News and Awards

Congratulations to all of us – our new graduates especially – as we come to the end of an exciting year in the College of Humanities!

On March 19, as part of the Tanner Humanities Center’s Author Meets Reader series, Min Jin Lee stepped into the Utah Museum of Fine Arts’s Dumke Auditorium for a conversation with Professor David S. Roh.

Rachel Hayes-Harb, professor of linguistics at the University of Utah, led her capstone students through a large group replication study, which has culminated into an article that appeared in Studies in Second Language Acquisition Journal, in March 2024.

The University of Utah’s Tanner Humanities Center will host Whyte, a professor of environment and sustainability and George Willis Pack Professor at University of Michigan, in conversation with Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants,” on Wednesday, April 17 at 7 p.m. in the Moot Courtroom of the S.J. Quinney College of Law.

Chris Jones, the inaugural ESRR Professor of English at the University of Utah, specializes in medieval literature, especially Old English, and has published widely on the reception of Old English in modern poetry, a subfield of Medieval Studies that his research helped found and shape.

The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded Maile Arvin, associate professor of history and gender studies at the University of Utah – in collaboration with the North Shore Community Land Trust in Hawai’i – $29,445 to support a community-based oral history research and story-mapping project of the Waialeʻe Industrial School for Boys. As part of a larger effort to fund projects that expand the reach and impact of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, NEH has awarded more than $400,000 to 14 Tribal Nations and organizations.

To read the article click here to visit the Salt Lake Tribune.

Leandra Hernandez, assistant professor of communication, discusses her book, “Feminist Mentoring in Academia (Communicating Gender)” which explores how feminist mentoring happens between professor and student; junior faculty and tenured; and occurs repeatedly.

There is only one course at the University of Utah that will take students on a journey of studying one the greatest Greek tragedies to studying the relationship between the humanities and theories of evolution to studying aliens and how they communicate. The course will also take students on a powerful exploration of ambition, power, and the nature of evil, with one of literature’s greatest villains. Led by a team of top professors in the College of Humanities, HUM 1500: Great Books, engages students in a rich and rewarding experience that offers insight into the foundational questions and challenges that motivate and vex the human condition.

In recognition of the complexity and change experienced by 20th century women in Utah and elsewhere, the mission of the Aileen H. Clyde 20th Century Women's Legacy Archive is to document and preserve the history of women whose lives and work helped create social and cultural change. Each year the Department of History in partnership with the Aileen H. Clyde Women’s History Initiative host an annual lecture illuminating women’s history. This year’s lecturer will be Dr. Heather Belnap.

Holly Rowe celebrates nearly 30 years as one of sports most versatile announcers. The 3 time Emmy winner was named to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023 winning the Curt Gowdy Award.

Fortuitous timing and a researcher dissatisfied with current historiography led to the discovery of new documents, two databases, three books, and accolades for University of Utah History professor Paul Reeve.

Kendall Gerdes, assistant professor of writing and rhetoric studies, discusses her book, “Sensitive Rhetorics: Academic Freedom and Campus Activism” explores sensitivity as a term of art in rhetoric.

The Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah hosted a talk with Danielle Endres, professor of communication and director of the U’s Environmental Humanities program. Endres discussed her new book Nuclear Decolonization: Indigenous Resistance to High-Level Nuclear Waste Siting, which details the activism of the Western Shoshone, Southern Paiute and Goshute people against establishing nuclear waste repositories on Indigenous land.

The College of Humanities and the School for Cultural & Social Transformation at the University of Utah have partnered to foster the next generation of environmental leaders through a new interdisciplinary undergraduate certificate in Environmental Humanities and Transformative Justice.

The University of Utah’s Tanner Humanities Center will host Min Jin Lee, author of “Free Food for Millionaires” and editor of “The Best American Short Stories 2023,” as part of the Author Meets Readers series at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Tuesday, March 19, at 7 p.m. Lee will be in conversation with David Roh, professor of English at the U. A book signing hosted by The King’s English will follow with Lee’s novels available for purchase.

From writing about women’s luxury shoes for Condé Nast to being the first multiplatform managing editor at the Disney-owned ABC station in the San Francisco-Bay Area, Marcie Young Cancio has been navigating and adapting to the changing field of journalism throughout her 20-year career. She now brings her experience and knowledge to the University of Utah’s journalism program housed in the Department of Communication to help students be successful and stay relevant in an ever-changing industry.

Jill Landes-Lee is one of the nominees for USA TODAY’s Women of the Year program, a recognition of women who have made a significant impact in their communities and across the country.

Elijah Millgram, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, discusses his book, “Why Didn’t Nietzsche Get His Act Together?” which argues for a new framework for making sense of Nietzsche that transforms the way we read him.

The University of Utah is excited to announce the extension of the Master of Communication program at its U Asia Campus in Incheon, South Korea. Applications are now open for the professional program, and the first cohort of students is scheduled to begin studying at the extended campus in fall 2024.

Read the full story on KSL. Young refugees have opinions and insight to share, but cultural and linguistic barriers, trauma and time constraints often mean their voices aren't heard in traditional classrooms. So the University of Utah set out to create a space just for them.

Lepa Marinkovski, assistant professor lecturer in the Department of English and the director of Humanities Scholars in the College of Humanities, has been named one of the 32 New Leadership Academy (NLA) fellows for 2024. NLA is a nationally recognized leadership development program that gives participants the courage, knowledge and tools to lead transformative change. Marinkovski will participate with leaders from institutions all over the country in varying levels of leadership for this year-long leadership opportunity.

Benjamin Cohen, professor of history, discusses his book, “An Appeal to the Ladies of Hyderabad: Scandal in Raj,” which tells the dramatic story of a couple’s rise and fall from elite society in ninetieth century India that set the benchmark for Victorian scandals.

Claremont Graduate University has honored Paisley Rekdal, Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Utah, with the prestigious Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for her book, “West: A Translation.” The $100,000 award commends outstanding poetry volumes published in the preceding year, with a legacy that includes books by luminaries such as Henri Cole, Tom Sleigh, Patricia Smith and Ross Gay.

Robin E. Jensen, professor of communication at the University of Utah, recently received the 2023 Golden Anniversary Monograph Award from the National Communication Association for the article, “Re-envisioning Fertility Science: From J. Marion Sims’s Invasive Gynecology to Sophia Kleegman’s ‘Conservative Surgery’ Hermeneutic,” published in Quarterly Journal of Speech in 2022.

Feb. 15-17, 2024, the American West Center, in partnership with the Utah Humanities Council, the Utah Humanities Book Festival, NEH’s “United We Stand,” the Utah Division of Arts and Museums, and the Asia Center, will be hosting a three-day symposium exploring the history and legacy of Japanese American incarceration in the American West

Danielle Endres, professor of communication, discusses her book “Nuclear Decolonization: Indigenous Resistance to High-Level Nuclear Waste Siting,” which explores how Indigenous populations have been affected by global nuclear production and how they have successfully resisted the projects.

In her twenties, Maeera Shreiber, professor of English and chair of Jewish Studies Initiative, attended her grandmother’s funeral services. In accordance with Jewish custom, the assembled friends and family joined together to shovel dirt over the casket. A non-Jewish friend also took up a shovel – only to have it grabbed out of his hands by Shreiber’s father, who then pushed the man aside. Halacha, Jewish law, dictates that that Jews should be buried only by fellow Jews, and although Shreiber’s father was a secular Jew with “exquisite manners,” the importance of this Jewish/non-Jewish boundary was deeply engrained in him – to the point that it overpowered social niceties.

Spotlighting College of Humanities student scholars in Fall of 2023.

Science and writing are often two fields that go hand-in-hand, but the innerworkings of the two areas are mostly left unresearched. The interdisciplinary aspect of these subjects goes together quite well for Maureen Mathison, associate professor of writing and rhetoric studies at the University of Utah, who teaches a variety of science-based writing courses and focuses much of her research on the rhetoric of science. Mathison is increasingly hopeful about the challenges science faces in addressing its own current limitations.

LaToya Ruby Frazier believes life is not to be "belittled or squandered"— both one's own life and the lives of others. The first work of Frazier's I encountered was "The Notion of Family," I felt this commitment then (the same is true for her body of work at large), as I did again with intense and moving clarity when I was lucky enough to attend her talk organized by the Tanner Humanities Center. I invoke the word luck because it is not every day that you meet an artist who means and owns all her utterances, imbued with both intention and care.

PBS Utah, in partnership with Amplify Utah, is proud to announce a historical cross-campus collaborative bringing together student-led newsrooms from four public Utah universities and colleges.

Lance Olsen, Professor Emeritus of English, discusses his novel, “Always Crashing in the Same Car,” a fictional exploration of David Bowie’s consciousness and interactions in his final months battling liver cancer.

David Wallace-Wells is not a writer known for his optimism; his book, after all, is called, “The Uninhabitable Earth.” He is known for a bluntness sometimes read as alarmist, a direct engagement with the definite and potential harms climate change will impose that often feels pessimistic, almost antagonistic, if not towards us as readers than at least towards our shared wishful delusions about climate change as it is and will be.

Avery Holton, professor of communication, discusses two of his upcoming books examining journalist burn-out and well-being titled, “The Paradox of Connection: How Digital Media Is Transforming Journalistic Labor” and “Fostering a Culture of Well-Being in Journalism.”

Nov. 29, 2023 – During the1852 Utah legislative session, a passionate debate ensued over voting rights for Black men. Legislator and Latter-day Saint apostle Orson Pratt argued that Black men should be allowed to vote, while territorial governor and Latter-day Saint president Brigham Young strongly disagreed.

Jake Nelson, assistant professor of communication, discusses his book, “Imagined Audiences: How Journalists Perceive and Pursue the Public,” that examines the role that audiences have traditionally played in journalism, how that role has changed and what those changes mean for both the profession and the public.

On Oct. 18, 2023, the College of Humanities held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the new Student Success Hub inside the Carolyn Tanner Irish Humanities building and recognize the generous donors whose support and partnership brought the vision to life. The event was vibrant, featuring live classical guitar music, student-guided tours led by humanities student ambassadors, and light refreshments. Donors had the chance to explore the new space, interact with students and career success coaches, and witness the impact of their support

Jay Jordan, professor of writing and rhetoric studies, discusses his book, “Grounded Literacies in a Transnational WAC/WID Ecology: A Korean-U.S. Study,” that describes and theorizes the intellectual, social and material complexities of cross-border educational efforts.

On Oct. 10, 2023, the College of Humanities hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony, marking the culmination of an extraordinary journey made possible by a transformative $1 million gift by Alumna Edna Anderson-Taylor and Jerry Taylor. In recognition of their unparalleled generosity and unwavering commitment to the future of communication and journalism, the college named the Communication institute – housed in the department of Communication – in her honor, officially unveiling the Edna Anderson-Taylor Communication Institute.

The College of Humanities’ new Great Books course has been a hit, according to faculty and students. “I’ve loved teaching in Great Books, a chance to hear other professors and actually talk across disciplines with students,” said Scott Black, professor of English. “It’s like being back in college.”

The University of Utah’s College of Humanities and the Department of Communication are partnering with the award-winning Great Salt Lake Collaborative to give students hands-on, community-engaged journalism experience working with professional media organizations across northern Utah.

Frazier is a multimedia artist and 2015 MacArthur Fellow whose work spans genres and disciplines but often includes themes touching on environmental racism, industrial, family, personal narrative, and interdisciplinary connections. Her work has been featured in many prestigious museums, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Bronx Museum of New York, The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, among many others

Hosted by the University of Utah’s Tanner Humanities Center, Frazier will give the Gardner P. Lecture in the Humanities and Fine Arts at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Tuesday, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m. Tickets are free and open to the public but must be reserved in advance.

As Seen On - SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — In the 1970s, Dr. Ron Coleman — a retired history professor at the University of Utah — was presented with a huge opportunity.

