Humanities Hub
Recent News and Awards
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Wanda Pillow Awarded Rank of Distinguished Professor
This spring Wanda Pillow has been awarded the rank of Distinguished Professor, the highest academic honor conferred by the university, in recognition of exemplary scholarship on national and international stages and a sustained dedication to teaching and mentorship.
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Ben Lyons Awarded Carnegie Fellowship to Understand and Reduce Political Polarization
Ben Lyons, an associate professor of communication at the University of Utah, has been researching misinformation since he was a graduate student, becoming one of the nation’s foremost experts. He has been awarded a 2026 Carnegie Fellowship to study how older and younger adults polarize differently in today’s political media landscape.
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Meet the Convocation Student Awardees for the Class of 2026!
Meet the student awardees of the graduating Class of 2026! Three students are selected from a slate of exceptional student nominees from departments and programs across the college. The College of Humanities congratulates Emerson Hagy, Teyanna Kaibetoney, and RG Simbiak, as well as all of the graduating students this year.
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EGD Studies Alum Headed to Stanford for Graduate Program
Alex Leal Vergara, an alum of Ethnic, Gender & Disability Studies has earned a place in the prestigious Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP).
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Strong Growth in Internships for Credit
The College of Humanities experienced a standout Spring semester, with 159 students earning academic credit for internships, the highest total in any semester since 2016 and a 24% increase from last Spring.
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Spring 2026 Undergraduate Research Round Up
Meet the Humanities students who presented research in spring 2026.
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Humanities Internship Spotlight: Kobe | Dongwook | Lindsey | Benjamin
Learn more about Kobe Overdevest's internship with Formula Drift, Dongwook Youn's internship with Jinsung IND, Lindsey Rogers's internship with Cutco Cutlery, and Benjamin Lemaistre's internship with the Center for Business, Health, and Prosperity.
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Graduate Student Research Spotlight | Matt Williams
Matt Williams, an Environmental Humanities graduate student, recently presented his research on the Colorado River Basin’s cultural and environmental history at the American Indian & Indigenous Collective Symposium held at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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Undergraduate Research Symposium: Spring 2026
Learn more about the spring 2026 Humanities research being done by Undergraduate students at the University of Utah.
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Humanities Scholars' Spring 2026 Research Symposium
First-year students in the 2025-2026 Humanities Scholars’ cohort presented their research at the end of the Spring semester.
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Humanities Internship Spotlight: Olivia | Claire | Suin | Jack
Learn more about Olivia Haslam's internship with Consor Civil Engineers, Claire Le Gallo's internship with Five 12, Suin Jo's internship with IFEZ Global Center, and Jack William Valentine's internship with Big-D Construction.
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From the Classroom: Daniela Imbrett-Hook
For Daniela Imbrett-Hook, PR Cases & Campaigns (COMM 3585) offered an opportunity to bring strategy, analysis, and creativity together in a capstone experience focused on real-world public relations challenges.
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Linguistics Faculty Welcome Colleagues from Czechia and Uzbekistan
This March, University of Utah linguistics faculty served as site hosts for the TESOL International Association’s annual conference, welcoming thousands of scholars and teachers of English to Salt Lake City. As colleagues from around the globe poured into Salt Lake City, it opened doors for additional relationship building across borders, including a guest lecture from a former president of the TESOL International Association and a delegation of educators from Uzbekistan.
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From the Classroom: Jaydin Kroutil
For Jaydin Kroutil, Intermediate Journalism (COMM 4555) offered more than an opportunity to strengthen her reporting skills—it provided a space to reflect on her experiences in sports media and amplify voices that are often overlooked.
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Humanities Internship Spotlight: May Herring | Gabe Haymore | Bradley Veach | Asia Alomia
Learn more about May Herring's internship for the Marketing & Communications Center, Asia Campus, Gabe Haymore's internship with U Career Success Center, Bradley Veach's internship with Vivint Smart Home Security, and Asia Alomia's internship with Abercrombie and Fitch.
