Grad Life

Meet Juan A. Gonzalez, Summer 2025 Graduate Archer Fellow!

“I study how we, as a nation, ‘hear’ the United States,” Anna Marinela Lopez, fourth-year Ph.D. student in historical musicology @butlersom @fineartsut, said. “How do other people create their identities with song and sound? What sounds define a nation?

Before beginning the MSIS program @texasischool, second-year student Suzie Wright (Garcia) was an elementary school teacher pivoting into event planning.

Growing up in rural Nigeria, where storytelling and performance were vital tools for connection, Annase Raji saw firsthand how theatre could educate, heal and empower. Now a second-year M.F.A.

“I decided to attend UT because the faculty members at the Michener Center for Writers and New Writers Project are incredible poets, educators and editors to work with,” Daphne DiFazio, second-year fellow @michenercenter, said.

“UT was my dream school for a long time,” Nina De La Torre, third-year Ph.D. student @odeninstitute, said. “The CSEM program is perfect for me because it allows me to learn a large variety of topics and use mathematics to create computational models!”

Students with mobility disabilities may struggle to navigate campus, encountering inaccessible routes and other unpredictable challenges. Ishita Chitturi, second-year master’s student in information studies, is part of a team working to change that at @longhorndevelopers.

Having begun belly dancing as a teenager, Draconis von Trapp, second-year Ph.D. student in performance as public practice @uttadaustin @fineartsut, is now booked all over the world as not just a performer and teacher, but as a belly dance historian.

“When I was a child, my father used to make me recite Tang Dynasty poems,” Jessie Li, second-year @michenercenter fellow in fiction and poetry, said. “From those poems, I learned music and rhythm, form and precision. I attribute my love of words in part to that early experience.”