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In Brief
A monthly update of publications, recognitions and accomplishments
Recent News and Awards
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Celebrating the Long Legacy of Dr. Dorothy Snow
This fall, the Department of English is hosting a birthday party in celebration of Dr. Snow, who taught at the University of Utah from 1924 – 1970.
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Humanities Internship Spotlight: Madison Westover | Santino Panaro | Andrew Nazarenus
Learn more about Madison Westover's internship with BD Medical Device, Santino Panaro's internship with Immaculate Restoration, and Andrew Nazarenus's internship with Richmond American Homes.
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Graduate Student Research Spotlight | Josh Brekel
Learn more about Josh Brekel's research project "A New Look at Keynesian Weight of Evidence".
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How an Internship Can Change Your Career Path (and How to Find Yours)
An internship can be the moment everything clicks. For some communication students, it’s the “in” that leads directly to their first full-time job. For others, it’s a safe space to explore, try out a new field, and discover what does and doesn’t fit before graduation.
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2025-2026 UAC Graduate Student Cohort
The Department of Communication is excited to announce eight new students joining the University of Utah Communication Department at the Asia Campus to pursue their Master's Degrees.
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World Languages and Cultures Grad Cohort
Meet the 2025-2026 World Languages and Cultures Graduate Cohort.
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Graduate Student Research Spotlight | Heather Hoyt
Learn more about Heather Hoyt's research Beyond Self Interest: Altruistic Preferences and Welfare Economics.
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Historian Susie Porter Recognized for Contributions to Mexican Historical Scholarship and Cross-Border Academic Collaboration
Susie Porter, professor of history and gender studies, has been elected as an International Corresponding Member of the Mexican Academy of History, joining an exclusive group of 20 US-based scholars recognized by the institution.
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Humanities Internship Spotlight: Tessa Morrison | Ava De St Jeor | Olivia Alcantar
Learn more about Tessa's internship with the Humane Society of Utah, Ava's internship with CentraCom, and Olivia's internship with STK Steakhouse.
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Humanities Internship Spotlight: Kaia Stewart | Marek Miller | Hallie Lowrance
Learn about Kaia's internship with Enhanced AI, Marek's internship with KZ Companies, LLC, and Hallie's internship with Eisenberg Lowrance Lundell Lofgren.
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Graduate Student Research Spotlight: Erin O’Farrell
Erin O’Farrell, a graduate student in the Environmental Humanities Program, recently returned from the Conference on Communication and Environment (COCE) in Nipaluna, Lutruwita (Hobart, Tasmania).
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Librarian Randy Silverman Completes Faculty Fellows Program
A summer residency at the University of Utah’s Taft-Nicholson Environmental Humanities Education Center (the Center) among the complexity of Montana’s Centennial Valley flora and fauna provided librarian Randy Silverman with the opportunity to rejuvenate and refocus on the collaborative From Jikji to Gutenberg project and the academic volume of essays to be published in early 2026.
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Humanities Summer 2025 Research Roundup
Learn about the research Humanities students completed this summer.
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Humanities Internship Spotlight: Parichat Sutthileklom | Westly Brown | Jordan Trapp
Learn more about Parichat Sutthileklom's internship with InnovestX, Westly Brown's internship with Aero Connect LLC, and Jordan Trapp's internship RC Willey.
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Meet the 2025-26 COMM Graduate Student Cohort
The Department of Communication is excited to announce six new students joining the University of Utah Communication Department to pursue their Master's Degrees or PhDs. Please extend them a warm welcome!
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Linguistics Faculty Awarded Grant to Study Accent Bias
Two faculty in the Department of Linguistics, Shannon Barrios and Rachel Hayes-Harb, have been awarded a prestigious Spencer Foundation Racial Equity Grant to examine accent and accent bias in adult language learning.
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Center for Latin American Studies Hosts Annual Nahuatl Language & Culture Program
The Center for Latin American Studies hosts the annual Nahuatl Language & Culture summer intensive program, where students from 14 different universities gathered to learn from Nahua experts.
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Humanities Internship Spotlight: John Leone | Qirui Yang | Cara Mattos
Learn more about John Leone's internship with the Daily Utah Chronicle, Qirui Yang's internship with Archauto, and Cara Mattos's internship with Lunar Solar Group.
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Welcome Back to Fall 2025
Welcome back to the start of a new academic year! As we begin fall semester together, I am honored to represent the interests and needs of our remarkable community.
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Humanities Internship Spotlight: Reagan Reynolds | Hamza Hassoun | Deann Bolinder
Learn more about Reagan Reynolds's internship with Caddis, Hamza Hassoun's internship with Elite Auto Care, and Deann Bolinder's internship with J.B. Hunt.
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.