Spring 2015 by BYU Humanities

HUMANITIES

B R I G H A M YO U N G U N I V E R S I T Y CO L L E G E O F H U M A N I T I E S

SPRING 2015

prologue

Imitation Some months ago on a warm and impressionistic autumn morning—sun glued to surfaces and colors amiably blended—I explored the gardens of the Rodin Museum in Paris. It is a place of remembered poses: the thickbrowed Thinker hunched over a conundrum; The Three Shades above The Gates of Hell, pointing and presiding; and that burgher of Calais on the left, right arm raised, right hand twisted just so, strange and balletic, perhaps suggesting the hand of Lorenzo di Medici

BRADLEY SLADE

as carved by Michelangelo, or of Christ in El Greco’s Trinity. Tourists posed self-consciously in front of the bronze icons and imitated the statues’ manners, while a friend (always a lover?) photographed the moment. I imagined those photos on a desk or mantel: here am I, pensive as The Thinker, or as self-sacrificing as the famished burgher who resists oppression going on now 700 years. We like to be like, if only on the surface and in the moment. The fleeting photographic interludes of the passersby parodied the form of

Rodin’s figures and missed their substance— in the mirror depended on the thing in front carefree life imitating art carelessly. of it—object and artifact inseparably bound. We imitate daily in the way we dress, how Vermeer painted The Music Lesson and placed we talk (that we talk), the way we parent, an aspiring musician in front of a mirror, but how we fill and empty our days: we live and the mirror didn’t accurately reflect the model, learn mostly by imitation. Often we imitate or and our optimism for imitation as an aesmimic without thinking (“Their manners are thetic and ethical program begins to fracture. so apish,” wrote Shakespeare). Occasionally Through a glass (mirror) darkly . . . we imitate mockingly, an especially cruel form When the young David O. McKay returned of commentary in that we a take a fragment from a tour to Scotland’s Stirling Castle and of a person and posit it as the whole. The encountered the phrase carved on a lintel, world of advertising invites us to fashion ourselves after the models The educated mind discerns whom to imitate. it places before us; then we don’t worship the graven image, we seek Art, like life, doesn’t curate cleanly: good to become it. and bad examples fill the same space and A humanities education is a sanctuary housing an infinite occasionally swap roles. progression of niches, each one holding a statue, each statue bearing the label imitatores mei estote (“be imita“what e’er thou art, act well thy part,” he distors of me,” see 1 Cor. 4:16). To the right is covered the theatrum mundi motif—the world Socrates and next to him Confucius. There as stage, in which we all are actors (imitators) stand Augustine and Averroës and Abélard, playing parts assigned to us, sticking closely to who is staring off into the distance. On the the script when we play well. The idea behind left, Penelope and Arachne weave their desthis medieval motif was that the play would tinies. Madame Bovary stands opposite Don soon end, our masks would fall off, and the Quixote—their glances meet and we wonder. Author would judge our performance. Today In the basement we spy Lady Macbeth setting scripts abound and there are roles aplenty; the table for a late supper with Don Juan, and many think that the play is all there is, and high in the vault Icarus looks down a bit anxthat the Author is dead. What to do? iously. Pretenders all. In such times we find scripts in scripture, The educated mind discerns whom to as did Thomas à Kempis in his The Imitation of imitate. Christ. As one might expect in a 15th-century Art, like life, doesn’t curate cleanly: good devotional piece, the writer discards all poses and bad examples fill the same space and and imitations except that of a single model. occasionally swap roles. We admire Achilles’s In Book III that model comes to life in a kind courage until we discover it is stoked by anger, of play, an imagined dialog between Christ or perhaps we tolerate the fury because it and a disciple. In chapter 56 Christ teaches sometimes looks like leadership. Depressive the would-be imitator: “Without the way thou Abraham frets over the crisis in his own canst not go, without the truth thou canst not house while saving a nation, while the Peter know, without the life thou canst not live.” of Matthew 26 peers out from the early-morn Like the tourists in Paris, there are many ing shadows at the Petros we met 10 chapters poses we might imitate, many models we can before. In early-modern painting, the mirror mimic. Some are bad. Some are good. Some was a symbol for stable imitation. The image are better. One is best.

