Spring 2025 events
Times, locations, and tickets available beginning January 2025
Thursday, Feburary 13
Tanner Conversation with
ISABEL MOREIRA
Author of Balthild of Francia: Anglo-Saxon Slave, Merovingian Queen, and Abolitionist Saint
Tuesday, February 25
Becoming a Birder: Immersion in the True Reality
Tanner Talk with
ED YONG
Author of An Immense World
Tuesday, March 4
Tanner Conversation with
PAUL REEVE
Author of This Abominiable Slavery: Race, Religion, and the Battle over Human Bondage in Antebellum Utah
Tuesday, April 1
Tanner Conversation with
LOUIS CHUDE-SOKEI
Author of Floating in a Most Peculiar Way
Wednesday, April 9 – Thursday, April 10
Tanner Lectures on Human Values with
DAVID DAMROSCH
Harvard University
Stay Up To Date
Scott Black & Robert Carson:
Op-ed on Great Books in the Salt Lake Tribune
Recent efforts to ban books in Utah schools confirm that books still matter deeply.
Get to know the 2024/2025 Fellows
Learn more about research fellowships
2023-2024 Recorded Lectures
Events this year at the center
Event recordings and more avaliable to watch online
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Tanner Humanities Center Mission
The Tanner Humanities Center advances humanities exploration and engagement through public outreach, academic research and educational enrichment. The activities reflect a vision of the humanities as not only relevant, stimulating, and cutting-edge, but also essential for developing critical thinking, tolerance, and respect on campus and in the community. Learn More About Us
Center News
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Distinguished Professor Peggy Battin discusses new book about “opt-in reproduction” and medical ethics
What if advances in technology were already changing the causal logic of human reproduction which is now taken for granted? Could pregnancy shift from an event which some opt out of through prevention or termination, to an intentional, elective choice? How should such a system work, and what would be its likely consequences? These questions comprise the “Opt-In Conjecture” by University of Utah Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Margaret Pabst Battin, whose book, Sex and the Planet: What Opt-In Reproduction Could Do for the Globe was published by MIT Press this year. Battin, who goes by Peggy, discussed her work with David Turok (Obstetrics and Gynecology) and James Tabery (Philosophy) in a Tanner Talk on November 7. In her book and her discussion, Battin explores the philosophical and ethical implications of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC).
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Percival Everett’s Utah campus events feature discussions of fiction, race, and philosophy
The works of Percival Everett, Distinguished Professor at the University of Southern California, feature satirical and ironic accounts of race in American life, experiments in literary form, and philosophically rich reconsiderations of historical periods and events. His 2024 novel, James, retells the story of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the enslaved character, Jim. James has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the National Book Award. The Tanner Conversation with Everett on October 29th in Kingsbury Hall with Jeremy Rosen and Rone Shavers (Department of English) was followed by dialogues with two cohorts of students: graduate students in Utah’s English and Creative Writing programs, and high school students from Rowland Hall school, who had read both James and Huckleberry Finn in their classes.
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An Evening with Great Books features old and new classics
Now in its second year at the University of Utah, Great Books in the Humanities introduces first-year students to foundational literary and philosophical works from across world civilizations, alongside recent scholarship that deepens our understanding of enduring questions. At an evening reception at the Fort Douglas Commander’s House on October 16, campus and community members gathered to hear from this year’s Great Books faculty about their books and their approaches to teaching them to students.
Events
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Dec 18
Wednesday
2pm - 3pmForeign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Scholarship Info Session
Zoom
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Dec 19
Thursday
1pm - 3pmForeign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Scholarship Info Session
Tanner Irish Humanities Building - Carolyn (CTIHB)
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Jan 06
Monday
Classes begin
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Jan 16
Thursday
2pm - 4pmThe Gordon B. Hinckley Lecture in British Studies: Imperial Ears: Robert Louis Stevenson in Oceania
Alumni House - Eccles (ALUMNI)
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Feb 13
Thursday
4pm - 5pmTanner Conversation with Professor Isabel Moreira, Department of History
Tanner Irish Humanities Building - Carolyn (CTIHB)
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Feb 25
Tuesday
7pm - 8:30pmTanner Talk with Ed Yong - "Becoming a Birder: Immersion in the True Reality"
Dumke Auditorium (UMFA)