David Wengrow gives 2026 Tanner Lecture on Human Values
David Wengrow is Professor of Comparative Archeology at University College London. He has written on the origins of inequality, freedom and social domination, and the archaeology of early states and civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and…
Cory Doctorow on enshittification and resistance
A hiring app that draws on workers’ credit reports to offer lower pay to those desperate to get out of debt. A search engine that blurs the line between answers and advertisements. A social media…
Seeing the body in the world: Environmental storytelling symposium
Narrative is often thought of as a string or sequence of events in time: a linear progression from beginning to end. What this purely temporal conception overlooks, however, is the imaginary space opened up and…
Thi Nguyen on gamification, scoring systems, and value capture
“Is this the game you really want to be playing?” This question is at the core of Thi Nguyen’s new book, The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game, published this year by Penguin.…
Father Gregory Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries, on hope and reclamation
To a packed auditorium at the Salt Lake City Public Library on January 21, 2026, Father Gregory Boyle shared what he has learned from building Homeboy Industries—and, more broadly, how to practice a kinship that…
Jesmyn Ward shares forthcoming work on trauma, writing, and hope
In her 2025 David P. Gardner Graduate Lecture in the Humanities and Fine Arts on October 23, Jesmyn Ward shared with the audience at the Salt Lake City Public Library a new piece to appear…
Biographer Alex Beam discusses Wallace Stegner, novelist, conservationist, and Utah alum
At a Tanner Humanities Center and Marriott Library event on October 20, journalist Alex Beam introduced his new biography, Wallace Stegner: Dean of Western Writers (Signature Books). Drawing on the Stegner archive housed in the…
Evening with Great Books features works in literature, philosophy, and history
The Tanner Humanities Center’s second annual Evening with Great Books event was held at the Alta Club in downtown Salt Lake City on October 16. More than sixty community members and Center supporters enjoyed dinner…
Interview with Teri Harman on Water Commons symposium
Environmental Humanities graduate student Teri Harman was a key organizer of The Water Commons: Living Legacies of Utah Waterways held on September 19, 2025 at the Marriott Library Gould Auditorium. The event was sponsored by…
Daniel Mendelsohn, Translator of the Odyssey, Brings Homer’s Epic to Life at Utah
Daniel Mendelsohn has spent six and a half years completing a new translation of Homer’s Odyssey for the University of Chicago Press—the publisher’s first since Richmond Lattimore’s influential 1962 edition. The author of the acclaimed…
Annual Report for 2025
Annual Report for 2025 In our annual report, you can learn about the Tanner Humanities Center’s 2024–2025 events and fellowships, strategic goals in the upcoming year, and new initiatives. Download (pdf)
The Tanner Humanities Center’s public events for 2025-2026
The Tanner Humanities Center is pleased to announce its calendar of public events for 2025–2026. All events are free and open to the public, though advance registration may be required. More information about times, locations,…