College of Humanities

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Salt Lake City, UT — Mountain Time

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Spain in Sanmao and Sanmao in Spain

Asia Center Professor Wan Sonya Tang will present a new research project on the Taiwanese author, Sanmao, who achieved Asian superstardom in the 1970s through her work chronicling her life in Madrid, Spanish Sahara, and the Canary Islands. However, Sanmao remained unknown in Spain (and the West in general) until her writing was translated into Spanish in 2016. Professor Tang’s project investigates how this oft-exoticized Asian woman in turn exoticized Spanish society, particularly from Spain’s peripheral territories. She also examines how the various Spanish lands she wrote about now claim Sanmao as part of their historical heritage. Ultimately, the study rethinks traditional models of Orientalization through an analysis of Sanmao’s work and Spain’s engagement with her. Campus Locations: Tanner Irish Humanities Building - Carolyn (CTIHB). Room Name/Number: Jewel Box/Room 143. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Monday, March 30, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM.

Graduation Extravaganza

The College of Social & Behavioral Science, College of Humanities, and College of Science, with support from the University of Utah Alumni Association and U Career Success, present: 2026 Graduation Extravaganza! When: Tuesday, March 31, 2026 | 10:00 am-2:00 pm, Where: Alumni House, Students will receive graduation information, pick up cords, engage with community partners who are hiring, connect with the Alumni Association, enjoy delicious food and more! Questions? Email graduationextravaganza@utah.edu. Campus Locations: Alumni House - Eccles (ALUMNI). Contact Name: Karen Marsh Schaeffer. Contact Email: karen.marsh@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Tuesday, March 31, 2026, 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM. For more info visit csbs.utah.edu.

Tanner Conversation with Professor Joseph Metz, Department of World Languages and Cultures

Tanner Humanities Center Joseph R. Metz is Associate Professor, Department of World Languages and Cultures, and author of The Feeling of the Form: Empathy and Aesthetics from Büchner to Rilke. Metz’s book examines the emergence of “empathy” from nineteenth-century German aesthetics. Moving from the 1873 coinage of Einfuehlung—the projection of human feeling into inanimate forms—Metz traces how this aesthetic concept migrated into psychology and ethics, reshaping how we imagine our relations to others, to art, and to the material world. Close readings of Georg Büchner, Adalbert Stifter, and Rainer Maria Rilke, uncover surprising links between aesthetic and interpersonal empathy. Metz also shows how these early debates anticipate contemporary questions in affect theory, AI, object-oriented ontology, and media aesthetics. Views expressed in Tanner Humanities Center events do not represent the official position of the Center or the University of Utah. Join our mailing list for more updates about Tanner Humanities Center events and… Campus Locations: Tanner Irish Humanities Building - Carolyn (CTIHB). Room Name/Number: Jewel Box, CTIHB. Cost: Free. Contact Name: Beth James. Contact Phone: 8015818473. Contact Email: beth.james@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Tuesday, March 31, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM.

UNIVERSITY DAY OF KINDNESS

Kindness can be random or deliberate. An act of kindness, especially when unexpected, can cause a wave of gratitude. Kindness can make your day. Celebrate Day of Kindness April 1 with the College of Humanities, College of Science and College of Social and Behavioral Science with free seed packets! Free seed packets in the College of Humanities LNCO Lobby! Campus Locations: Language & Communication Bldg (LNCO). Room Name/Number: Lobby. Contact Name: Karen Marsh Schaeffer. Contact Email: karen.marsh@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Wednesday, April 1, 2026, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM. For more info visit belong.utah.edu.

