#ut experts

Image: Ray Bodden/Flickr

Even when it’s not Halloween, scholars from the College of Liberal Arts are studying ghostly folklore, the science of superstition and making sense of the unknown. Their expertise comes in handy as the spooky holiday brings up questions about the unexplained and eerie.

Journalists can contact the researchers directly for insight around Halloween.

The Vampire in Slavic Cultures

Thomas Garza, University Distinguished Teaching Associate Professor of Slavic & Eurasian Studies

[email protected], 512-232-9126

Tom Garza researches vampire lore in Slavic culture, the Russian fairytale and the popularity of the vampire in modern America. To him, the vampire’s story is an enduring and endearing text that draws students in to studying Slavic histories, religions, geographies and traditions, while also focusing on the essence of what human beings are truly interested in: What happens after death?

Life and Death in Stone

Kathleen Higgins, Professor of Philosophy

[email protected], 512-471-5564

Whether it’s tombstones, monuments or statues, stone is used to memorialize the dead around the world. Kathleen Higgins’ research on aesthetics lead her to study how different cultures choose stone to preserve, physically replace, commemorate and communicate with lost loved ones.

Superstitious Thinking and the Candy Witch

Jacqueline Woolley, Chair of the Department of Psychology

[email protected], 512-471-5196

Latino Folklore's La Llorna

Domino Perez, Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies and Associate Professor of English

[email protected], 512-232-7853 or 512-471-8358

Domino Perez studies Chicano literature, popular culture and film. Her book, “There was a Woman: La Llorona from Folklore to Popular Culture,” examines cultural representations of the weeping ghost and how it has shaped Mexican cultural identity.

As crews work to contain the Hidden Pines fire in Bastrop County, UT Austin’s Gordon Wells is using satellite data to track the extent of land that has been burned.  

Wells, a research associate at the university’s Center for Space Research, collaborates with the Texas Division of Emergency Management on the operational response to wildfires and released the following satellite images with captions on Oct. 17 to show the burn scar of the Hidden Pines fire.

Both images can be used to reconstruct fire behavior and containment techniques used by the firefighters. 

For other UT Austin experts on wildfire and natural disaster recovery, visit: http://utne.ws/1LcueXI

This image merges visible color bands with the 15-meter panchromatic band to produce the most detailed representation of the burned areas. If you zoom into the image, you can detect roadbeds and the locations of individual structures. Curvilinear firebreaks created by bulldozers can be seen along the southwestern perimeter of the fire. The burn pattern is a typically messy mix of incinerated (ash-colored) and nearly untouched (visible green) patches.