an image of a river with a boat in it surrounded by trees

An Appreciation for Wonder-Driven Research

This post was written by Janis Nuckolls, HC Faculty Fellow As this is my last official post as a member of the first Humanities Center executive committee, I want to publicly thank (even though thanking seems paltry and inadequate) our founding director Matt Wickman, whose vision, wit, energy, eloquence, and excitement for ALL THINGS has …

an image of a view of a road through a fence

Fences

This post was written by Andrew Rees, HC Undergraduate Student Fellow As I sit in the twilight of my undergraduate experience at BYU, I hope you will indulge me a little nostalgia. To do so, I’ll refer you to one of my childhood favorites: The Fellowship of the Ring and J.R.R. Tolkien’s timeless words: “The …

an image of a museum with a lot of different types of animals

Sympathies and Natural Histories 

This post was written by Holly Boud, HC Intern “How little the real characteristics of the working-classes are known to those who are outside them, how little their natural history has been studied, is sufficiently disclosed by our Art as well as by our political and social theories.” “The greatest benefit we owe to the …

an image of a sheet of music is sitting on a piano

Negotiating Mortality in Art

This post was written by Benjamin Jacob, HC Student Fellow Recently, I listened to a recording of the Choir at King’s College, Cambridge performing Mozart’s Requiem Mass in D Minor. As it was the first time that I had listened to a requiem mass by any composer, I looked up an English translation of the …

an image of a man sitting in a chair in a living room

Juan Rulfo’s Journey through Film

This post features the work of Douglas Weatherford, Spanish and Portuguese Department This year (2017) Mexico celebrates the centennial of one of its most beloved and iconic authors, Juan Rulfo (1917-1986). Although best known for two groundbreaking pieces of narrative fiction (El Llano en llamas, 1953 and Pedro Páramo, 1955), Rulfo was also an avid …

an image of a bunch of peaches hanging from a tree

On Longing: The Peach of the Humanities

This post was written by Kristen Blair, HC Undergraduate Student Fellow In a moment of particularly moving emotion, William Shakespeare’s Prince Hamlet bemoans his mother’s hasty transfer of affections. In his suffering, he says: O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew, How weary, stale, flat and …

an image of a glass of water with a lemon slice in it

Raising a Glass

This post was written by Holly Boud, HC intern Here I am, sitting on a stool in my kitchen in my run-down Orem apartment eating turkey bacon (God’s gift to mankind). The door of my room hangs unevenly on its hinges. My light is broken. My toilet bowl has a hard water ring that I …

an image of a person jumping in the air with a frisbee

2017: Here’s to those who dream!

This post was written by Benjamin Jacob, HC Student Fellow, Interdisciplinary Studies major One of the most poignant moments in the wonderful new film “La La Land” occurs as the aspiring actress Mia (played by Emma Stone) auditions for a part in a movie.  She auditions by singing the story of her aunt, an eccentric …