As on the Daily Utah Chronicle: On October 24, 2023, David Wallace-Wells visited the University of Utah to give the annual Tanner Lecture on Human Values. The Daily Utah Chronicle reporter, Libbey Hanson, attended the event and wrote a detailed account of the lecture given by the New York Times science journalist.

The first story I ever read by Carmen Maria Machado was not "The Husband Stitch" or "Especially Heinous." It was not her excellent and essential memoir “In the Dream House,” a book I’ve read and re-read and been in love with and also a little bit angry at for how good it is. It was not even the one-sentence story I regularly teach my students, “Mary When You Follow Her.” The first story I ever read by Carmen Maria Machado was initially published in Lightspeed Magazine in 2014. It’s a story formatted and organized as a Kickstarter, one that works with a premise both darkly funny and sad. The title is “Help Me Follow My Sister into the Land of the Dead.”

University of Utah’s Middle East Center will be leading a series of campus discussions and other events in the coming weeks to discuss the Israel-Hamas conflict and ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip.

The Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah is honored to host Wallace-Wells, author of "The Uninhabitable Earth," for the Tanner Lecture on Human Values at the Marriott Library Gould Auditorium, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023, at noon. A book signing hosted by The King’s English will follow with copies for purchase.

Bestselling author and current New York Times science journalist David Wallace-Wells will speak at the Marriott Library Gould Auditorium on Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023, at noon as part of the Tanner Lecture on Human Values Series.

armen Maria Machado effortlessly navigates between literary form and eerie undertones, challenging traditional genre formats. Her narrative style, significantly influenced by her Cuban heritage and the vibrant storytelling tradition, abundant with elements of fantasy, fairytale, and horror, transcends conventional genre boundaries.

A University of Utah team, led by Kerry Kelly, associate professor of chemical engineering in the U’s John and Marcia Price College of Engineering, has been researching and developing ways to mitigate and monitor Utah’s air quality on a neighborhood level. Now, after winning the million-dollar stage 2 National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Civic Innovation Challenge they’re set to implement a new tool to help the state cope with air pollution.

When parents discover their child is hard-of-hearing, they often are presented with two options. They can elect for hearing technology such as hearing aids or cochlear implants, allowing the child to hear and speak their native tongue or they can forego these technologies and teach them to communicate through American Sign Language (ASL). For the former option, some elementary schools offer assistance through Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) programs to help these children as they progress through school.

The College of Humanities has partnered with U Career Success and is excited to welcome Daniel J. Moseson as a career coach for humanities students. Moseson is working alongside the Department of Communication career coaches, Giovanna Percontino and Dominic Militello, who have been working with students since Jan. 2023. Career coaches meet with students one-on-one to help them with career exploration, professional goals, resumes, internship/job application and more. They offer a variety of services and can help students at any stage of career development.

In modern-day America, books that explore the lives of Black, Latinx, Indigenous, queer, or transgender characters, or are written by individuals from these communities, make up the bulk of the American Library Association's annual list of the most frequently censored books in libraries and schools. According to Machado, bans on books restrict access to valuable literature and hinder students from gaining a deeper understanding of themselves and others.

Navied Mahdavian, author and New Yorker cartoonist, will be presenting his book, “This Country: Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America,” Tuesday, Sept. 26 at 5 p.m. in the University of Utah’s Art Building, room 158. The event is hosted by the Department of Art and History, the Department of English, and the American West Center.

The Tanner Humanities Center is proud to welcome back former fellow, Danielle Olden, as part of the Author Meets Reader Series, Sept. 20, 2023, at 1 p.m. in The Obert C. & Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center Jewel Box. Olden will be discussing her book and ongoing research of historical racial construction and desegregation. 

As chair of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, Greg Sarris, distinguished chair emeritus of Native American Studies at Sonoma State University, has an extensive body of humanities work that spans media and genres: novels, memoir, film, theater, and more. In recognition of the work he has done to protect Indigenous knowledges, lands, and peoples, Sarris will receive the 2023 Utah Award in the Environmental Humanities from the University of Utah’s Environmental Humanities Graduate Program.

Undergraduate students, supported by a faculty member, submit a research proposal to the Office of Undergraduate Research and if selected receive a stipend for 120 hours of research work. Ten humanities students were selected for the fall 2023 Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program and the college looks forward to seeing their research come to fruition.

Erika George, director of the Tanner Humanities Center and Samuel D. Thurman Professor of Law has stepped down from her role as of August 31, 2023. After four years of leadership, Geroge believes it is time to return the reins to faculty members within the Humanities.

Humanities students spent their summer break attending workshops, conference presentations, internships, and learning abroad.

Welcome students, faculty, staff, and post docs to an exciting Fall 2023 semester in the College of Humanities! We have an exciting menu of new courses, initiatives, communities, and events on our schedule, enriching our established and excellent academic and student programming that continues to be offered by departments, centers, and programs.

John Warnock, University of Utah alumnus, philanthropist, inventor and co-founder of Adobe Systems, Inc., passed away on Aug. 19, 2023. Although he was best known for his development of some of the fundamental techniques behind computer-generated images and desktop publishing that made him a luminary in the tech world, he was also a philosopher and book lover.

The Environmental Humanities Graduate program at the University of Utah trains the next generation of environmental leaders and thinkers, positioning them to study climate change, resilience, advocacy and environmental justice in preparation for changing the world.

In June, the Department of Writing and Rhetoric Studies at the University of Utah and Salt Lake Community College's Department of English, Linguistics, and Writing Studies successfully co-hosted the first-ever Salt Lake Modern Language Association Summer Institute on Reading and Writing Pedagogies at Access-Oriented Institutions.

In 1870, the word “drag” began being used as theater slang for “women’s clothing worn by men” in refence to the long skirts trailing on the floor. Today, drag shows refer to a combination of creativity, performance, community and celebration that offers a unique space for self-expression, entertainment and connection allowing everyone – both performers and attendees – to embrace their individuality and celebrate diversity.

The University of Utah Graduate School announced Monday that Dr. Helene A. Shugart has accepted the position of Associate Dean for the Graduate School, effective July 1, 2023. Dr. Shugart will provide leadership and direction for the Graduate School in her new role.

July 1, 2023, marks the end of an era for the American West Center. Gregory Smoak, associate professor of history, will step down as the center’s director, a position he has held since 2012. Over the course of his 11-year tenure, Smoak has accomplished a great deal on behalf of the center and the people it serves. “I first began working at the American West Center in 1988 and so when I assumed the directorship in the summer of 2012 [the center’s] history of success weighed on my shoulders.” he wrote in the introduction of his 2021 book “Western Lands, Western Voices

Journalism students at the University of Utah may not expect to investigate murders as part of their curriculum, but that’s exactly what they did last semester in COMM 5850: Cold Case Journalism. Throughout spring semester, students participating in the class used investigative techniques to explore a string of homicides in Salt Lake City from 1978 where all victims were part of the LGBTQ+ community. Together, they developed the results of their efforts into an in-depth article recently published by the Salt Lake Tribune.

The University of Utah’s College of Humanities has joined the Qatar Debate Center’s Arabic debate program to promote the culture of debate, open dialogue and enhance the Arabic language in the U.S. The U – in partnership with the Middle East Center and the John R. Park Debate Society – was one of the first U.S. universities to join the program.

The Pilar Pobil Legacy Foundation has committed $100,000 to establish the Pilar Pobil Humanities Scholarship in the College of Humanities at the University of Utah.

Elizabeth Clement, associate professor of history and gender studies, and J Seth Anderson, historian of sexuality in the American West and U grad, spoke to Doug Fabrizio on KUER’s RadioWest about the history of the LGBTQ+ experience in Utah.

The University of Utah has been awarded the 2023 Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation New Professorship in Buddhist Studies. The grant program, administered by the American Council of Learned Societies, ACLS, provides four years of seed funding to institutions of higher education to support new teaching positions in Buddhist studies.

While doing research for her 2003 publication, “Working Women in Mexico City,” Susie Porter, professor of history and gender studies and director of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Utah, had to decide who was in and who was out. Who is working class and who is not? How does this matter? Were seamstresses and secretaries included in conversations of the working class and factory workers?

Madeika Vercella - Student Convocation Speaker; Kailee Ferret - Outstanding Senior; Samuel Judd - Excellence in Humanities; Ellle Moulton - Excellence in Humanities

In my first year as dean, I have had the pleasure of meeting many of you and I’m continually impressed with your energy, work ethic, amazing achievements, and your ability to juggle both your personal and academic responsibilities. Humanities students work tirelessly and have high aspirations.

Danny Chi, senior director of communications and west coast publicity for ESPN, has been selected for the University of Utah’s College of Humanities Distinguished Alumni Award. Chi received a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication with an emphasis in public relations from the U.

The College of Humanities at the University of Utah hosted its first Humanities Student Research Poster Session on April 25, 2023, showcasing the work of 26 students from various disciplines. Students from Salt Lake Community College also presented at the event.

The College of Humanities at the University of Utah has named Paisley Rekdal, Distinguished Professor of English, as the next director of the American West Center. Rekdal will begin her appointment on July 1, 2023, when Gregory Smoak, associate professor of history, concludes his 11-year tenure as director. The college is forever grateful for Smoak’s many years of leadership and service and is looking forward to a new chapter with Rekdal.

The College of Humanities at the University of Utah has named Danielle Endres, professor of communication, as the next director of the Environmental Humanities Program. Endres will begin her appointment on July 1, 2023 when Professor Jeffrey McCarthy concludes his nine-year tenure as director. The college is immensely grateful for McCarthy’s many years of service and is looking forward to working with Endres in her new role.

Alf Seegert, associate professor of English, has been awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award from the Office of Academic Affairs. The University Distinguished Teaching Award honors significant contributions to the teaching mission of the University of Utah. To be eligible, faculty must have completed eight or more years of teaching service at the University of Utah.

Talía Dajes, assistant professor of Spanish in the Department of World Languages and Cultures, has been awarded the University of Utah’s Early Career Teaching Award, which is given to outstanding young faculty members who have made significant contributions to teaching at the U.

Two faculty members in the College of Humanities have been appointed with the University of Utah’s prestigious designation of Distinguished Professor. MaryAnn Christison, professor of linguistics, and Kent A. Ono, professor of communication, were recommended by the Distinguished Professor Advisory Committee and approved by the U’s board of trustees, Mitzi Montoya, senior vice president for academic affairs, and President Taylor Randall. Ono and Christison will be recognized for this honor at the college’s convocation, Friday, May 5.

Tanner Humanities Center hosts author Gretchen Henderson Tuesday, April 18, at 2 p.m. The naturally occurring phenomena of tar seeps are becoming more exposed at the Great Salt Lake as the climate rises. Causing insects, rodents, coyotes and birds, such as the American White Pelican, to become stuck and entrapped in the sticky tar.

Since its founding in 1964, the American West Center has seen its share of accomplishments and successes, but in the words of the former associate dean of the University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library for Special Collections Greg Thompson, “no assessment of the American West Center’s legacy would be complete without recognition of the training it provided for hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students as public historians . . . .”

Lance Olsen is a professor of English, the author of more than 30 works of and about innovative fiction, and a uniquely difficult person to write a profile about. In fact, his new novel, “Always Crashing in the Same Car: A Novel After David Bowie,” might be described as an anti-profile.

Kevin Coe, professor of communication at the University of Utah, explores how messages matter. After growing up in Tacoma, WA, Coe moved to Illinois to complete his doctorate and then taught at the University of Arizona for five years. After spending time in the desert, he was searching for water, trees and mountains — so, in 2013, he moved to Salt Lake.

In the summer of 2009, Crystal Rudds took an internship with the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights. She was stationed in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green Rowhouses, a public housing project that was facing demolition. That summer, she stood alongside tenants to protest the demolition of the development. It was an experience that would shape the rest of her academic career.

The Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah is proud to announce that Whyte, associate professor of philosophy at Michigan State University and an expert in environmental philosophy and indigenous knowledge systems, will be speaking at the UMFA Dumke Auditorium, April 4, 2023, 7 p.m. Whyte will discuss some of his research on Climate Change through an Intersectional Lens and the role of gender in indigenous peoples climate change experience.

As editor of the prestigious German Studies Review, Katharina Gerstenberger, professor of German at the University of Utah, uses the opportunity to foster an international community within the German Studies discipline.

Science and the humanities seem to be the oil and water of academia. In a black-and-white world, these two fields are opposites, two fields of study with not just a picket fence dividing them but a concrete wall. A man crossing this divide and blurring these lines is Stephen Downes, professor of philosophy and adjunct professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Utah.

The Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah is pleased to host award winning science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson for The Tanner Lecture on Human Values Thursday March 16, 2023, at 7 p.m. at Kingsbury Hall.

Associate Professor Mark Bergstrom was recently awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Western States Communication Association. The WSCA Distinguished Service Award is the highest honor bestowed by the Western States Communication Association.

When first-year students at the University of Utah step inside the classroom of HUM 1500: Great Books in the Humanities, they will not only begin to explore seven global texts that have changed minds and influenced generations, but they will also learn how each of these books has been interpreted and understood by scholars from seven different disciplines. A team of leading professors from the departments of communication, English, history, world languages and cultures, linguistics, philosophy, and writing and rhetoric studies will lead first-year students in close reading of transformative books from each of these fields, offering students a unique opportunity to engage across the humanities.

Utah is home to several organizations whose missions prioritize education, research, and community outreach, but the long-standing partnership between the American West Center (AWC) and Utah Humanities (UH) in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution’s Travelling Exhibitions Services (SITES) Museum on Main Street (MoMS) program, has been especially fruitful. By combining their individual strengths, they have cultivated an approach to “doing history” that not only demonstrates the discipline’s importance, but also its ability to help people and communities more meaningfully connect to the past, each other, and to their own time and place.

Living in Salt Lake City, you’ve probably heard The Great Salt Lake is rapidly drying up and its disappearance could cause immense damage to Utah’s public health, environment, and economy. What you may not have heard is there’s a name for that overwhelming feeling of dread; climate anxiety. Britt Wray’s acclaimed book, "Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis" (2022), blends scientific knowledge with emotional awareness to help make sense of the mental health impacts amid the ecological crisis.

In a brief break from the winter weather, the John R. Park Debate Society traveled to Arizona State University in Phoenix, Arizona for the Western States Communication Association Forensics Tournament on February 17-19. The tournament, which is part of the Western States Communication Association Conference, allowed students to engage in both forensics competition and conference presentations. At the tournament, the team had 15 final round appearances, winning six of the 12 events and closing out 3/4 of the semifinal round of open IPDA debate to secure the top spot for the tournament and reclaim the Best of the West Perpetual Traveling Trophy. In addition to graduate coach, Averie Vockel, serving as the Forensics Activity Coordinator for the conference and tournament, undergraduates Adelyn Kobe and Javier Tejeda, and graduate coaches Frankie Gigray and Ashton Poindexter, presented at the conference.

The University of Utah hosted the Utah Conference on Undergraduate Research, Friday, Feb. 17, 2023. Students from all over the state showcased their research and learned from each other. The College of Humanities was delighted to host a networking breakfast for humanities students and faculty from across Utah. The College of Humanities is thrilled to have many undergraduate students presenting at the conference about their research in the humanities and other areas.

This week, James Tabery, professor of philosophy at the University of Utah, made international news with his article, “Victims of Eugenic Sterilisation in Utah,” published in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, in which he sought to uncover the moral consequences of Eugenics laws in Utah. His research revealed at least 830 men, women and children were coercively sterilized in Utah, approximately 54 of whom may still be alive. They were victims of a sterilization program that lasted for fifty years in the state and targeted people confined to state institutions.

At least 830 men, women and children were coercively sterilized in Utah, approximately 54 of whom may still be alive. They were victims of a sterilization program that lasted for fifty years in the state and targeted people confined to state institutions. Many were teenagers or younger when operated upon; at least one child was under the age of ten.

Sara Yeo, associate professor of communication, was recently selected a member of the National Academies’ Standing Committee on Advancing Science Communication. She and her cohort of scholars and practitioners – who come from diverse scientific and health fields, communities and networks – will serve a three-year term and join current committee members to continue work in fostering increased collaboration between researchers and practitioners and providing leadership to help advance the field of science communication in ways that are equitable, inclusive and evidence based.

Gregory Smoak, associate professor of history and director of the American West Center, was recently on KUER’s Radiowest discussing agriculture, water policy and the Great Salt Lake. Smoak joined guests Joel Ferry, executive director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources and farmers from Box Elder County.

Andy King, associate professor of communication, was recently interviewed on Marketplace Tech about how technology, specifically photos, memes and video, can easily spread misinformation. “The way that people process visual content generally is different than how they process verbal content. And so, for visual misinformation, people will process it differently, they’ll be able to access it differently and how they integrate that information into their existing mental models of how the world works will be affected differently...”

The John R. Park Debate Society continued its Spring 2023 season with a small contingent of competitors at the Jannese Davidson Memorial Tournament hosted by Concordia University-Irvine. Over the weekend, members of the Debate Society competed against 28 colleges and universities from eight states, including Bradley University, George Mason University, San Diego State University, the University of California at Berkley, and Point Loma Nazarene University. For their efforts, competitors competed in elimination rounds in 12 events, and every member of the team brought home an award. Senior Ryan Knippel also won the Ninja-Pixie Individual Sweepstakes Award, given to the student who earns the most points across debate and individual events. The Debate Society will continue its season on February 4-5 at the Gaske Memorial Invitational hosted by San Diego State University.

The College of Humanities and Department of Communication are proud to announce a partnership with Utah Hockey to offer internships in Sports Media Production, Broadcast, and Creation.

The John R. Park Debate Society opened its Spring 2023 competitive season at home by hosting the Great Salt Lake Invitational and the UTEP Classic with tournament cohosts, the University of Texas-El Paso. The "swing" tournament allows schools attending to compete in two tournaments on the same weekend, doubling opportunities for students.

More than a decade ago, Natalie Stillman-Webb, writing and rhetoric studies professor/lecturer at the University of Utah, was paying for her children’s tennis lessons when the front desk attendant said he recognized her name from an online class he had taken the previous semester. After asking the young man’s name, she remembered an excellent paper he had written and commented on it. However, he was confused. He knew he had seen her name before but did not realize that the robot he thought ran his online class was a living, breathing member of the university faculty.

Reactionary politics and climate change are connected. At the dawn of 2023 that connection may seem obscure, but ongoing droughts, mega-storms and displaced people will aggravate America’s existing political tensions.

We have accomplished a great deal in Fall 2022! As we head toward the holidays and a second appearance in the Rose Bowl (yay!), I want to note and celebrate a few items. We’ve added several excellent new members to the College of Humanities Dean’s office team, including Karen Marsh, Director of Student Success and Engagement, who will lead initiatives to provide staff, departments, and the advising team with new tools to ensure we have successful and engaged students; Cameron Vakilian, Director of Advising, Outreach, and Experiential Learning; and Missy Weeks, Marketing Specialist for the Tanner Humanities Center.

Cameron Vakilian has accepted the position of director of advising, outreach, and experiential learning for the University of Utah’s College of Humanities and will begin January 1. Vakilian will work in conjunction with the college’s new director for student success and engagement, Karen Marsh Schaeffer. In this new role, Vakilian will provide support to the advising community across the college’s departments and programs and will support and innovate the college’s effort to attract new students to the humanities and connect them with world-class learning opportunities.

In his course, Empathy, Medicine and the Human Condition, Joseph Metz, associate professor of German at the University of Utah, begins every day by leading his students through contemplative breathing exercises. Depending on the day, they spend between five and ten minutes doing these exercises before moving on to analyzing and discussing the literature they read for homework. Metz says that starting class this way helps students access their power of awareness and gets them back in touch with their own processing of an experience; this then assists them in approaching the text with a heightened awareness.

The John R. Park Debate Society wrapped up its fall season in Norwalk, California on December 4-6, 2022, participating in the PSCFA Fall Champs Invitational. The team had 14 final-round appearances and completed a sweep of NDA-LD debate, earning the top three spots in the event.

In his 1993 essay, “Black to the Future,” the cultural critic Mark Dery coined the term “Afrofuturism.” He defined Afrofuturism as a genre of speculative fiction which “addresses African-American concerns in the context of twentieth-century technoculture” and which includes “images of technology and a prosthetically enhanced future.” In the thirty years since its coinage, the term has infiltrated literary and academic discourse, and become a popular and powerful framework for imagining Black futures. But Andrew Shephard, assistant professor in English at the University of Utah, wants to push back on one basic aspect of Afrofuturism: its emphasis on the future.

I was standing on a subway platform in Brooklyn, NY in April as the sun was just hitting the top of the station. I was on the phone with my parents who were back home, almost four hundred miles away in Norwood, NY. I was finishing my gap year between my undergraduate degree and the start of my graduate program at the University of Utah in the fall. I had just gotten the news that I would be working with the Tanner Humanities Center to help facilitate events with writers and humanists on campus.

On November 14th, the Digital Matters Lab at the J. Willard Marriott Library will host “Embodied Ecologies,” a collaborative exhibition focused on disability, environmental health and community care practices in Salt Lake City. Rooted in a partnership between the Environmental Humanities graduate program housed in the College of Humanities at the University of Utah and Art Access, a local non-profit organization dedicated to increasing accessibility in the arts, the “Embodied Ecologies” installation will bring together the work of seven U affiliated artists working in sculpture, poetry, textile, paint, film and mixed media.

Karen Marsh Schaeffer has accepted the position of director of student success and engagement for the University of Utah’s College of Humanities and will begin November 16. Marsh Schaeffer will direct and oversee operations and strategic planning of student service functions and will act as the liaison for departments, faculty, staff, students and external entities to ensure continuity and quality of student services.

There have always been Jewish communities in Africa and since the advent of the internet, more groups have become more widely known. These deeply rooted Jewish communities partake in religious practices which were previously outlawed by European colonizers (such as male circumcision, Saturday Sabbath, menstrual seclusion, etc.), as well as customs such as animal sacrifice, which are no longer practiced in Rabbinic Judaism. Many members of these groups have thought themselves to be descendants from the Lost Tribes – the Ten Tribes of Israel which were supposedly exiled from Israel in 722 BCE. European colonizers and missionaries believed such groups to be part of these tribes because, according to the Old Testament in the Bible, only Jews performed these practices.

In 2016, a C-Span call went viral when a white caller who proclaimed himself prejudiced asked Heather McGhee, author of “The Sum of Us, What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together” how to overcome his racial bias and be a better American. She graciously thanked him for acknowledging his fears and prejudices and outlined a path forward by providing achievable changes to mend racial divides. She advised him – and everyone – to get to know black families, join a black church, understand that nightly news over-represents black crime and under-represents white crime and to become educated about the history of African Americans in this country.

In Utah today, we can look around the Salt Lake Valley and point out landmarks. The Great Salt Lake. Millcreek Canyon. The Oquirrh Mountains. But to the Western Shoshone, the Great Salt Lake is Pia-pa or Titsa-pa, meaning “great water” or “bad water.” Millcreek Canyon is Tempin-Tekkoappah, “rock trap.” To the Goshute, the Oquirrhs are called Apa-ya-wi-up, “place of the weeping ancestors.” These places all had other names before.

