Letter From the Director Seniors Hebert and Bissinger Inspired by the Woody Guthrie Win Top Paper Awards for centennial and presidential campaign, fall 2012 was memorable for the number 2011-12 of outstanding talks by UT-Austin Grace Hebert won the Top Paper Award faculty and one especially packed talk by in a Senior Fellows class for 2011-12 hip-hop scholar Tricia Rose from Brown and Julie Bissinger received honorable University. mention. Continued on page 4 Continued on page 2 Senior Fellows Rocks! Students Present Seminar This fall, Symposium focused on Project at Austin Art Show legendary folk singer and politcal A student project presented during activist Woody Guthrie as the opening the East Austin Studio inverts brand riff in a wide-ranging dialogue about images to question motives and effects of media, culture and politics. In honor of corporate advertising. Guthrie’s centennial, acclaimed Austin Continued on page 4 folkie and Guthrie authority Jimmy LaFave gave a wonderful performance of Senior Fellows Director Wins Guthire’s songs and writings. College Teaching Award Continued on page 3 Page 5 Dahlby Wins Regents Senior Fellow Wins Caldwell Teaching Award Page 5 Scholarship Page 7 Remembering Christine Senior and Alumni Spotlights Matyear Page 8 Page 7 1 focus on politics and culture. Students were fascinated Letter from the Director: by professor Burd’s first-hand accounts of life in the rural Southwest, as radio, the automobile and TV each Great Talks on Politics emerged to change the way we live and communicate. Taking a cue from Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee,” and Culture Showcase a song critiquing biased media coverage of a 1948 plane crash that killed 28 migrant workers, professor Fall 2012 Ramirez Berg delivered an insightful lecture on the nature of stereotypes and how they are both created One sign of the high regard for Senior Fellows is the and reinforced via mass media. “Latino Images in Film: number of top UT-Austin faculty who take time out of Stereotypes, Subversion, and Resistance” is the last of their busy schedules to give guest lectures and special his three academic books. talks for us each semester. The Woody Guthrie theme allowed us to do I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the UT- something we don’t often do, host live music. In Austin faculty who took the time to give talks for October we brought in singer-songwriter Jimmy us this fall, some as public lectures, some as special LaFave for a beautiful performance of signature Symposium classes. It’s this kind community support Guthrie tunes. The Austin-based LaFave is well known from the College and across campus that makes as a leading interpreter of Woody Guthrie’s music. He Senior Fellows a rich and rewarding undergraduate founded a travelling show called “Ribbon of Highway, experience. Endless Skyway: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie” and he On the eve of the appeared across the country this year for conferences presidential elections, and tributes to Guthrie, including a performance at the Communication Studies Lincoln Center in New York. professor Talia Stroud You can read more about Symposium’s focus on presented a highly Woody Guthrie and LaFave’s performance in an article informative talk on by Marc Speir, who also shot an excellent video of partisan news coverage LaFave and his band playing “Bound for Glory.” of politics and political On a related note, UT-Austin history professor campaigns. “Niche Karl Hagstrom Miller gave a popular lecture on music News and Campaign and the politics of protest. Starting with Woody 2012” was scheduled to Guthrie and ending with Pussy Riot, professor Miller coincide with the Senior Fellows seminar Campaign examined an array of protest songs through various Communication, taught by Sharon Jarvis and Ashley critical categories, adding nuance to our Symposium Muddiman. Stroud’s book “Niche News: The Politics of discussions in the weeks that followed. He is the author News Choice” won the 2012 Outstanding Book Award of “Segregating Sound: Inventing Folk and Pop Music from the International Communication Association. in the Age of Jim Crow.” Her talk was covered by The Daily Texan. Last on our list of talks Also joining us from the College of Communication given by UT faculty was were journalism’s legendary Gene Burd and R-T-F’s the appropriately titled legendary Charles Ramirez Berg. Professor Burd visited “Second Last Thoughts on Symposium for a class on Bob Dylan’s ‘Last Thoughts the way communication on Woody Guthrie’” by has evolved from the effectively provocative the Dust Bowl to the Tom Palaima, professor of present. It was one of classics. He also teaches our discussions on the a class on music as social topic of Woody Guthrie, commentary and writes whose centennial frequently about Bob Dylan provided the centerpiece and other artists. His talk presented tangible evidence