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Two Humanities Students Earn Internship of the Year
Two students from the College of Humanities have been selected as Internship of the Year winners as part of the U Career Success Career Impact Awards.
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From the Classroom: Addison Burnsed
When Addison Burnsed enrolled in Intermediate Journalism (COMM 4555), she was looking to gain an introduction to the world of journalism and help her develop a journalistic style. What she gained was far more tangible.
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From the Classroom: Alisha Jones
For Alisha Jones, PR Cases & Campaigns (COMM 3585) offered a chance to step outside a familiar advertising framework and explore how public relations strategy approaches many of the same challenges from a different angle.
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Humanities Internship Spotlight: Indie | Jihan | Emmy | Katie | Lindsey
Learn more about Indie Bulkley's internship with Quest - University of Utah, Jihan Lim's internship with Taeripic Co, Emmy Mallick's internship with U of U Hockey, Katie Pollack's internship with Emily Blair Media, and Lindsey Peter's internship with Young Life.
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Undergraduate Research Spotlight | Kathleen M Williams
Learn about Kathleen's research on Aziz S. Atiya, an Egyptian historian and founder of the Middle East Center at the University of Utah.
In Brief
October 2022
- Joy Pierce, associate professor of writing and rhetoric studies, published a chapter Studies in Symbolic Interaction. The special issue: “Festschrift in Honor of Norman K. Denzin: He Knew His Song Well” includes world-renowned qualitative research scholars. Pierce’s chapter is titled “Fishing with the GOAT: Honoring Norman K. Denzin.”
- Brandon R. Peterson, associate professor (lecturer) of philosophy, published an article, “Rahner and the Cross: What Kind of Atoning Story Does He Tell?” in the latest issue of Philosophy & Theology.
- Maile Arvin, associate professor of history, created a podcast, Relations of Salt and Stars. Our ancestors traveled through salt and stars, and so do contemporary Pacific Islander communities today. Relations of Salt and Stars is a new podcast produced by the Pacific Islands Studies program at the University of Utah, and hosted by faculty members Arvin (Native Hawaiian) and Angela Robinson (Chuukese).
November 2022
- Kevin Coe’s (professor of communication) book, “The Ubiquitous Presidency: Presidential Communication and Digital Democracy in Tumultuous Times” (coauthored with Joshua Scacco, University of South Florida) received the 2022 Roderick P. Hart Outstanding Book Award from the Political Communication Division of the National Communication Association.
- Jeff McCarthy, director of Environmental Humanities, organized a climate change roundtable at the Modernist Studies Association Conference titled "Modernist Salvage / Salvaging Modernism."
December 2022
- Hollis Robbins, dean of the College of Humanities, published “Examining Phillis Wheatley” in the LA Review of Books.
- Joy Pierce, associate professor of writing and rhetoric studies, was nominated, then chosen to participate as part of the inaugural cohort in the Leadership Institute for a New Academy 2023 (LINA), a new ACLS initiative made possible by the Mellon Foundation. The 2023 spring semester-long initiative will conclude with a four-day meeting in New York this July.
- Joy Pierce, associate professor of writing and rhetoric studies, has been invited to conduct a half-day workshop (solo) on digital qualitative research with an emphasis on data collection and ethics for the International Qualitative Research Network at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus. The workshop will take place in June 2023.
- Eric Herschthal, assistant professor of history, published a review-essay in The New Republic titled, “How the Right Turned 'Freedom' Into a Dog Whistle.”
- Nadja Durbach, professor of history at the University of Utah, along with Tammy M. Proctor of Utah State University will serve as co-editors of the Journal of British Studies. Their five-year term will begin July 1, 2023.
