To a packed and enthusiastic auditorium at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts on February 25, Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Ed Yong discussed the implications of becoming “bird curious.” Having become increasingly popular in the past few years, birding has provided Yong not only with a new and passionate hobby to share with […]
Read MoreA panel discussion at the Tanner Humanities Center on March 4th featured authors of a new historical study that illuminates the complex debates around slavery and unfree labor in early Utah Territory. The conversation, featuring W. Paul Reeve, Simmons Chair of Mormon Studies and Chair of History at the University of Utah, and […]
Read MoreEvery spring, research fellows at the Tanner Humanities Center give work-in-progress talks in a casual setting and receive feedback from colleagues across campus. “Our community of fellows is at the heart of the Tanner Humanities Center, and our weekly works in progress talks are at the heart of the fellows’ community,” says Scott Black, Director […]
Read MoreIn the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris stand twenty white marble statues of queens and illustrious women in French history, a series commissioned during the 19th-century reign of King Louis-Philippe as part of a larger beautification program. However, when sculptor Victor Thérasse presented his statue of Queen Balthild in 1848, both the statue itself […]
Read MoreWhat if advances in technology were already changing the causal logic of human reproduction which is now taken for granted? Could pregnancy shift from an event which some opt out of through prevention or termination, to an intentional, elective choice? How should such a system work, and what would be its likely consequences? […]
Read MoreThe works of Percival Everett, Distinguished Professor at the University of Southern California, feature satirical and ironic accounts of race in American life, experiments in literary form, and philosophically rich reconsiderations of historical periods and events. His 2024 novel, James, retells the story of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective […]
Read MoreNow in its second year at the University of Utah, Great Books in the Humanities introduces first-year students to foundational literary and philosophical works from across world civilizations, alongside recent scholarship that deepens our understanding of enduring questions. At an evening reception at the Fort Douglas Commander’s House on October 16, campus and community members […]
Read MoreThe first Tanner Conversation of 2024-2025 was held on September 25 with Alice Dailey, Professor of English and Director of Faculty Affairs at Villanova University. The subject of conversation was her book, Mother of Stories: An Elegy, published this year by Fordham University Press. In a blend of memoir and scholarly investigation, Dailey recounts the […]
Read MoreAssociate Director, Tanner Humanities Center What makes a leader authoritarian, and how do they rule? This central question animates the work of Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history and Italian studies at New York University. Her recent book, Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present (W.W. Norton, 2020), identifies the defining features of authoritarianism for the last […]
Read MoreA symposium on September 13–14 at Snowbird Utah brought together scholars from the University of Utah and other institutions to present groundbreaking and field-defining work in games humanities. Presentations at the symposium explored a range of interdisciplinary topics, including the representation of the ancient world in games like Assassin’s Creed(Alexis M. Christensen, World Languages and Cultures), […]
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