The U.S. Department of State announced the selection of Karen Marsh Schaeffer of University of Utah for a six-month virtual English Language Specialist project focusing on student motivation and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in Russia at Dostoevsky Omsk State University. Marsh Schaeffer is part of a select group, as her project is one of approximately 240 that the English Language Specialist Program supports each year.

The Department of Communication is pleased to announce that Kent A. Ono, professor of communication, has been named a Distinguished Scholar of the National Communication Association. Ono is the first representative from the University of Utah to receive the honor. The recognition is given to those who have attained “a lifetime of scholarly achievement in the study of human communication. Recipients are selected to showcase the communication profession.”

To honor the legacy of the late local media personality, Tom Barberi (1943-2021), his family have pledged $25,000 toward the establishment of the Voice of Reason Scholarship for students in the Department of Communication with an emphasis in journalism.

If you imagine a philosopher, you might picture one of the great ancient thinkers, such as Plutarch or Aristotle, or perhaps a professor that reads quietly, ponders and debates. The stereotypical philosopher tends to be someone who spends a lot of time thinking, not exactly a man of action. Though Jim Tabery, professor of philosophy, is a gifted philosopher, he could not be farther from this stereotype. Tabery’s devotion to being out in the community and actively participating in social justice issues is evident in his many projects and outreach programs. His passion for both science and philosophy led him to the mountains of Utah, and he has been determined to use his research to benefit his community and society as a whole.

Who in Utah did not read or hear about the big New York Times story that dropped on June 7, “As the Great Salt Lake Dries Up, Utah Faces an Environmental ‘Nuclear Bomb’”? As a writer and professor of environmental writing, I was intrigued by the way Christopher Flavelle pulled off such a feat, so together with the members of my Investigative Environmental Writing class, we discussed how Flavelle focused the eyes of the world on the catastrophic local, global, ecological, social, and economic consequences of losing the drought-stricken Great Salt Lake, and whether or not this work of journalism – however clear, objective, accurate, and well-received – might have done more to teach and thereby move the conversation forward into new, more constructive territory.

The John R. Park Debate Society traveled to Twin Falls, Idaho on September 23-24, 2022 to participate in the Fran Tanner Invitational at College of Southern Idaho. At the tournament, the team faced competition from over 10 colleges and universities, including the Boise State University, Idaho State University, and in-state rivals: Weber State University and Utah State University. The Debate Society finished the tournament with 10 final round placings in individual events, a closeout (top two teams) in National Parliamentary Debate Association debate, and multiple top speaker awards. The team plans to build on this early success at their next tournament, The Biggest Little City Classic at the University of Nevada-Reno on October 14-16, 2022.

Much of the humanities is about getting people to see things that have become invisible, things so taken for granted that we no longer notice or question them. Lisa Swanstrom’s new project, Synthetic Futures, is about one such invisible object: plastic.

Indigenous peoples have for centuries remained “nearly nonexistent in the American book of poetry,” writes former United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. This absence forms part of a more significant problem in American culture, “indigenous peoples of our country are often invisible.” However, hundreds if not thousands of Native Nations poets are working today, and perhaps none has done as much to restore their visibility as Harjo.

With a gift of property, Melody Taft is establishing a $1M arts endowment at the University of Utah’s Taft-Nicholson Center. Taft is a founding supporter of the center and has donated her 160-acre ranch in Centennial Valley to the university. The endowment will be funded with proceeds from the sale of the property and will be administered by the director of the center. Earnings on the endowment will be used to support arts programming, including expenses associated with the Artists-In-Residence program and arts programming.

It’s common for aspiring or current College of Humanities majors to be asked, “what are you going to do with that?” This question elicits frustration and annoyance for many students, including myself, as I received this question plenty of times during my collegiate years. Misconceptions, myths and negative stereotypes, furthermore, still swirl around what jobs are available to this student population or what sectors they are confined to. For example, the idea that majoring in a language only “qualifies” an individual to be a language instructor is not uncommon.

With more than 150 students attending the University of Utah who are graduates of the Bridge Program for Advanced Language Learning – a language program for Utah high school students to earn college credit before graduation – the U offers a number of opportunities for students to advance and apply their language skills in academic and career settings.

In honor of the late University of Utah philosophy professor David Wells Bennett (1927-2014), his family has established an endowed scholarship in his name. The Department of Philosophy invites friends and family of Bennett to support the fund so more philosophy students can receive the necessary financial assistance to study in his honor.

Alyssa Quinn, who is working toward a doctorate degree in creative writing in the Department of English, has written her debut novel, “Habilis,” to be released Sept. 13, 2022. She recently spoke with the Salt Lake Tribune about her idea to write a book that incorporated theories of human language.

The University of Utah’s College of Humanities and Department of Communication are partnering with Tunisha Brown, founder and editor-in-chief of IMPACT Magazine to provide internship opportunities to students and to work toward digitally archiving the magazine’s 15-year history of empowering Black women and men.

The banning of literature and the silencing of authors continues to be on the rise. The news is full of stories of books being pulled from the shelves of public school libraries. In August, prizewinning author Salman Rushdie was attacked onstage after decades of hiding in response to death threats for his book, "The Satanic Verses.” According to Azar Nafisi, bestselling author of “Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books,” books are a threat to those who seek to rule through absolutism. Their power resides in the way they allow us to imagine lives lived differently from our own and to resist the imposition of any one particular way of life.

The Great Salt Lake is drying up, leaving toxic dust and an ecosystem in crisis. Through the lenses of the humanities, art and culture, the Environmental Humanities Graduate Program at the University of Utah will explore the problems and solutions to what “The New York Times” refers to as “Utah’s Environmental Nuclear Bomb” during a symposium, Sept. 23 and 24. A Zoom option will be available.

After being diagnosed with a hereditary cancer syndrome in graduate school, Madison Kilbride, assistant professor in philosophy at the University of Utah, became fascinated about the ethical issues surrounding genetic testing and specifically the sorts of tests that are available through a direct-to-consumer, DTC, model. In 2021, she received a prestigious four-year NIH K01 Career Development Award to evaluate the risks and benefits of DTC offerings for serious health conditions using an innovative approach that can be adapted to study a wide range of current and future tests and companies.

Ben Lyons, assistant professor of communication at the University of Utah, recently contributed to a Stanford University “mega-experiment” – the largest social science experiment of its kind involving more than 31,000 Americans – to identify short, proven and scalable interventions to reduce anti-democratic attitudes, partisan animosity and support for political violence.

According to C. Thi Nguyen, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Utah, game playing can be a cure for the unease of living in the world. The experience is satisfying because of the internal logic of the game, rather than its service to any real-world application. Games allow the players to solve problems in ways that are pleasurable, interesting and beautiful. But be advised, as Nguyen argues in his critically acclaimed book, “Games: Agency as Art,” game playing is the opposite of love.

As an associate professor/lecturer in the English Department at the University of Utah, Seegert has been teaching courses on video games since 2014, when he first created ENGL 2090, a general education course examining video game storytelling. The class was an enormous success, and since then, he’s created ENGL 5090: Literature, Film, and Video Games and ENGL 5095: Advanced Video Game Storytelling, which will be taught for the first time in the spring of 2023.

“I think most people just assumed, ‘Hey, this is something that sort of disappeared in the ‘30s and ‘40s when people stopped proudly declaring that they were eugenicists,” said James Tabery, who has studied this topic in the Beehive State. “But it turns out that that’s not the case.”

Danielle Endres, professor of communication, created Indigenous Communication (Comm 3290) in 2005 to explore theories and practices of communication that relate to Indigenous sovereignty, self-determination, decolonization, and survivance. Below, professor Endres discusses more about the course, her research background what student will gain by participating in the class.

The University of Utah, in partnership with Brigham Young University, has been awarded $7 million from the U.S. Department of Education to support international education and language study over the next four years. The Title VI National Resource Center and Foreign Language and Area Studies grants will provide funding directly to the Center for Latin American Studies, Asia Center and their BYU counterparts and will earmark $4.5 million for student scholarships.

Dear College of Humanities Faculty and Staff - I am delighted to be joining you as Dean of the College of Humanities. I have met many of you for the first time over the past six weeks and many for the first time in person after getting to know you on Zoom over the past several months.

According to Elizabeth Callaway, assistant professor of English at the University of Utah and affiliated faculty with the Environmental Humanities Graduate Program, the problem of artificial intelligence is not just a scientific or engineering problem, it’s a cultural problem. And it’s one that has escaped criticism for far too long.

Maximilian Werner, associate professor/lecturer of writing and rhetoric studies, was inspired to create the course, Investigative Nonfiction: Environmental Issues in the American West (Writing 3420), after his two-and-a-half-year venture of tracking a wolf pack in Centennial Valley, MT. The investigative work ultimately served as the basis for his latest book “Wolves, Grizzlies, and Greenhorns -- Death and Coexistence in the American West.” Below, Professor Werner answers questions about the course, its influences and what students will learn by enrolling.

Kathryn Bond Stockton, Distinguished Professor of English and Dean of The School for Cultural and Social Transformation, recently had a conversation with New York Times columnist Ezra Klein about gender and gender expectations. They also talk about Stockton's most recent book, "Gender(s)" (MIT Press), which examines why gender is strange and how race and money are two of its most dramatic ingredients.

Zuri Vasquez Bedolla is this year's winner of the ISA Global Opportunity Scholarship, which she will use to study abroad at Universidad Antonio de Nebrija in Madrid this fall. Zuri is a double major in Spanish and Business Administration with a minor in Entrepreneurship. Congratulations, Zuri!

As a devoted and award-winning teacher (seriously, check out her CV), Elizabeth Alice Clement, associate professor of history, created the History of Sexuality in Modern U.S. (HIS 4630/6910 and Gender Studies 4630) to explore how sexuality interacts with other categories of power and oppression like race, class and gender. Below, Professor Clement answers questions about the course, its background and what students will learn by enrolling.

As we welcome new faculty members, Assistant Professors Chris Low and Brandon Render, to the Department of History, we want to remind you of the great courses they will be offering the Fall 2022 semester.

As one of the largest language departments in the country, the Department of World Languages & Cultures at the University of Utah offers 21 languages, eight majors and 12 minors. Now, after a groundbreaking restructuring and expansion of their Comparative Literary & Cultural Studies degree, the department will introduce seven new options to better meet the needs and interests of more students in Fall 2022.

A self-proclaimed “nerd,” Chapman Waters, assistant professor/lecturer of philosophy, created Philosophy of Time Travel (PHIL 3012) because he enjoys consuming, analyzing and speculating about time travel narratives from popular fiction. Below, Waters provides more details about the class and discusses why time-traveling and non-time traveling students alike should participate in the course.

Christie Toth, associate professor of writing and rhetoric studies, co-edited (with Jessica Nastal and Mya Poe) a newly released open-access book, “Writing Placement in Two-Year Colleges: The Pursuit of Equity in Postsecondary Education” (WAC Clearinghouse). It brings together two-year college teacher-scholar-activists from across the U.S. to share stories, strategies and data about local efforts at reforming writing placement assessment to advance educational access and equity.

Natalia Washington, assistant professor of philosophy, and Dustin Stokes, professor of philosophy, combined their research interests in philosophy of mind and cognitive science, and interests in psychiatry and ethics and aesthetics, respectively, to create a new course, the Psychology of Ethics and Psychedelics (PHIL 5191, 5450, 6191, 6450). An advanced philosophy course, the class will explore topics about the use of psychedelic drugs and therapeutic intervention. Below, professors Washington and Stokes provide more insight into the course and discuss why they chose to create it.

Maureen Mathison, associate professor of writing and rhetoric studies, has received the inaugural Robert A. Goldberg Endowed Faculty Prize in the Humanities. The prize recognizes faculty whose record in teaching and research reflects high merit and provides a stipend to support the faculty member’s ongoing projects.

