Megan Little's Instructor Page

My major is communications studies but I want to switch to journalism. I have taken classes such as culture classes, french classes, communications classes. I don't have a lot of experience in reading literature since I don't get to read that much.

Hey Everyone...My name is Corbin Rayburn and I am a senior here at UT. This is my only third full year here because I transferred from UNLV (Las Vegas) after getting hurt playing baseball. My major is government as well with a minor in business. To be completley honest I havent done much reading as of lately, but expect to very soon..probably about right now. With my GOV major I want to go back to D.C. where I can put my time in on Capitol Hill and hopefully soon become a lobbyist or somewhere in a private sector.
The last book that I read was "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey, which I was throughly interested in his life stories. The last paper I had to write was for mine Russia class which I did very well on.
Right now I work for the Sergeant of Arms at the Capitol so you might be seeing me come to class in a suite and tie so be ready for that. I am very excited about this class and I will see you soon

My major here at UT is Retail Merchandising, which strangely enough is in the Natural Sciences College. I would have thought that it was in the business school; apparently not. So I take many chemistry and biology classes due to this fact. My favorite classes though are my textiles classes, and right now I’m in a visual merchandising class, which will be fun. I like arranging things and trying to make a room or objects look better in general. That is probably what I would want to do for a career as well. Either become a buyer for Neiman Marcus or a visual merchandiser, who comes into stores and rearranges things to make it more appealing to draw customers. As far as literature is concerned, I would have to say that high school was the last time I had a significant load of literature or reading courses. I usually don’t read for fun, and as for ethnography is concerned, I have had little experience.
My favorite author is probably J.K. Rowling. I feel childish in saying this, but I just enjoy her style. The Harry Potter series is enjoyable, and I love how over the course of the novels one learns to love the characters, and how I could personally sympathize with their struggles. My favorite book for school reading was Lord of the Flies. I like how that really dives into the human psyche. The last book I have read is Breaking Dawn, by Stephanie Meyer. This is also an enjoyable series that Meyer has created.
My writing usually takes the form of journal writing. I try to write down major or important experiences in my life so I can always go back and keep track of how I have personally grown. I would have to say that is what I generally feel good about due to the genuine nature of the entry.
Many people don’t know this about me, but I never sleep. I frequently pull all-nighters and when I attempt to go to bed, I remain awake for hours before I can finally crash. But when I do sleep, I walk and have conversations with other people in the room that I have no recollection of the next morning. It’s slightly weird.

Hey everyone, My name is Kaylen! I am in my third year here at Texas and still pretty unsure with what my plans are right now! I am the most indecisive person. I am currently an Education major, after changing majors for the third time and I've completed my minor in Spanish. I've taken all kinds of classes since I've been here. I really enjoy English, Writing and definitely foreign language, but I absolutely despise anything with numbers. I stay away from almost all science and math. Which is why I'm exploring other classes, such as this one. I don't have any experience with ethnography, but I took Cultural Anthropolgy last spring and enjoyed it so I decided to try this one out. I am just a really laid back girl, which is another reason why I haven't completely decided on a major. I'm real easy going. I balance out my school and fun pretty well. I don't know who my favorite author is. Embarassing to admit, but if I had to choose at this moment it would probably be a children's author. I just took Children's Literature last semester and got obsessed with reading kid's books. It was awesome. The last book I read was the Perks of Being a Wallflower written by Stephen Chbosky. It was a recommended read from one of my close friends. So I took it on a trip to Florida to read on the beach. I like to write. Lately, Ive become more fascinated with getting mail. Besides the cheesy 'Thinking of You' cards I get from my mother and grandparents, I like to get actual letters. So the last thing I've written that I am proud of was probably the letter I wrote last week to my good friend from highschool, Brandon, who is currently in the infantry overseas. I felt like my mother when I purchased the silly card and list of random fun toys and such and packaged them up to mail him, but I loved sitting down and writing the 4 page letter. (That sounds intense but their mail takes 2 weeks..so I had to make it long!) But I can't wait to hear back from him and write another letter! I guess something little known about me is that I'm obsessed with singing, and am probably the WORST singer in the world. I lose my voice on days when I just talk more than usual. It's constantly raspy, and no I don't smoke cigarettes! But you can imagine how bad it sounds when I'm singing. Something few of you will probably know is that there is American Idol videogame on Playstation, which of course I had to have. In the end, my next door neighbors moved out mid-semester. So the game has since been retired. But, that's just a little about me and I'm looking forward to the semester and getting to know everyone!

