A Message from the Dean

Dear Friends,
Welcome to the 2026 issue of Perspectives, the official magazine of the College of Humanities. In order to understand where our world is headed, we must first look at where we’ve been and how we got there—and that is precisely the work of this college. Our students and faculty move fluently between the ancient and the immediate, using the deep well of human thought to make sense of the present moment. Throughout these pages, you will experience that fluency on full display: in our classrooms, our research, and our public conversations.

That fluency takes many forms. In “Classics at the U” (page 6), you’ll meet scholars and students who treat the ancient world not as something behind glass, but as a living conversation partner—one that keeps offering us new ways to read our own moment. In “Rethinking What a Philosopher Is” (page 10), we ask who gets to do this work, and where, and discover that the answer is broader than we may assume.

The College of Humanities’ reach extends well beyond any single classroom. In “The Case for Conflict” (page 12), you’ll see how the Center for Civic Discourse and Debate, Debate Across the Curriculum, and the John R. Park Debate Society are bringing the art of careful argument and honest disagreement into classrooms and communities, because knowing how to listen and respond well with care is as much a humanities skill as it is a civic one. And in “Community, Connection, and Care” (page 16), you’ll meet the faculty and students in our Ethnic, Gender & Disability Studies department who take up hard questions about identity, power, and meaning. The interdisciplinary experience in humanities, fine arts, and social science combined represent the scholarship that defines ethnic and gender studies. 

These are not abstract exercises. Employers consistently tell us that the habits we teach—reading closely, writing clearly, weighing evidence, and disagreeing well—are exactly what our graduates bring with them into a variety of sectors. A humanities degree is preparation for navigating the world with judgment, critical thinking, creativity, and care.

That same curiosity about people and place is now finding its way into new corners of campus life. This year, the Department of Communication partnered with Utah Athletics to launch the new Utes Productions Studio, a venture that gives humanities students the chance to tell the stories of Utah sports and gain hands-on broadcasting skills using the same voice, judgment, and craft they bring to every other kind of storytelling. It’s a small but telling example of something we believe deeply: the habits of mind cultivated here—careful attention, clear expression, genuine curiosity about other people—show up in places we don’t always expect.

What you’ll find in these pages is only a glimpse of what happens across this college every day. Our faculty and students keep asking the questions that matter most, and keep finding new ways to bring that thinking into the world. Be sure to check out the stories, the accomplishments, and read our faculty books. I hope that as you read you feel what I feel: a confidence in where this work is taking us.

Sincerely,
Wanda Pillow
Dean, College of Humanities
University of Utah