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The humanities teach us to question the world around us in order to better understand our place within it. In the humanities, we seek to understand the nuances of cultural issues, to interpret human experience, and to appreciate the power of words and ideas. By studying humanities, we broaden our historical, ethical, social and international perspectives while enhancing ourselves intellectually and creatively.

Majors and Minors

Perspectives 2020 - 2021

The disciplines of the humanities provide tools for understanding, contextualizing and coping with powerful cultural and social transitions. This issue of Perspectives highlights some of the ways students and faculty are reflecting on the topic of change. Click below to read the Perspectives articles online and be on the lookout for a physical copy in mailboxes soon.

READ PERSPECTIVES 2020 - 2021

Why Humanities with Tracy McMillan

Since graduating from the College of Humanities in 1989, Tracy McMillan has established a fascinating presence as a television writer, book author, TV personality and relationship expert. Her degree has taken her to the top of her profession and allowed her to connect to what it means to be human.

Humanities Radio Latest Episode

Season 4, Episode 6 - Native Places Atlas with Greg Smoak

In honor of National American Indian Heritage Month, Greg Smoak, director of the American West Center and associate professor of history, discusses the Native Places project. A partnership with the Digital Matters Lab, this project sets out to restore indigenous place names to major landscape features and historical and cultural sites with an interactive map centered on Utah.

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News

Author Nnedi Okorafor Joins Tanner Humanities Center in Virtual Conversation

The Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah will host author Nnedi Okorafor in a virtual conversation with Erika George, director of the center, and English Andrew Shephard, assistant professor of English, on Nov. 18 at noon. The discussion will focus on Okorafor’s writing, which she describes as Africanfuturism and Africanjujuism, as well as her upcoming novel, “NOOR.” The online event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Humanities Student Success Hub

The University of Utah is excited to announce a campaign to build a Humanities Student Success Hub on the first floor of the Carolyn Tanner Irish Humanities Building. The new, student-centered space will act as a front door to the College of Humanities, connecting students with support, information and peers in an unprecedented way. Designed based upon research outlining the resources students need to thrive at the U, a campaign is underway to debut the Humanities Student Success Hub in Fall 2022.

Awards

Ben Cohen Announced as AIIS Fellowship Recipient

Ben Cohen, professor of history and chair of the Department of History at the University of Utah, has received a senior fellowship award from the American Institute of Indian Studies to carry out his project, “Beyond Forests: Teak and the Making of Modern India c. 1700-2000.”
French Professor Wins Malcolm Bowie Prize

Vanessa Brutsche, assistant professor of French at the University of Utah, has been awarded the Malcolm Bowie Prize by the Society for French Studies for the most outstanding article published by an early-career researcher. Her winning article, “Duras’s Aurélia Steiner and the Ethics of Cinematic Form,” appeared in the journal French Studies (published by Oxford University Press) in July 2020.