Departmental Digital Humanities Project, the End of Austin, Named One of Austin's Best Publications by the Austin Chronicle

Every year, The Austin Chronicle, an independent weekly publication, solicits readers’ and critics’ assessments of Austin’s best institutions from bars to swimming holes. This year, the publication listed the Department of American Studies’ own digital magazine The End of Austin as one of 2014’s best publications, naming it the “Best Place to Rise Above the Old Austin vs. New Austin Fray.”

“The End of Austin shows American Studies is reaching beyond the walls of UT and having an impact,” says Randolph Lewis, a professor who edits the online publication with a great team of American Studies students. "With more than 80,000 views from around the world and a ‘Best Media’ award from the Austin Chronicle, The End of Austin has clearly struck a chord with people who are eager to think about the past, present, and future of our city."

In celebrating the work of the American Studies professors, graduate students, and undergrads who have contribute to the site alongside writers and artists from elsewhere in the United States and Europe, The Chronicle described The End of Austin as an “engaging mélange of written and visual material devoted to our city's anxiety about itself.”

“Not bad for a class project that evolved into something we do on annual budget of $100,” says Prof. Lewis, who is hopeful about the ability for the project to grow in the years ahead. “We live in the fastest growing city in the US,” he says. “We desperately need to have a place where we reflect on the nature of that growth. Without such reflection, Austin could become just another sunbelt city, instead of the vibrant city that so many people love.”

The End of Austin was founded in Fall 2011 as a pilot project within Prof. Lewis’s “Documenting America” graduate seminar. The site relaunched as an extracurricular digital humanities project in Winter 2013 and will publish its sixth issue in Winter 2015.