The Salt Lake County Community Remembrance Coalition of Sema Hadithi African American Heritage & Culture Foundation in collaboration and Partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama will host a soil collection ceremony (raciallynchinginutah.org) at the sites of two racial lynchings that occurred in Salt Lake City in 1866 and 1883. The event will take place on Saturday, June 11 from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

The Communication Institute, housed in the College of Humanities’ Department of Communication at the University of Utah, received a generous donation of $1 million – the largest in the history of the department – from alumna Edna Anderson-Taylor (class of 1959) and her husband, Jerry Taylor, to secure the institute’s long-term impact and success. Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, the institute will be renamed in tribute to her legacy.

Students graduating from the University of Utah’s College of Humanities will have two opportunities to hear from Doug Bowser, President of Nintendo America, during the 2022 graduation ceremonies. As a graduate from the Department of Communication (class of 1984), Bowser will address the college about the importance of the humanities during convocation on Friday, May 6 at 7 p.m. in the Jon M. Huntsman Center, where he will be presented with the Distinguished Alumni Award. The evening prior, he will speak at the general campus-wide commencement ceremony, Thursday, May 5 at 6 p.m. in the Huntsman Center.

Sean Lawson, associate professor of communication, recently published a new book, “Social Engineering: How Crowdmasters, Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls Created a New Form of Manipulative Communication,” (MIT Press). In it, he explores manipulative communication – from early twentieth-century propaganda to today’s online con artistry – through the lens of social engineering.

Isabel Moreira, professor of history and 2020-2022 James L. Clayton Research Professor, has been appointed to the University of Utah’s prestigious designation of Distinguished Professor. She was recommended by the Distinguished Professor Advisory Committee and approved by the academic senate, the U’s board of trustees, Martell Teasley, interim senior vice president for academic affairs and U President Randall Taylor. Moreira will be recognized at the college’s convocation on Friday, May 6, 2022.

Natasha Seegert, associate professor, lecturer of communication, and ShawnaKim Lowey-Ball, associate professor of history, have been awarded the University of Utah’s Early Career Teaching Award, which is given to outstanding young faculty members who have made significant contributions to teaching at the U.

The University of Utah’s Environmental Humanities graduate program will award youth climate activist, poet and environmental justice organizer Aniya Butler with the 2022 Utah Award in the Environmental Humanities. Butler, a 15-year old, Black, climate activist and anti-racism advocate from Oakland, CA, will receive the award on Tuesday, March 22 at 6pm in the university’s Alumni House. The event – in partnership with the U’s Collective Day of Action – is free and open to the public.

University of Utah Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Dan Reed announced that Hollis Robbins has accepted an offer to serve as the next dean of the College of Humanities. She will begin July 1, 2022. At that time, Stuart Culver, current dean of the college, will return to teaching and research responsibilities.

The Modern Language Association of America announced it is awarding its thirty-sixth Kenneth W. Mildenberger Prize to Fernando Rubio, professor of Spanish linguistics at the University of Utah, and Daria Mizza, assistant professor of educational studies at the American University in Cairo and head of language instructional technology at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, for their book “Creating Effective Blended Language Learning Courses: A Research-Based Guide from Planning to Evaluation,” published by Cambridge University Press. The prize is awarded for an outstanding work in the fields of language, culture, literacy and literature with strong application to the teaching of languages other than English.

The Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah will host author Nnedi Okorafor in a virtual conversation with Erika George, director of the center, and English Andrew Shephard, assistant professor of English, on Nov. 18 at noon. The discussion will focus on Okorafor’s writing, which she describes as Africanfuturism and Africanjujuism, as well as her upcoming novel, “NOOR.” The online event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

The University of Utah is excited to announce a campaign to build a Humanities Student Success Hub on the first floor of the Carolyn Tanner Irish Humanities Building. The new, student-centered space will act as a front door to the College of Humanities, connecting students with support, information and peers in an unprecedented way. Designed based upon research outlining the resources students need to thrive at the U, a campaign is underway to debut the Humanities Student Success Hub in Fall 2022.

The Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah will host Shoshana Zuboff, author of “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power,” for the Obert C. Tanner Lecture on Artificial Intelligence and Human Values, Thursday, Oct. 28 at noon. Her lecture will explore the Digital Revolution entwined with the evolution of capitalism.

Ben Cohen, professor of history and chair of the Department of History at the University of Utah, has received a senior fellowship award from the American Institute of Indian Studies to carry out his project, “Beyond Forests: Teak and the Making of Modern India c. 1700-2000.”

Dean Stuart Culver welcomes students back to the College of Humanities for another eventful year.

PBS Digital Studios announced that PBS TERRA, its science-themed hub on YouTube, will launch an ambitious new slate of STEM content with support from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program.

A recent international study by the Demographics in Philosophy project has ranked the University of Utah’s Department of Philosophy first out of nearly 100 prominent philosophy departments in the U.S. for its high proportion (50 percent) of female faculty who are tenured or on the tenure track.

The Department of Communication at the University of Utah has received a substantial gift from Edna Anderson-Taylor, increasing the endowed scholarship in her name to nearly $500,000. This endowment supports undergraduate and graduate students in communication and ranks as one of the largest gifts the department has received.

Matt Basso, professor of history, has been selected for the 2021-22 Aileen H. Clyde Professorship, which supports faculty who are invested in illuminating the stories and voices of women.

The University of Utah’s College of Humanities is honored to announce a transformative gift, made possible by generous donors from the ESRR Humanities/Arts Endowment Fund at The Chicago Community Foundation. The fund provides approximately $500,000 per year in perpetuity to establish a chair in the English department, an increase to graduate student stipends and an annual creative writing residency.

Vanessa Brutsche, assistant professor of French at the University of Utah, has been awarded the Malcolm Bowie Prize by the Society for French Studies for the most outstanding article published by an early-career researcher. Her winning article, “Duras’s Aurélia Steiner and the Ethics of Cinematic Form,” appeared in the journal French Studies (published by Oxford University Press) in July 2020.

Kent A. Ono, professor of communication, has been named one of eighteen 2021 Fellows of the International Communication Association. Fellows are chosen by the strength of their distinguished scholarly contributions to the broad field of communication. The primary consideration for nomination to fellow status is a documented record of extraordinary scholarly achievement.

This morning, Carolyn Tanner Irish passed away. Carolyn and her family have been much more than generous and gracious donors to our college. They have for generations helped define the place of the Humanities on our campus and in our community.

A new study published in Proceedings of National Academics of Sciences finds that individuals who falsely believe they are able to identify false news are more likely to fall victim to it. In the article published today, Ben Lyons, assistant professor of communication at the University of Utah, and his colleagues examine the concern about the public’s susceptibility to false news due to their inability to recognize their own limitations in identifying such information.

Dean Stuart Culver addresses how the state legislature passage of Resolution HR 901 will affect our work going forward and what the College and University are doing and hope to do to respond.

Ashley Cordes, assistant professor of communication at the University of Utah, has been selected for a 2021 American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship.

The International Writing Centers Association is pleased to announce the selection of new leadership for The Writing Center Journal that includes Romeo García, assistant professor of writing and rhetoric studies at the University of Utah. Launched in 1980, WCJ remains the primary research journal in the field of writing center studies.

Misinformation in public debates about scientific issues such as vaccinations and climate change can be found all over the internet, especially on social media. In a new study, Sara K. Yeo, associate professor of communication at the University of Utah, examines why it’s so difficult to detect science misinformation and suggests that using humor may help combat the issue.

The John R. Park Debate Society competed in the International Forensics Association's 31st Annual Tournament & Conference on March 13-14, 2021. In the U's third appearance at the tournament, students won an event, placed in finals in nine additional events, earned top four awards in two out of three debate events, finished second place overall awards, and took first place honors among four-year universities by out performing Yale University, the University of Washington, and Vanderbilt University among the 38 programs in attendance.

The John R. Park Debate Society competed in the Trapper Rendezvous hosted by Northwest College on February 19th and 20th. At the tournament, the Debate Society earned the top overall award with individual competitors winning all three debate events offered at the tournament, as well as five other competitive events.

The John R. Park Debate Society continued its Spring 2021 season at the Talk Hawk Invitational held by Las Positas College on February 12-14, 2021. The Debate Society faced competition against 31 colleges and universities from 13 states. Over the weekend, the team won three events and competed in elimination rounds in over a dozen events.

The John R. Park Debate Society continued its Spring 2021 season with a small contingent of competitors at both the Gorlok Gala hosted by Webster University and the Vanderbilt Invitational hosted by Vanderbilt University.

Congratulations to the University of Utah Department of Communication who was recognized by Shanghai Ranking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities as one of the top twenty Communication departments in the US and one of the top 28 Communication departments internationally.

The John R. Park Debate Society participated in the Pacific Southwest Collegiate Forensics Association Fall Championships to conclude its Fall 2020 competitive season on December 5-6, 2020. Among the team’s many accomplishments, students from Utah, in competition against more than 40 colleges and universities from 6 states, won four events, placed in finals in 9 events, and won the overall sweepstakes award for University participants.

On November 6-8, the John R. Park Debate Society continued its Fall season by attending two online tournaments held by the University of Pacific and San Joaquin Delta College. The weekend saw the team succeed across all categories of competition with nearly two dozen colleges and universities in attendance.

Anne Lair, professor of French, received the Dorothy S. Ludwig Excellence in Teaching Award – Post-Secondary from the American Association of Teachers of French. Lair serves as the French Bridge Curriculum Director, French Coordinator for the State of Utah and Honorary Consul of France in Utah.

The John R. Park Debate Society kicked off its 2020-2021 competitive season at the Forensics Flyover Invitational, a pair of tournaments hosted by Sterling College and Kansas Wesleyan University. Four students attended the tournaments which included 16 schools from around the country. Over the course of the weekend's two tournaments, University of Utah students earned 14 final round appearances, including a tournament championship in After-Dinner Speaking. The team will continue its season on October 16-18, 2020 in competition at the University of Central Missouri, as well as the team's first international outing of the season at the University of Toronto.

This NEH workshop will give attendees the opportunity to learn from senior program officer, Jennifer Serventi, about the many funding opportunities offered by the endowment.

Manusheela “Manu” Pokharel (Ph.D., 2019) was recently awarded the Gerald R. Miller Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award from the National Communication Association. Pokharel received her doctorate in communication in May 2019 from the University of Utah and is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Texas State University.

On Aug 25, Jake Jensen, associate dean for research in the College of Humanities, announced the recipients of the college’s 2020 Distinguished Scholar, Rising Star and Distinguished Faculty Service awards. The awards recognize significant scholarly accomplishments and significant research contributions by both junior and senior faculty. The awardees are listed below.

Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum, or CLAC, at the University of Utah helps students apply their proficiency in a second language to courses in a variety of majors. Wilson Wosnjuk, a sophomore majoring in business and Latin American Studies, has already taken two CLAC courses in Spanish and is looking forward to taking more. He answers some questions about the courses and how they have impacted his language acquisition and overall education.

June 29, 2020 – The University of Utah has been awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant to support the Environmental Humanities Graduate Program focused on environmental justice and community engaged learning. The three-year grant provides $600,000 to fund graduate fellowships, create leadership pathways for students from underrepresented groups, collaborate with communities directly affected by climate change and environmental racism and work closely with grassroots leaders.

By now you will have learned that the University plans to open its doors to in-person classes and on-campus experiences this Fall. We are reopening at a challenging time and under complicated circumstances and I wanted to take this opportunity to assure you that our college – and the University community more broadly – will be devoting all its energies to ensuring that our campus and classrooms are safe, healthy, inclusive and welcoming to students from all backgrounds.

As protests continue across the country demanding an end to injustices and police brutality against the black community, many are turning to books to educate themselves about the history and current state of racism in the United States. Below, the Department of English at the University of Utah has put together an additional list of books, graphic novels and poetry to help readers better understand and further explore racism in America.

