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In Brief
A monthly update of publications, recognitions and accomplishments
Recent News and Awards
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Fond Farewells to Retiring Humanities Faculty
The College of Humanities bids a fond farewell to several of our beloved colleagues who are retiring this year.
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Humanities Conference Highlight | Ying Zhang
Learn about Ying's experience at the TESOL International Convention and her research.
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Humanities Conference Highlight | Natalia Lopez
Learn about Natalia's experience at the Southwestern Social Sciences Association conference and her research project.
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Humanities Conference Highlight | Wen Lee
Learn about Wen Lee's experience at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.
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Humanities Scholar Spotlight | Melaney D. Ramirez Macias
Learn how being a Humanities Scholar impacted Melaney's first year at the University of Utah.
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Humans of the U: Ashton Pelley
Spanish, International Studies, and Political Science B.A. ’25 from Draper, Utah 2025 Fulbright Semi-finalist
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Humanities Scholar Spotlight | Charlese Richins
Learn how being a Humanities Scholar impacted Charlese's first year at the University of Utah.
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Learning Abroad Highlight | Sophie Wayment-Peterson
Learn more about Sophie's learning abroad experience in New Zealand.
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Learning Abroad Highlight | Joy Nelson
Learn about Joy's learning abroad experience in Aix-en-Provence, France.
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Margaret Wan Awarded Fellowship by the Institute for Advanced Study
Congratulations to Professor Margaret Wan (World Languages & Cultures), who has been awarded a fellowship by the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) for the 2025–26 academic year.
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Humans of the U: Anna Locke
"I’m originally from a rural town in Montana of about 900 people. My graduating class of 22 students was the largest in several years. This small-town background means community is incredibly important for me"
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Humanities Internship Spotlight | Lia Olive
Learn more about Lia's internship with the Utah Prison Education Project
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Humanities Internship Spotlight | Ava Ahn
Learn more about Ava's internship with Mahk Advertising
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Learning Abroad Highlight | Beverly Cheung
Learn about Beverly Cheung's Learning Abroad experience at Tsinghua University.
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Meet the Awardees of the Spring 2025 COH Faculty Awards
We would like to congratulate Andy King, Jakob D. Jensen, Aniello de Santo, and James Tabery for their service and accomplishments!
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Kimberly Kaphingst Named Distinguished Professor
Kimberly Kaphingst, professor of communication, associate chair of the department, and researcher at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, has been appointed with the University of Utah’s prestigious designation of Distinguished Professor.
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Humanities Conference Highlight | Ana Victoria Tavera
Learn about Ana Tavera's research and her experience attending the SCOLAS conference.
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Humanities Faculty Present for Life at The U Showcase
In March, dozens of high school seniors admitted to the University for fall 2025 attended a Life at the U showcase put on by the University.
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John R. Park Debate Society Spotlight | Samantha Watrin
Samantha Watrin (she/her) is a sophomore, double majoring in Computer Science and Political Science. As a member of the John R. Park Debate society, Watrin participates in six distinct events.
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Undergraduate Research Symposium Spring 2025
The Office of Undergraduate Research hosts an Undergraduate Research Symposium each semester. For Spring 2025, the list of Humanities students is impressive!
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.