Reporting Texas
News and features from UT-Austin's School of Journalism

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From Texas to the Peruvian Amazon, a UT Researcher Preserves a Dying Language

Nestled deep in the Amazon basin, a makeshift house sits alongside a rustic nut storage facility. Two of the occupants of this house in Peru’s remote Madre de Dios District might be the last chance of survival for the endangered language Iñapari. 
Meanwhile, over 3,000 miles away, a doctoral student is huddled over his laptop at the University of Texas at Austin. Barrett Hamp, a UT doctoral student in linguistics, has dedicated his research since 2019 to recording the indigenous language in Peru to prevent it from disappearing.  “Once a language is gone, it’s gone.  There’s no reviving it,” Hamp said.

Broken Spoke Is Counting on a City Hall Two-Step to Protect Its Future

The Broken Spoke faces a critical turning point this spring, as the Austin City Council considers designating the lot surrounding the Texas dance hall as a historic zone, a declaration that would protect the 58-year-old venue from real estate development along South Lamar Boulevard.
In November, the council initiated a proclamation naming the Broken Spoke a historical landmark. But that largely ceremonial proclamation, brought by Council Member Ann Kitchen, in itself does not ensure long-term preservation of the dance hall and restaurant. So, Kitchen initiated the city’s historic zoning process that would make it more difficult for the landowner to develop the Broken Spoke site.
“She didn’t want it to go the way of so many other historic landmarks unofficially named in town,” said the author of a 2017 book on the dance hall. “She wanted it to be here for future generations. So she started the process.”

Life in a Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the lives of millions of Americans, including the Spring 2020 students in J362F, Journalism Portfolio. As their final project, some students in one class selected different groups of people affected by quarantines and closures, to learn about their individual experiences of “Life in a Pandemic.” The following categories complete the phrase […]

A Festival Fit for a King

UT students Alejandra Gavilanes and Sam Bellessa set out to discover one of Central Texas’ most popular events and along the way  meet the king and his royal subjects at the Texas Renaissance Festival.

Apr 01, 2021

“La Copita” Ushers in New Rivalry Between Austin and San Antonio

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas soccer fans are gearing up for the inaugural matchup between Austin FC and San Antonio FC. The game will take place April 1 as part of “La Copita,” a preseason tournament consisting of several Division 1 and 2 professional soccer clubs from all over Texas. San Antonio FC, formerly the San […]

Jul 27, 2020

Relationships – Instagram’s Enneagram Singles – Celia Obrien, 27, Jared Withrow, 32, Megan McHenry, 27, & Sonia Alexandra, 24

The creators of Enneagram Singles on Instagram share what it’s like to host a page dedicated to dating during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Celia Obrien of Concord, New Hampshire, Jared Withrow of Bend, Oregon, Megan McHenry of Richland, Washington, and Sonia Alexandra of San Francisco are self-proclaimed Enneagram personality test enthusiasts who hope to see their […]

Jul 27, 2020

Relationships – Janie Nichols, 22

Janie Nichols, a fourth-year history major at Baylor University, talks about her family relationships during the Covid-19 pandemic. She says that the transition of coming together with her family has been an adjustment since she is used to her life in Waco with her own apartment. However, she is learning to live together again with […]

Jul 27, 2020

Relationships – Logan Rassman, 22

Fourth-Year Biology Major at the University of Texas at Austin, Logan Rassman of Mission, Texas, talks about how her romantic relationship with her boyfriend is being impacted by the Covid-19 Pandemic. She has been in quarantine since before the stay-at-home order was in place in Texas as her sister was in proximity to a person […]

Jul 27, 2020

Relationships – Alyssa Weinstein, 21

Alyssa Weinstein, a University of Texas student from Austin, shares the troubles of being quarantined separately from her boyfriend of almost one full year. She shares her troubles about how she might need to spend her one year anniversary in quarantine and what the stay-at-home order has done to help improve their relationship as a […]

Jul 27, 2020

Relationships – Chris Morphis, 22

4. Unlike many who are dealing with the sudden change of being quarantined separately with their significant other, Chris Morphis, a University of Texas student from Austin, shares how his already long-distance relationship with his girlfriend who lives in Kyrgyzstan, has been impacted positively by the Covid-19 Pandemic. “We were already long distance to begin […]

Jul 27, 2020

Relationships in a Pandemic

Many of the people forced into quarantine by Covid-19 found themselves back with their families or staying home alone. Relationships are an important factor in our everyday lives but what happens when your interactions are limited to a screen? Relationships in a Pandemic seeks to find how different romantic and familial relationships are taking to […]

Jul 27, 2020

Farmers – Tom Kelley, 55

Tom Kelley, a farmer, rancher and crop insurance agent from Eagle Lake, Texas–67 miles west of Houston–goes in-depth about the ins and outs of the agricultural industry during the time of the Coronavirus. Kelley is one of the few people whose scope encompasses both sides of the commodities market. Kelley examined the current futures market […]

Jul 27, 2020

Farmers – Rodney Jedlicka, 41

Rodney Jedlicka is the current president of the Wharton County Youth Fair, Livestock Show & Rodeo. Jedlicka got emotional when talking about the process of deciding to cancel the fair: “It’s been really hard. It was a tough deal for me, whenever we were making the decisions as a fair organization, me being the president […]

Jul 27, 2020

Farmers – Michael Goudeau, 47

Michael Goudeau of Goudeau Farms is a farmer and rancher who specializes in breeding Brahman cattle and distributing them across the western hemisphere. Goudeau describes how his purebred cattle market took a hit in the wake of Covid-19: “On the purebred side—we sell purebred genetics, so we sell a lot of bulls that go back […]

Jul 27, 2020

Farmers – Kenneth Hlavinka, 52

Kenneth Hlavinka, a farmer of cotton, rice, sorghum, corn and soybeans discusses the impact that the Coronavirus has had on the farming industry, including overseas trade with China, and the impact of the virus on agricultural equipment sales in the United States. Hlavinka also details the current commodity situation: “Cotton and corn have really been […]

Jul 27, 2020

Farmers – Jayson Hill, 38

Jayson Hill teaches agriculture classes at East Bernard High School and East Bernard Junior High School, 50 miles west of Houston. He is also head of the East Bernard Future Farmers of America. Hill details the struggle that 2020 has been with the cancellation of local and large-market cattle exhibitions and the impact that they […]

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