Humanities disciplines provide the cultural tools and human perspective to help society understand and explain the COVID-19 epidemic. Click here for a list of faculty in the University of Utah’s College of Humanities with expertise relevant to the current pandemic. Notably, the college has top-ranked expertise in the history of medicine and disease, ethics, philosophy of science, health communication and science communication.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a consortium of schools responded by organizing the first National Online Forensics Festival to celebrate end-of-year competition in a new, online format. At this new national tournament, the team won 5 championships.

University of Utah creates a website to provide updates about the impact of Cononavirus COVID-19 on campus.

The University of Utah’s Department of Linguistics and the Department of Computer Science have created a certificate in computational linguistics for students interested in pursuing a career in natural language processing, the technology behind devices such as Alexa, Siri and Google Home.

Feb. 27, 2020 – The Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah presents the 2020 World Leaders Lecture Forum given by Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code, Friday, March 6, 11 a.m. at Kingsbury Hall. The event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required and can be obtained through the Kingsbury Hall box office.

Feb. 25, 2020 – The University of Utah’s environmental humanities graduate program will award American essayist and novelist Jonathan Franzen with the 2020 Award in the Environmental Humanities, Wednesday, March 4 at 7 p.m. in the Salt Lake City Main library.

The John R. Park Debate Society continued its Spring 2020 season by attending the first annual Coyote Howl Invitational hosted by the College of Idaho in Caldwell, Idaho. In competition against 10 schools from 5 states, the Debate Society turned in a commanding performance.

Kendi, a New York Times bestselling author and the founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University, will have an unscripted conversation with Erika George, director of the Tanner Humanities Center, about his latest book “How to be an Antiracist.” Tickets are free but must be reserved in advance.

The Obert C. and Grace A Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah welcomes author Ben Fountain for the 2020 David P. Gardner Lecture in the Humanities and Fine Arts, Tuesday, Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. In conversation with Doug Fabrizio, host and executive producer of KUER, Fountain will discuss his transition from law to literature, his work in a range of literary genres and the value of employing literary techniques in nonfiction texts.

Jan. 29, 2020 - The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science has selected Carlos Gray Santana, assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Utah, as the winner of its 2019 Karl Popper Prize for his paper in the philosophy of geology.

The John R. Park Debate Society kicked off its Spring 2020 season by hosting the 50th annual Great Salt Lake Invitational on January 17-20, 2020. The event was attended by 25 schools from 10 states and featured over 200 competitors, coaches, and judges. Across the weekend, students competed in thirteen competitive formats of forensics across 4 tournaments, winning over 30 awards. The team will look to maintain this momentum when they travel to Caldwell, Idaho for their next competition on January 30-Feb 3, 2020.

Lindsey Drager, assistant professor of English and Lance Olsen, professor English, have both received a $25,000 creative writing fellowship grant for their work. Lindsey Drager and Lance Olsen will both use the grant to work on new novels.

Robin Jensen, professor of communication at the University of Utah, received a $60,000 fellowship grant for her book project, “A History of Women Shaping the Trajectory of Fertility Science, 1870-1970."

The John R. Park Debate Society traveled to Thousand Oaks, California for the Pacific Southwest Collegiate Forensics Associaton Fall Championships to conclude its Fall 2019 competitive season.

Hugh Cagle, assistant professor of history, received the 2019 Leo Gershoy Award from the American Historical Association for his book, “Assembling the Tropics: Science and Medicine in Portugal’s Empire, 1450-1700.”

University of Utah creates research team for students who identify as having a disability.

On November 1-3, the John R. Park Debate Society continued its Fall season by attending three tournaments held in Stockton and San Rafael, California. The first tournament (part of a pair of events hosted in Stockton by the University of the Pacific and San Joaquin Delta College) saw the team advance 100%, or 15 of 15, events to final rounds and won the U top overall honors at the tournament.

The Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah presents the 2019 Tanner Lecture on Human Values given by artist and designer, Maya Lin, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 7 p.m. at Kingsbury Hall.

On Friday, Oct. 27, Stuart Culver, dean of the College of Humanities, announced the recipients of the college’s 2019 Distinguished Scholar and Rising Star awards. The awards recognize significant scholarly accomplishments and significant research contributions by both junior and senior faculty. The awardees are listed below.

The John R. Park Debate Society continued its competitive season in Portland, OR where students attended the Neil Saban Lincoln-Douglas Tournament & Steve Hunt Classic.

The John R. Park Debate Society traveled to Powell, Wyoming for the 50th Annual Trapper Rendezvous to begin its 2019-2020 competitive season on September 20-21.

The two-day conference explores the LGBTQ+ community within the LDS Church

Whether you have recently declared a major or are working through your respective curriculum, the College of Humanities is excited about your new academic year. Everyone in the college is invested in your academic, personal and professional success.

David James Vergobbi, associate professor of communication, is the recipient of the 2019 Award for Excellence in Teaching from the American Journalism Historians Association.

The University of Utah’s Department of Philosophy has established a new interdisciplinary philosophy of science major beginning fall 2019.

Avery Holton, associate professor of communication, earned a top research paper award for his work on the deployment of drones at universities during the most recent meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Sara Yeo, assistant professor in communication, was recently awarded a $750,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study how people respond to funny science messages on social media.

Each year, the humanities partnership board honors a college staff member for their hard work and dedication to the humanities.

Danielle McLaughlin and Heather Tourgee, along with four other students from the U, received the highly competitive grant from the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board for the 2019-20 academic year.

Robert W. Gehl, associate professor of communication at the University of Utah, has received a Fulbright fellowship to serve as Canada research chair in communication, media and film at the University of Calgary in spring 2020.

Read about this year's Convocation Speaker, Outstanding Senior and the Excellence in Humanities award winner.

This year, the college is pleased to grant this honor to siblings, Louis N. Strike (class of 1969) and Cynthia Strike Petrow (class of 1976).

Jasmine Robinson, an honor’s student and double major in peace and conflict studies and psychology, has been selected by the University of Utah as the recipient of the 2019 Monson Prize for her project entitled, “The Black Perspective: Historical and Structural Violence to the Black Community.”

Samantha Thorne, a double major in economics and international studies at the University of Utah, has been selected as one of 62 Truman Scholars for 2019.

The latest book by Julia Corbett, professor of communication and environmental humanities, won the Reading the West Book Award for Nonfiction in 2018.

Rekdal is one of 13 poets laureate nationwide to be honored.

Two faculty members in the College of Humanities have been appointed with the University of Utah’s prestigious designation of Distinguished Professor.

Founded in 1907, the Organization of American Historians is the world's largest professional association dedicated to American history scholarship.

From March 8-18, the Confucius Institute at the University of Utah, in partnership with the Confucius Institute at Arizona State University, led a ten-day tour of China designed to facilitate exchange between American and Chinese educators.

The John R. Park Debate Society attended for the first time the National Speech Championships held on March 22-25 at Oakland University in Michigan.

Erika George, U professor of law, will take the lead on July 1, 2019.

The John R. Park Debate Society hosted the National Parliamentary Debate Association National Championships on March 14-17, 2019 at the University of Utah.

Maya Kobe-Rundio has received the 2019 College of Humanities Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award. Studying communication, Kobe-Rundio’s research trajectory combines her passion for environmental communication with her commitment to gender studies and feminist activism.

Jeff Metcalf, professor of English, created a play “A Slight Discomfort” not long after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. His remarkably honest and humorous play is based on his personal journals and follows his journey from diagnosis through survival.

The new focus addresses the moral, political and conceptual aspects of human rights.

The $10,000 award is an annual celebration of environmental leadership and expression and honors those who solve the planet’s environmental problems using the tools of the humanities such as creative expression, scholarly research, popular art forms and advocacy.

The John R. Park Debate Society traveled to Berlin, Germany on March 6-13, 2019 to participate in the International Forensics Association Annual Tournament & Conference.

The initiative encourages vibrant and intellectual exploration of the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-day Saints, its institutions, history, culture and people on campus and in the wider community.

The John R. Park Debate Society traveled to Seattle, WA on February 21-24, 2019 to participate in Western States Communication Association (WSCA) Invitational hosted by Bellevue College.

Katharine Coles, professor of English, recently published “Look Both Ways,” a biography that follows her grandmother’s life looking backward and forward, through documents and imagination.

Christopher T. Lewis, assistant professor of Portuguese & Brazilian Studies in the Department of World Languages & Cultures, has been awarded the University of Utah’s Early Career Teaching Award, which recognizes significant contributions to teaching at the university through new and innovative teaching methods.

Jonah N. Schupbach, associate professor of philosophy, has been awarded the 2018 Popper Prize, awarded annually to the article judged to be the best in that year’s volume of the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.

Ned Khatrichettri, internship coordinator for the College of Humanities, works with students to help them explore and identify internship opportunities. Below, he provides some answers to frequently asked questions about the importance of internships. For more information or to make an appointment with Ned, please click here.

The John R. Park Debate Society traveled to San Diego, California on February 8-10, 2019 to participate in a pair of tournaments held at San Diego State University (The SDSU Round Robin & Montezuma Mesa Invitational) and Pt. Loma Nazarene University (The Sunset Cliffs Invitational).

The mission of the World Leader Lecture Forum is to bring global citizens who shape our world – to offer their experiences and ideas about shared humanity.

University of Utah President Ruth V. Watkins and the Board of Trustees announced Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019, that renowned civil rights activist, religious leader and University of Utah alum and former faculty member Rev. France A. Davis will deliver the commencement address at the university’s 150th campus-wide convocation. The commencement ceremony will be held Thursday, May 2, 2019, at 6 p.m. in the Jon M. Huntsman Center.

The John R. Park Debate Society continued its Spring 2019 season at the Kansas in Nebraska Swing held at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The John R. Park Debate Society kicked off its Spring 2019 season by hosting the 49th annual Great Salt Lake Invitational on January 18-21, 2019.

Tanner Humanities Center, in partnership with the World Trade Center Utah, will host former President of Mexico on Feb. 12

Scholarships through the College of Humanities are still available. Please see the deadlines below. If you have any questions, email natalie.montoya@utah.edu.

The U.S. Census just released the latest population estimate and one story persists – fertility rates are down. At the moment, one child is born every eight seconds in the U.S. and one person dies every eleven seconds. Those two factors have yielded a natural population increase of one million last year, down from an increase of 1.8 million in 2008.

Researchers are exploring a number of factors that might explain declines such as modernity, delayed childbearing and economic shifts. But Robin E. Jensen, professor of communication at the University of Utah, is taking a different approach.

The Utah Center for Excellence in ELSI Research is seeking applicants for GURU, an NIH-funded, one-of-a-kind program.

Erin Beeghly, assistant professor of philosophy, was the only scholar in Utah to receive a fellowship. With the $35,000 grant, she’ll research and write a book-length study on the problem of stereotyping.

The John R. Park Debate Society traveled to a pair of tournaments at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green Ohio on Nov. 16-19, 2018.

Are you interested in the internship opportunities available to you? Are you unsure of where to start? The College of Humanities has a new internship coordinator, Ned Khatrichettri, to help you explore your interests, options and direct you to the best resources.

Malcolm O. Sillars, longtime University of Utah faculty member and administrator, passed away in Salt Lake City on Nov.12, 2018 at the age of 90.

Located in Lakeview, MT, the Taft-Nicholson Center Artist-in-Residence Program offers dedicated artists a supportive and transformational environment to further their creative development. In a remote setting dedicated to the historical integrity of the land and the preservation of natural habitat and wildlife, artists can experience unencumbered time to allow for thoughtful reflection and development of their work.

Huntsman Cancer Institute Researchers Receive Grant to Discover Best Way to Deliver Genetic Services to Primary Care Patients.

The John R. Park Debate Society traveled to two separate tournaments in Northridge, California and San Rafael, California on Nov. 2-5, 2018.

