Tag: Research
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Life Lessons from the Great Books
By Jessica Sinn, Life & Letters Magazine For any of life’s challenges, there is a Great Book to offer valuable insight. From Homer’s “Odyssey” to Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” to George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” the world’s greatest tomes have touched on themes that are as relevant today as when they were written. Tracing the ideas, stories and discoveries…
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That’s Shakespeare, With One ‘S’
By Jessica Sinn English Professor Confirms the Bard’s Hand in The Spanish Tragedy For centuries, scholars have been searching for answers to a literary mystery: Who wrote the five additional passages in Thomas Kyd’s “The Spanish Tragedy”? Mounting arguments point to William Shakespeare, but English professor Douglas Bruster has recently found evidence confirming that the 325 additional lines are indeed the…
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Virtual Gallery Reconstructs Art Exhibit Attended by Novelist Jane Austen
By Jessica Sinn, Life & Letters Magazine The Department of English at The University of Texas at Austin has launched an online reconstruction of a famous art exhibit visited by novelist Jane Austen on May 24, 1813 – exactly 200 years ago to the day. In a letter to her sister, Austen joked that she would…
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It’s Plainer to an Explainer
By Jessica Sinn, Life & Letters Magazine Asking children to come up with explanations — even to themselves — enhances their cause-and-effect learning abilities, according to new research by Cristine Legare, associate professor of psychology. The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, shows that young children who come up with explanations while learning are able to…
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States of Mind
By Jessica Sinn, Life & Letters Magazine People with similar personality types are likely to cluster in certain geographical regions of the United States, making it possible to divide a map into three distinct personality regions, according to a new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The study, co-authored by University of Texas at…
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King’s Treasure
Digital Archive Holds Untold History of African American Mental Health By Jessica Sinn, Life & Letters Magazine Resplendent in his trademark sport coat and bow tie, Louis Armstrong plays a trumpet for a large gathering of patients underneath a grove of trees outside of Central State Hospital, the world’s first African American psychiatric hospital in Petersburg,…
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Making the Grade: Strategies for Improving education systems in America
By Jessica Sinn, Life & Letters Magazine Few dispute the value of education, but discussions about how our nation should improve it are becoming more intense and polarized. Of all the competing arguments—more technology, smaller classrooms, improved teacher training, universal pre-kindergarten—most people would agree that America’s education system needs to improve, and soon. According to recent…
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Dr. Dustin Tahmahkera: Examining Representations of Native People in Pop Culture
By Jessica Sinn • January 25, 2016 Dr. Tahmahkera, a citizen of the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma, examines how native people are represented in music, television, film and online. He is an assistant professor in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies and the author of Tribal Television: Viewing Native People in Sitcoms (University of North Carolina Pres, 2014). We caught…
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Peniel Joseph Discusses Dual Biography on Malcolm X and MLK
By Jessica Sinn • November 6, 2020 The metaphorical meaning behind the title of Peniel Joseph’s new book “The Sword and the Shield” (Basic Books, 2020) may seem obvious to anyone with a basic understanding of the civil rights movement: The shield represents Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent quest for radical citizenship, and the sword represents Malcolm X’s bold pursuit for Black…
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The Women of WiSTEM
In today’s workforce, the STEM industry is comprised of just 28% women, according to statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau. Compared to data from the 1970s—a time when women made up a mere 8% of the STEM workforce—the gender gap is shrinking, but it could take decades, or much longer for certain disciplines, for the…
Jessica Sinn 