Hi all, I'm Samantha Owens and I am double-majoring in Anthropology and Art History, with a minor in Nutrition. The language I've studied throughout my college career has been Ancient Greek which I am pleased to say that I am absolutely addicted to. Ever since I was a wee tot I've been obsessed with Greek culture and am now intrigued by the way food has shaped the country's culture throughout the past thousand years or so and would like to continue studying the relationship between Greek food and it's people at the graduate level. I've taken many major-focused courses and my favorites would have to be those focused in Classics as well as western Africa. Outside of school, I study out of fascination the idea of modern vampires, especially psychic vampires.
Although I immensely enjoy reading I'm not sure I would say that I have a favorite book. The last few books that I loved include The Master and Margarita, Parasites Like Us, and The Life of Insects. The first and latter are written by Russian authors, which I would definitely say are my favorites because they write with effortless romanticism, while Parasites like Us is a book written about an anthropologist finding his way back to science and understanding that the relationships between the people he is connected to are just as important as those of the one's he studies, which I think is an important concept for everyone. I do like to write although I wouldn't say I write often. In high school, I was such an angsty little teenager and wrote loads of poems as an outlet for my feelings like pretty much every teenager did, but I did feel validated when I won a couple of awards for my poems. I haven't written anything lately I would consider proud of though.
A semi-peculiar thing about me is that although I may seem like a super girly-girl and your stereotypical sororititute, I love gory movies and have the most profound appreciation for dirty jokes that often surprises even my closest friends. And by appreciation, I mean I am very immature and will probably say things aloud I should have kept to myself.

Hi everyone. I am working towards my Bachelor's of Science in Mathematics at the moment. I have taken a multitude of math classes ranging from calculus and advanced applications of calculus to discrete mathematics and real analysis. I read quite a bit, but it is normally not classics or anything that intellectually stimulating. I enjoy books for pleasure mostly. I took advanced placement classes in high school and made good enough grades on the tests that I did not have to take any english classes at UT yet, so this will be my first experience with that. I have no experience with ethnography at all, but hopefully it will prove to be something I will enjoy. I don't really care what sort of career I end up with as long as it is something that makes enough money for me to get by. I will probably end up sitting in a cubicle somewhere crunching numbers and that is just fine with me.

My favorite author author is definitely Terry Pratchett. He writes humorous fantasy novels about a planet he calls Discworld. I really enjoy them because he has a dark sense of humor and he likes to poke fun at different styles of politics and government. The last book I enjoyed reading was called "Good Omens" and was written by Terry Pratchett. It made fun of the apocalypse in several ways and joked about every religions beliefs about what will happen in the end days. I have never really enjoyed writing very much. I have always been pretty brief and to the point with my writing. I'm not sure what the last thing I "felt good" about writing has been, but it was probably one of my AP essays. Possible one for geography where I had to write on the impact of having chickens.

An interesting fact about me would be that I love video games. I recently got Call of Duty 4 and have been playing quite a bit online. If anyone would like to play with me, my gamertag is dallasdean.

