Our Team
Beth Tracy James, Administrative Director
Beth James, Tanner Humanities Center Administrative Director, received bachelor’s degrees with honors in English and Psychology from Boston University. She has worked at the Tanner Humanities Center since 2003 and was appointed Administrative Director in 2022. James is responsible for all center operations. She handles budgets, accounts, payroll, and contracts; processes fellowship applications; coordinates all contracts for speakers and events; manages planning logistics for visiting speakers; and assures compliance with accounting, human resource, and development policies and procedures. She coordinates with Tanner Humanities Center Advisory Boards, University of Utah partners and faculty, and community organizations. She also administers the multi-university Tanner Lectures on Human Values series, organizes annual meetings for the Tanner Board of Trustees, and oversees the center’s Gateway Workshops and National Theatre Live Program. James’ strategic acumen, deep institutional knowledge, and ability to manage multiple programs, complex logistics, and varied constituencies make her an invaluable member of the Tanner Humanities Center Team. She also played a central role in developing, planning, and executing two NEH Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops (Manifest Destiny Reconsidered: The Utah Experience) in 2017 and 2019.
Jeremy Rosen, Director
Jeremy Rosen, Tanner Humanities Center Director, is an associate professor of English at the University of Utah. He studies contemporary American and global fiction, with an emphasis on genre, the publishing industry, marketplace, literary institutions, and the blurry line between literary and popular fiction. His work has appeared in ASAP/Journal, New Literary History, Contemporary Literature, Post-45, and the Oxford Encyclopedia of Literary Theory. His first book, Minor Characters Have Their Day: Genre and the Contemporary Literary Marketplace, was published as part of Columbia University Press’s “Literature Now” series in 2016. His next book project Genre Bending considers the adoption of previously “low” forms of genre fiction by esteemed contemporary writers of literary fiction. He teaches post-World War Two U.S. and global fiction, with courses on genres like science fiction, detective fiction, climate fiction or “cli-fi,” as well as other timely topics like “Diversity in the Postwar Novel,” “Global/Transnational Literature: Contemporary Fiction of Immigration and Refugees,” and “Contemporary Literature and the Business of Books.”
Missy Weeks, Tanner Humanities Center Marketing and Communications Specialist
Missy Weeks, Tanner Humanities Center Marketing and Communications Specialist, earned her bachelor's degree in Communication with an emphasis in Public Relations from Utah Valley University. Weeks is responsible for all marketing and communication duties. This includes assessing, targeting, and connecting with various constituencies; researching and maintaining media contacts; designing and developing promotional materials for radio, print, and electronic media; and assuring compliance with the University of Utah’s marketing and communication policies and procedures. Weeks works to engage audiences, build brand voice and awareness, and increase attendance metrics. She also manages the center’s website, databases, program registration, social media and handles audio, video, and photo logistics and production.
Skylar Fetter, Graduate Student Research Assistant
Skylar Fetter is a second-year master's student in the Environmental Humanities program at the University of Utah. She is an enrolled member of the St. Regis Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne, and her work explores issues of environmental racism through a gendered lens with a focus on Indigenous women's methods of resistance. Skylar recently completed her undergraduate degree at Columbia University, where she focused on Indigenous health and violence in the Northeast and Canada. In her current role as a Graduate Student Research Assistant for the Tanner Humanities Center, she helps draft social media materials, conduct research on upcoming speakers, and write feature stories about the Center's environmental humanities programming.