Humanities Center Blog

This post was written by Rex P. Nielson, BYU Humanities Center Director. A threshold marks a distinction between two kinds of space. We typically experience thresholds as the common elements of an entrance: the line at the base of a door that separates the outside from the inside. But thresholds may also bear powerful metaphorical …

This post was written by Jamie Horrocks, a Humanities Center faculty fellow.   I am scheduled to teach a class on the Victorian novel next semester. Because of this, I have spent the past few weeks stewing over the question that surely all English professors in my position stew over: what is the maximum number …

This post was written by Cherice Montgomery, a Humanities Center faculty fellow.   Seasons of Creativity My research focuses on the nature and design of compelling learning experiences. I am especially interested in creating immersive learning environments that put language learners into flow, or a state of such deep attention and personal enjoyment that both …

This post was written by Ivy Griffiths, a Humanities Center student fellow.   In our ever-future-oriented society, choosing to study the humanities over a STEM alternative is often seen as a less productive option. If you wanted to do something of “real importance”, you would choose something that could advance the economy or build new …

This post was written by Luka Romney, a Humanities Center student fellow.   Today, invited by the spring meteorological turbulence, I took my new bicycle out for a spin on the Provo River Parkway. Instead of going up the canyon as I usually do, I followed the river as it raged under major arterial roads …

This post was written by Sara Phenix, a Humanities Center faculty fellow.   A recent conversation with a close friend forced me to reconsider the value of what I do as a literature professor. This woman has a house full of young children—five total, the oldest only ten when the youngest was born—and, while she …

This post was written by Zach Stevenson, a Humanities Center student fellow “Language is not a small victory. It was out of this last, irreducible possession that the Jews made a counter-world of words, the Irish vanquished England, and Russian poetry bloomed thick over Stalin’s burial grounds. And in a single book one woman managed …

This post was written by Drew Swasey, a Humanities Center student fellow.   On one of my final days in Sweden, I found myself standing on a small, rickety pier facing the Baltic Sea. To my left was my companion; to my right, a lifebuoy on a post. Staring out at the black water felt …

This post was written by Emma Belnap, a Humanities Center student fellow.   A couple of weeks ago, one of my professors asked us to read Sophie Raux’s article “Virtual Explorations of an 18th-Century Art Market Space: Gersaint, Watteau, and the Pont Notre-Dame”. I was captivated by this piece, most especially Raux’s methodology—she and her …

This post was written by Chris Rogers, a Humanities Center faculty fellow.   In my experience, language is a bridge (or link) between so many things. For example, it is a communicative bridge between a speaker and a hearer (or two signers); it is a bridge between generations as parents pass on a functional linguistic …