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 […]
The Public Historian
From There to Here: Susan Deans-Smith
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 […]
Watch: “1968: A Year of Upheaval in Global Perspective”
Why has the 50th anniversary of a year generated so much interest just now? The year was 1968, and it witnessed an extraordinary outburst of protest and upheaval – one that transcended international borders. While the protests were triggered by diverse events and conditions, they seemed linked by more general aims of combatting institutionalized injustice […]
From There to Here: Yoav Di-Capua
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 […]
From There to Here: Toyin Falola
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 […]
Austin Historical Atlas: Mapping Austin’s Historical Markers
(Preview of our first page: “Austin Development During World War I”) By Jesse Ritner In recent years, discussions of Confederate monuments have dominated narratives of public memory in the United States. As important as this discussion is, however, Civil War monuments make up a relatively small percentage of historic markers in American cities. Although less […]
Austin Historical Atlas: Development During World War I
(This is the first of a series that will explore creative ways to think about historic markers in Austin.) By Jesse Ritner 1917 marked a turning point in the history of Austin’s development. A large donation and the dismembering of a family estate spread the city west and north, resulting in dramatic increases in public […]
From There to Here: Julie Hardwick
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 […]
From There to Here: Tatjana Lichtenstein
(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 […]
Feeding of the Body and Feeding of the Soul: Colonial Latin America Through Objects (No. 5)
This series features five online museum exhibits created by undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin for a class titled “Colonial Latin America Through Objects.” The class assumes that Latin America was never a continent onto itself. The course also insists that objects document the nature of historical change in ways […]