 | Nearing the middle of the Fall semester, the students are buckling down to prepare for midterms, and we at the Humanities Institute are excited for the activities and initiatives planned for the coming weeks. Our October 2018 Newsletter includes details on our upcoming events with a special highlight on next Tuesday's Difficult Dialogues Public Forum with a book signing and lecture by author and professor of sociology at NYU, Eric Klinenberg. We are also pleased to share the call for applications for the 2019 Community Sabbatical Research Leave Grant as well as information on several HI hosted and co-sponsored events. Please find further details about all of our exciting initiatives for the coming month below! | Tuesday, October 16, 2018
Texas Union, Quadrangle Room (3.304)
2308 Whitis Avenue
Austin, TX 78712
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
(Book Signing at 6:30 PM) Free and open to the public. The upcoming Difficult Dialogues / Planet Texas 2050 Public Forum on the Environment with guest speaker Dr. Eric Klinenberg will take place on Tuesday, October 16 at the Texas Union, Quadrangle Room. Dr. Klinenberg will be available to sign books before the event, at 6:30pm. His talk, "Climate Change, Social Infrastructure, and Inequality," will begin at 7pm. The talk will be followed by remarks from the evening's discussant, Dr. Katherine Lieberknecht, Assistant Professor in UT's School of Architecture and Chair of Planet Texas 2050, as well as audience dialogue moderated by Dr. Pauline Strong, Director of the Humanities Institute. Dr. Klinenberg's books Heat Wave: a Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago and Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life will be available for purchase at the event. Additionally, Palaces for the People is available for online purchase from the UT Co-op and can be picked up during regular business hours. This event is free and open to public. Light refreshments will be served. The nearest UT parking is available in the San Antonio Garage (2420 San Antonio Street). The event is sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research through Planet Texas 2050 and by the Humanities Institute through the Barron Ulmer Kidd Centennial Lectureship. |  **Applications Due Thursday, November 1, 2018** | The Humanities Institute at the University of Texas at Austin is proud to continue the groundbreaking program that supports ongoing research and intellectual work in the Austin non-profit community: The Community Sabbatical Research Leave Program. Many directors and professional staff of non-profit organization suffer from a lack of time to reflect and develop their expertise in the face of on-going daily demands. The Community Sabbatical Research Leave Program responds to this dilemma by helping to carve out the time and intellectual space for deeper reflection, research, and discussion about a question or issue that grantees are seeking to resolve for their organization and those it serves. Community Sabbatical awardees will receive a $5,000 stipend and will be matched with a University faculty member with related interests who will collaborate in the research project. Awardees will also receive access to the University’s libraries, databases and archives. Awardees’ biographies and project descriptions will be posted on the Humanities Institute’s website. Community Sabbatical awardees must be paid, full-time Executive Directors or staff members of nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organizations in the Austin area. The application, which can be found on our grants page here, includes a letter of support that must be signed by the Executive Director or Chair of the Board of the applicant’s organization. (Applicants may not sign on their own behalf.) APPLICATIONS FOR THE 2019 COMMUNITY SABBATICAL CYCLE ARE DUE BY THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2018. For more information, please visit our website and view the application packet, email Kathryn North at knnorth@austin.utexas.edu, or call the Humanities Institute Office at 512-471-9056 during regular business hours. | Thursday, November 1, 2018
APL Terrazas Branch
1105 East Cesar Street
Austin, TX, 78702
6:30 PM - 8:45 PM Free and open to the public. With unprecedented access, Cartel Land (2015) is a riveting, on-the-ground look at the journeys of two modern-day vigilante groups and their shared enemy – the murderous Mexican drug cartels. In the Mexican state of Michoacán, Dr. Jose Mireles, a small-town physician known as "El Doctor," leads the Autodefensas, a citizen uprising against the violent Knights Templar drug cartel that has wreaked havoc on the region for years. Meanwhile, in Arizona's Altar Valley – a narrow, 52-mile-long desert corridor known as Cocaine Alley – Tim "Nailer" Foley, an American veteran, heads a small paramilitary group called Arizona Border Recon, whose goal is to stop Mexico’s drug wars from seeping across our border. Join us for light refreshments and the screening at 6:30pm. The film will be followed by a brief community conversation. Controversy & Conversation is a collaboration between the Difficult Dialogues Program and the Austin Public Library. | Sunday, November 11, 2018
1601 Trinity Avenue, Dell Medical School
Austin, TX 78712
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM Landmarks, Austin's Backyard Story Night, Dell Medical School, and the Humanities Institute are partnering to present an evening of stories centered around the theme, "Healing Touch". Landmarks, the public art program of The University of Texas at Austin, commissioned artist Ann Hamilton to create a series of photographs that illustrate touch, something we typically feel rather than see. The project is framed around the idea that human touch is the most essential means of contact and a fundamental expression of physical and emotional care. The larger than life enamel panels are installed in the new buildings at Dell Medical School and will serve as a backdrop for the evening of stories. For more information about Hamilton's work, visit the project's website. This event celebrates the human exchanges present in both public art and healthcare and the important roles both play in the Austin community, with stories that illustrate this theme from various perspectives, both within and outside of the medical field. Doors will open and tours will be available of the Ann Hamilton exhibit at 6:00pm. Stories will begin at 7:00pm. | Friday, November 2, 2018
Blanton Museum
200 E. MLK Jr. Blvd.
Austin, TX 78712
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM Free and open to the public. In partnership with The Final Acts Project and Kitchen Table Conversations, the Humanities Institute is co-sponsoring the "Day of the Dead: A Celebration of Life, Remembrance, and Healing." The event will feature a keynote lecture from Regina Marchi, Associate Professor in the department of Journalism & Media Studies and the School of Communication & Information at Rutgers University. Dr. Marchi will also participate in a panel alongside Garrick Colwell, Kitchen Table Conversations, and Dr. Craig Hurwitz, Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Dell Medical School. This program was made possible in part through a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities and is co-sponsored by The Final Acts Project and Kitchen Table Conversations. | The Health and Humanities Research Seminar is a monthly series in partnership with Dell Medical School intended to engage scholars and practitioners across the health and humanities disciplines in research-oriented dialogue. Designed for faculty and research staff interested in Health and Humanities, the seminars feature presentations from speakers, followed by a group discussion, and casual conversation. The seminar series' upcoming speaker, Jewel Mullen, M.D., MPH, will present her talk, "You Can't Fill a Vessel at an Empty Well: Cultivating Empathy to Achieve Health Equity," at the seminar on November 5th. Dr. Mullen is the Associate Dean for Healthy Equity at the Dell Medical School, as well as an Associate Professor in the school’s departments of Population Health and Internal Medicine. She also concurrently holds a faculty appointment at Huston-Tillotson University and serves as a senior consultant for Seton, part of Ascension, to help meet health equity goals across its system. Dr. Mullen has been recognized both nationally and internationally for her work to improve the health of all people, especially the underserved. Her contributions to her field include creating disease prevention programs and strengthening coordination between communities to improve the health of individuals. Coming up in December: Courtney Donovan, Ph.D will speak on "Digital Health, Health Humanities, and Barriers to Care: Integrating Arts, Humanities, and Technology to Understand Health Disparities." Dr. Donovan is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography & Environment at San Francisco State University. Her visit is sponsored by the digital humanities project, “Communities of Care,” funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Seating for each seminar is limited and by reservation. A few spaces are reserved for graduate and professional students, by faculty or research staff invitation. For more information, please contact Dr. Phillip Barrish at pbarrish@austin.utexas.edu. | For more information on the Humanities Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, or to contact us, please visit us at humanitiesinstitute.utexas.edu. | | |
