By Megan R. Dagnall President Philip G. Hoffman oversaw critical reforms, most significantly the start of campus desegregation. Photo courtesy of Houstonian, 1975, University of Houston Libraries, Digital Collections. As one of the most ethnically diverse major research university in the United States, the University of Houston’s identity is intertwined with its varied, multicultural student […]
Archive | Communities
A Pioneer of Local Diversity: University of Houston’s Muslim Student Association
By Laura Mullis Brown UHMSA poses with their trophies after winning first place for the 2022-23 school year at the state-wide MSA Showdown. MSA organizations from across Texas compete in sports, Nasheed (singing), fashion, and more. Photo courtesy of UHMSA marketing coordinator Zuhayr Haq. If you visit the University of Houston’s Student Center South on […]
Agents of Change
Discover the latest issue of Houston History exploring people who have impacted the Houston community and beyond.
Burdette Keeland, Jr.: “The Bird” Who Built a Better Houston
By Robert Perla Ventura Known by his friends as ”Bird,” Keeland became one of Houston’s premier architects. Burdette Keeland, Jr. was a man as busy as they come. As an architect, professor, and chairperson of the Houston Planning Commission, Keeland was always working to better our city. A graduate of the University of Houston (UH) […]
The UH Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine: For the City
By Max Hosaka with Grace Conroy The University of Houston’s College of Medicine holds a white coat ceremony to welcome its first incoming class on August 8, 2020. All photos courtesy of the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine unless otherwise noted. Nestled just beyond downtown Houston sits “the largest medical city in the […]
Agents of Change: Celebrating Innovation at UH’s Centennial, A Collaborative Exhibit
By Mary Manning Graduate students in Dr. Monica Perales’s Research in Public History class search University of Houston archival records for exhibit items. These boxes represent a mere fraction of the physical and digital materials students considered over two semesters. Shown left to right, Stephon Boykin, Rahil Asgari, and Alec Story. Photo courtesy of Monica […]
Making Memories at Miller Outdoor Theatre: A Centennial of the Arts
By Samantha de León Miller Outdoor Theatre during a summer symphony night. All photos courtesy of Miller Outdoor Theatre. In February 1969, forty-six years after Miller Outdoor Theatre opened and a year after moving into its new facility, Houston Chronicle fine arts editor Ann Holmes questioned what was next for the outdoor amphitheater. Nestled in […]
A Place of Reinvention
By Marie-Theresa Hernández Pierced Heart by Daniel Galvez-Zuniga. The stained glass at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church carries intense symbolism with a heart pierced by a sword, bringing to mind church members and visitors who lived through enslavement, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow. In 2022, when University of Houston photography students from my World Cultures and Anthropology […]
Arte Público Press
By Aileen Mendoza Arte Público Press has become the largest publisher of U.S. Hispanic contemporary and recovered literature in the United States. All photo courtesy of Arte Público Press unless otherwise noted. “As a child, Nicolás Kanellos couldn’t find books that accurately portrayed his Hispanic heritage. As an adult, he sought out and published the […]
Nancy Sims and Katy Caldwell Talk on Political Junkies and Poodle Hair
By Max Ward Katy Caldwell, left, and Nancy Sims, right, celebrate Nancy’s thirtieth birthday together in 1989. The pair met while working on a political campaign in 1984. All photos courtesy of Nancy Sims and Katy Caldwell unless otherwise noted. Katy Caldwell and Nancy Sims both grew up in Houston in the 1960s. One was […]