DAVID HABBEN

By Dean John R. Rosenberg

contents

HUMANITIES | SPRING 2015

BRADLEY SLADE

The Birth of Faith in the Crises of Self-Understanding

02 | P e r s p e c t i v e

How do we develop the kind of faith that increases and grows but that also helps us grow along with it?

Read with ambition—Tears for fallen sons—From defamiliarization to estrangement

By Travis T. Anderson

E D I TO R

The quest to save languages—Les Petits Frères—Viki Wiki—Farewells, books, notes, research

22 | A l u m n i D i s pa t c h e s

By Amanda Kae Fronk

Lifting the world—A host and friend to students in Spain

Humans of the Holocaust

24 | V ox H u m a n a

Seven decades after the end of World War II, scholars and students still seek to comprehend the incomprehensible.

For information about giving to the college, contact Matthew Christensen at 801-422-9151 or mbchristensen@byu.edu.

Understanding Anna Karenina

25 | C r o s s r o ad s From Russia, with love

By Kimberly A. Reid

John R. Rosenberg Melinda Semadeni A RT D I R E CTO R Curtis M. Soderborg E D I TO R I A L A S S I STA N TS Amanda Kae Fronk, Caroline B. Larsen, Jeffrey S. McClellan, Kimberly A. Reid PUBLISHER

04 | A n t h o l o g y

06 | H u m a n i t i e s R e v i e w

In and Out of Africa With a surge of faculty interest and a slate of new courses, the revamped and renamed Africana studies program promises to help students become critical-thinking global citizens.

A mystery of battle banners, solved

BYU College of Humanities 4002 JFSB Provo, UT 84602 801-422-2775 humanities.byu.edu

Feedback? We would like to hear your views, your memories of campus, or an update on your life since leaving BYU. Please send email to humanitiespr@byu.edu.

perspective

Banners of Battle Guns, Scrolls, and Swords: Samurai Identities in Early Modern Japan, an exhibit in the Harold B. Lee Library, marks the 400th anniversary of the epic siege of Osaka Castle in 1614–15, in which the shogun Tokugawa 2 BYU CO LL EG E O F H UM A N ITIES

Ieyasu (1543–1616) eliminated his last rivals, the Toyotomi clan. A 1615 painting depicted the battle in realistic detail uncharacteristic of later battle paintings that romanticized conflicts. The mid-19th-century painting

acquired for the exhibit, and shown here, is a copy of the 1615 original, which was destroyed in a fire in 1894. An 1800 illustrated book of battle banners, Seiki shu ¯ zu, also acquired by the library for the exhibit,

refers to the 1615 Battle of Osaka painting, even identifying the banners of warriors depicted. The exact identity of certain banners in this painting has been a point of debate among scholars for centuries, but

BYU’s Seiki shu¯zu may help settle the debate. The connection between Seiki shu ¯ zu and the Battle of Osaka painting was unknown until the BYU curators recognized that banners from the painting were also illustrated in

Seiki shu ¯ zu. Such serendipity often springs from old manuscripts and paintings waiting to be rediscovered, their stories retold.

S P RI N G 2015

ANTHOLOG Y QU OT E

FACULTY BOOKSHELF

“Read the way an ambitious athlete

What BYU Humanities professors are reading.

watches excellent athletes. Read the way a cook eats. Read the way an ambitious filmmaker would watch Keaton and Scorsese.”

