The Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin gives out about 50 fellowships each year to post-doctorates and independent scholars for research projects "in all areas of the humanities." The funding includes a handsome $3,000 monthly stipend (up to 4 months), plus travel stipends. Applications are now being accepted; the deadline is February 2, 2009. HRC also notes that priority goes to proposals that incorporate the Center's collections, so you'd do well to take a stroll......

The Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin today announced two impressive acquisitions to its already massive collection: letters from cherished American playwright Tennessee Williams and equally cherished American novelist John Steinbeck....

As briefly mentioned in yesterday's Extra Extra, a student at UT now faces a third-degree felony charge after making terroristic threats. 20-year-old Justin Levi McCelvey, a self-described Spurs fan (based off a now-deleted Myspace account), was overheard bemoaning that he "wished he could go into a classroom and shoot everybody," and "blow up this campus and blow up Austin" ... "Virginia Tech style." A fellow student relayed his comments to university counselors, who in turn......

For the third time this month, a student was held up at gunpoint by a man described as standing approximately 6 feet tall with a "medium to muscular build." In each case, the assailant donned a mask and gloves. More disturbingly, the suspect thus far seems to be solely targeting Asian students. ...

Photos by Steve Hopson. If you can't view the Flash slideshow above, an alternate version appears after the jump.......

Ranger flexes its muscles by simulating the "rising temperature plume within the Earth’s mantle." By Rhea Group (Carsten Burstedde, Omar Ghattas, Georg Stadler, Tiankai Tu, Lucas Wilcox), in collaboration with George Biros (Penn), Michael Gurnis (Caltech), and Shijie Zhong (Colorado)At the beginning of this month, the world's most powerful supercomputer for open scientific research officially went online at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at UT Austin. Dubbed "Ranger," the high performance computing (HPC) system......

Photo by Steve Hopson for Austinist.com “And among the people whom I got to know, who became not only friends, but heroes, were Barbara Jordan, who taught me a lot about courage, and today would actually be her birthday. I remember all the time about how she got up every single morning, facing almost insurmountable odds, to do what she did. And another was my great friend Ann Richards, who taught me so much about......

Photo by Allen Y ChenFrom 7-8:30pm tonight, Austinist live-blogged from the CNN/Univision debate hall. Check it out after the jump, and while you're at it, check out our friends at The Economist, who also live-blogged from here.......

Photo by Steve Hopson for Austinist.com For those who are watching from home but don't have access to CNN, local PBS affiliate KLRU will be airing the debate on tape-delay, starting at 9pm DailyKos has an informative rundown of each democratic candidate's proposed legislation and their record in the Senate (thanks, MikeB) Chelsea Clinton will speak at ACC’s South Austin Campus tomorrow morning at 9:45am. The event is free and open to the public Senator......

Mayor Will Wynn issued the following address to the estimated 400 press and party-affiliated people coming into town for tonight's festivities: "Tonight we're honored to witness a great contest of ideas -- truly, the democratic process at its best. When the debate is done, each of us will take time to reflect on the solemn decision that lies before us... Will it be Tex-Mex or BBQ?!!! As the Mayor of this great city, it is......

Austinist photographer Steve Hopson previewed the UT Rec Center, site of tomorrow night's debate. If you can't view the Flash slideshow above, an alternate version appears after the jump.......

Photo from the Austin History Center archives Since so many of you wrote in asking about places to watch the Democratic Presidential Debate, we went ahead and called around town. Below are your best options if you missed out on the Alamo's watch parties or the Texas Democrats' party—both are now sold out. We still recommend calling ahead to make sure the folks below haven't changed their minds, and feel free to share any that......

Photo from Obama’s rally at The Backyard by Romain Nayalkar for Austinist.comWith all eyes focused on Texas and what could well prove to be a kingmaking March 4 primary, the statewide political machine has kicked into full gear. Whether it's a happy hour, camp out, or fundraising poker tournament, there's something going on just about every day of the week for Obama or Clinton supporters. Even those still rooting for under-underdog Ron Paul have something......

CNN today announced that Campbell Brown, NBC News' White House correspondent during President George W. Bush's first term and host of a new prime-time news program that's set to debut this month, will anchor next Thursday's debate. CNN chief national correspondent John King and Univision anchor Jorge Ramos will serve as panelists asking questions of the candidates during the debate....

If you'd been holding out hope to attend next week's historic Presidential Debate at UT Austin, you're in luck! Make that a tiny bit of luck....

Not one to let politicians bogart the limelight, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is coming to UT Austin next Wednesday, February 20, for a special student- and faculty-only lecture....

Meanwhile, both Obama and Clinton are pulling out all the stops to appeal to our state's Hispanic population, which account for as much as 25% of Texas' eligible voters, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Obama today launched a Spanish radio ad (mp3) stressing his humble working-class roots. Each campaign is also spending upwards of $1 million on TV ads that began running this week....

