.T. Parlin, that we provide an education for a life, not just a living.

Michael Stoff, director of Plan II and an associate professor of history, in his office located in the College of Liberal Arts Building.

What sets Plan II students apart?

That’s easy — endless intellectual curiosity. It’s what we look for in an applicant, and fortunately it’s what we get. We then help students to turn that curiosity into the hallmark of a Plan II education: a commitment to lifelong learning.

What’s the most rewarding thing about teaching?

I’d say the most rewarding thing has been helping students understand what it means to be a human being and how education can make them a better one. As a professor, I use the lens of history to show them where they come from so they can discover where they’re going.

What have been your biggest challenges?

I’d list our greatest challenge as recruiting gifted but economically disadvantaged students, particularly from small towns, as well as gifted students of color. They often have more than a few options for college with scholarships that drive down costs even below the bargain price offered at UT. A second challenge has been recruiting new faculty to teach in Plan II. We have no dedicated faculty lines and therefore must rely on the volunteerism of departments and colleges to staff our courses. As the demands on professors’ time increases, it becomes harder to find volunteers who can be released to teach in Plan II, no matter how much they may want to.

What about your biggest accomplishments?

Three come to mind: the two first-time-ever Plan II studyabroad courses, one in Rome and another in Costa Rica.

They’ve allowed Plan II to establish a global presence.

On the local front, I’d point to our eight-year partnership with the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) Schools of Austin. They are one of a national network of collegeprep charter schools for students from low-income families with no history of college education. We provide 15-20 mentors a year, all of whom take a service-learning course on education as part of the program.

Finally, we have just funded the first Plan II Professorship (the Elizabeth Gleeson Professorship in Plan II Physics) to address faculty recruitment. We have a commitment for a second professorship (the Stuart Stedman Professorship in Mathematics) and plans to seek endowments for three more, one each in biology, the humanities and the social sciences. Through them, we hope to secure the future of Plan II by funding our core requirements.

What are your hopes for the Plan II program in the future?

After a decade as director, I hope that Plan II retains the intellectual and academic nimbleness that has allowed it to remain at the very top of undergraduate honors programs for more than 80 years. I have no doubt that given the proper support Plan II will continue to thrive, blending the classical with the contemporary and attracting the best students in Texas and the country.

Plan II Timeline 1924

1935

1958

1969

H.T. Parlin “experiments” with Plan II idea and begins advising students.

First Plan II class; faculty includes Harry Ransom.

First office, Main Building 204.

Curriculum revised; thesis replaces final exam.

Life & Letters Spring 2016

29

Humanists Make Great Doctors Dr. Kimberly Monday is a Plan II alumna, the 1988 Texas Parents Association’s Outstanding Female Student and a Dean’s Distinguished Graduate from Huntsville, Texas.

She attended Baylor College of Medicine and completed her neurological residency there before taking a fellowship at Emory University. She is the owner of the Houston Neurological Institute and president of the Harris County Medical Society, and she serves on the Board of Managers for the Harris County safety net system, Harris Health.

What made you want to be a doctor?

I never remember not wanting to be a doctor. My father was a physician, so obviously this must have played a role. I forced myself to look at other career options during college, but I never found a career path that would allow me to combine my interest in the humanities, my interest in science, my desire to stay professionally stimulated on a daily basis and my desire to give back to people who really need you.

What drew you to the Plan II program?

I was attracted to the small classes, access to the best professors on campus and high-quality peers that stimulate you to be your best. I knew medical school and beyond would demand immersion in the sciences. The course catalog selections that included amazing seminars, access to art history classes and writing workshops sealed my selection of Plan II. What is your favorite memory at UT Austin?

Two memories come to mind. First, winning a hard-fought quest for an A- in organic chemistry. Secondly, my friendships with a group of women who were presidents of the councils of all the large colleges on campus, as well as the student body president in 1988. Our faculty mentor was Dean Sharon Justice. I felt supported, empowered and equal.

How has your background in liberal arts helped you as a physician?

The question is how has my liberal arts background not helped me as a physician. I can only think of one time, and that is first-semester microbiology in medical school.

Mastering the medical sciences is crucial to patient care, but when I walk in to a patient’s room, the power of observation, the ability to communicate with the patient, the ability to relate to a patient and his or her social background and the ability to assess expressions and body

1988

1989

First commencement ceremony.

Officially becomes the Plan II Honors Program.

language are crucial to my profession. Humanists make great doctors.