for Symposium’s critical of Guthrie’s influence on Dylan, shedding light on 2 Internet-age debates about copyright law and creative Land is Your Land” is his most famous. Guthrie was culture. and remains controversial, considered by some a loud- We hosted two speakers from off campus this mouthed leftist whose hometown of Okemah, Okla., semester. Although a scheduled talk by University for years refused to honor its native son based on of Maryland political economist Gar Alperovitz had charges that he was a communist. to be cancelled, Tricia Rose’s talk on the politics of “By focusing the class on Woody, my students can hip-hop helped everyone get over it. Rose’s talk, “Hip- be part of this current effort to better understand Hop, Mass Media & Racial Storytelling in the Age of his contributions to American culture,” said Junker. Obama,” was packed to overflowing with students and “He’s also a fascinating character whose body of songs faculty from across campus. You can read more about it provide an array of entry points for talking critically in this article from The Daily Texan. about the issues of our own day.” With Spring 2013 on the horizon, scheduling is Austin folk favorite Jimmy LaFave, a Guthrie expert, in the works for talks and other special events that has been bringing Guthrie’s work to the masses for supplement the following lineup of courses: Art and more than ten years as the creator of “Ribbon of Cinema, by R-T-F professor Nancy Schesari; Science Highway, Endless Skyway,” a roadshow tribute to Fiction as Communication, by Communication Studies Guthrie’s life and music. The show features modern professor Joshua Gunn; and Storytelling in Digital musicians interpreting Guthrie songs strung together Times, by Journalism professor – and 2012 Regents by narrated writings of Guthrie himself. The shows Teaching Award-winner -- Tracy Dahlby. are performed at venues ranging from stadiums and elementary schools to bars and college campuses. The Sincerely, show has spun off an album featuring LaFave and an Dave Junker all-star cast of musicians, including Pete Seeger and Eliza Gilkyson. “Woody is a major American character that I feel Senior Fellows Rocks! should be moved more to the forefront of what we As the introductory course to “Senior Fellows,” study in our history classes,” said LaFave. “I hope— the honors program housed within the College of when I do these talks and sing these songs—that Communication at The University of Texas at Austin, students come away with something tangible.” Dave Junker’s symposium class is an initiation into the In discussions sponsored by Senior Fellows, program’s culture of critical inquiry and open dialogue. individuals such as LaFave share their special “The mission is to get students to ask ‘why’ about perspectives and give the program a seminar style what they find interesting or puzzling or horrible – to of teaching similar to that found in graduate school foster free and rigorous debate – and to arm them with settings. some critical tools for understanding the questions they “In seminars, learning flows in a number of find important,” said Junker, Senior Fellows director directions: from me to them, from them to me and and lecturer in the Department of Advertising and between each other,” said Junker. “That means there’s Public Relations. an element of spontaneity, of risk and reward that This fall, the focus of symposium joins a critical you just can’t get in a lecture-style class. It’s also conversation via American folk singer Woody Guthrie, interdisciplinary, as students come from all majors in who would be celebrating his 100th birthday this year. the College, which has the effect of cross-pollinating Across the country, conferences and concerts have paid the growth of ideas and perspectives.” tribute to Guthrie’s influence and legacy to mark his The Senior Fellows program is hosting more free, centennial. public events this fall that dovetail with the topics of Through Guthrie’s music, writing and activism, the symposium and the other two seminars that are part singer-songwriter critiqued big issues in American life: of the program’s curriculum. On Oct. 22, renowned democracy, social and economic justice, the role of war, Hip Hop scholar and cultural critic Tricia Rose will the nature of American character, individual freedom give a lecture on “Hip Hop, Mass Media and Racial and communal responsibility, and material versus Storytelling in the Age of Obama.” spiritual value. Of the more than 1,000 songs Guthrie wrote, “This 3 Seniors Hebert and Students Present Seminar Bissinger Win Top Paper Project at Austin Art Awards for 2011-12 Show RTF major Grace Students in Kevin Thomas’ seminar on advertising Hebert was the inaugeral and society presented a class project at the Flipside winner of the award for Community Warehouse for the East Austin Studio Tour Top Paper in a Senior during two weekends in November.