Finding a Place for Lady Liberty: Thoughts on Sukorov, Napoleon, and Morrison

Next week, I’m introducing Alexander Sukorov’s Francofonia, a history about the Louvre under Nazi occupation and a philosophical inquiry into art and historical consciousness, at BYU’s International Cinema. In this genre-defying film, the figure of Marianne, the French iteration of Lady Liberty who emerged during the Revolution, is occasionally shown flitting about the empty and …

Teaching Creativity: Understanding Vulnerability

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.” –Brené Brown, TED Talk “Listening to shame” March 2012   In a TED talk I watched recently, Brené Brown talks about life being a compilation of individuals seeking connection. The whole point of life, she says, is to make meaningful connections with people, and we strive to …

“On Faith and Imagination and the Mind of Winter, Thawing”

In his 1929 lecture “What Is Metaphysics?” Martin Heidegger laid out a series of propositions regarding scientific attitudes, and specifically how the sciences assess their objects of study. “What should be examined are beings only, and besides that—nothing; beings alone, and further—nothing; solely beings, and beyond that—nothing.” Science, that is, should take up only those …

Collaborative Language Learning

This post features the recent research of Dr. Greg Thompson, Spanish and Portuguese Department One of the challenges in learning a foreign language, especially in the first years, is communicating with native speakers of the target language. Given the limited contact that many foreign language students have with native speakers of that language, they are …

It’s None of Your Business: Women in the Workplace

In the current political climate, and in conjunction with certain personal experiences, it is relevant to have a blog post about “the woman question.” There has been quite the uproar especially with the leaked tapes and Donald Trump’s reputation with women and Hillary Clinton being the first woman to win a major party nomination. Heather …

A Conversation, Not Only About Trees

Last night I lay awake worrying about a canceled pizza-bake off we had planned for a church Young Men’s activity.  As I lay there in bed, my mind wandered to the election, then to Vladimir Putin, and then to the people of Aleppo who are at this moment being disintegrated and incinerated along with the …

On “Christian Philosophy”: Two Views

Last week, the Humanities Center sponsored its annual lecture. Our theme this year is “After Suspicion …”, through which we take up the long aftermath of the sporadic, eclectic, but unmistakable shift away from the constitutional skepticism associated with the work of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud (and the extraordinary influence of their work across the …

Humanities Taught Me to Dig Deep

The other day I came upon a New Yorker article entitled “Why I Quit My Job to Travel the World.” Like many people, I have an interest in travel and decided to give it the time of day. I expected to read a heartening story about someone who left the drudgery of daily life and …

Emotional Intelligence

This post was written by former HC intern, Brittany Bruner. Emotional intelligence is often something I take for granted as necessary for positive human coexistence, until I encounter media or people who possess a shockingly low amount of emotional intelligence. Rita Balian Allen defines emotional intelligence as “our ability to identify and manage our own …