All the Names —ROBERT PINSKY

Award-winning author and former U.S. poet laureate; BYU’s Ethel L. Handley Annual Reading, Oct. 3, 2014

L EX ICO N

ek·phra·sis \

ek-frə-səs\

noun. A literary description of or commentary on a visual work of art. Art and architecture have inspired people of every age, as evidenced by the written descriptions and other accounts found in every period. The term for these descriptions, ekphrases, comes from the Greek ek, or “out,” and phrasis, or “speak.” These descriptions tell us not only what their authors saw, but what the authors felt and understood about their own experience in viewing monuments. Paul the Silentiary’s sixth-century ekphrasis of the great Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, for

example, allows us to see the cathedral through his eyes and compare his view with our own perceptions of the still-standing building. Other descriptions, like Nikolaos Mesarites’s 13th-century account of the Church of the Holy Apostles in the same city, provide unique glimpses of monuments long lost but still important for understanding humankind’s artistic achievements and art’s expression of religious, political, and social beliefs as understood in a given historical moment.

—MARK J. JOHNSON, PROFESSOR OF ART HISTORY

Note: The art history program moved from the College of Fine Arts and Communications to the College of Humanities in fall 2014.

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José Saramago (1922–2010, Portugal) is the only Portuguese-language author to win a Nobel Prize in Literature (1998). His novel All the Names treats the life of Senhor José, a low-level clerk at the Civil Registry of Births, Marriages, and Deaths in an unnamed, unspecified city in Europe. Whether through happenstance or fate, Senhor José finds himself caught up in a web of intrigue, peril, and duplicity as he follows clues to uncover the life of a mysterious unnamed woman. In some ways a modernized recasting of the story of Adam and Eve, All the Names emphasizes the importance of recognizing and remembering the influence others have on our journey through life. Margaret Jull Costa provides an excellent English translation that preserves the disorienting yet highly readable oral narrative style. —JAMES R. KRAUSE, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PORTUGUESE

Mind over Matter: Conversations with the Cosmos What do botulism, music, and sand castles have to do with black holes, cell membranes, and quantum mechanics? In Mind over Matter: Conversations with the Cosmos, award-winning science writer K.C. Cole invites us to eavesdrop on a series of fascinating discussions with the universe. Each three-page essay examines common aspects of the physical world through diverse disciplinary lenses and offers unexpected existential insights into human conditions such as imperfection, humility, resistance, and uncertainty. Surprisingly accessible to the average reader, this intriguing collection of musings challenges us to let go of fears, failures, and insecurities, always remembering that “we are formed from the same stuff as stars” (p. 23). —CHERICE MONTGOMERY, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF SPANISH

F ROM T H E WO R L D O F HUMAN I TI ES

The Era of Estrangement These are exciting times intellectu-

syntactical units as bytes of information, converting language into mathematics. As such, texts become strings of ones and zeroes as much as letters. And because digital technologies can synthesize patterns of these bytes across vast corpora of texts, and even entire canons, they reveal mysteries about what and how texts signify. Computers “know” us better than we do. The increasing number of digital humanities projects, naturally, generates some anxiety. At our recent Humanities Center Annual Symposium, Eric Hayot of Penn State’s Department of We revere texts and dehumanize our fellow beings Comparative Literature spoke as part of the same ostensibly humanizing reflex. of how “distant reading,” the name for this computational with Shklovsky nor would it find its ultimate disclosure of patterns, bothers many literexpression in him: Plato famously addressed ary scholars because it treats texts as means the (for him, regrettable) peculiarities of rather than ends—that is, as mere repositopoetry, and defamiliarization would become ries of data instead of sources of pleasure and the unofficial motto of multiple movements wisdom. But what is odd about this reaction, in 20th-century art. he continued, is that it reveals how we tend to But recent decades have defamiliarized equate texts with people. And this in turn sugformer versions of defamiliarization by pushgests that many people in our lives—stranging into non- or post-human territory. Take ers, mostly, or people with whom we have only the emergence of digital technologies in the incidental contact—become as disposable to humanities, which have changed what we us as, say, cheap novels. We revere texts and can do with texts and even what we think dehumanize our fellow beings as part of the texts are. Computers “read” linguistic and same ostensibly humanizing reflex. ally in the humanities. They’re also strange times. More specifically, they’re times when estrangement has become both a means and an end of much humanistic inquiry. In some ways, this is nothing new. Almost a century ago, in 1917, the Russian critic Viktor Shklovsky coined the term ostranenie—“defamiliarization”—to describe how poetry sets itself against ordinary prose and prompts us to reflect on the meaning and mysteries of language. And this notion was neither original