April Sanders-Aboulila, instructor and advisor for Model Arab League, has been selected as a recipient of the 2018 Beacons of Excellence Award for her work with Model Arab League.

Colleen McDannell, professor of history, recently published “Sister Saints: Mormon Women Since the End of Polygamy.” Her book offers a history of modern Mormon women that takes aim at various stereotypes, showing that their stories are much more complex than previously thought.

Every four years, the U.S. Department of Education designates sixteen Title VI centers across the country to support language teaching and learning.

Strong community, resilient history and vibrant traditions are key elements of the Pacific Islands culture. These same elements are the foundation of a Pacific Islands Studies initiative at the University of Utah—and a new $600,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will allow major acceleration of this effort.

Director Helen Whitney will be present for a screening of her new film “Into The Night: Portraits of Life and Death,” followed by a Q&A session with audience members.

On Wednesday, Oct. 3, Stuart Culver, dean of the College of Humanities, announced the recipients of the college’s 2018 Distinguished Scholar and Rising Star awards.

Each year, twelve undergraduate students from the College of Humanities are selected to live in the O.C. Tanner Humanities House in historic Fort Douglas. Throughout the year, they explore the notion of citizenship on multiple levels. From the living community to the global community, they delve into a yearlong theme, questioning its implications on society.

Last week, the College of Humanities tragically lost one of their students in a senseless act of violence. Lauren McCluskey was a senior majoring in communication, an accomplished athlete and an outstanding scholar. Her life was ended much too soon and her presence in the college will be greatly missed.

Among the team’s many accomplishments, five students walked away with top honors, including an undefeated record in NPDA debate culiminating in the tournament championship.

The grant supports international education and language study

U student group hosts workshops, presentations and a dinner to promote civil dialogue

The Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah presents the 2018 Tanner Lecture on Human Values given by Anita Hill, professor of social policy, law, and women’s studies at Brandeis University and chairs of the Commission on Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace.

Avery Holton, assistant professor of communication, has been selected from a competitive pool of international scholars as a Digital Journalism Research Fellow by Oslo Metropolitan University, where he will share and advance his work examining the changing identity of journalists.

Kent Alan Ono, professor of Communication at the University of Utah and second vice president of the National Communication Association, recently received NCA’s 2018 Douglas W. Ehninger Distinguished Rhetorical Scholar Award.

The University of Utah, in partnership with Brigham Young University, has been awarded $6.8 million from the U.S. Department of Education to support international education and language study over the next four years. The Title VI National Resource Center and Foreign Language and Area Studies grants will provide funding directly to the Center for Latin American Studies, Asia Center and their BYU counterparts and will earmark $4.6 million for student scholarships.

Stuart Culver, associate professor of English, has been a member of the U faculty since 1993. In that time, he has served in numerous roles in his department and college, including chair of the Department of English for five years, associate dean for academic affairs for three years and co-interim dean for one year. His scholarly and teaching focus has been on 19th- and 20th-century American literature and culture, photography, film and theories of popular culture.

Prior her junior year at West High School, Amina rarely spoke up in class and was too timid to join in classroom discussions. Through her participation in the Clemente Course, an interdisciplinary humanities course for underserved high school students, Amina now understands the value of her opinions and lets them be heard in class and freely engages in difficult dialogue and debates.

The Second Language Teaching and Research Center (L2TReC) has been awarded a prestigious US Department of Education Title VI Language Resource Center grant.

The Western History Association's Autry Public History Prize was recently awarded to Travis Ross, doctoral student in the Department of History at the U, and his associates for an exhibit titled, "Utah Drawn: An Exhibition of Rare Maps.”

The University of Utah recently had a successful showing at one of the largest national communication conferences, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Conference.

Tanner Humanities Center receives federal grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Panel presented by the ABU Education Fund, John R. Park Debate Society, and Scholars Strategy Network

New database at University of Utah sheds light on early history of black members in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The two-day conference features keynote address by journalist Darius Gray

Stuart K. Culver, associate professor of English will begin immediately.

Three University of Utah students have been selected as finalists for the prestigious Fulbright scholarship. Zoe Diener, Kevin Priest and Daniel Ybarra have received a highly competitive Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant.

In spring 2018, the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) at the University of Utah successfully secured a federal STARTALK grant from the National Security Agency to fund summer teacher and student programs for the study of Portuguese.

Professor of English, Jeff Metcalf, and Assistant Professor of Writing & Rhetoric Studies, Max Werner, join RadioWest to talk about their new books.

Doctoral alum José Ángel Maldonado’s dissertation, "Diana’s Confession: Precarious Rhetoric in Post-NAFTA Mexico," has been named the recipient of the Rhetoric Society of America’s Dissertation Award for 2018.

Ishion Hutchinson, a graduate of the University of Utah English PhD program, has received a 2018 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature.

The Humanities in Focus (HIF) program received a 2018 Ignacio Zaragoza Outstanding Achievement award from Centro Civico Mexicano for the program's engagement and the inclusion of the Latino community in making social justice documentaries.

In his recently published book, Maximilian Werner, assistant professor, writing and rhetoric studies, uses the vehicles of fly fishing, every day experience, and some of our most sacred rituals to explore the origins and limitations of our behavior and ideas.

Avery Holton, Noel Voltz, and Jeremy Rosen have all been selected for a 2018 National Humanities Center (NHC) Summer Fellowship.

A local Utah delegation of educators and students, led by the Confucius Institute at the University of Utah, were in Washington D.C. on Apr. 25, 2018 to meet with Utah congressional delegation…

Floyd O’Neil, Director Emeritus of the U’s American West Center, passed away on April 18, 2018 at the age of 90. O’Neil will be greatly missed, but his work and legacy will not be forgotten.

Eric Hinderaker, Chair and Professor of History, is being honored with the University of Utah’s prestigious designation of “Distinguished Professor.”

Robert T. Nilsen is our Humanities Distinguished Alumni and Aileen H. Clyde is our Honorary Distinguished Alumna!

Brisa Zavala is our 2018 Convocation Speaker and Nicolas Contreras is our Outstanding Senior!

Glen Feighery, Associate Professor of Communication; Tanya Flores, Assistant Professor of World Languages & Cultures; and Christie Toth, Assistant Professor of Writing & Rhetoric Studies.

Students in a new course, “Coming to America,” taught by a German and a Spanish professor are learning about immigration. The course combines this timely topic with cutting-edge research in the digital humanities in a hands-on way.

The John R. Park Debate Society traveled to Colorado Springs to participate in the American Forensics Association District IX Qualifying Tournament hosted by The Colorado College.

Christopher T. Lewis, Assistant Professor of Portuguese & Brazilian Studies in the Department of World Languages & Cultures, is the winner of the 2018 Ramona W. Cannon Award for Teaching Excellence in the Humanities.

Hacking was presented with the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and European Languages (AATSEEL) 2017 Outstanding Contribution to the Profession award, at the President’s Reception and Awards Ceremony during AATSEEL’s annual conference in Washington DC.

Molly Barnewitz’s MA thesis has been nominated to represent the University of Utah in the Western Association of Graduate Schools (WAGS)/ProQuest Distinguished Thesis Non-STEM competition.

Erin Beeghly, Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy, has been awarded a Conference Funding Grant from the University of Utah’s College of Humanities.

Prof. Christopher T. Lewis explains how the newest book in a mystery series set in Utah inhabits very recent events in Mormon culture.

The John R. Park Debate Society announced today it is again joining with the ABU Education Fund, an affiliate of Alliance for a Better Utah, to host Utah’s only legislative debates of the 2016 election cycle.

The award is presented to the most outstanding scholarly article published the previous year. Jensen is the first back-to-back winner of NCA's highest honor since 1980.

Mariam Thalos, Department of Philosophy, recently published her new book "A Social Theory of Freedom."

Christopher T. Lewis, Assistant Professor of Portuguese & Brazilian Studies in the Department of World Languages & Cultures, was featured Friday on “Top of Mind” with Julie Rose on BYU Radio

L2TReC was selected by The Defense Language and National Security Education Office (DLNSEO) as a Language Training Center (LTC) Program winner.

Associate Professor Lily Alavi, World Languages and Cultures, was recently honored by the Latter-Day Saint Student Association

Paisley Rekdal, Department of English, was the 2016 AWP Award Series winner for Creative Non-fiction.

Anne Peterson, Department of Philosophy, won the prize with her essay "The Primacy of the Organism: Being, Unity, and Diversification in Aristotle's Metaphysics."

"Heavy: The Obesity Crisis in Cultural Context" was recently published by Oxford University Press

The College of Humanities was delighted to find out that the John R. Park Debate Society program was also a Beacon of Excellence award recipient.

Taunya is a dedicated advocate for students and a campus-wide collaborator.

Professor Rachel Hayes-Harb, Department of Linguistics faculty member, was recently published in Frontiers in Psychology.

Shauna Edson, an MA student in Rhetoric and Composition through Communication and through Writing & Rhetoric Studies, was named one of a small handful of national Digital Inclusion Fellows

33 scholars from 11 countries will speak at the three-day conference on topics as diverse as Lesbian Romance, TV’s The Bachelor, Nora Roberts, Steampunk Romance, Cinderella, and Sheikh Romance.

UCEER Awarded $4 Million to Tackle Ethical, Legal and Social Impacts of Genomic Information

The 2016 selections for the Artist in Residence program at the Taft-Nicholson Center have been announced

The College of Humanities Bridge Program for Dual Language Immersion was featured on KSL

Join Professor Christine A. Jones and her Co-Editor Jennifer Schacker tomorrow evening for a small reception and presentation followed by a book signing

Dr. David Derezotes, Director of the Peace & Conflict Studies, was featured in At the U this morning for his show "The Radical Middle."

Abby Kaplan, professor of linguistics at the University of Utah, was featured in UNews this morning for her recently published book, “Women Talk More Than Men…And Other Myths about Language Explained.”

The Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP) has recognized Christopher Lewis with its Junior Faculty Teaching Award.

Ashley Glenn in International & Area Studies has been awarded the 2016 University of Utah Outstanding New Advisor Award

Meet the amazing Humanities Graduates that will be recognized at our Distigusihed Alumni Luncheon and College of Humanities Convocation

Anne Jamison, Associate Professor of English at the University of Utah, has been quoted in several articles this week from around the country

Congratulations to the 2016 recipients of the Humanities Distinguished Faculty Service Award: Professor Richard Chi, and Professor Leslie Francis

Matthew L. Basso, Associate Professor of History and Gender Studies at the University of Utah, has been added to the Organization of American Historians (OAH) distinguished lectureship program roster for 2016-2017

Three Humanities students Jessica Chamorro, Sabrina Dawson, and Kate Mower have won the 2016-2017 Fulbright Awards

The University of Utah College of Humanities was thrilled to learn that two John Simmon Guggenheim Fellowships for 2016 were awarded to Professor Nadja Durbach and Professor Melanie Rae Thon.

Please join Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet and Congressman Jason Chaffetz for a special forum

Students discuss their amazing experiences while participating in the Honors Ecology and Legacy Minor

Senate Bill 152 passes during the recently concluded 2016 Utah Legislative session

Heather Stone wins the 2016 Thomas G. Stockham Medal for Conspicuously Effective Teaching, while Meaghan McKasy wins the 2016 Garr Cutler Energy Prize.

Over the course of the WSCA weekend, the John R. Park Debate Society competed in its final regular season tournament before Nationals.

This past weekend, the Rocky Mountain Regional Model finals in Denver conlcuded with most students from the University of Utah receiving an award

Congratulations to all the amazing faculty members from the University of Utah who were nominated.

James Tabery, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Adjunct Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine at the University of Utah is joining the Leonardo After Hours panel discussion.

The ‘Countering Cancer’ series, presented by Pfizer, portrays the dedicated people, initiatives, and organizations that are part of this effort and provides insights into their motivation and engagement.

