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Tanner Humanities Center
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About The
Center

The Tanner Humanities Center supports academic research, public engagement, and educational programming in the humanities. The center offers fellowships for researchers from the University of Utah and other institutions, lecture series for the campus and community, reading groups, and professional development programs for educators. Founded in 1988, the center was endowed in 1995 through a generous gift from the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Family Foundation. Obert C. Tanner was a renowned entrepreneur, philanthropist, and professor of philosophy at the University of Utah. Their support has been vital in shaping the center into a leading institution for humanities research and public engagement. With a focus on critical thinking and interdisciplinary inquiry, the Tanner Humanities Center enhances both academic and public understanding of the humanities.

Obert C. & Grace A. Tanner

Obert Clark Tanner was born September 20, 1904, to Annie Clark and Joseph Marion Tanner. Obert’s father, exiled to Canada because of his practice of polygamy, was a fading presence in the life of his son. From an early age, Obert assumed responsibility for contributing to the support of his mother. She, in turn, instilled in him a profound respect for intellectual pursuits and the value of human freedom.

As a boy, Tanner learned habits of hard work on his uncle’s farm, on railroad and construction crews, and in a lonely season herding sheep for his father in the Canadian Rockies. Despite reservations about his ancestral faith, he served a mission for the LDS church in a Germany recently devastated by the First World War. His soul-searching attempts to balance faith and reason and to reconcile human potential with human suffering led him to lifelong interest in the example of Jesus Christ.

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Obert and Grace Tanner

OUR HISTORY

The Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center was founded in 1988 as the Utah Humanities Center in the College of Humanities at the University of Utah. 

In 1995, it was endowed through a generous gift from the family foundation of Obert C. Tanner, renowned entrepreneur, philanthropist, and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, and renamed for Obert and his wife Grace. In Fall 2008, the center moved from Carlson Hall to the newly constructed Carolyn Tanner Irish Humanities Building. This move enabled the center to house administrative and fellowship offices in one area, offer convenient and professional meeting and conference spaces, and cultivate close relationships with the College of Humanities and other schools, colleges, centers, departments, and programs with its central campus location. The center's directors and staff members have worked diligently over the years to support innovative interdisciplinary research, amplify diverse voices and perspectives, bring campus and community members together for shared humanities experiences, reach new audiences, diversify funding sources, and elevate the center's profile in Utah, the country, and the world.

Advisory Boards

  • SOHEILA AMIRSOLEIMANI | Associate Professor, Department of World Languages and Literature

    SCOTT BLACK | Professor, Department of English; Director, Tanner Humanities Center

    ANIKO CSIRMAZ | Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics

    NADJA DURBACH | Professor, Department of History

    ROMEO GARCIA | Assistant Professor, Department of Writing and Rhetoric Studies

    HELGA SHUGART | Professor, Department of Communication

    JAMES TABERY | Professor, Department of Philosophy

  • TORI BAKER | Executive Director, Salt Lake Film Society

    CALVIN CROSBY | Co-owner, The King’s English Bookshop

    GRETCHEN CASE | Associate Professor, Division of Medical Ethics and Humanities

    HAVILAH CLARKE | Head of Marketing & Communications ,Huntsman Mental Health Foundation

    ANNIE FUKUSHIMA |Associate Dean, Undergraduate Studies and Director, Undergraduate Research, University of Utah

    MATT HABER | Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Utah

    GREG HATCH | Librarian, Marriott Library

    MARK MATHESON | Director, International Tanner Lectures on Human Values; Professor, Department of English, University of Utah

    DAVID ROH | Associate Professor, Department of English

HELP SUPPORT THE CENTER

The Tanner Humanities Center is grateful for the contributions of our donors. Your generosity supports our public programming, student programming, and research fellowships.

We invite you to become a Friend of the Tanner Humanities Center through annual contributions at the Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum level.

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