One may agree or disagree with this contention—Hayot’s argument was meant to stir discussion—but it also feeds the growing conviction in the humanities that estrangement is part of everyday life. And one finds myriad examples alongside the digital humanities. Take “object-oriented ontologies,” which conceptualize the hidden life of objects independent of all human perception. Or consider “actor network theory,” which depicts agents not as humans but as composites of human and nonhuman “actors” (so that natural disasters—which scientists increasingly link to human activity, though in a collective, networked, distributed way—become defamiliarized extensions of ourselves). And then there are theories of “deep time,” which reach back to the earliest eras of human history—and, in some geological cases, to what predates all forms of life. It’s a strange but fascinating time in the humanities—or is it the “inhumanities”? —MATTHEW F. WICKMAN, FOUNDING DIRECTOR OF THE HUMANITIES CENTER

The Humanities Center promotes innovative scholarship and teaching in the language, literature, thought, culture, and history of the human conversation.

ON S IT E

LAURA CATHARINE SMITH

Tears for Fallen Sons LAURA CATHARINE SMITH, an associate professor of Germanic linguistics, fulfilled a 20-year-long dream last summer when she visited the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in northern France while on a research trip. The memorial pays tribute to Canadian troops who fell during World War I and commemorates the three-day battle to capture France’s Vimy Ridge from the Germans. Smith, a Canadian herself, says this was both the turning point of the war and the moment Canada emerged as a country. The memorial took 10 years to complete and includes two towering pylons representing Canada and France and 20 symbolic figures associated with the war. One of the memorial’s most prominent sculptures, above, represents Mother Canada weeping over her fallen sons.

S P RI N G 2015

HUMANITIE S REVIE W

Disappearing Languages On BYU campus, where 55 languages are regularly taught and more than 110 are spoken, there is a strong appreciation for language diversity and its cultural importance. But of the more than 7,000 languages spoken worldwide, half are considered endangered and likely to go extinct within this century. In October K. David Harrison, a field linguist and associate professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College, came to Brigham Young University and spoke about why languages become extinct, why language preservation matters, and what steps are being taken to preserve languages. “If you talk to a biologist, you will find that something like 80 percent of the plant and

animal species that are thought to exist in the world have not yet been named or described within a Western scientific framework,” Harrison said. “They are essentially unknown to science.” Similarly, Harrison explained, we only have adequate descriptions for maybe 10 to 12 percent of the world’s languages. This shortage of knowledge is not for a lack of trying. Just take BYU’s community of linguists, who study over a dozen lesserspoken languages around the globe, from the Marshallese language of Micronesia to the Aymará language of the Andes Mountains. Closer to home, Dirk Elzinga travels across the Great Basin studying Native American languages like Shoshoni, Hopi, Southern Paiute,

and Chemehuevi, while Deryle Lonsdale researches the Salish languages of his ancestors in the Pacific Northwest. Harrison has done similar work, focusing on languages with just a handful of speakers left. As a linguist, author, and activist for the documentation and preservation of endangered languages, Harrison has contributed to more than 100 online talking dictionaries. He’s done extensive work with the National Geographic Society, especially on their Enduring Voices project, and costarred in the Emmy-nominated 2008 documentary The Linguists, produced by Ironbound Films. His work has taken him around the world to locations he refers to as “language hotspots.”