A Public Event, featuring The Japanese National Debate Team and The John R. Park Debate Society

February is the month when the John R. Park Debate Society gears up for nationals and fine-tunes its competitive events going into the culminating tournaments of its season.

Jeff McCarthy, Director of the Environmental Humanities Graduate Program at the University of Utah, was featured today on KPCW's show "This Green Earth."

Think Progress recently interviewed Associate Professor Paul Reeve, one of the University of Utah College of Humanities' History Professors for their story on Islmaphobia.

Dr. Danielle Endres and Professor Jerry Root Awarded 2016-17 Honors Humanities Professorships

If enslaved peoples discover, enact, or perform freedom through narration, their stories issue a call to readers, that needs a response.

A Community Conversation About Immigration

Each year, our Humanities professors and instructors have the unique opportunity of teaming up with Go Learn, the U’s travel program, to lead students and community members on life-changing tours across the world

The 2016 Confutati Conference at the University of Utah is February 5-6th!

Can philosophy really save your life?

Members of the John R. Park Debate Society, take time to reflect on and discuss the Primary Debate that took place on January 28th, 2016.

Assistant Professor Christie Toth in the U’s Department of Writing & Rhetoric Studies was featured in At the U for her amazing efforts in leading a new research project.

The College of Humanties was excited to find out that one of our own alumni from the Languages & Literature department, Hediyeh Hosseini, participated in interpretting at the Sundace Film Festival on January 25th, 2016

Four College of Humanities Professors Win U's Career Services Faculty Recognition Awards

Professor of Linguistics, Johanna Watzinger-Tharp, on Utah's Dual Language Immersion Program

The College of Humanities’ Second Language Teaching and Research Center (L2TReC) has been awarded a Flagship Teacher Training grant sponsored by the National Security Education Program and administered by The Institute of International Education.

Join us for a lecture on February 8th 3:00-4:30pm CTIHB 101

The Taft-Nicholson Center Artist-in-Residence Program offers dedicated artists a supportive and transformational environment to further their creative development.

The College of Humanities is delighted to announce that Professor Mark Bergstrom has been selected as the next Director for the Taft-Nicholson Environmental Humanities Education Center

Humanities student Bailey Sheldon explores the new entrepreneurial Lassonde Studios interest in attracting humanities students

Professor Jakob (Jake) D. Jensen was awarded a 2015 New Innovator Grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The New Innovator Grant, established in 2007, supports unusually innovative research from early career investigators. The grant provides Professor Jensen with 2.2 million dollars to pursue a 5 year research program.

The team defeated over 23 universities and colleges including San Diego State University, University of Vermont, University of Missouri, and the University of Alaska.

The lecture will air twice on October 3, at 8 p.m. EDT and Midnight EDT.

Dr. Stockton will be honored at Equality Utah’s 14th Allies Dinner: Queer New World on October 3rd, 2015 at 6pm.

Janet Theiss, director of the Asia Center has been presented with one of the first two inaugural Awards for Global Engagement.

A group of faculty from U of U International Studies has been awarded one of three highly sought-after Global Learning Across the Disciplines (GLAD) grants from the Office for Global Engagement (OGE).

Two Department of Communication faculty, Associate Professor Sean Lawson and Professor Avery Holton, were awarded an H2 Professorship to teach an innovative series of courses about drones throughout 2014, and now the successful courses are featured on MediaShift.

The symposium is presented jointly by the Departments of Communication and History at the University of Utah and is free and open to the public. It will take place on Thursday, September 24, 2015.

A documentary team from French television, France 4, will travel to the University of Utah this month to interview and film Anne Jamison about her work on fanfiction.

Our own Dean Dianne Harris and William “Bro” Adams, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, spoke at the Utah Humanities 2015 Human Ties Celebration event on Wednesday, August 26, at the Rose Wagner Theater

Last year, we were able to raise $2,994 from the College of Humanities staff and friends. We are very excited to announce that we are doing this event again on Oct. 24, 2015.

The amazing faculty and graduate students of the Department of Communication have been honored again and again this year for their outstanding achievements.

Under the direction of nationally recognized University of Utah faculty members, teachers attend week-long summer workshops to explore current scholarship on academic subjects, new pedagogical methods, curriculum development, and innovative classroom technologies.

L2TReC helped run a Russian immersion teacher training workshop and two Russian immersion student camps during July 2015.

In the Club - Associational Life in Colonial South Asia was celebrated at a launch event in Hyderabad, India.

This year's lecture by Karima Bennoune will take place November 5, 2015, at 4:00 p.m.

Spanish major Jason Chen has been selected for a Fulbright Award for 2015-2016, which will fund nine months of research and living abroad expenses in Mexico, starting in August 2015.

May Bartlett, Philosophy BA, has been chosen as student speaker for the University of Utah Commencement Ceremony alongside U.S. Secretary of Veteran Affairs Robert McDonald.

Metcalf’s most recent book, Requiem for the Living (Univ. of Utah Press, 2014) has received rave reviews.

The Confucius Classroom at Draper Elementary is one of the seven Confucius Classrooms that the Confucius Institute at the University of Utah has recently established at Utah public schools.

Professor McCarthy encourages community members to participate in the Mountain Accord.

Professor Ron Coleman was honored Thursday with a Humanitarian Award presented by the Inclusion Center for Community and Justice.

Listen to the audio from her address.

Distinguished author and English Department faculty member Melanie Rae Thon will publish a new work this fall. Readers can now also purchase her previous works as ebooks.

Listen to Michael Kimmel's lecture on modern gender roles!

Philosopher and bioethicist Peggy Battin talks on TEDMED about the life and death of her husband Brooke Hopkins, a distinguished Humanities professor.

New Humanities faculty member Christie Toth was featured on Higher Education Talk Radio today to talk about the CCCC.

Molly Melching, founder and executive director of Tostan, joined RadioWest today to discuss the crucial role of empathy in effecting change.

The Reimagine Symposium ended this week at the University of Utah Taft-Nicholson Center. The Symposium combined literary passion, expertise, community insights and the...

Congratulations to the Second Language Teaching and Research Center (L2TReC), which recently was awarded a very prestigious and competitive Language Flagship Proficiency Assessment grant.

Margaret Toscano and Isabel Moreira were interviewed on Radio West yesterday about their book "Hell and its Afterlife."

James Tabery, historian and philosopher at the U, answers this question in his new book, "Beyond Versus: The Struggle to Understand the Interaction of Nature and Nurture".

Professor Paisley Rekdal has been selected to receive a Guggenheim fellowship for 2014 for her work in the field of poetry and her creative cartography project, Mapping Salt Lake City.

Fusheng Wu, Director of the Confucius Institute, has been interviewed by the BBC about his translation of Dylan Thomas' poetry into Chinese.

Esther Rashkin, Professor of French and Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies, appears on KBYU's nationally broadcast radio program Thinking Aloud to talk about about why literary criticism is important and about the intersection between psychoanalysis and literature.

Jeff Metcalf and Craig Wirth's documentary filmmaking program gives 'invisible' students a voice.

Congratulations to Eric Hinderaker, Professor of History, who's most recent book, The Two Hendricks, was recently chosen by the New York Academy of History to receive the prestigious Herbert H. Lehman Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in New York history.

Professor Mark Bergstrom has agreed to serve as acting dean of the College of Humanities for Spring semester 2014, while Dean Robert Newman is away from the University on sabbatical.

University of Utah Communication Professor Jake Jensen's research is featured in a Salt Lake Tribune article about skin cancer.

The University of Utah announced a new collaborative education program with Nankai University in Tianjin, China, that will expand global partnerships in Asia. Called the 3+X program, it will provide Chinese students the opportunity to attend both universities and receive a bachelor's degree from Nankai University and master's degree from the U.

Watch the 2013 Dolowitz Lecture on Human Rights. This year's visiting scholar was author and Professor Bernhard Schlink. His talk was titled "A Past to Remember, A Past to Forget."

Danielle Endres and Tarla Rai Peterson (Texas A&M) were awarded a $499,541.00 collaborative research grant from the National Science Foundation. The award supports research to investigate how low-carbon energy scientists and engineers talk about the social, cultural, and political implications of their technologies and how they try to influence policymaking.

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Announcing the 2013 Rocky Mountain European Scholars Consortium conference schedule

Read Communication Professor Robert Gehl's Op-Ed published in the Salt Lake Tribune

The College of Humanities is happy to announce our new major in Writing and Rhetoric Studies! Click here for more information.

Poet and Professor of English Katherine Coles was recently featured on Radio West to speak about her latest publication "The Earth is Not Flat". Click here to listen to the interview.

We'd like to congratulate the following faculty members on their recent achievements.

We'd like to congratulate the following faculty members on their recent achievements.

We're in the process of developing our lecture archive. A collection of our outstanding lectures is now accessible on Soundcloud.com.

The EHEC's 2013 season has begun! We captured some great shots as we set up for the year and welcomed our first group from Weber State University.

Distinguished Professor Kathryn Stockton was awarded the 2013 Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence, the U's most prestigious award.

University of Utah English Professor Katharine Coles was given the Distinguished Scholarly & Creative Research Award in honor of her continuous research in the field of Creative Writing.

It's been a productive year for our faculty. Click here to see a list of their recent publications.

the 2013 College of Humanities Distinguished Alumni award recipients: Andrea Thomas and the Pax Natura Foundation (Director Randall Tolpinrud will be accepting the award). Click here to read about these fascinating friends of the College.

Click here to learn about our outstanding students being recognized at this year's convocation!

for being awarded a 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship

for being awarded both the Ramona Cannon Teaching and Early Career Teaching Awards.

Professor Corbett will be reading from her book Saturday April 6, 2pm, at Weller BookWorks (Trolley Square) and again Thursday April 18, 7pm, at the King's English.

Dr. Avery will be awarded the Broadcast Education Association's Distinguished Education Service Award at their annual convention on April 7th in Las Vegas.

Congratulations to Professor Shoji Azuma for having been selected by the Hakuho Foundation for its Japanese Language Research Fellowship

Paisley Rekdal's Animal Eye, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, has won the 2013 UNT Rilke Prize.

Professor and Communication Department Chair Kent Ono has been awarded the 2013 Paul Boase Prize for Scholarship. Click here for more information.

If you weren't able to make it to the Lyceum II Lecture on January 30, you can still listen to the riveting story of the great George Mallory's 1920's conquest of Mount Everest, told by award-winning author and explorer Wade Davis.

The Latin American Studies Program received a prestigious Department of Education Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language (USIFL) grant.

University of Utah College of Humanities' Professor Lance Olsen has been invited to live and write at the Berlin Academy from Dec. 2012 to June 2013 as the Mary Ellen van der Heyden Berlin Prize in Fiction Fellow.

Congratulations to Professor Fernando Rubio and Professor Anne Lair who both received national recognition Nov 16 2012 at the annual conference of the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

Both Lisa and Meg have been awarded very prestigious fellowships in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts.

More about the Environmental Humanities Graduate Program

University of Utah undergraduates may now spend their college years focusing on Dante and Buddha, Zoroastrianism and Zionism, Martin Luther and Joseph Smith, the Bible and the Quran -- and everything else related to the world of faith.

Her academic study of fan fiction, particularly the "mommy porn" of Fifty Shades of Grey has launched Jamison as a media commentator.

University of Utah History and archaeology professor Bradley J. Parker is publishing an on-line database that is not only the first of its kind but may chart a new path for publication in archaeology.

We turn on our taps and it's there. It's reliable, clean and seemingly abundant. Most Salt Lakers, though, don't know where it comes from. The source of our water and the course it follows to reach our faucets is hidden.

The American West Center has been gathering oral histories of vets from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.

Global Pathways is looking for outstanding Host Families! Learn about sharing American culture with International students - opens new window at the University of Utah! Date: Jul 19, 2011