Alumni in the News

Off-Broadway shows "Dad Don't Read This" by Eliya Smith (M.F.A., Writing, 2025) and "Calf Scramble" by Libby Carr (B.A., Playwriting, 2021) featured in Playbill

July 27, 2026 | Playbill

With the success of John Proctor is the Villain, written by UT alumna Kimberly Belflower (M.F.A., Playwriting, 2017), stories that center teen girlhood are all the rage. 

Sophie Rossman, Kayta Thomas, Amalia Yoo, Renée-Nicole Powell in Dad Don't Read This Off-Broadway. (Valerie Terranova)

Altin Sencalar (B.M., Jazz Studies, 2017) named Downbeat Critics Poll Rising Star for second year

July 16, 2026 | DownBeat Magazine

Altin Sencalar was named a Downbeat Critics Poll Rising Star for 2 consecutive years. Sencalar also received a 4 Star review in the August 2026 edition putting his album in the Best of 2026 Jazz Albums.

Altin Sencalar

Bruce Radek (M.M., Percussion, 1980) wins awards for music video at two Italian film festivals

July 10, 2026 | Cinematix Film Festival

Radek's music video, Monday's Blues Dreaming of Tuesday Weld, has received awards at both the 2026 Palermo International Film Festival and the Cinematix Film Festival in Milan.

Bruce Radek

Alberto McKelligan Hernández (M.A., Art History, 2005) releases first book

June 30, 2026 | University of California Press

Alberto McKelligan Hernández has published his first book focused on Mexican art. I Want to Dance with You focuses on five contemporary Mexican women artists—Gina Arizpe, Melissa García, Nuria Montiel, Brenda Anayatzin Ortiz, and Laura Valencia—analyzing their artistic projects since the early 2000s as a response to escalations in the Mexican drug war, femicide, state-sanctioned violence and globalization. Employing the Red de Feminismos Descoloniales's concept of descolonización to examine the delegitimization of subjective knowledges as a means to uphold colonialism, capitalism, and patriarchy, Alberto McKelligan Hernández analyzes the work of these artists as a form of resistance against the state's authoritarian policies. He shows how these artists confront these social and state problems through innovative art projects that foster resistance and solidarity among Mexico's diverse communities and how their works collectively reimagine a more hopeful and egalitarian future for Mexico.

I want to dance with you book cover

Robert Honstein (B.A., Composition, 2004) releases new album

June 8, 2026 | Robert Honstein

Robert Honstein's new album, Horizon Line, releases on June 12, 2026 on New Focus Recordings. Featuring three compositions spanning a decade of creative work, the album reflects on his dual fascination with the string quartet and the concept of landscape. Featured collaborators include Mivos Quartet, Bergamot Quartet, percussionist Abby Fisher, violinists Alyssa Wang and Kiyoshi Hayashi, violist Beste Niknaz Modiri, and cellist Jacques Lee Wood.

Robert Honstein

Three Studio Art alumni earn artist residencies at Estudiosix in Austin

May 21, 2026 | Glasstire

Ariana Gomez (M.F.A., Studio Art, 2024), Matt Rebholz (M.F.A., Studio Art, 2008), Leah Shirley (M.F.A., Studio Art, 2022) were among nine artists who were a test cohort at the arts venue in Central Austin. Estudiosix has launched an open call for the next group of six-month artist residencies. 
Estudiosix exterior