A three-week residential institute for 30 higher education faculty to gain humanities perspectives about artificial intelligence.

We propose a 3-week summer institute for 30 higher education faculty on “Humanities Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence,” to be held onsite at the University of Utah from July 14th to August 1st, 2025. Drawing participants from all humanities disciplines, this new summer institute enables participants to gain a deeper understanding of the technological workings and societal implications of artificial intelligence. Starting with a week-long introduction to AI, the institute then delves into pressing concerns around AI including labor, the environment, misinformation, and surveillance. By centering readings, discussion, field trips, and hands-on experimentation, the Institute will equip participants with foundational knowledge about AI, enabling them to use their humanities competencies to carry out urgently needed research on AI development, regulation, and impact as well as preparing them to teach the next generation of tech developers, policymakers, and concerned citizens.

Research and writing leading to a book on the rhetorical practices of three American women involved in the study of fertility.

This rhetorical history project analyzes the scientific, public, and interpersonal communication of three women who were central to the development and implementation of fertility science as it is known today. Reformer Julia Ward Howe, psychoanalyst Helene Deutsch, and gynecologist Sophia Kleegman communicated from different social locations and time periods to push back against—and contribute to—scientific orthodoxy. I contend that the fissures they created in scholarly and mainstream discourses about reproductive health functioned to expand the scope of infertility diagnosis and treatment regimens, and to loosen long-held clinical beliefs about women as the central players in fertility related ills. This analysis identifies the discursive strategies that these actors employed to intervene in fertility studies and demonstrates how interventions in science often unfold not in terms of revolutions but in terms of multimodal, nonlinear, and longitudinal communicative negotiations.

Completion of a biography of Queen Balthild of northern France (c.626-680), who was born an Anglo-Saxon slave, married King Clovis II, was regent to her sons, and after her death was venerated as a saint at the French convent she founded.

By means of a biography of an exceptional woman, this book is an investigation of the life and times of a seventh-century Anglo-Saxon slave who became a queen of Neustria (northern France), and eventually was venerated as a saint. A biography of this exceptionally well documented woman illuminates the power and limitations of female power in the seventh century, the opportunities for social mobility in a slave culture, and the way this woman and her supporters preserved an account of her activity in politics and religion, at a time when the slave trade was a reality for those living in the late Roman Mediterranean world.

Research and writing leading to a book on the Japanese literary classic The Tale of Genji (c. 1011), focusing on the tension between the allure of sensory experience and Buddhist distrust of the senses.

Combining methodologies from literary studies, phenomenology, and religious studies, this project uses close readings of The Tale of Genji to make an original contribution to the global history of the senses. The tale’s multilayered narrative combines rich sensorial descriptions of the external world, complex internal worlds of characters’ thoughts and desires, and the looming presence of the eternal world of Buddhist renunciation. We follow Genji’s circuitous path as he moves fitfully between the external, the internal, and the eternal, forever denied stasis. It is the specific tension between the allure of sensory experience and the Buddhist distrust of the senses, I propose, that animates the text’s proliferation of looping plots, displaced desire, and obsessive repetition. Sensory experience, then, emerges against the vanishing point of Buddhist disavowal and through the reflective power of the mind. The Tale of Genji activates sensation even as it attempts to overcome it.

The retention and rehiring of staff members to allow for the creation of four digital humanities projects drawing upon the digitized anthropology and ethnographic collections of the museum.

The Natural History Museum will develop and implement a suite of four digital humanities programs to reside on the Museum developing Digital Education Hub to serve broad audience through virtual experiences online. These projects are essential to the Museum COVID-19 response and recovery. They will retain humanities scholars and staff, invest in humanities programs that are underway, and expand our growing consortium of digital resources for students, teachers, and the general public.

The reinterpretation of current ethnographic collections and exhibits at the University of Utah to reflect Native American experiences and the creation of a digital repository to share and store ethnographic data and oral histories, retaining and creating 36 positions.

Led by the Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU), the Native American Voices Initiative will preserve, amplify, and celebrate the stories of Utah’s indigenous communities to help build a more just and inclusive society. The past year brought many significant challenges to Native American communities throughout Utah and to NHMU. The tragic loss of life of Native American elders, in particular, has highlighted the urgent need to preserve traditional knowledge and indigenous languages. NHMU will collaborate with Native communities to document indigenous knowledge in the Museum’s ethnographic collections and deliver community-centered exhibitions, education, and programming. Through deep and trusted relationships with Utah tribes—and in partnership with the Tanner Humanities Center—NHMU will use its platform as a public-facing museum to amplify under-represented voices, showcase diverse perspectives, and preserve new knowledge about artifacts, history, and culture.