March 2008

Congratulations to these members of the UT Graduate Community!

In its 2008 rankings of America's Best Graduate Schools, U.S. News and World Report ranked LLILAS, the Latin American history program at The University of Texas, Number 1 in the nation.

Matthew Wooten (MA Latin American Studies) won a 2008 Fulbright Student Scholarship to go to Argentina.

Michael Meyer (Dual Degree Latin American Studies/LBJ) won the Texas Exes Teaching Award for the LBJ School.

Julie Milligan Hughes (MA Psychology) won the American Psychological Foundation's Annette Urso Rickel Foundation Dissertation Award for Public Policy. The $1,000 award, which will be given annually for five years, will support dissertation research on public policy that has the potential to improve services for children and families facing major psychosocial issues.

Dr. Benjamin Kramer (PhD Curriculum and Instruction—summer 2007) was awarded the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Outstanding Dissertation Award for his doctoral dissertation entitled “Examining Hybrid Spaces for Newcomer English Language Learners: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Email Exchanges with Business Professionals.”

The work of Dr. John B. Goodenough (Mechanical Engineering Professor) in researching how light-weight, long-lasting lithium ion batteries can be used to power laptops and cell phones, has been ranked among the world's 10 most significant materials advances in the past 50 years, according to Materials Today magazine.

Brent Stephens and Michael Waring (MA Environmental and Water Resources Engineering) both received $10,000 grants for research projects from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.

Kim Belcik, Amanda Chadee, Sean McCarthy, Krzysztof Piekarski, and Daniel Quick, the graduate student team of UT Austin students from the fall GRS 390P course, have made it to the second round of the RGK Social Innovation competition. Their project involves assisting non-profit organizations in creating a presence in the 3-D virtual world of Second Life.

Message from the Dean

Welcome back from spring break! With the end of the semester now in sight, I thought it important to remind you of some upcoming deadlines and plans for spring Convocation.

The Graduate School Convocation is a wonderful ceremony that celebrates the pinnacle of your academic accomplishments. All graduates are individually recognized and hooded by the dean of their academic college. This year, we will be holding the Master's and Doctoral ceremonies at the Recreational Sports Center due to the renovations occurring at our usual location, Bass Hall. Make your plans now to attend with your families on May 17.

Please note that academic regalia is required for students participating in the Convocation. Regalia will be available for rental or purchase through the University Co-op beginning on March 5, 2008.

The deadline to purchase doctoral regalia is March 28, 2008.

The deadline to rent doctoral or master's regalia is April 18, 2008.

The deadline to purchase master's regalia is May 2, 2008.

Additionally, this Wednesday, March 20 is the deadline for Master's Degree candidates to submit the graduation application form online and for Doctoral Degree candidates to submit their Degree Candidate Form.

Please visit the Graduate School Web site to ensure you are aware of the steps and the deadlines for graduation. www.utexas.edu/ogs/pdn/

I look forward to seeing you on May 17 at Convocation.

Best wishes,
Victoria E. Rodríguez
Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies

Everyday Excellence

Ahmed Abukhater is a doctoral candidate in Community and Regional Planning at The University of Texas at Austin. Ahmed has received many awards for his research, including the American Planning Association (APA) award for the Best National Paper in Planning and Technology, the 2008 Cactus Goodfellow Award for his substantial contributions to The University of Texas at Austin, and the ACSP Marsha Ritzdorf Award for the best paper and superior scholarship on Diversity, Social Justice and the Role of Women in Planning. Read more > >

Spotlight on Faculty

Dr. Richmond-Garza has a mythic reputation as a teacher and a dual appointment in the English Department and the Program in Comparative Literature at The University of Texas. Read more about her > >

Graduate Research at Work

Exchange Agreement between The University of Texas and the Universidad de la Habana, Cuba.

The University of Texas at Austin has established an exchange agreement with the Universidad de la Habana, Cuba, signaling a new era of academic cooperation with the country in the wake of Fidel Castro's resignation as president. The agreement includes the exchange of faculty and graduate students in the social sciences, humanities and sciences, and it facilitates graduate research by providing introductions to research facilities and Cuban academic experts in the student's field of research.

Vice Provost for International Affairs Terri Givens and her counterpart at the Universidad de la Habana, Vice Rector Cristina Díaz López, signed the agreement in Havana on February 8. Givens joined Jonathan Brown, history professor and associate director of the Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies (LLILAS), who negotiated the terms of the agreement during a trip to Cuba last year, and John Parke Wright, a Florida businessman, who was instrumental in arranging the dialogue between the universities. LLILAS, directed by Sociology Professor Bryan Roberts, will manage the academic exchanges under the agreement. "This agreement is the first of its kind between a Texas and Cuban university, and formalizes many of the research collaborations already in place," Brown says.

For more information, visit: http://www.utexas.edu/news/2008/02/21/havana

Featured Graduate School Resource

If done right, an internship will improve your academic work by helping you see
the relevance of what you are studying, by helping you find "real world"
applications, or even as a balance to the often solitary, esoteric nature of
academic work. In this resource, Tommy Darwin discusses the advantages for
graduate students of doing an internship and offers suggestions for how to
maximize the experience. Some tips include:

• Get involved in a variety of projects
• Seek out mentorship
• Keep a journal or other record of your internship experience.
• Stay in touch with the people you met and worked with during your internship.

Read more > >

Getting a Life

Getting to Know Texas on the Weekends

March 2 was Texas Independence Day. Why not spend several weekends this spring driving around Texas? The historically-inclined could set up an itinerary based on the landmarks of Texas independence: the Alamo, Goliad, Fort Bend County (named for where Santa Ana crossed the Brazos River), and all of the other ones that nobody has ever heard of. The literary-inclined might pick up a copy of UT English Professor Don Graham’s Lone Star Literature anthology and visit some of the places mentioned in the stories (especially useful for the peripatetic reader, these stories are divided geographically: The West, the South, the Border, Town and City). Those who simply want a weird, memorable weekend in Texas may turn to John Kelso’s book Texas Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities, & Other Offbeat Stuff and see what strange things you can locate on the drive.