Think clearly. Act well. Appreciate life.
The following post was written by Dale Pratt, a Fellow for the Center. Almost exactly four hundred years ago this month, Miguel de Cervantes published the second volume of his masterpiece, Don Quixote. The 1605 publication of the first volume had made him famous but not rich (he had sold the rights to the book …
The following post is written by Rachel Cannon, an undergraduate Fellow at the Center. Growing up, in school, I never liked the idea of someone editing my work. It felt intrusive, and my prideful self so intent on perfection didn’t want to be told how many mistakes I’d made and how imperfect my work was. …
Originally perceived to be a psychological disorder, nostalgia, which is rooted in the Greek words nostos (longing) and algos (pain), was explored as a way to explain soldiers’ feelings of homesickness during war. As we’ve progressed since the seventeenth century conception of nostalgia, nostalgia has taken on many forms. Nostalgia has certainly contributed to the marketplace, …
The following post was written by Chelsea Connelly, a student Fellow at the Center. As an employee of the library and an art history major, I am practically a religious devotee of the Harold B. Lee Library. I spend the majority of my school day there. Every semester since my freshman year, I have either …
The following post was written by Janis Nuckolls, a Faculty Fellow for the Center. While doing research for my PhD dissertation in a remote location in Amazonian Ecuador among Runa people, I had many amazing experiences. However, one experience in particular continues to be vivid. My friends and consultants had invited me to accompany them …
In a powerful scene in James MacPherson’s Ossian poems, the king mourns the loss of his son in battle: “My eyes are blind with tears; but memory beams on my heart. How can I relate the mournful death of the head of the people! Prince of the warriors, Oscur, my son, shall I see thee …
As the humanities and, more narrowly, literary studies suffer through something of a present-day identity crisis—as the number of majors dwindle, and as literary scholars migrate into media studies, the environmental humanities, and other fields—literary traditionalists seem increasingly given to creative defenses of the value of their work. This has been brought to mind recently …
In 2013, Dr. Jamin Rowan of the BYU English Department attended a neighborhood meeting to discuss the proposed routes for the new Bus Rapid Transit line that will soon connect the Provo and Orem Frontrunner stations. Although he had never imagined that he would be involved in city politics, participating in this meeting helped him …
The following post was written by Tamara Pace Thomson, a student Fellow at the Center. Recently, in the Stanford Magazine for alumni, I read an interview with Professor Alexander Nemerov, who was a professor of art history at Stanford from 1992–2001 before teaching at Yale for eleven years. He returned to Stanford in 2013 and …
The following post was written by Brian Russell Roberts, a Faculty Fellow at the Center. 14 September 2015 In April 2014, one of the BYU Humanities Center’s research groups hosted Yale English professor Wai Chee Dimock. During Professor Dimock’s visit to campus, she graciously sat down for an interview with our Humanities Center Director, Matt …