My name is Laura Jesson, and I am pleased to make all of your acquaintance! My last name isn't Jensen or Jetson, though. I just thought I'd clarify because sometimes people get confused. I don’t have the same last name as the cartoon family.
I am here at U.T. to pursue a music performance major. I play viola and am addicted to playing music. I can't stop! I enjoy it so much. My dream is to play in a professional orchestra some day. However, I have many other interests in addition to my love of music, including, reading, writing, foreign languages, history, exercise, and I love cats! I also enjoy finding out about a variety of other subjects even though I can’t study them extensively, such as, psychology, science, communication, society and many other topics. Basically, I love to indulge myself in the education of my interests and also in the interests that others have. I find the unique connections between different people and their interests fascinating.
I confess that I have had little or no experience with anthropology or ethnography. I have been curious to what these studies are about, although now, after the first meeting of class, I have a slightly better idea of the context of these fields than before. I look forward to broadening the scope of my knowledge. I did take two literature courses in high school, one of which was world literature and the other, American. These I enjoyed immensely, although I wish more material could have been covered. I am always curious about what wasn’t taught in class.
My favorite authors include C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as their books are among my most beloved. I’ve read “The Chronicles of Narnia” series many times and just this last year, finished “The Lord of the Rings” series (in which I must include The Hobbit,) all of which I thoroughly enjoyed. Tolkien’s story-telling is completely amazing. It leaves me speechless. However, the book that I most love, respect, and learn from is the Bible. I read it every day and I will never stop cherishing and benefiting from its wisdom.
The kind of writing that I most enjoy doing is similar to the books that entertain me. I love creating fantasy stories that can transport the reader into another world. Most of my writings are in short story form although it’s been a while since I had the inspiration or time to indulge myself. Recently, I’ve begun a journal in which I write my thoughts, prayers, and Bible verses. Once I entered a writing contest at the local library where we were instructed to finish a story started by Lemony Snicket. My only struggle was containing myself to a certain limit of lines! My creativity was rewarded when I received a prize.
What people do not know about me is that when I was younger, it was a favorite past-time of mine to build and play with Legos. I sent in various pictures of the creations that I had built and one day they published my picture in the Lego magazine. Feel free to ask me for an autographed copy.
I apologize that this has been such long introduction. It was not my intention to bore you all. I try to be as specific as I can and sometimes that leads to me being long-winded. However, I cannot wait to discuss life in this class and get to know you all better. May we become better people through the edification that we gain from one another.

Hello all,

I am finishing up my last year at UT with a degree in Cell and Molecular Biology and will be going to medical school next year. It is probably obvious from the degree but I have taken a whole lot of science classes and not much else – in fact, this will be only the second English class I have taken at college (which is kind of sad). Along those lines I have very limited experience reading literature or ethnography. I mean I have read some books for fun but I doubt the books are what one would call ‘literature’ – more just casual reads.

I do not really have a favorite author because I like to read books from a variety of different authors on a lot of different subjects, mainly non-fiction books. The last book I read was “Collapse” by Jared Diamond. The book looks at different past cultures (the Easter Island Polynesians, the Mayans, etc.) and discusses why they collapsed based on the archeological and scientific evidence present. I have also recently read “Freakonomics” and “The World is Flat”. I have never really written anything except for the essays I had to write for the other English class I had to take. The last thing I wrote that I was proud of is the research proposal I wrote to get funding for a research project I designed.

Outside of school, I like to play sports and am very involved with intramural sports – I will play on 4 different intramural teams this semester alone. One of the interesting things about me is that I love to play squash, which is a sport most people have never heard of. It is similar to racquetball except that the court is a little smaller and the ball is smaller and heavier, meaning it bounces less. I would definitely recommend trying it if you enjoy racquetball.

