Architectures of Disappearance: In Conversation with Contemporary Poets

19 Jan 2023
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By Honora Spicer

This past Fall, I was joined by Mellon Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP Student Research Fellows Rebekah Patnode and Tatiana Rodriguez in a series of conversations with contemporary poets and writers that formed part of a Commentary series in the Jacket2  journal of poetics.

Dead Flesh: House Bill 3979’s Murder of Our Stories

19 Jan 2023
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By Jazmine Janay Cuevas

"I found myself crying. I could hear my father’s voice telling me the story. And I guess I was sad. But I was also a little bit happy. He left me stories to tell. My dad had them. My mom had them. Stories were living inside us. I think we were born to tell our stories. After we died, our stories would survive. Maybe it was our stories that fed the universe the energy it needed to keep on giving life.

Maybe all we were meant to do on this earth was to keep telling stories. Our stories-and the stories of the people we loved."—Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World

Uncovering Historical Silences toward a Cageless Future

19 Jan 2023
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By Adam Heywood

As I traveled down I-10 East, making my way from El Paso, Texas, en route to Tarpon Springs, Florida, I came across several “welcoming” markers along the way. At a Mississippi welcome center, my eleven-year-old Mexican-American daughter and I took a quick picture next to the “welcome to Mississippi” sign.

Turquoise: Mineral, Currency, Talisman

19 Jan 2023
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By Jireh Nelson

For my current project with the Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP, I have been working with my two fellow team members, Faculty Fellow Professor Zoe Spiliotis and Undergraduate Research Fellow Ashley Garcia, to create a color palette representing El Paso, Texas.  Much of my research has focused on the indigenous groups that have lived in and around the El Paso area and the Borderland for centuries.

Humanities Advising during Quarantine: What's Learned, What’s Still Being Learned

19 Jan 2023
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By Aarin Walston

In the fall of 2019, I began training to become an advisor for the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) Department of English. Under the guidance of former Department of English student advisor and current Director of Rhetoric and Writing Studies Dr. Levi Martin, I was introduced to the many aspects of degree plans, policies, and software that I was expected to use and understand to help students