A Powerful Evening at UT Austin on the 'Censored University': The Legendary Nikole Hannah-Jones and Truth-Telling, by Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

A Powerful Evening at UT Austin on the 'Censored University': Nikole Hannah-Jones and Truth-Telling

by

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

March 11, 2026

In an event sponsored by the Department of Mexican American and Latino Studies and the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, the Bass Lecture Hall at the LBJ School for Public Affairs was jam packed yesterday evening as students, faculty, and community members gathered for an extraordinary conversation about history, democracy, and the responsibility of truth-telling in our time. You may scroll down to view the recording.

Jonathan Friedman, Cameron Samuels, and
Nikole Hannah-Jones

We were honored to welcome Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of The 1619 Project, whose work has profoundly reshaped public understanding of the United States by centering the legacy of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans to the nation’s democratic ideals. Hers is the only book mentioned in Texas law that is weirdly all but censored. It's an honest history and I encourage all to read it. The audiobook version is excellent!

At a moment when honest conversations about history are increasingly contested, Hannah-Jones reminded us that democracy depends not on comforting myths but on our collective willingness to confront the past with clarity, courage, and intellectual integrity.

The evening also highlighted the power of intergenerational dialogue. Cameron Samuels, youth leader and LBJ School master’s student—who just got admitted into the UT Law School—brought a compelling perspective on student activism and intellectual freedom. Their advocacy reminds us that struggles over what can be taught, read, and discussed in schools are inseparable from the future of democracy itself.

We were also fortunate to hear from Jonathan Friedman of PEN America, whose work defending free expression and confronting book bans has been indispensable in documenting the growing movement to restrict knowledge in schools and libraries across the United States. His insights helped situate the conversation within the broader national struggle over intellectual freedom.

Guiding the evening’s dialogue was Dr. Lauren Gutterman, whose thoughtful

César Cruz and me

moderation created space for a rich and probing exchange among the speakers and with the audience. The program opened with an exquisite prayer offered by Dr. César Cruz, whose words grounded the evening in reflection, humility, and a shared commitment to justice and community. It was a beautiful reminder that intellectual work and moral purpose are never far apart.

Events like this matter—especially now. Universities must remain places where difficult histories can be examined honestly, where students encounter ideas that challenge them, and where communities can gather to think together about the future we hope to build.

Last night’s full house at the LBJ School made something clear: people are hungry for these conversations. They want spaces where truth can be spoken, where history can be wrestled with, and where the next generation of scholars, journalists, and organizers can find inspiration.

My deepest thanks to Nikole Hannah-Jones, Cameron Samuels, Jonathan Friedman, Dr. Lauren Gutterman, and Dr. César Cruz for helping make this such a meaningful evening—and to everyone who filled Bass Lecture Hall in a shared commitment to democracy, dialogue, and the enduring power of truth.

Smudging does a lot more than “clear evil spirits” new research reveals

I regularly burn sage.  When I burn it, I pray and meditate and it makes me feel better.  It helps to center me.  I write, think, and study better after burning it.  

Glad to see this piece on it that helps dispel stereotypes about burning or smudging—which equate to stereotypes against native people who practice smudging regularly, and have done so for millennia. 

The plant name, "sage," comes from Latin salvia, meaning "healing plant," and salvus, meaning "safe." The deeper takeaway should therefore be that our ancestors were scientists all along and that modernity has finally caught up, in at least this one aspect, and barely so.

Long overdue, I would say.

My only quibble with this piece is that it says that burning or smudging, as in incense, pre-dates Native American culture. Check out a substantive challenge, for example, to the Clovis hypothesis of North American Indian presence of 12,000 years by Indigenous scholar, Paulette Steves. 

“Counter to the western stories that we’ve been here 12,000 years, we’ve been here over 60,000 years, likely over 100,000 years, and there is a great deal of evidence to support that.”

So we can't really speak of "pre-dating" until we have a complete record that takes into account recent evidence that challenges just how long native peoples have been on "Turtle Island," the Indigenous name for the North American continent. 

That said, we have much to learn from Indigenous people.

My sage thoughts for today.  

Speaking from Turtle Island.

Thanks to Sean Arce for sharing.

-Angela Valenzuela 

Smudging does a lot more than “clear evil spirits” new research reveals

“Fill your heart full of good things” – smudging is the ceremonial tradition of Indigenous people across North America, it cleanses your mind, body and soul.

Smudging is an ancient form of purification. It is scientifically backed as a way to release negative ions into the air, kill bacteria and germs, and promote wellness within ourselves and our environment. Smudging can be done at anytime for yourself or within a group and is traditionally done before taking part in any sort of important ceremony. It’s a “clean slate” of sorts. A way to release what is no longer serving you and clear away negative attachments so that you can focus on whatever work you are trying to do (meditation, ceremony, tarot, etc.). It can also be used to cleanse objects such as crystals, cards, or basically anything that might hold a negative attachment.

The smoke the herbs put off is said to cleanse negative energy and spirits, and even people and tools. Smudge smoke, like washing hands before eating food, was used as a way to cleanse people and places.

Smudging was commonplace in traditional societies. It has been used for thousands of years and even pre-dates Native American culture. The burning of incense also goes far into our past.

We can see some of the first instances of incense burning as far back as 1530 B.C.E. in Egypt and Israel.

Of course, with any spiritual practice, we have to look at it with critical eyes and be somewhat skeptical. Science has recently looked into the ritual to see if it goes beyond mere superstition.

In a 2006 study published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, researchers administered herbal and non-herbal remedies in smoke form. Their findings?

The most frequent medical indications were medicinal smoke are pulmonary (23.5%), neurological (21.8%) and dermatological (8.1%). Other uses of smoke are not exactly medical but beneficial to health, and include smoke as a preservative or a repellent and the social use of smoke

They found the smoke to be air purifying and highly effective at it too. Another paper, published a year later, found that medicinal smoke reduced airborne bacteria.

The authors state: “This study represents a comprehensive analysis and scientific validation of our ancient knowledge about the effect of ethnopharmacological aspects of natural products’ smoke for therapy and health care on airborne bacterial composition and dynamics.”

A long list of pathogenic bacteria were found to be absent in an open room 30 days after a smudging treatment.

“We have demonstrated that using medicinal smoke it is possible to completely eliminate diverse plant and human pathogenic bacteria of the air within confined space,” write the researchers.

These are all very fascinating developments and of course requires still some healthy skepticism and further research. What we can say is that it’s starting to look like burning sage and other herbs does a little more than make your house smell nice.

You can learn how to easily smudge in the video below:

Article from Higher Perspectives