Hello there,
I just graduated from Idyllwild Arts Academy high school isolated on the San Jacinto mountain range of southern California. It was a beautiful experience. It is a place for high school students to focus on their art along with academics and where I was able to pursue my love for music as a violist more seriously than before. I understand how it may give the impression of a place where pretentious artists go to dwell in their art together, but I can assure you that many were there because of their true passion and love for their particular art whether they were good or bad at it. Not to say that there were not any arrogantly proud wealthy kids there who probably did not get scholarship to be there and oblivious to what a privilege it was to be there. However, I have a feeling that we deal with people like that everywhere. Plus, we made up for that by having picnics on the rocky points of the mountain listening to music and doing art, adventuring through the mountains and walking barefoot through the small hippie town of Idyllwild drumming on random instruments. I am sorry to be rambling on about this place, but while not everything about living at a school on a mountain was glamorous, I feel that with describing some of my memories from this place, it indirectly says a lot about me.
It has actually been quite overwhelming to start college life at such a huge school. I am happy to be here at UT nonetheless, sometimes I just wonder where the kids I would have more common interests with are hiding. I am sure that as I get more into the swing of the life here, I will encounter even more people I can relate with. For now, I am looking forward to all the opportunities here. I got accepted as a Performance major, but I am most likely going to be switching into a Bachelor in the Arts major in the hopes of enhancing my music foundation as well as doing something else non-musical. I just do not know exactly what that something else is yet. I am very intrigued by anthropology, philosophy and psychology, which I understand are mostly distinct and broad subjects. I just have a secret hope that I will find a way to incorporate ideas from these topics with music and ethnomusicology into a career. I suppose I am at the very beginning stages of defining what exactly it is that I want to do with my life.
I am also particularly interested in the ideas behind Ethnomusicology. Ethnomusicology is the study of music through all cultures. It is essentially the ethnography and anthropology of music. I am so very grateful for the fact that culture exists in the world. I myself am originally half Puerto Rican and half Ecuadorian. Sometimes I wish that I had a Spanish accent. While it was my first language, I do not have an accent, and would only want one not because some would find it an attractive trait, but because it would represent my heritage in a way.
I do love to read, but I also must admit that I have never been much of a writer. I have yet to discover more about the literature world as well, which I am sure this course will help me explore. I definitely read a variety from J.D. Salinger, Ginsberg, Herman Hesse, John K. Toole, Patrik Suskind, Robert Bolano (“The Savage Detectives” overwhelming in a good way and one of my favorites) and of course more. And what may be a silly habit that I cannot live without, is my occasional enjoyment of a children's book. A particular favorite of mine is the complete story of “The Jungle Book,” by Rudyard Kipling.
The last book (well, more like an open journal) I thoroughly enjoyed reading was “Dan Eldon: The Art of Life.” It is the biography of Dan Eldon, a journalist who was stoned to death in Somalia. Incredible read and overview of his work, because he specialized not only in journalism but making collages of his travels. I am in love with the guy, not literally, but in the sense that he is very inspiring. A friend of mine just gave me a book that displays all of his artwork and it is simply beautiful.
The last thing I wrote that I am actually a little bit proud of is a letter to a friend of mine in California. I love writing letters. Letters are sunshine. While they may not always involve a formal style of writing, I feel that it is a good way to express the self.
Lastly, rather than a particularly interesting and more of a mere fact about myself is that I am in a local band here in Austin called “Mother Falcon.” We are a group of about ten musicians including four cellists, a bass, violin, viola, mandolin, saxophone, guitar and vocals. I adore the group and I love music. I love it so much that as a friend once said, “I think I even tasted music once, and it was like a bite of a blueberry muffin.”

Hello All,

My name is Joe Nathan Anderson Jr. and I am a Youth and Community Studies major from the College of Education. After graduation I have plans to go to graduate school and pursue a Master's in Higher Education with an emphasis on Student Affairs. After I finish, I hope to get a job at a college/university, maybe even UT. I came to UT as a Pre-Athletic Training major but decided that wasn't for me after a biology class. After making the switch to my current major, I've had the opportunity to take education courses like, Socio-Cultural Influences on Learning, Adolescent Development, Individual Differences, and the African American in Sport. For the most part I like to take different electives within the AFR department because I really like learning about my culture. This semester I'm taking courses like The Black Power Movement, Race and the Criminal Justice System, and Race, Sport, and Identity. I'm really excited about them. As far as reading literature goes, I read a lot, but for the most part it's African American fiction. I have read some other authors, but I didn't really get into it. In regards, to ethnography, I don't think I have any experience. I may have done so without even knowing it.

I read and write all the time, more so in the summer than in the fall and spring. The last thing I wrote that I felt really good about was my book, The Diary of a Sinner. I've been working on it for about a year and a half now and I am so proud of myself for finishing it. It took a lot out of me. The last book I enjoyed reading was Just Too Good to Be True, by E. Lynn Harris. He is one of my favorite authors so any book that he comes out with, I make sure to get. He has a way with storytelling that makes me feel like I'm watching a movie in my mind.

I feel that I have a lot of peculiar things about me, but one thing in particular that no one knows about me is that I name all of my cell phones and handheld electronic devices. I call them my children and as of now I have four with one on the way.

