Current Fellows
Obert C. & Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center Visiting Research Fellowship | The Virgil C. Aldrich Faculty Fellows | The Annie Clark Tanner Teaching & Research Fellow in Environmental Humanities | Graduate Research Fellows | Mormon Studies Graduate Research Fellow
Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center Visiting Research Fellowship

Lawrence Culver
Associate Professor, History, Utah State University Work in Progress Presentation: Tuesday, April 11 2023 | 12pm | CTIHB Jewel Box
The Virgil C. Aldrich Faculty Fellows
Vanessa Brutsche
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Languages & Cultures
Work in Progress Presentation: Thursday, April 6 2023 | 12pm | CTIHB Jewel Box
Jean Cayrol - From the Camp to the City
Rachel Mason Dentinger
Assistant Professor, Department of History
Work in Progress Presentation: Thursday, Feb 9 2023 | 12pm | CTIHB Jewel Box
Wastes or Weapons? Conflicting Theories of Plant Chemicals in 1960s Biology
Kent Ono
Professor, Department of Communication
Work in Progress Presentation: Thursday, March 23 2023 | 12pm | CTIHB Jewel Box
Racial Epistemologies
Joy Pierce
Associate Professor, Department of Writing & Rhetoric
Work in Progress Presentation: Tuesday, Jan 24 2023 | 12pm | CTIHB Jewel Box
Digital Divides and Inclusion: What’s in a Name?
Jacqueline Sheean
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Languages & Cultures
Work in Progress Presentation: Thursday, April 20 2023 | 12pm | CTIHB Jewel Box
On the Periphery of (the) Capital - Urban Planning and Delinquent Cinema during the
Francisco Franco Dictatorship
The Annie Clark Tanner Teaching & Research Fellow in Environmental Humanities
Taylor Brorby
Environmental Humanities
Work in Progress Presentation: Tuesday, Feb 7 2023 | 12pm | CTIHB Jewel Box
The Pancreas and the Potluck: Diabetes, Climate Change, and the Art of Personal Narrative
Lida Sarafrazarpatapeh
Graduate Student, Department of Philosophy
Work in Progress Presentation: Thursday, April 13 2023 | 12pm | CTIHB Jewel Box
Ethical Considerations Regarding the Health Needs of Muslim Women in Biomedical Research
Spencer Ivy
Graduate Student, Department of Philosophy
Work in Progress Presentation: Thursday, Feb 16 2023 | 12pm | CTIHB Jewel Box
Expertise isn’t flying! It’s falling with style
Mormon Studies Graduate Research Fellow
Benjamin Spackman
Mormon Studies
Work in Progress Presentation: Thursday, March 30 2023 | 12pm | CTIHB Jewel Box
But I have Better Grounds’: Latter-day Saints and Creationist Claims to Scientific
Authority
Lawrence Culver
Associate Professor, History, Utah State University
Tuesday, April 11 2023 | 12pm | CTIHB Jewel Box
Manifest Disaster: Climate and the Making of America
Manifest Disaster will explore how climate and perceptions of climate and climate change shaped the history of the United States. It will demonstrate that the diverse inhabitants of North America have long held contesting ideas about and perceptions of the continent’s climate. Manifest Disaster will further illustrate how these climatic perceptions both shaped the development of the U.S. and transformed its environment, and also influenced other regions of European settlement. By combining environmental history with cultural and intellectual history, as well as the history of science, environmental humanities, geography, and other disciplines, it will help illuminate the longer and little-known history of the most contentious environmental issue of our time.
Vanessa Brutsche
Assistant Professor, Department of Languages and Cultures
Date: Thursday, April 6 2023 | 12pm | CTIHB Jewel Box
Jean Cayrol - From the Camp to the City
Jean Cayrol was among the first concentration camp survivors in France to publish literary reflections on his experience. However, in the late-1960s, Cayrol’s texts turned towards questions of urban space and geography. By reading Cayrol’s concentration-camp writings in continuity with his writings on space and place, this talk will illuminate the shared stakes of reflections on the legacy of the Holocaust and postwar urban life.
