Humanities Center Blog

This post was written by Sara Phenix, a Humanities Center faculty fellow.    The scriptures are a veritable catalog of botanical wonders, starting, of course, with the Garden of Eden and its myriad plant species. We know from the Book of Moses that Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the vegetal paradise initiated them into the …

This post was written by Rex P. Nielson, BYU Humanities Center Director.    Few art restoration projects have commanded headlines like those that swirled after the second-phased unveiling of the Ghent Altarpiece in 2020. Following a nearly ten-year and multi-million-dollar process utilizing the advanced conservation techniques of the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA, Brussels), …

This post was written by Gabbie Schwartz, a Humanities Center student fellow and the BYU Humanities Center Intern.    It was 4:30 p.m., and I was getting dinner with a friend at the Olive Garden—which is how all great stories start. Excitedly, my friend told me about her senior capstone, an electrical engineering project in …

This post was written by Rebekah James, winner of the 2024 Humanities Center Essay Contest.   The British poet William Wordsworth saw the death of his father in the rain. He wrote, I do not doubt That in this later time when storm and rain Beat on my roof at midnight, or by day When …

This post was written by Ansley Morris, a Humanities Center student fellow.   When I was 18 years-old, there was one word that stopped me from declaring myself an English major: prose. Not writing it, not reading it, but the very word itself. Prose. Those five letters were my roadblock, spelling out every one of …

This post was written by Emma Belnap, a Humanities Center student fellow.   I have always been an incredibly indecisive person, something that I consider one of my biggest character flaws. Chalk it up to my perfectionism and being so worried that I’ll make a wrong decision that I won’t make one at all, but …

This post was written by Anna-Lisa Halling, a Humanities Center faculty fellow.   I am currently preparing to direct a study abroad program in Portugal, and my children happen to have a lot of opinions about this new adventure. My daughter declared that she prefers Madrid because Lisbon has “too many hills,” a fact with …

This post was written by Luke Beckstrand, a Humanities Center student fellow.   One of the most challenging and age-old questions in the world strikes us all close to home: “Why do bad things happen to good people?” It’s easy to wonder, if we’ve tried our best to live a good life and spread only …

This post was written by Paul Westover, a Humanities Center faculty fellow.   In my English 236 class, a GE course on C. S. Lewis, we recently read “Meditation in a Toolshed,” an essay that begins with a simple anecdote: Lewis, standing in his shed, observes a beam of light entering through a crack at …

This post was written by Ivy Griffiths, a Humanities Center student fellow.   I often find myself worrying about my future. With so many variables out of my control, there is no way to guarantee success in my endeavors. If life is a game, how can I win when I don’t hold all the cards? …