- Alexis M. Christensen, associate professor/lecturer of Classics in world languages & cultures, is starting a new archaeological field school – the Libarna Urban Landscapes Project (LULP) – in conjunction with Professor Katherine V. Huntley of Boise State University. The field school is an opportunity for students to get hands-on archaeological experience at the site of a Roman colony. Libarna (2nd century BCE - 5th century CE) was an important settlement in northwest Italy where Gallic, Etruscan and Roman cultures came into contact. In the summer of 2023, LULP will begin excavations exploring part of the city occupied by private houses and workshops.
January 2023
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Danielle Endres, professor of communication, quoted in Newsweek, “Putin’s Poseidon and the Radioactive Tidal Wave of Death.”
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Avery Holton, professor of communication, interviews on Fox 13, “Do You Know Who’s Writing your News?”
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Isabelle Freiling, assistant professor of communication, gave an invited talk, “Communicating science in a social media world: The risk of (not) intervening against “misinformation,” German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment.
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Chrisoula Andreou, professor of philosophy, published “Choosing Well: The good, the bad, and the trivial” with Oxford University Press.
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Jeff McCarthy, director of Environmental Humanities, published an Op-Ed in the Salt Lake Tribune titled “The Climate Crisis and the Threat to Democracy.”
February 2023
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James Tabery, professor of philosophy, published “Victims of Eugenic Sterlisation in Utah: cohort demographics and estimate of living survivors,” in The Lancet Regional Health Americas, Feb. 15, 2023
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Cindi Textor, assistant professor of world languages and cultures, with co-translator Lee Soo Mi, published a volume of four novellas by Korean-Japanese author Lee Yangji. “Nabi T'aryŏng and Other Stories” is available from Seoul Selection as part of a series of English translations of Korean literature in diaspora.
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Joy Peirce, associate professor of writing and rhetoric studies, received the James McCune Award of Veneration at the U’s 2023 Black Faculty and Staff Awards.
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Rachel Griffin, associate professor of communication, received the Malcolm X Award of Social Justice at the U’s 2023 Black Faculty and Staff Awards
- David Roh, professor of English, was awarded an Honorable Mention in Litarary Studies by the Association for Asian American Studies for Minor Transpacific: Triangulating American, Japanese, and Korean Fictions (Stanford)
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Blair Bateman, adjunct professor of world languages and cultures, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Utah Foreign Language Association "in recognition of a lifetime of service to our profession, our students, and our multilingual world."
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Jackie Osherow, distinguished professor of English, published her ninth collection of poems, “Divine Ratios,” was published by LSU Press, Feb 15, 2023
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Chris Low, assistant professor of history, had the Turkish translation of his book, “Imperial Mecca: Ottoman Arabia and the Indian Ocean Hajj” (Columbia University Press, 2020), published by Telemak Kitap (Istanbul) in February 2023. It was the winner of the Middle East Studies Association's Albert Hourani Book Award.
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Chris Low, assistant professor of history, delivered the Paul A. and Marie Castelfranco Lecture for the Department of Religious Studies at University of California-Davis. The talk title was: "Imperial Mecca: Ottoman Arabia and the Indian Ocean Hajj."
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Jeff McCarthy, director of Environmental Humanities, presented a paper at the Conference on Environmental, Cultural, and Social Sustainability at the University of Ljubljana titled “The Climate, the Possibility, and the Environmental Humanities.”
March 2023
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Isabelle Freiling, published “Science and Ethics of “Curing” Misinformation,” in the AMA Journal of Ethics, March 2023
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Hugh Cagle, director of the International Studies program and associate professor of the history of science, won a fellowship at the National Humanities Center where, during the summer of 2023, he will be conducting research for his next book, an environmental history of the Brazilian Amazon.
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Jeff McCarthy, director of Environmental Humanities, edited the essay collection “The Anthropocene Ocean” along with USC law professor Robin Craig, and it will be published in March by the University of Utah Press.
June 2023
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Joy Pierce, associate professor of writing and rhetoric studies, was invited to give a workshop at The Qualitatives Annual [pre]Conference in conjunction with Couch-Stone Symposium in British Columbia, Canada.