JEREMY FAHRINGER

“Language extinction is a real thing happening to real people. Language revitalization can be a strategic voice made even at a very late stage in the life cycle of a language.” —David Harrison

TI M EL I N E

Abamu Degio and Anthony Degio of the Koro community of India watch video playback with linguist K. David Harrison. October 2014

November 2014

Oct. 23 Nan Osmond Grass Lecture

Oct. 30 Raymond E. and Ida Lee Beckham Lecture in Communications

“The Marriage of True Minds: William Shakespeare, Anne Hathaway, and the Drama of Courtship”

“Curating the Internet: How and Why Pinterest Works”

Catherine Loomis, associate professor of English and women’s studies at the University of New Orleans

Marc Olivier, associate professor of French studies

ASHKAN MEMARIAN

6 BYU CO L LEG E O F H U MA N ITIES

Nov. 6–7 BYU Women’s Studies Fourth Annual Conference Women, Marriage, and Family

DAVID M. KENNEDY CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

NOAH VELOZ

In his presentation, Harrison described language hotspots as possessing specific traits: (1) high language diversity, (2) high levels of language endangerment, and (3) low documentation of languages. Of the 24 hotspots that he has identified worldwide, Harrison noted one whose language community is particularly small. Ös is a Siberian language spoken by approximately seven people. In his field research, Harrison worked with Anna and Aleskei Baydashev, the last living couple that speaks Ös on a daily basis. In an interview, the two revealed that even they had lost much of their language; when asked to name the months of the Ös lunar calendar, the couple could only name five of the 13. Despite working with locals to create a storybook in Ös, Harrison saw little hope for the language. “Language extinction is a real thing happening to real people,” Harrison said. “Language revitalization can be a strategic voice made even at a very late stage in the life cycle of a language. And something like literacy, which never before existed for Ös, can emerge in the very terminal stage of the language’s existence.” As Harrison concluded his remarks, he noted the importance of preserving the knowledge locked away in these dying languages. He quoted one of the speakers of these endangered languages—Anthony Degio, a young Indian Koro-Aka speaker—who equated language with culture: “Loss of culture is loss of identity, so we must continue our Koro language.”

BYU French students Noah Veloz and Nathan Jellen attend a group outing with participants of Les Petits Frères des Pauvres in Lille, France—just one example of the many ways French interns with this organization experience France.

Building Fraternity Between Young and Old When BYU interns with Les Petits Frères des Pauvres go to France, they see beyond the old woman sitting on the bench at the park or the weary old man sipping his coffee in a café. They see inside lonely hearts, good hearts, hearts steeped in rich history and bursting with life. In the isolated elderly of France, they see their friends. A decade ago, French professor Yvon Le Bras was looking for internships for his students when he discovered Les Petits Frères des Pauvres, French for “the little brothers of the poor,” a group that serves the elderly. He sent two students, who enjoyed the experience and greatly improved their French language skills. Since then, Les Petits Frères des Pauvres has formed a meaningful partnership with BYU. Over the past 10 years, more than 100 students have participated in what is now one of BYU’s most popular internships. “They offer me so many positions that I cannot fill them. They love BYU students,” says Le Bras. “It’s more than a partnership. It’s like working as friends.” BYU student and French instructor Nathan Jellen remembers one of the elderly women whom he would drive to activities. Entire car rides were devoted to simply listening to her talk about her life, express her frustrations, and work through personal problems. On one occasion, however, this woman reached out to Jellen. “She was giving me advice about life,” says Jellen. “I started to realize that the advice that she was giving was about what she herself had experienced, and after that we became friends.” Jellen loved his internship and returned for a second internship the following year. “There are a handful of us that are addicts,” he says. “You just feel so good when you’re there, and it’s a great way to experience France.”