Rachel Mason Dentinger
Assistant Professor, Department of History
Date: Thursday, February 9 2023 | 12pm | CTIHB Jewel Box
Wastes or Weapons? Conflicting Theories of Plant Chemicals in 1960s Biology
Kent Ono
Professor, Department of Communication
Date: Thursday, March 23 2023 | 12pm | CTIHB Jewel Box
Racial Epistemologies
Joy Pierce
Associate Professor, Department of Writing and Rhetoric
Date: Thursday, January 24 2023 | 12pm | CTIHB Jewel Box
Digital Divides and Inclusion: What’s in a Name?
Digital Divides have persisted since the term was first used in 1995 to describe households with internet access, and those without. The 21st Century phrase to combat the Digital Divide gap is Digital Equity and Inclusion. This presentation will interrogate what equity and inclusion mean in different contexts in regions of the United States and Canada. How do government entities and grassroots organizations define digital divide, inclusion, and equity? The presentation will articulate the ways in which equity and inclusion are enacted or ignored while attempting to bridge the gap.
Jacqueline Sheean
Assistant Professor, Department of Languages and Cultures
Date: Thursday, April 20 2023 | 12pm | CTIHB Jewel Box
On the Periphery of (the) Capital: Urban Planning and Delinquent Cinema during the
Francisco Franco Dictatorship
Taylor Brorby
Environmental Humanities
Date: Tuesday, February 7 2023 | 12pm | CTIHB Jewel Box
Digital Divides and Inclusion: What’s in a Name?
Covering everything from gay diabetic sex to humans' first understanding of diabetes, Taylor's next memoir, tentatively titled In Range, explores our 3,500-year understanding of type 1 diabetes. Peppering "breakthrough" moments in scientific and medicinal understanding, paired with Taylor's personal stories, this project seeks to highlight the daily, private moments of dealing with chronic illness by exploring the great American potluck, doctor appointments, childhood sleepovers, climate change, and the erosion of the body.
Lida Sarafrazarpatapeh
Graduate Student, Department of Philosophy
Date: Tuesday, April 13 2023 | 12pm | CTIHB Jewel Box
Ethical Considerations Regarding the Health Needs of Muslim Women in Biomedical Research
Muslim women are among the most disadvantaged and understudied groups in the U.S. Meeting the healthcare needs and understanding the values of this growing population in clinical trials, at least from the social justice perspective, is important. In my research, I will answer questions such as whether clinical trials need to consider the cultural practices of a group, like Ramadan fasting, and if it would make a difference in drug metabolism analysis.
Spencer Ivy
Graduate Student, Department of Philosophy
Thursday February 16 2023 | 12pm | CTIHB Jewel Box
Title: Expertise isn’t Flying! It’s Falling with Style
A beautiful performance is often not only a matter of incredible skill, but also elegance, composure, and the refinement of one’s ability to do well in style. Style and expertise go hand in hand. The aesthetic properties of an expert’s personal style are representative of the cognitive mechanisms typically associated with skilled action control – even when those actions are performed automatically. Consequently, this essay makes two contributions. First, I construct a model for a strategy that aids in determining whether actions are skilled by reference to their aesthetic properties. Second, I show that an aesthetic analysis of personal style is an exemplar of the foregoing model. This claim is substantiated by an examination of recent empirical evidence concerning Optimal Control Theory (OCT) to link together the aesthetics of style with the cognitive mechanisms of expert action control.
Benjamin Spackman
Mormon Studies
Date: Thursday, March 30 2023 | 12pm | CTIHB Jewel Box
’But I have Better Grounds’: Latter-day Saints and Creationist Claims to Scientific Authority
Expertise, Exegesis, and Ecclesiology analyzes conflict between creationism and biological evolution in the LDS Church as a case study in knowledge production, epistemological conflict, and competition for cultural authority. Twentieth-century scientific knowledge production and shifting philosophies of science challenged LDS creation traditions, while remaining sufficiently malleable to allow a defense of tradition through marshaling scientific authority. Through abundant original research (and remedying lacunae of prior investigations), the entwined roles of religious and scientific authority structures, social settings, educational trends, and latent assumption are examined. This analysis provides insight into broader American religious epistemologies, scientific interactions, and the making of socio-cultural norms.