Work in Progress Talk with Nicholas Shrum, University of Virginia

Tanner Humanities Center Alternative Zions: American Jewish, Mormon, and Black Visions of Sacred Nations, States, and Geographies, 1945–1976 Nicholas Shrum is a PhD Candidate in Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, where he studies postwar American religious nationalism. He earned an MA in Religion from Yale Divinity School and a BA in American Studies from Brigham Young University. His work has appeared in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Journal of Mormon History, Latter-day Saint Historical Studies, and The Conversation. His 2024 article with Dialogue, "Materializing Faith and Politics: The Unseen Power of the NCCS Pocket Constitution in American Religion," was awarded the Mormon Historical Association's “Best Article Award.” He is also the host of the UVA Mormon Studies podcast “Scholars & Saints.”. Campus Locations: Tanner Irish Humanities Building - Carolyn (CTIHB). Room Name/Number: Jewel Box. Cost: Free. Contact Name: Beth James. Contact Phone: 8015818473. Contact Email: beth.james@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Thursday, April 2, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM. For more info visit tanner.utah.edu.

Guest Writer Series: Carolina Ebeid

English Alternate Location: Finch Lane Gallery, 54 Finch Lane, Salt Lake City. Contact Name: Alex Ortega. Contact Phone: 8015816168. Contact Email: Alexander.Ortega@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Thursday, April 2, 2026, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM.

Annual Practicing History Conference

History The History Department 2026 Practicing History Conference is April 3rd. The conference is a low-stakes way to for History students to practice applying for a conference and presenting history papers. Support your fellow History undergraduates and graduates and hear what research in which they are currently engaged. Agenda coming soon! Event Categories: Conferences. Lectures. Campus Locations: Tanner Irish Humanities Building - Carolyn (CTIHB). Cost: Free. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Friday, April 3, 2026, 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM.

University of Utah Student Conference in Linguistics (UUSCIL)

Linguistics The UUSCIL organizing committee is excited to announce that the 2026 University of Utah Student Conference in Linguistics (UUSCIL 2026) will be held in person on Friday, April 3rd, 2026. As an annual tradition, this conference provides an enriching platform for students to present their research and connect with the linguistics community in a collaborative academic setting. We welcome submissions from students in all majors whose research is related to linguistics. Submissions are open for oral presentations and poster sessions: Oral Presentations: Preference will be given to research directly related to linguistics. , Poster Sessions: Open to all research topics. Abstract Submission Guidelines: Your abstract should be between 200-350 words (not including references). Please submit your abstract via the provided Google Form as both: A file attachment (PDF or Word document). , Text entered directly into the form. Submission Link: Abstract Submission, Abstract submission deadline: Abstract… Event Categories: Conferences. Public Event. Student org. Campus Locations: Language & Communication Bldg (LNCO). Room Name/Number: 2110. Contact Name: Natalia Lopez. Contact Phone: (801) 581-8047. Contact Email: linguistics@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Friday, April 3, 2026, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM.

Guest Writer Series: Carolina Ebeid Colloquium

Nature is their Only Midwife: Race, Reproduction, Nature, and Power in and beyond the 19th Century West

History What does “nature” mean when we think about it in relation to reproduction, race, and gender? How have ideas about nature, and material environmental realities, shaped human experiences of childbirth? This talk presents an environmental history of human reproduction, focusing on the history of childbirth, race, nature, and power in the nineteenth century US West. Voyles' research shows that, historically, human childbirth has been a remarkably multispecies, and deeply ecological, affair, in contrast to our view of it as isolated and aseptic, sealed off from the outside world. This talk offers a glimpse into the fascinating menagerie of childbirth history - bugs and germs, rats, cows, puppies, fungi, cacti, dirt, a warhorse or two – while grounding that story in the politics of settler colonialism, environmental exploitation, and Indigenous dispossession in the nineteenth century West. The History Department Miller Lecture honors David E. Miller. David E. Miller was a prominent Utah historian and an Emeritus… Event Categories: Lectures. Conferences. Campus Locations: Tanner Irish Humanities Building - Carolyn (CTIHB). Room Name/Number: 101. Cost: Free. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Friday, April 3, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.

