In the Loop: The HDO Blog

Brain Power: Elizabeth Richmond-Garza, PhD

November 8, 2021
Dr. Amy Ware

Hello and welcome to the third episode of HDO’s “Brain Power” series! In today’s episode, Amy interviews Elizabeth Richmond-Garza, a Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of English, the Director of UT’s Comparative Literature Program, and a member of the faculty team that helped design HDO’s unique curriculum. Elizabeth teaches in HDO’s Master’s and Professional Training programs.

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Why Spelling and Grammar Matter

October 19, 2021
John W. Traphagan, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Department of Anthropology; Professor, HDO

Although you cannot guarantee how others will interpret what you write, you can be certain whatever you write will be interpreted as saying something about the author.

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Brain Power: Sara Llansa (MA, Class of 2017)

October 14, 2021
Dr. Amy Ware

Welcome to the second episode of HDO’s “Brain Power” series. In today’s episode, Amy interviews HDO Master’s alumna Sara Llansa, Director of Houston ISD’s EMERGE program. EMERGE empowers and prepares high-performing youth from underserved communities to attend and graduate from the nation’s top colleges and universities.

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The Downside of Hyper-Positivity at Work

September 21, 2021
John W. Traphagan, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Department of Anthropology; Professor, HDO

Amidst all the happy face emojis and exclamation points punctuating mundane sentences with false familiarity, how often do people ask if all that positivity is, well, positive?

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This is When Goal-Setting Gets in the Way of Happiness

September 7, 2021
John W. Traphagan, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Department of Anthropology; Professor, HDO

We live in an age of anxiety driven by an economic model of life where much of what we do is based on a contrast between where we are and where we think we want to be. We set goals that assume the goal of life itself is to attain, acquire, and become, whether that which we gain comes in the form of money, achievement, or recognition. Teachers, relatives, and others tell children to set goals about which college to attend or what career they plan to develop. What do you want to be when you grow up? Aim high!

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On The Value of Jerks

July 29, 2021
John W. Traphagan, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Department of Anthropology; Professor, HDO

There is a great deal of conversation these days about the importance of mentorship. We need to mentor new hires in companies or junior faculty at universities. It’s essential to help them find ways to be successful. We need to be there for them. That’s part of having an empathetic and supportive workplace. And we all want that, right?

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Brain Power: Dr. Art Markman

July 21, 2021
Dr. Amy Ware

In our very first episode, Amy Ware interviews HDO’s founding Director, Dr. Art Markman about how the program has had a profound impact on his teaching and scholarship since its creation in 2011.

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Love, Freedom, and Leadership: A Source of Pride

July 7, 2021
Dr. Paul Woodruff
Darrell K. Royal Professor in Ethics and American Society, HDO Professor

In ancient times the people of Athens were proud of their freedom, which gave them the confidence to whip a much larger army of the Persians at Marathon. They were especially proud of the way they believed they had won their freedom—through the assassination of a tyrant by a pair of lovers.

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Art as Expression & Understanding

June 28, 2021
Dr. Elizabeth Richmond-Garza
Director and Graduate Adviser, Comparative Literature | UT Regents’ Distinguished Teaching Associate Professor, English | Affiliate Faculty, Middle Eastern Studies & Human Dimensions of Organizations

When Oscar Wilde, a gay Irishman living as a straight writer and personality in London, was sentenced to serve two years of hard labor in prison on 25 May 1895 for violating an anti-sodomy law that was only repealed in 1967, his trial began not with evidence of acts he had committed but instead with an accusation of “posing,” of seeming to be the sort of person who could break the law. We might imagine in Pride Month 2021 that defining someone based upon our impression of their appearance would be part of a history lesson rather than our daily lived experiences. However, whether in relationship to gender and sexuality or the many other intersectional issues which define each of us, how we appear to others often determines how we are permitted to live.

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