Think clearly. Act well. Appreciate life.
February is Black History Month and I wish to honor it here by sharing some of my thoughts, especially my conviction that racial justice needs to become a spiritual compulsion as well as a social responsibility for each one of us. We discuss issues of race in most of my classes. Italian 361 (Italian Culture …
While the deadly pandemic of COVID-19 forced everyone into their homes for protection, another devastating illness also rapidly spread: depression. Comparing pre-pandemic times to current day, depression rates jumped from 1 in 10 people to 1 in 3.[i] Most likely all of us know people struggling with depression, whether we know about it or not. …
I’ve been thinking a lot about America lately. Obviously, this line of contemplation may not strike anyone as particularly surprising given the many instances of national upheaval (is that too mild a word?) we’ve all been living through. Events such as the siege on the Capitol, a historically contentious election, economic distress, the global plague, …
What: BYU Humanities Center book manuscript mentoring workshop Brief description: The BYU Humanities Center will support a faculty member (or collaborative team of faculty members) working toward the completion of a book manuscript by paying two reviewers of the scholar’s choosing to read the manuscript and offer substantive feedback. One of these reviewers will be …
I’m going to interweave about four stories here. Let me begin with one of which I’m not terribly proud. I went on the job market the fall of 1999. It was a shockingly good year in my field, with a number of great jobs listed, and I was in a surprisingly strong position, with a …
By the early years of the twentieth century, China had suffered unduly at the hands of European, American, and Japanese colonialism. The Chinese citizenry had been deeply dissatisfied with the way the Qing dynasty—itself a foreign dynasty ruled by Manchus—had failed to protect China from the encroachment of increasing numbers of foreign powers. By the …
November 1 is the proposal deadline for research groups supported by the Humanities Center. Research groups are one of the best things the Humanities Center sponsors, and this is the time of year when we take single- or multi- (i.e., three-) year proposals. These proposals must include a rationale, a list of prospective group members, …
As I start the year 2021, I think back on my almost twenty-five and a half years of life and of being born into a time of increasing calls for awareness, equity, and justice for human beings, regardless of race, religion, gender, ethnicity, etc. I think about hard conversations, different realities that various groups of …