Humanities Hub
Recent News and Awards
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Humanities Scholar Spotlight: Jay Hess | Johnny Prokop | Isabella Boam
Learn how being part of the Humanities Scholar program has impacted Jay Hess, Johnny Prokop, and Isabelle Boam's first-year at the University of Utah.
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Humanities Internship Spotlight: Tanner Stone | Madeline Potvin | Ike Rutter
Learn more about Tanner Stone's internship with Cottonwood Residential, Madeline Potvin's internship with Air Force Regional Training Center, and Ike Rutter's internship with Arete Pickleball.
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College of Humanities Welcomes New Department of Ethnic, Gender & Disability Studies
The College of Humanities extends a warm welcome to the students, faculty, and staff joining our college in the newly-formed Department of Ethnic, Gender & Disability Studies.
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The Edward Rivas Endowed Scholarship
The College of Humanities and Department of World Languages and Cultures are pleased to announce an endowed scholarship established in memory of Edward Rivas. The Edward Rivas Endowed Scholarship will support those pursuing a degree in Spanish, in hopes of encouraging students to “not give up and to keep trying,” said Edward’s mother, Mercedes Grimes.
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Humanities Ambassador Spotlight | Grier Abercrombie
Learn how being a Humanities ambassador has impacted Grier Abercrombie's time at the University of Utah.
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Humans of the U: Carol Hand
"I’ve definitely planted my roots really well here at the university. I couldn’t imagine calling anywhere else my college home.”
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U of U Professor and Grad Student Win Third Award for Historical Book
W. Paul Reeve, professor of History and Simmons Chair of Mormon Studies, and co-authors Christopher Rich and LaJean Purcell Carruth, were recently awarded the Utah Historical Society’s Best Book in Utah History for "This Abominable Slavery: Race, Religion, and the Battle over Human Bondage in Antebellum Utah."
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Humanities Scholar Spotlight: Alyah Bernal | Braden Hinckley | Sophia Faggioli
Learn how being part of the Humanities Scholar program has impacted Alyah Bernal, Braden Hinckley, and Sophia Faggioli's first-year at the University of Utah.
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Humans of the U: Shae Hanson-Gadomski
“I’m from Huntington Beach, California. I knew that I wanted to go out of state, so I applied to all out-of-state schools: Colorado, Idaho and Utah. This was the only school that I actually toured.
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John R. Park Debate Society Hosts First Annual Great Campus Debate
The campus debate will facilitate discussion regarding generative AI, a topic selected through polling of the campus community. Throughout the event, chaired by Insight Debate co-founder April Lawson, students from across campus will be able to present arguments that help unpack the resolution: generative AI does more harm than good.
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Busy Bees, Big Win
When the emcee read out “BusyBee,” five first- and second-year founders from the University of Utah Asia Campus looked at each other in disbelief—and then grinned. Three months of late nights and dozens of design iterations had just paid off with an Excellence Award at one of Incheon’s most competitive student startup events.
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Humanities Internship Spotlight: Olivia Rosvall | Carol Hand | Maddie West
Learn more about Olivia Rosvall's internship with Hexadyn Wellness, Carol Hand's internship with The English Skills Learning Center, and Maddie West's internship with Wasatch Magazine.
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Languages Leading the Way: Bridge Program Serves Thousands of Utah Students
The Bridge Program for Advanced Language Learning serves 4,700+ Utah students at 90 high schools statewide. This massive network is coordinated by L2TReC in partnership with USBE and supports students access to bilingual, biliterate, and bicultural citizenship as well as meeting each student's potential in college pathways.
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Humanities Internship Spotlight: Sami Worthington | Randall Karrington | Mia Klaes
Learn more about Sami Worthington's internship with the iFIT, Randall William Karrington's internship with Slopes Bio Incorporated, and Mia Klaes's internship with Cedar Summerstock Theatre.
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Humanities Scholar Spotlight | Suzy Radzinski, Jake Rice, Austin Ling
Learn how being a Humanities Scholar impacted Suzy Radzinski, Jake Rice, and Austin King's first year at the University of Utah.
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Humanities Ambassador Spotlight | Parker Bowden
Learn about Parker's experience being part of the Humanities Ambassador program.
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Lightning Talks Feature Scholarship on Freedom, Desire, Empire, and Renewal
The College of Humanities’ illuminating Lightning Talks series offers fast-paced presentations of research spanning languages, regions, and eras. In sharp 15-minute sessions, each built around a single image or artifact, new faculty and postdoctoral fellows brought their scholarship to life for the wider University of Utah community.
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Humanities Scholar Spotlight | Saba Mekuria, Richard Henage, Krisalyn Memea
Learn how being a Humanities Scholar impacted Saba Mekuria, Richard Henage, and Krisalyn Memea's first year at the University of Utah.
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Forensics Forecast: Tradition Meets Innovation at the University of Utah
The University of Utah’s John R. Park Debate Society is entering an especially exciting chapter—one that honors its storied history while creating new opportunities for students, faculty, and the community to participate in civic debate.
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Humanities Internship Spotlight: Ava Isaac | Jack Ongman | Lauren Pettigrew
Learn more about Ava Isaac's internship with Utah PGA, Jack Ongman's internship with Capitol Records/ Universal Music Group, and Lauren Pettigrew's internship with The New Heart for Life Community.
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.