The past is never dead. It's not even past
University of Texas’ Professors of History come from all over the world. Some came to the United States to study or teach, while others found their calling only once they arrived. Regardless of the origin story, their experiences are as diverse as the histories they teach and over the past few months we have shared […]
I can’t claim to have a particularly fascinating or intrepid migrant story, just a slightly convoluted one: I came to the US from the UK in 2008, though I had not lived in “my” part of the UK, England, for five years before that because when I moved here, it was from Belfast in […]
I arrived in the Unites States 30 years ago, penniless but wide-eyed. I did not come to be a graduate student. I came as a migrant, fleeing war. I was fortunate. I met my first wife in Ecuador and she was a US citizen, I therefore did not come undocumented. Since I had only […]
In 1947, when British India was carved into two states of India and Pakistan, many Hindu families relocated from eastern Pakistan (which became Bangladesh in 1971) to Indian Bengal. My parents came from two such families. My father was deeply curious about the world, and bought various Readers Digest and National Geographic publications on a meager rupee-based salary, earned […]
By Lina de Castillo In September of 1980, my mother took a calculated risk. As a talented singer with perfect pitch frustrated by a broken marriage and limiting law career, my mom left Bogotá, Colombia to pursue her dream of opera singing. My father, already starting his second family, agreed that my brother and I […]
I came to Texas from England over thirty years ago, now. My prior experience of living in the U.S. had been during my year abroad as part of my undergraduate degree at the University of Warwick, embedded in the department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Although unbeknownst to me at the time my […]
by Yoav Di-Capua (UT History faculty come from all over the world. Here are their stories.) I wish I could introduce clarity, coherence and a sense of purpose into the story of my arrival to this country from my native city of Jerusalem. I wish I could say that it was meticulously planned and well-executed. That […]
By Toyin Falola (UT History faculty come from all over the world. Here are their stories.) This Spotlight, this City In my space and time of growth, The long metallic snake of screeching hisses And novel magical magnetic movement Became a muse of songs and fantasies Making the urge for voyage ineluctable And from a tender […]
by Julie Hardwick (UT History faculty come from all over the world. Here are their stories.) I came here, aged 21, on 15 August 1984 to join a study abroad program in Wisconsin with every intention of returning to the UK to become an accountant in London – and in fact I had a nice job […]
(UT History faculty come from all over the world. Here are their stories.) By Tatjana Lichtenstein Being an immigrant has always been part of my story. More than 50 years ago, my parents left their home country in search of a better life. They ended up in the small country of Denmark in northern Europe. And […]