“Imaginaries of Desertion: Settler Heterotopias in The Adventures of China Iron”

Latin American Studies Faculty Fridays Center for Latin American Studies, University of Utah Title: “Imaginaries of Desertion: Settler Heterotopias in The Adventures of China Iron” Maria Laura Martinelli (Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish) This talk examines how contemporary fiction revisits and reworks colonial spatial imaginaries in the Southern Cone of Latin America. I focus on The Adventures of China Iron (2017) by award-winning author Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, a story that reimagines the nineteenth-century Argentine poem Martín Fierro from the perspective of his unnamed wife, “La China.” I explore how the novel envisions desertion—moving tierra adentro, into the “desert,” or “Indian Territory”—as a gesture of radical freedom. Set in Mapuche territories east of the Andes, this fictional, heterotopic space unravels the sexual and gendered dynamics of settler colonies while portraying the frontier landscape as emptied of history and politics, both challenging and echoing settler colonial logics. Campus Locations: Tanner Irish Humanities Building - Carolyn (CTIHB). Room Name/Number: 201/211. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Friday, April 3, 2026, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM.

Faculty Friday Work in Progress - Maria Laura Martinelli

Latin American Studies Title coming soon! Campus Locations: Tanner Irish Humanities Building - Carolyn (CTIHB). Room Name/Number: 201/211. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Friday, April 3, 2026, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM.

PHIL Colloquium Series - Jason Byas

Philosophy Title: Retributive Failure, Abstract: Expressive retributivists offer a compelling moral purpose for criminal justice: providing a system of moral accountability by which criminal wrongdoing can be condemned and victims vindicated, thereby correcting damage to the victim's dignity. Rather than discussing expressive retributivism as a justificatory rationale for criminal punishment, I consider how it might help us to understand pathologies with real world systems of criminal punishment. I outline two types of retributive failure, by which I mean ways in which a particular system of accountability ends up undermining the aims behind having a system of accountability, even without any instances of retributive error (punishing the innocent, punishing beyond proportionality, or failing to punish the guilty). The first is when a system of accountability can create moral injury of the same kind it is meant to rectify, and the second is when it diminishes its expressive power by overuse. I then argue that both… Event Categories: Lectures. Campus Locations: Tanner Irish Humanities Building - Carolyn (CTIHB). Room Name/Number: Tanner Library, Room 459. Contact Name: K'mwe Paw. Contact Phone: 801-581-8161. Contact Email: kmwe.paw@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Friday, April 3, 2026, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.

Work in Progress Talk with Professor Chrisoula Andreou, Department of Philosophy

Tanner Humanities Center Pervasive Pitfalls, Poor Health, and Population-Level Bioethics Chrisoula Andreou (Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh) is a Professor in the Philosophy Department at the University of Utah and an Executive Editor of the Canadian Journal of Philosophy. Her current research projects lie in the areas of Practical Reasoning, Action Theory, Ethical Theory, and Applied Ethics. Her most recent book, Choosing Well: The Good, the Bad, and the Trivial (Oxford University Press, 2023) focuses on rationality, irrationality, and the challenges associated with effective choice over time given choice situations and preference structures that can prompt self-defeating patterns of choice. Campus Locations: Tanner Irish Humanities Building - Carolyn (CTIHB). Room Name/Number: Jewel Box. Cost: Free. Contact Name: Beth James. Contact Phone: 8015818473. Contact Email: beth.james@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Tuesday, April 7, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM. For more info visit tanner.utah.edu.

You're Graduating! Now What?

You're Graduating! Now What? Wednesday, April 8 | 3:00 - 4:20 PM | JTB 120 This workshop supports soon-to-be graduates as they explore the many possibilities that come after completing their degree. The session introduces a range of post-grad options, from entering the job market to considering gap-year opportunities, fellowships, service programs, or continued education. Students will learn how to assess their interests, identify practical next steps, and build momentum during the transition from college to career. The workshop also highlights strategies for setting short-term goals, staying organized, and making informed decisions that align with long-term aspirations. RSVP at https://utah.joinhandshake.com/edu/events/1871101 Join virtually at: https://utah.zoom.us/j/94263501015. Event Categories: Community Engagement. Campus Locations: Talmage Building - James (JTB). Room Name/Number: 120. Contact Name: Cameron Vakilian. Contact Email: cameron.vakilian@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Wednesday, April 8, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:20 PM. For more info visit utah.joinhandshake.com.