What has been your most difficult challenge as a doctor?

Establishing boundaries and shielding my family from the tragedy and pain that happens daily as a physician. Practically, the biggest challenge is negotiating a system of health care that is not designed by physicians and does not value the patient-physician relationship. I strongly believe that physicians should lead changes in our health care system, not the insurance payers, the hospitals or the government.

Dr. Kimberly Monday, Plan II ’88, at the Houston Neurological Institute’s Pasadena Texas, office.

What is your proudest accomplishment?

I feel happy that my 12-year-old twins Jack and Ellie don’t see race or color, and seem to believe that having two moms is not a big deal.

With respect to UT, I am grateful that the university has provided a phenomenal education to my family, from my grandparents to my parents to my generation and I hope to my children. My two sisters and I are all UT Friars, and that makes me proud.

What’s your hope for Plan II as it celebrates 80 years?

To continue as the highest-quality education with the best professors, best students and best classes grounded at the best public university in the country in the middle of the best city to live in the country. I also hope Plan II will collaborate and grow with the new Dell Medical School with respect to medical ethics and medical policy.

1991

Broccoli Project theater group founded; first cookie jar.

2003 Mariachi band at commencement begins.

30

An Experiment Gone Right How did you end up writing for The New York Times?

I was doing research for an upcoming student government debate. They were discussing the implementation of campus carry. Knowing almost nothing about guns and the handgun licensing system, I figured I could kill two birds with one stone. I took the required training course for a handgun license and then passed the test. Given that I felt like I had learned next to nothing and demonstrated a good deal of incompetency, I didn’t think the Texas standards were high enough — and I wanted to tell that story to the world.

I knew a professor of mine, Dr. Zachary Elkins (Plan II and government), had published on the Second Amendment in The New York Times back in 2012. After finding my story worth passing on, Dr. Elkins connected me with his editor. The editorial desk appreciated my perspective and published the article in the Sunday print edition and front page online.

No Stone Unturned Zachary Stone is a Plan II senior from Dallas, Texas. He has served as the chief justice of UT Austin’s Student Government, been published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and will be attending the UT Austin School of Law on a Massey Scholarship, the school’s top merit award.

Why Plan II? Plan II could offer a small-college liberal arts curriculum and community without sacrificing the resources, energy and flexibility of a major resource institution. I wanted a four-year undergraduate experience with a full academic course load, which has allowed me to study a bunch of things I find interesting.

Zachary Stone, a 2016 Dean’s Distinguished Graduate, in the Plan II Honors Program Suite.

What’s been your most rewarding UT experience?

The Normandy Scholar Program. I remember going to an admitted-student event in Dallas, and Professor Stoff waxed poetic on the Normandy Scholar Program. That’s when I decided to come to UT. You take four — now five — classes with 19 peers on the Second World War from different countries’ perspectives. Then, in May, you travel with your peers and professors to the sites you’ve been learning about — to Poland, Germany, France and the U.K. The program taught me to be a better reader and writer. I met so many close friends. It also made me consider so many ethical dilemmas and my values, because the program centers on such a complicated time in history.

What’s your job with the Comparative Constitutions Project?

Each week, I read about constitutional developments around the world; stuff like amendments, referendums, press statements and high court decisions. A lot of times, it’s world leaders trying to amend constitutions to extend term limits. I pick three developments and write a short summary of each for a newsletter.

The job has helped me improve my short writing skills and informed me that even though our nation rarely touches the Constitution, countries are re-inventing the wheel every week with their supreme documents.

What’s your favorite thing you’ve written about for the newsletter?

Covering this constitutional crisis in Poland has been interesting. Out of nowhere, the Polish executive branch seriously curtailed the power of the judiciary. The EU may suspend Poland’s voting rights. It’s an extremely colorful story, and we hardly hear about it in the U.S. What’s your proudest UT-related accomplishment?

Creating a university-wide Service “Flag” with a friend, Amy Enrione, and Dean Iverson in the School of Undergraduate Studies. Soon this project will roll out in the registration system, and UT will start encouraging and recognizing experiential, skills-based, service learning.

What advice would you give to incoming students?

It’s important to be involved on campus. As much as I owe to my professors and classmates, I’ve gotten so much from being active in the university community. I’ve enjoyed being on Faculty Council, the President’s Student Advisory Committee, multiple research teams, political campaigns, student government, debate teams and symposiums. It’s important to get outside of the classroom. I am extremely glad that four years ago, I chose Texas.

