Cinematic Landscapes of the Anthropocene

The Anthropocene is a term proposed by some geologists to redesignate the current geological epoch in which we live. The argument for this reclassification highlights the profound and lasting impact humans have had as a species on the planet from the beginning of agriculture to the “great acceleration” of industrial and private resource consumption from …

Greg Clark’s Innovative Research on Civic Jazz

Many faculty, staff, and students at BYU were first introduced to Jazz and the Art of Civic Life with a presentation in 2013 by BYU professor Greg Clark and his guest jazz artists Loren Schoenberg and Jonathan Batiste (Batiste has since become the band leader on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert). One year later, Dr. …

Environmental Humanities Symposium

This post was written by BYU Professor George Handley, who helped organize the symposium. Thanks to the support of the Humanities Center, the newly formed Environmental Humanities research group is co-sponsoring with the University of Utah’s Environmental Humanities program a symposium on September 24-27 on “The Future of the Environmental Humanities: Art, Thought, and Action in the Anthropocene.” This …

Emron Esplin’s Work on Poe and Translation

In spring of 2011, Dr. Emron Esplin (BYU) and Dr. Margarida Vale de Gato (University of Lisbon) met at the American Comparative Literature Association’s annual meeting and decided to co-edit a book that would take the next step in transnational Poe studies by focusing specifically on Poe translations in as many literary traditions as possible. …

Hans-Wilhelm Kelling’s Research: From Female SS Guards to George Bancroft

Throughout his career at BYU and continuing today, Dr. Hans-Wilhelm Kelling has remained an example of lifelong learning to his students. His paper entitled “Female Guards, Nurses, and Doctors in German Concentration Camps” was recently awarded the Best Paper Award by the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters in the Humanities/Philosophy/Foreign Language Division. In …

Brian Roberts’s study of American literature leads him to Indonesia.

Over the past several years, Professor Roberts has collaborated with Dr. Keith Foulcher (Indonesian Studies, University of Sydney) to research American writer Richard Wright’s 1955 travel to Indonesia to attend the Asian-African Conference, a landmark meeting of representatives from twenty-nine postcolonial Asian and African countries. In May 2013, with funding from the Kennedy Center for …