Adaptation: (Not) a 21st Century Phenomenon

This week’s public humanities post features the experience of Dennis Cutchins, English, on BYUradio Movies are on the mind: many of you watched the Oscars 2018 last week. The award for Best Picture, The Shape of Water, was an adaptation of a book written by Andrea Camilleri in 1994. Adaptation studies is an important field …

Treating Insensitivity with Compassion

This post was written by Jennifer Bown, Department of German and Slavic Languages, HC Fellow Just last week, a flyer created by a BYU undergraduate student went viral, becoming the object of much derision. A female student organized an event dedicated to Women in Math, publicizing the event with a flyer containing the pictures of …

Please Save Me from Neil DeGrasse Tyson

This post was written by Elisabeth Loveland, HC Student Fellow “I believe in science” is a common mantra these days, but for all its commonality, I do not fully understand what the “science pious” mean by it . . . in fact, given the vulgar conception of belief, it seems to profess a leap of …

Thinking through a new Odyssey

This post was written by Roger Macfarlane, Comparative Arts & Letters, Humanities Center Fellow “This book is really based on the Odyssey. All Roy really wants is to return to a clean home and to a faithful wife.” KUER pitched me this pair of sentences out of the blue when I cranked the ignition and …

Astonishing Creatures

This post was written by Benjamin Jacob, HC Student Fellow, Interdisciplinary Humanities major I hope you will indulge a personal piece on this week’s blog. You see, this will be my last chance to write for the illustrious (nay the prestigious!) Humanities Center Blog, due to my upcoming graduation.  In preparation for this piece, I toyed …

Literary Criticism and Bipartisanship

This post was written by Nick Mason, English, HC Faculty Fellow Much like the literary classic – which Mark Twain memorably dubbed a “book which people praise but don’t read” – political bipartisanship is at once universally endorsed and virtually extinct. In the past year alone, long-revered U.S. Senate protocols were ditched to expedite the …

Reflections on The Great British Bake-off

This post was written by Holly Boud, Humanities Center Intern I have recently started The Great British Bake-off on Netflix (I know, I am late to the game). I haven’t gotten through very much—only the first season, but like many of you, I find it utterly delightful. I love getting to know the contestants through …

#MeToo in the Humanities Classroom

This post was written by Heather Belnap, Comparative Arts and Letters, Humanities Center Faculty Fellow In my junior year of university, I “got woke” to feminism. And it was an aptly-titled text, Kate Chopin’s 1899 novel The Awakening, assigned in an undergraduate humanities critical theory course, that did it. Until then, feminism was to me …

An Ode to Environmental Humanities

This post was written by Carlee Schmidt Reber, HC Student Fellow My college experience could be summed up in a quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes: “One’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” While I hope Holmes’ mantra inspires me to seek new knowledge for the rest of my life, …

Considering a New Year: The Virtues and Vices

The new year is full of possibilities (exciting) and unknowns (scary). 2018 has come barreling through the gates at the heels of an incredibly eventful and unpredictable year. 2017 was … well, it was something. With a president at the helm unlike any we have ever seen, multiple global tragedies including Manchester, London, New York, …