2004

2013

2013

2016

Jim Coutre (Plan II/Aerospace ’08) named first Mr. Plan II; Coutre is now a design engineer and manager at Hyperloop Tech.

Plan II moves to the new CLA Building.

Austin Gleeson establishes the first Plan II Professorship: Elizabeth B. Gleeson Excellence Endowment in Physics.

Second Plan II Professorship: Stuart W. Stedman Professorship in Plan II Mathematics.

Life & Letters Spring 2016

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Architecture of Coexistence Middle Eastern Studies, Art & Art History Interview by Alicia Dietrich Stephennie Mulder, an associate professor in the Departments of Art and Art History and Middle Eastern Studies, was invited to Tehran, Iran, in February 2016 to receive the country’s World Award for Book of the Year from the Iranian Ministry of Culture, which was to be awarded in a ceremony by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Her book, The Shrines of the ‘Alids in Medieval Syria: Sunnis, Shi’is, and the Architecture of Coexistence, explores multiple shrines in Syria and how the architecture tells a story that complicates the traditional narrative of the divide between Sunnis and Shi’is in the country. The following are excerpts from Mulder’s description of her journey and preservation efforts.

ABOVE: Stephennie Mulder at the mosque of Nasir al-Mulk in Shiraz, Iran.

LEFT: Mulder receives the World Prize for Book of the Year from the Iranian Ministry of Culture.

Photos courtesy of Stephennie Mulder

To be honest, getting this news was a bit complicated.

Of course my first response was to be thrilled my work had received international recognition. And it’s always been a dream of mine to go to Iran, which is a spectacularly beautiful country, rich in history.

Americans are free to travel to Iran and are usually received warmly. But it is sometimes challenging to get a tourist visa. So as an art historian, I saw the invitation as an exciting opportunity, and even decided to take my 9-year-old daughter with me.

But then the political reality of the prize dawned on me, and I realized that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to accept the prize. Iran is a key supporter of the Assad government in Syria, and it’s Assad (not ISIS), who has killed the majority of civilians in Syria. I worked for more than 12 years in Syria, have lost friends in the war, and have many close friends whose lives have been profoundly impacted by a war in which Iran’s support has been a key factor.

On the other hand, the prize had been awarded by a group of Iranian scholars for a book that was about the power of architecture to unify, and I thought it was meaningful that they had chosen this book in this moment of conflict. I asked a number of Syrian friends for their thoughts and surprisingly there was universal support for my going — partly for the chance to tell a different story to Iranians I might meet about the Syrian people. In the end, I decided to go and to donate the $10,000 prize to a charity that supports Syrian mothers and children.

Once I had made that decision, I was faced with two problems. First, it turned out that the receipt of a

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Architecture of Coexistence

The Shrines of the ‘Alids in Medieval Syria (Edinburgh University Press, 2014) has received the UT Hamilton Award Grand Prize, the Syrian Studies Association Book Prize, and was selected as an Outstanding Academic Title by the American Library Association’s Choice magazine.

cash prize from the Iranian government is prohibited under U.S. sanctions legislation. Second, the awards ceremony was just two weeks away, and the Iranian visa seemed unlikely to come through in time.

The next two weeks were quite a drama. For the license I had to get clearance from the Departments of Treasury and State, a process that normally takes up to five months. It looked impossible. But at that point a group of wonderful people stepped in and worked incredibly hard to get me there — David Ivey in the Office of Sponsored Projects, UT’s security analyst Jess Miller, as well as Dean Randy Diehl, Art and Art History Chair Jack Risley, and Dean Douglas Dempster.

On David’s suggestion I wrote a letter to Congressman Lloyd Doggett, asking his office to petition the Department of Treasury on my behalf. Representative Doggett’s office must have some clout, because two days later I got a call from a Treasury Department officer who rushed the application through just days before the ceremony in Tehran.

It seemed like a miracle. Only one problem: We had a flight but still didn’t have our Iranian visas! In the end, we missed our original flight, but the visa came the next day. There was no way I was canceling the trip after all that, so that morning I purchased same-day tickets to Tehran for my daughter and me.

We missed the awards ceremony itself, but given my ambivalence about the situation, I think it all turned out okay in the end.

