Editors’ Note: This feature appears as it was published in the fall 2017 edition of UT Dallas Magazine. Titles or faculty members listed may have changed since that time.
Dr. Robert Xavier Rodríguez, chair in art and aesthetic studies, spoke to The Orange County Register about penning an opera devoted to Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. “I wanted to portray Frida as a fighter — someone who took all of this hardship and pain and turned it into her art,” he said. Rodríguez’s work, which premiered in 1991, has been performed throughout the United States and Europe, according to the Register. Additionally, a Spanish-language version has been staged in Mexico.
Dr. Kimberly Hill, assistant professor of history, spoke with The Dallas Morning News about the legacy of Juneteenth and its continuing relevance. Juneteenth marks the date of June 19, 1865, when the order that all slaves were to be freed was finally announced in Texas. “The real power of the holiday is in that people exercised that freedom to find their relatives and their loved ones and make sure that they could enjoy that freedom together,” Hill said. “It’s important as in remembering the significance of community and family ties.”
“Research shows that older workers are not as responsive to that younger boss because they feel he or she shouldn’t be in that position,” Dr. Orlando Richard, associate professor of management, told The New York Times. A study by Richard and other researchers examined how differences in experience and education can influence employees’ commitment to their organizations.
The Dallas Morning News took a look at the changing landscape for entrepreneurship, and Olia Bosovik BS’12 MBA’15, assistant director of the Venture Development Center, was asked for her 2 cents: “We have a lot of students from India, from China, from Southeast Asia, from the Middle East, and they make up a significant portion of our entrepreneurship body here. … My biggest observation has been: The more diverse set of skills and experiences you have, the more open you are to solving problems in innovative and different ways.”
Medicare and Medicaid have played a role in the rise of health care costs, according to Britt Berrett PhD’09, program director for healthcare administration in the Naveen Jindal School of Management. “When [they were] rolled into law, the average life expectancy was 60 — maybe 68 — so there was really no anticipation that those funds would ever expire,” Berrett said in an interview with KERA News. “Well, our life expectancy is now into the 80s, new technology is exploding, the complexity of health care is just enormous, and the cost for health care has escalated. It’s now $3 trillion; it’s 20 percent of the GDP.”