Linguistics Colloquium: Linking linguistic computation to eye movements in reading - Dr. Brian Dillon (UMass Amherst)

Linguistics Abstract: For more than 40 years, data on how readers move their eyes during free reading has driven psycholinguistic theorizing. This large body of literature has supported the development of rich theories of oculomotor control in reading, which has in turn allowed us to ask in increasing detail how various aspects of linguistic processing are reflected in moment-by-moment reading. The vast majority of this research has centered lexical access as 'the engine that drives the eyes forward' (Reichle et al. 2009). But recent work has turned up some very surprising insights into how higher order syntactic and semantic computations are reflected in moment-by-moment reading, raising interesting questions about the relationship between grammatical knowledge and perception in reading. In this talk, I will survey some of this work, from our group and beyond. Against this backdrop, I will suggest that understanding how higher order linguistic computations are mapped to eye movements requires us to theorize (at least)… Event Categories: Colloquia. Campus Locations: Language & Communication Bldg (LNCO). Zoom. Alternate Location: https://utah.zoom.us/j/88661934056 Passcode: 3007 64. Room Name/Number: 2110. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Thursday, April 9, 2026, 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM.

How We Watch the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City: A Public Humanities Symposium

Tanner Humanities Center Both campy and analytical, this symposium moves from close reading to collective watching. Scholars and fans from the Salt Lake Valley and across the country gather for a day of lively discussion, appreciation, and spectacle. We will ask what RHOSLC reveals about fame, faith, femininity, conflict, fashion, and the art of performance. At the University of Utah, the Tanner Humanities Center is committed to serious thinking about popular culture—and to the pleasure of thinking together. Campus Locations: Alumni House - Eccles (ALUMNI). Room Name/Number: Ballroom. Cost: Free. Ticket URL: tannerrhoslc.eventbrite.com. Contact Name: Scott Black. Contact Email: scott.black@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Friday, April 10, 2026, 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM. For more info visit tanner.utah.edu.

Subversive Genes: Innovation, Appropriation, and Genetics Transformed in Latin America

Latin American Studies Campus Locations: Tanner Irish Humanities Building - Carolyn (CTIHB). Room Name/Number: Jewel Box/Room 143. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Friday, April 10, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM.

National Theatre Live, The Audience

Tanner Humanities Center The Audience Returning to cinemas for the first time in over a decade, Helen Mirren plays Queen Elizabeth II in the Olivier and Tony Award®-winning hit production, directed by Stephen Daldry. For 60 years, Queen Elizabeth II met with each of her 12 prime ministers in a private weekly meeting. This meeting is known as The Audience. From Winston Churchill to Margaret Thatcher and David Cameron, the Queen advised her prime ministers on matters both public and personal. Through these private audiences, we see glimpses of the woman behind the crown and witness the moments that shaped a monarch. Peter Morgan’s Netflix phenomenon The Crown was based on this hit play which was captured live from London’s West End in 2013 and went on to become one of the most-watched NT Live productions. Alternate Location: Broadway Centre Cinemas, 111 E. Broadway. Cost: $15. Ticket URL: https://slfstix.org/. Contact Name: Beth James. Contact Phone: 8015818473. Contact Email: beth.james@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Saturday, April 11, 2026, 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM.

Careers in Broadcasting & Media

Careers in Broadcasting & Media with Scott McKane, Fox 13 Utah Wednesday, April 15 | 3:00 - 4:20 PM | JTB 120 Career Insights from a broadcasting professional, discussion about career paths in media and broadcasting, student Q&A, and networking. Event Categories: Community Engagement. Campus Locations: Talmage Building - James (JTB). Alternate Location: 120. Contact Name: Cameron Vakilian. Contact Email: cameron.vakilian@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Wednesday, April 15, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:20 PM. For more info visit utah.joinhandshake.com.