—SAMUEL WRIGHT (AMERICAN STUDIES, ’16)

Nov. 19 French and Italian Department Lectures “Causes and Consequences of the Genocide in Rwanda” and “Peace and Reconciliation in Post-Genocide Rwanda” Joseph Sebarenzi, former president of the parliament of Rwanda

—SYLVIA CUTLER (ENGLISH AND FRENCH, ’17)

December 2014

January 2015

Dec. 7 40th Anniversary Adventsingen Fireside

Jan. 14 German and Russian Department Lecture

Jan. 30 Spanish and Portuguese Department Lecture

“Dostoevsky’s Measure of Faith”

“Las voces de los pueblos: Radio Ambulante y la nueva crónica radial de Hispanoamérica”

Katya Jordan, Russian instructor from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

DUÜAN ZIDAR

Silvia Viñas, producer and editor of Radio Ambulante

PHOTO COURTESY SILVIA VIÑAS

S P RI N G 2015

FACULTY BOOKS

BYU Professor Leads the Way in Digitizing Victorian-Era Literature A decade ago BYU English professor Leslee Thorne-Murphy spearheaded the Victorian Short Fiction Project, a research venture to get her British literature undergrads more

Observación del cambio lingüístico en tiempo real Orlando Alba

A Critical Edition of La Relation de l’établissement des Français depuis l’an 1635 en l’île de la Martinique by Jacques Bouton Yvon R. Le Bras

Uncommon Prayer: Poems Kimberly Johnson

Early Renaissance Siena: From Milanese Hegemony to Pope Pious II Cinzia Donatelli Noble

The Viki Wiki is the only digital archive of Victorian short fiction, but Thorne-Murphy is clear about the project’s real aim. “The purpose of the project is the students,” she says. “We are training the next generation of digital humanists—people who are trained in the humanities but see the potential of digital technology. The students’ electronic texts reach far beyond the classroom and will reside in a public space after the semester ends.” —JON MCBRIDE

February 2015 Feb. 6 Chinese Flagship: Chinese New Year

March 2015 Feb. 20 Humanities Center Annual Symposium “What Happens to Literature If People Are Artworks—and Other Thoughts on Kant” Eric Hayot, professor of comparative literature and director of the Center for Humanities and Information at Penn State

DANIELLE LEAVITT

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Feb. 26 P.A. Christensen Annual Lecture “The Barefoot Humanist: Socrates and the Science of Man”

March 4 1,000th Language Certificate Celebration Center for Language Studies

Dan Graham, professor of philosophy

RVBOX/ISTOCK/THINKSTOCK

JAREN WILKEY

Elbow deep in periodicals from 1837–1901, students take a go at archival research and learn about the everyday reading of the Victorian era. The project both preserves literary samples that can be used to study the 19th-century short story and shares them with others.

involved in exploring the Victorian literary goldmine stored deep in BYU’s special collections library. Now the project affectionately known as the Viki Wiki has nearly 200 transcribed stories in an online repository viewed more than 150,000 times. “I wanted [my students] to experience the sense of discovery that comes from archival research and to sample literature beyond their anthology,” Thorne-Murphy says. Above all, she wanted to release her students from the traditional classroom. Tucked away in the temperature-controlled vaults of BYU’s L. Tom Perry Special Collections Library sits a vast collection of original Victorian-era periodicals, filled with understudied short fiction by the likes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Charlotte Brontë, and their peers. Thorne-Murphy’s students peruse thousands of possible short stories from the periodicals, ultimately choosing whichever one they feel deserves less dust and more attention. Students then digitize, transcribe, and annotate the texts before uploading them to the wiki, where anyone in the world can enjoy both the stories and the students’ original research. “I’ve always loved Victorian literature and the time period,” says Kaley Clarke, a Viki Wiki student. “The most rewarding part of this project has been the opportunity, and excuse, to spend hours scouring old books and journals and learning more about the literature of the period.”