I’m majoring in anthropology, and choosing a specific area of interest within such a vast discipline is not an easy task. The potentialities are endless. The human body interests me as an organism, but excites me as an actor. I’m much more curious about the things that people do, rather than the things that people are. But then again, the things that people do are often consequences of the things that people are, so I’m not sure it’s possible to separate the two. Either way, I’d rather talk about day-to-day life than kick around statistics and hypotheses about primate behavior and hominid craniums. That being said, I’ve decided to stick to the cultural side of anthropology. So, instead of an aspiring anthropologist, now I’m an aspiring cultural anthropologist. This only narrows the potentialities down a bit. Now geographic areas must be taken into consideration. I could be interested in Eastern Europe, but I don’t know a whole lot about it, so I’m really not sure. Several countries in Latin America seem like fascinating places, but the Latin American anthropology I’ve been introduced to isn’t the kind of anthropology that I’d like to do or study. I realize that I don’t necessarily have to follow in the footsteps of my predecessors, but choosing an area of interest is also choosing to become part of a particular academic community, and I doubt that I possess the necessary groundbreaking ideas and charisma to overhaul an entire subfield of anthropology. So instead, I’ve decided to devote my time and mental energy to Japan, which I’ve shown a lifelong interest in. Still, I’ve never actually been to Japan. Sure, I’ve read some books and seen some movies about it, but books and movies only provide ideas of experience, not actual experience. How can I really know if I’m going to like something until I’ve experienced it firsthand? Unfortunately, I don’t have the time or money to go around experiencing everything that strikes my fancy, so I’ve chosen a path in hopes that it’s the right one. In short, I think I want to be a cultural anthropologist and do fieldwork in Japan, which entails going to graduate school and eventually being employed by a university. Right now, I’m enrolled in first-year Japanese language and anthropology of Japanese religion classes. At this point, I feel confident that I’m not going to change my mind.

As far as experience reading literature goes, I guess I have some, but I’m not clear on the requirements a piece of writing must meet in order to be considered “literature.” When I think of “literature,” I think of classics, like Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, and Faulkner, none of which I am too familiar with. When I was in high school I read a lot of contemporary fiction by authors like David Sedaris, Douglas Coupland, and Arthur Nersesian. Lately I’ve been making a more conscious attempt to read classics. Right now I’m reading “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. As an anthropology student I have a little bit of experience reading ethnography. I just finished Ruth Benedict’s “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword,” which is pretty outdated, but an interesting read nonetheless. Choosing a favorite writer isn’t easy, but I guess I have to go with Lewis Nordan. I’ve only read two of his books, “Music of the Swamp” and “Sharpshooter Blues,” but I loved both of them. The books are set in the Deep South and full of really strange, vivid imagery that at times made me feel sick to my stomach, in a good way. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Gummo,” imagine it as a slightly less eccentric book, and you’ll have something similar to Lewis Nordan. Also—I don’t read them much anymore—but I love fairytales, especially Peter Pan and anything by Roald Dahl.

I do like to write, but I don’t do it enough. Lately, I only write for school. I used to write a lot more. The last thing I wrote that I feel proud of is probably a poem called “Summer, 1997,” describing an eleven-year-old me spending my summer fantasizing about falling in love with Laura Ingalls Wilder, which leads me to a peculiar fact about myself; I read almost every “Little House on the Prairie” book by the time I was eleven. Even worse, I was really fat when I did it. As if being the fat kid wasn’t harmful enough to my reputation, I had to go and seal my fate by openly dabbling in Laura Ingalls Wilder. Actually, I guess I did more than dabble. I might as well have worn a gingham bonnet and wandered around town with a pot-belly pig on a leash. I’d like to think I’m a different person now.

Hello all!

I am an Anthropology major, which means I've studied everything from comparative primate anatomy, the evolution of humans and their ancestors by studying the fossil record, and language and meaning. However, my focus of late has been on cultural anthropology. The list of those class goes on and on, but my favorites include the Midnight Sun People (a class on the indigenous people of the netherlands), Right and Autonomy of Indigenous People of Mexico, and Cultures in Contact (a class focusing on the interactions of Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans as they met in North America).

I have a pretty good foundation in reading literature. Aside from loving to read in my spare time, I will have taken enough Lit classes to minor in English. My actual minor is Spanish, which I have taken Lit classes in as well.

My experience with ethnography is limited in that I'm not sure exactly what it is. That is part of the reason I wanted to take this course. I know that sounds pretty silly considering I'm an Anthro major, but the word itself has surfaced little in my classes.