UT Austin dropped from its much-heralded top spot in this year's rankings of the country's Best Party Schools, published in The Princeton Review's annual "Best Colleges" survey. Based on input from over 120,000 students across the nation, the rankings are a decent barometer of general public opinion among the notoriously fickle college set. Students were asked to rate universities based on "use of alcohol and drugs, hours of study each day, and the popularity......

UT Austin professor receives national award for "distinguished service to education in librarianship" A kid in South Austin gets an explosive reaction after he attempts to use real bullet in toy gun Hurricane Dean looks like it's heading to Mexico, but FEMA says Texans should still look out A Dallas man allegedly murders his mother, keeps her decomposing body in the house for days until neighbors complain about "a stench" Austinite Lynne Smith successfully swims......

Newsweek ranks UT Austin as "Hottest for Saving America's Schools" A woman dies while tubing on the Blanco River Sunday night Keith Williams, 33, and Charkora Gentry, 31, attempt to steal brisket from an H-E-B, end up kicking a store employee in the back The good news: Karl Rove is resigning. The bad news: he's moving back to Texas. Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Central Texas are searching for a few good male mentors Former......

Overweight girls are half as likely to go to college as non-overweight girls, claims a sociology professor at UT Austin. In a new report published in this month's Sociology of Education journal, associate professor Robert Crosnoe goes on to say that obese girls are even less likely to enter college if they've attended a high school where obesity is uncommon, suggesting that this disparity may be caused by various mental health and behavioral issues. Furthermore,......

In observation of July's "Watch Your Car" month, Austin Police Department is offering free vehicle identification number (VIN) etching services this week. It's a minor deterrant for would-be car thieves, and could possibly lower your auto insurance payments. Not too shabby. From APD:All vehicles have a federally assigned vehicle identification numbers (VIN). The etching of a VIN on the windows of a vehicle deters thieves because it is more difficult to dispose of property that......

KLRU-TV will be taping an episode of Austin City Limits this Friday, June 29, featuring Austin's instrumental rock trio Explosions in the Sky. If you've been wanting to check 'em out in a small, intimate setting, this is your perfect chance. Tomorrow afternoon at 5:30pm, a (very) limited quantity of space-available tickets will be distributed at KLRU's studios, located in the Communications Building B at the University of Texas. These are strictly first-come, first-served and......

One of Austin's best-known solo performers is back in town. Through June 16th, Rob Nash performs College Freshman Year Sucks at the Vortex. His immensely successful shows feature him playing various characters inspired by his parochial, Texas upbringing. Continuing our monthly series on comedy performers, we talk to Rob about keeping characters straight, Lily Tomlin and the quality of a certain prop comedian's stash. How long have you been doing solo shows? Twenty years......

Austin's Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) initiative, which will attempt to better integrate public transportation with mixed-use communities, is being implemented all around town. As this will affect a large majority of those living in or around the urban core, the City of Austin is reaching out to the public by hosting another series of discussion and forum sessions. Tomorrow afternoon, city officials and national planning consultants will present their vision of TOD, as well as......

The University of Texas Creative Writing Program has a reputation for scoring amazing, talented writers and poets as visiting professors. The good news for the average Austinite is that these "visitors" will usually give a public reading at some point during their semester-long stay. Tonight poet and UT visiting professor Jill Alexander Essbaum will be busting rhymes -for free!- in the Harry Ransom Center's Tom Lea Rooms. A former Austin resident currently sporting a Swiss......

Spring Break is over and the students at The University of Texas have reclaimed their city--things are slowly coming back together. However, before the break, one would assume that these future leaders of tomorrow would have saved up their energy for a vacation to Cancun, a road trip to Florida or, god forbid, staying in town for that music festival that you only gets you a wristband tanline. But just months, weeks and days......

Reformed hard-partying first daughter and UT Austin grad Jenna Bush has just signed to HarperCollins to publish what's being billed as a "young-adult, narrative non-fiction project." Though having spent less than half a year as an intern with UNICEF's Educational Policy department in South America, the former elementary school teacher found inspiration in the children of Central and South America. She now teaches at a shelter in Panama. "These young people have faced extreme hardships......

Brothers Albert and Peter Kottke were on the last leg of a backpacking trip in Gila National Forest when they happened upon a woman stuck in the wilderness, visibly weakened and alone. It turns out that this woman, 52-year-old Carolyn Dorn, had been wandering around the 3.3-million acre forest for the past five weeks, after being trapped on the wrong side of Gila River during what was supposed to be a two-week-long camping expedition. A......

Classes have ended at The University of Texas and winter is finally here, the time when girls trade short skirts for sweatpants and guys replace short-sleeve UT shirts with long-sleeve UT shirts. For the students at UT Austin, it's been a pretty tough year. West Campus construction has kept them up all night, their football team choked, APD won't let them party as hard, and now, starting tomorrow, it's final exam time. Where do......