Guest Writer Series: Faculty Reading

Faculty Friday Work in Progress - Annie Greene, History

Middle East Center Title coming soon! Campus Locations: Tanner Irish Humanities Building - Carolyn (CTIHB). Room Name/Number: 201/211. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Friday, April 17, 2026, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM.

English Department faculty meeting

English Campus Locations: Language & Communication Bldg (LNCO). Room Name/Number: LNCO 3870. Contact Name: David Roh. Contact Phone: 801-581-6168. Contact Email: David.Roh@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: No. Friday, April 17, 2026, 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM.

Theorizing Translation in Latin America

Latin American Studies Campus Locations: Tanner Irish Humanities Building - Carolyn (CTIHB). Room Name/Number: Jewel Box/Room 143. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Friday, April 24, 2026, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM.

English Department Masters Symposium

English Join us for a celebration of the English Department's MA students in Literary and Cultural Studies and Video Game Narrative and Aesthetics. Students will offer short presentations on their MA theses. Open to the public. Campus Locations: Language & Communication Bldg (LNCO). Room Name/Number: LNCO 3870. Contact Name: Lindsey Drager. Contact Phone: 8015816168. Contact Email: lindsey.drager@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Friday, April 24, 2026, 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM.

College of Humanities Convocation

College of Humanities Convocation May 1, 2026 | 11:00am | Jon M. Huntsman Center info: https://humanities.utah.edu/students/graduation.php. Event Categories: Community Engagement. Campus Locations: Huntsman Center - Jon M. (JHC). Contact Name: Karen Marsh. Contact Email: karen.marsh@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Friday, May 1, 2026, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM.

College of Humanities Graduation Reception

College of Humanities Graduation Reception May 1, 2026 | 1-2 PM | LNCO Lobby All College of Humanities students and faculty attending convocation this year are invited. Parents and partners are also welcome. Light refreshments will be served. info: https://humanities.utah.edu/students/graduation.php. Event Categories: Community Engagement. Campus Locations: Language & Communication Bldg (LNCO). Contact Name: Karen Marsh. Contact Email: karen.marsh@utah.edu. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Friday, May 1, 2026, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM.

French Language Teacher Workshop

L2TReC: Second Language Teaching Center Venez passer quatre jours en français avec nous! Cet été nous travaillerons sur les nouveaux standards NCSSFL-ACTFL 2026. Nous en profiterons pour mettre la culture au cœur de la leçon et développerons l'interculturalité autour d'un thème cultural de votre curriculum. Nous (re)verrons la proficiency, et son importance dans le curriculum. Comment identifier le niveau des apprenants, comment les aider à monter? Enfin, nous regarderons des ressources pédagogiques qui vous seront utiles. Room Name/Number: GC 4020. Cost: $120. Ticket URL: https://uofu.nbsstore.net/french-language-teacher-workshop. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Monday, June 8, 2026, 9:00 AM – Thursday, June 11, 2026, 4:00 PM.

Spanish Language Teacher Workshop

L2TReC: Second Language Teaching Center This workshop will consist of two complementary sessions of two days each, as follows: “La historia de la lengua en la sala de lengua” Dr. Devin Jenkins In this workshop, we will examine diachronic language change (in some cases, since Classical Latin) and its relationship to teaching Spanish today. We will cover sound (phonological) changes, structural (morphosyntactic) changes, and external (social) changes that have impacted the language, focusing on those areas that have direct implications for modern classroom teaching. “Romances, epopeyas y héroes” Dr. Gary Atwood-Méndez This part of the workshop offers a diachronic exploration of the heroes of ballads and epics from medieval Castilian literature through the Imperial / Colonial period and into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in Spain and Latin America. We will consider how the ballad and epic form have been reshaped to portray new realities, political ideas and aesthetic ideals, and how these forms themselves have become associated with sp… Campus Locations: Gardner Commons - Carolyn and Kem (GC). Room Name/Number: GC 5620. Cost: $120. Ticket URL: https://uofu.nbsstore.net/spanish-teacher-workshop. Campus Wide Event: Yes. Monday, June 22, 2026, 9:00 AM – Thursday, June 25, 2026, 4:00 PM.