It was important to go because I wanted to recognize the gesture of the Iranian committee in choosing this book about sectarian relationships. Although the Syrian conflict is not primarily a sectarian one, it began as part of the Arab Spring movement of 2011 and was a revolutionary political uprising that aimed to overthrow the Assad government. But the uprising was met with a brutal government crackdown, and the situation quickly deteriorated into civil war. In that context, sectarianism, though not the cause of the war, has been used to manipulate people’s fears in Syria and — as I learned on my trip — also in predominantly Shi’i Iran.

Though Iranians have access to global media, many Iranians I spoke to, including the well educated, seemed genuinely surprised when I told them that Assad was bombing his own civilians — though this is a fact that’s widely attested by multiple international organizations. They were somehow under the impression that their Iranian Shi’a government was fighting the Sunni-identified terrorist group ISIS in Syria.

Most Iranians are Shi’a, so the war as they understand it does have a sectarian connotation. I wonder if the Iranian awards committee was interested in my book for its story of Sunni-Shi’i sectarian cooperation in Syria and because it invites us to rethink the history of sectarianism in Islam.

Although I had never traveled to Iran, I study it and I have many Iranian friends, colleagues and students, so besides the Iranian misperception of the Syrian conflict, not too much surprised me. But when my Texan daughter discovered Mexican street corn is a thing in Tehran — that surprised both of us!

I think most Americans would be surprised to

learn a few things. For example, Iranians welcome American tourists. Everywhere we went we were warmly received. I think my daughter was hugged, kissed and photographed hundreds of times. The repressive government with its strong anti-American sentiments is a reality — but like any place, the government’s propaganda doesn’t necessarily reflect the range of how individual Iranians feel.

Iran has a vibrant political opposition and had its own Arab Spring-style uprising (the Green Movement) in 2009. Many Iranians want a more open and just society, and many are risking their lives fighting to create it.

Iran is also an ancient country with a spectacular cultural heritage and lively and dynamic cities with flourishing art and music scenes: a place where it’s normal for 7-year-old kids to recite 11th-century poetry from memory.

The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art has one of the largest collections of contemporary art outside Europe and the U.S. The seat of ancient empires from Darius to Alexander the Great, Iran is home to 19 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and dozens of national parks and wildlife refuges. Have I mentioned the food?

Persian food! Saffron, turmeric, kashk, pistachios, rosewater! In short, it’s a pretty great place to visit.

One site I was especially excited about was Naqsh-e Rustam, an ancient Iranian necropolis with a number of rock-carved reliefs depicting Achaemenid and Sassanian rulers accepting tribute from conquered Roman emperors. I teach about these sites every year in my classes at UT, and it was incredible to actually get to experience them.

Cultural Preservation Heritage In the fall of 2014, as ISIS began to systematically destroy cultural heritage sites in Syria and Iraq, I felt helpless as sites I had visited, researched and loved were being quickly obliterated. I called a meeting at UT to raise interest and awareness to the problems of cultural heritage destruction. Attended by more than 50 people, it led to the founding of the UT Antiquities Action group.

We sponsor educational events, films and speakers, and we plan various “actions” that are designed to raise awareness of the issues surrounding endangered cultural heritage. Last spring, for example, we visited the Austin office of U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, to deliver a petition to support a law before Congress designed to prevent the import of looted antiquities from Syria.

On April 2, we hosted our first one-day symposium, “Global Initiatives Toward Cultural Heritage Preservation: Who Owns the Past?” The group is open to anyone at UT and beyond. Please join us! @UTAntiquities

UT Antiquities Action

LEFT:

Lantern slides, ca. 1930, 4 x 4 in.

Classics, College of Liberal Arts BELOW:

Photos: Mark Menjivar

Blue canopic jar bearing the baboon head of the god Hapi, 16th-11th centuries B.C., Egypt faience, 5 ¾ x 3 ¾ in. Classics, College of Liberal Arts

Classic Collections The unparalleled quality and range of more than 80 collections at The University of Texas at Austin is showcased in The Collections: The University of Texas at Austin, including lantern slides and a blue canopic jar from the Department of Classics. This extensively illustrated volume offers the first sweeping guide to the university’s unique artifacts and the stories behind them.

The Collections The University of Texas at Austin University of Texas Press, Jan. 2016 Edited by Andrée Bober; foreword

by President Gregory L. Fenves

NONPROFIT ORG. US POSTAGE

PAI D

AUSTIN, TEXAS PERMIT #391

Office of the Dean 116 Inner Campus Drive, G6000 Austin, TX 78712-1257

Watch the Humanities Research Award video series: www.bit.ly/1V4Zqit