As far as scholarly and careers goals go, I am baffled. I graduate this fall, but I have put off deciding what I want to be when I grow up by joining a program called WorldTeach. I will be teaching English and living with a family in Costa Rica for a year. After that, I might decide to teach full time. Only time will tell.

My favorite author by far is Jane Austen. I've read all of her books at least once, most of them twice, and my favorites three or more times. I haven't yet read her letters, but that is the next part of my Jane Austen Journey.

The last book that I greatly enjoyed reading was The Ice Queen by Ann Hoffman. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good story with some fantastic elements. It's a quick read but still very powerful.

I love to write. There are a couple of things I feel good about writing. All summer I worked on a lesson plan for UTeach Outreach (where I work) to teach fifth graders about light. Before that I submitted a story to Otis College's literary magazine, which they published. That's been one of the most thrilling experience of my life!

Finally, something peculiar . . . Lawrence really shouldn't be my last name. My great-great grandfather changed his name from Samson to Lawrence when he moved to America. You're thinking, not so peculiar, but the reason he changed it is. When he was a teenager he left his family to join the circus and became an elephant tamer. I'm not joking. I've got the documents to prove it. He tamed Lawrence elephants, and so he adopted the name Lawrence for himself and his descendants.

This is my last semester at the University of Texas and I am doubling in Economics and French. Before coming to Texas, I spent my first semester as a freshman at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, surrounded by nothing but cornfields. I have taken many classes relating to economics, international finance, french, and really whatever interests me. I will be graduating early this December and taking a semester off to study abroad in China. My family is from China but I'm about as illiterate as it gets when it comes to Chinese, so I will hopefully be learning a thing or two over there. After China I hope to start law school next fall; I'm not sure yet if I want to go up North or stay here in the comforts of Texas.

My repertoire of literature is pretty minimal in terms of what I have studied in college. I have taken British literature and some French literature courses. I do; however, love to indulge in good mystery novels, anything by C.S. Lewis, and of course I am a loyal Harry Potter fan. The last book I read was Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge, and I drew a lot of new thoughts and perspectives after reading the book. I am currently working on my personal statement for law school and it has been a long, trying, but revealing journey. I loathe writing personal statements because I feel highly limited as it is asking me to summarize myself in "two pages or less" and be the present myself with the least humility I can manage. Nevertheless, it has been an interesting experience trying to express myself in this essay, please feel free to give me any advice if you're skilled in the personal statements department!

An interesting fact about me is that my family currently lives in the Netherlands so I get to spend every summer and winter visiting them. In fact I just got back from a visit so I am still suffering from jetlag. Something peculiar about me is that I despise feet, more specifically, toes. My roommates joke that if I one day stop being a good friend, that they will stuff me in a box, poke holes in it, and poke me with their toes.

Hi Class,

I'm a rhetoric emphasis (which means I study argument), and my interests lie in doing ethnographic study of argument. I like to be involved as groups deal with the choices that rhetorical arguments entail, especially in terms of debates around identity politics, which means how groups rally around a specific identity trait (gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, etc). I was a literature major as an undergrad. As a grad student, I take classes in rhetoric and anthropology. What I like to read for leisure (when I have any time) changes. Right now, I'm into experimental women's literature and science fiction. Any recommendations? I also read any ethnography I can get my hands on that deals with gender, identity, sexuality, argument, and conflict. Anthropology majors: what should I read? After I get a PhD, I hope to teach and write for a living.

My favorite author right now is Connie Willis. She writes popular, feminist science fiction, but with a great deal of literary flair. I'd encourage you to read To Say Nothing of the Dog or Doomsday Book. I love to write--it's the best kind of creativity to me--creativity within constraints. I feel good about a paper I just wrote for my dissertation this summer, but I am terrified to hear back from my advisers.

What's interesting/curious: I like to steal plants. I like to dig them up and liberate them from square planters in suburban strip malls. I want to give them new homes in my backyard. Agaves and prickly pear cacti are my recent refugees. Also, I've seen the band The Cramps perform over 20 times. What's peculiar about this is, it's not that I think the music is so great. I enjoy the spectacle of the event, which, in my opinion, is hard to beat.