Summer / Fall 2019 Controversy & Conversation Film Series

Since 2015 the Humanities Institute has partnered with the Austin Public Library to sponsor monthly Controversy & Conversation documentary film screenings that bring the Austin community together through meaningful dialogue about documentaries depicting controversial topics that affect us all. The films during the Spring 2019 semester examined issues such as race and the criminal justice system, migration and immigration, food waste and sustainability, politics and the world of sports, and campaign finance.

The HI and Austin Public Library have chosen six award-winning documentaries for the Summer / Fall 2019 Controversy & Conversation series, and attendees can look forward to films and conversation about climate change, controversies in the scientific community, the post-Katrina political climate in New Orleans, the U.S.-Mexico border, legislation around abortion, and the medical device industry.

The season will begin on July 11 with Fisher Stevens’ Before the Flood (2016), which features Leonardo DiCaprio as he travels to five continents and the Arctic to document climate change firsthand. On August 1, we screen Merchants of Doubt (2014), directed by Robert Kenner. The film looks at pundits-for-hire who present themselves as scientific authorities as they speak about topics like toxic chemicals, pharmaceuticals and climate change. On September 5, we’ll continue with Getting Back to Abnormal (2013), which will feature a special session with one of the film’s directors and producers, Dr. Paul Stekler. The film is an intimate look at race, politics and culture in post-Katrina New Orleans. On October 3, we view The River and the Wall (2019), from director Ben Masters, which follows five friends as they come face-to-face with the human and environmental sides of the immigration debate. From the directing duo Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg, the November 7th film, Reversing Roe (2018), takes a historical look at the abortion debate across the history of America. To conclude the season, we’ll be viewing Kirby Dick's latest documentary, The Bleeding Edge, (2018) on December 5. This film investigates the unforeseen consequences of advanced technological devices used in the medical field.

The Controversy & Conversation documentary screenings take place the first Thursday of the month at the Terrazas Branch of the Austin Public Library. They begin at 6:30PM and are followed by a 30-50 minute community conversation. Light refreshments are provided.

Sponsored by: The Humanities Institute and the Austin Public Library

Fall 2019 Distinguished Visiting Lecture Series

The Humanities Institute is pleased to continue the 2018-2020 Distinguished Visiting Lecture Series, “Narrative and Social Justice" in the Fall.

The Distinguished Visiting Lecture Series is free and open to the public. RSVPs are appreciated but not required.

Bridging Disciplines: Spring 2019 Faculty Fellows' Research on Narrative

In Spring 2019, faculty members from 13 departments across the university met for the weekly Faculty Fellows Seminar on the theme of "Narrative Across the Disciplines." Over the past few decades a number of academic and professional fields, both within and outside the traditional humanities, have come to recognize the central role that narrative—stories and storytelling, broadly conceived—plays in their respective areas of research and practice. Such fields include, in addition to the traditional humanities, medicine, law, cognitive science, sociology, communication, and economics. At the same time, scholars in disciplines such as literature, history, and cultural anthropology continue to develop nuanced approaches to exploring both the inner workings and the social functions of stories in multiple contexts. Some of the questions that the Faculty Fellows set out to address in their weekly seminar include: what forms of inquiry and insight does a focus on narrative make available, and what additional possibilities remain to be explored? Conversely, what facets of the world might be occluded by approaches that privilege narrative? How have new technologies affected the structure, performance, and reception of narrative? How is narrative related to the pursuit of social justice?

March 4th’s HHRS was led by Dr. David Ring, Associate Dean for Comprehensive Care, Professor of Surgery and Perioperative Care, and Professor of Psychiatry at Dell Medical School. Dr. Ring’s talk, “Hacking Your Mind for Health,” argued that the way our brain interprets data from our bodies has the power to manipulate the perception we have of ourselves, potentially leading to physical pain that would have otherwise been nonexistent or less intense had we not focused on supposed “deficits” in our current state of being. This concept also brings up another underlying issue present in both the health care industry and the world today: our minds are capable of being influenced by external sources without us even realizing it. This occurrence can further exacerbate or even create insecurities that can have negative implications for our physical and mental health. According to Dr. Ring, taking measures that help us to shift our own self-narratives can improve our health and lead to a more resilient society. By slowing down our minds to become a spectator of our thoughts, we can reclaim the power we have over our own mental state as a means of generating a narrative that focuses on our attributes as opposed to our shortcomings.

Mental Health Blogs, Medical Education, and the Humanities: The Value of Public Scholarship and Interdisciplinary Training

By Ricky Shear, HI Graduate Research Assistant

On May 9th, Dr. Carrie Barron, Director of the Creativity for Resilience Program at the Dell Medical School and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, led the final spring session of the Humanities Institute’s Faculty Fellows Seminar. Barron engaged the Faculty Fellows in a discussion of the therapeutic value of mental health blogs and the positive impact that studying the humanities may have on medical education and care.

Barron explained to the Faculty Fellows that in trying to decide upon her next intellectual project she realized that of all her previous projects, including several academic articles and her book, The Creativity Cure: How to Build Happiness with Your Own Two Hands, she felt that the 115 blogs she wrote for the popular website Psychology Today are her most valuable work. These blogs, some of which have attracted two to four hundred thousand readers, have allowed Barron to connect with and offer general therapeutic advice to the “layperson in simple language.” Barron noted that readers’ comments and messages have given her hundreds of pieces of evidence that blogs like “I Do Not Like Being A Mother: A Monologue about Parenting” and “If You Are the Target of Narcisisstic Abuse: Ways to think, words to say, and how to move on” have had a significant impact on the lives of people struggling with serious mental health issues. Barron regularly responds to readers’ comments and messages, and she sees these digital interactions as an important and meaningful way for her to use her professional knowledge and skills to support people unsure of how to navigate difficult or unhealthy relationships and thought patterns (she emphasized that this correspondence should be understood as support, not therapy). Barron expressed a desire to better understand the therapeutic impact that her blogs appear to have on readers and asked Faculty Fellows to weigh in on what the mental health blog genre offers readers.