Mastering English through Global Debate

Mastering Russian through Global Debate

Tony Brown, Jennifer Bown, and William Eggington

Tony Brown and Jennifer Bown

Dead Sea Scrolls Handbook

Asaltos a la historia. Reimaginando la ficción histórica hispanoamericana

Donald W. Parry

Teaching Advanced Language Skills through Global Debate

To Advanced Proficiency and Beyond Tony Brown and Jennifer Bown

Tony Brown and Jennifer Bown

Channeling Wonder: Fairy Tales on Television Jill Terry Rudy

Brian L. Price

Civic Jazz: American Music and Kenneth Burke on the Art of Getting Along Gregory Clark

God and Nature in the Thought of Margaret Cavendish

Material Spirit: Religion and Literature Intranscendent

Brandie R. Siegfried

Gregory C. Stallings

Rudolf Steiner: Schriften zur Erkenntnis‑ schulung, Vol. 7

Translated Poe Emron Esplin

Christian Clement

Poets of Angola: A Bilingual Selection Frederick G. Williams

FAC ULT Y FA R E W E L L S

DEATHS MERLIN D. COMPTON, professor emeritus of Spanish, died Nov. 27, 2014.

KARMEN SMITH, secretary to the dean, died Sept. 22, 2014. She received

He received a BA and an MA in Spanish from BYU and, later, a PhD from UCLA in 1959. During World War II, he served three years in the Army Air Force as an airplane instrument mechanic. After his military service, he was called as a missionary to the Spanish American Mission, where he met his future wife Avon Allen. He taught Spanish at UCLA, Adams State College in Colorado, and Weber State College before coming to BYU. He taught Spanish at BYU for 25 years, directing study abroad programs to Spain and Mexico. He was a respected scholar of Ricardo Palma, a Peruvian writer of the 19th and 20th centuries.

a BS and an MS in geography from BYU. Her passion for travel and adventure lent itself to her work directing the International Cinema program. She was the secretary to the dean for 17 years. RETIREMENT

was an associate teaching professor for the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. A native of Spain, Hoskisson received a BA and an MA in Spanish from BYU. She taught Spanish language and Iberian culture courses for more than 30 years. Prior to teaching, Hoskisson worked as a translator for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. JOAQUINA V. HOSKISSON

March 5 Office of Digital Humanities and Humanities Center Lecture “The Problem with Distant Reading; or, How I Lost My Understanding of Literary History” Ted Underwood, professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Merlin D. Compton SYLVIA CUTLER

Karmen Smith

Joaquina V. Hoskisson

BYRON HOWARD (COMPTON), COURTESY KARMEN SMITH FAMILY (SMITH), COURTESY DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE (HOSKISSON)

S P RI N G 2015

Asian and Near Eastern Languages Arabic professor Sayyed Diafallah spent winter semester and spring and summer terms 2014 at BYU, visiting from the American University in Cairo. The BYU Chinese team won first place at the Business Language Case Competition in November, marking their fourth win in a row. The competing students were Seth Ferguson, Isaac Stevens, and Kindall Palmer. Kirk Belnap received the Creative Works Award from the university for the development of media materials for language training in Arabic.

received the Distinguished Service Award from the Division of Continuing Education for their revolutionary approach to online language learning. Brewer’s award was for her work with the German 201 and 202 courses, while McFarland received recognition for his work with the German 101, 102, 302, and 303 courses. Laura Catharine Smith received a Humanities Center Fellowship. Raissa V. Solovieva received the College of Humanities Outstanding Teaching Award.

was ranked number nine in the United States by GraduatePrograms.com. Mark Davies was invited to create a new interface for the Oxford English Dictionary to facilitate in-house improvements to the dictionary. He was also invited to work with ChinaLex, a consortium of the top publishers of dictionaries and encyclopedias in China, to help them use corpora to improve their resources. Marv Gardner and three other members of the eight-member 1985 Hymnbook Executive Committee spoke at a fireside and sing-in commemorating the 30th anniversary of the 1985 publication of the LDS hymnbook. A second commemoration will take place in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square on Friday, Sept. 11. Nancy Turley received the college’s Humanities+ Award. Royal Skousen received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign. Cynthia Hallen worked with Marny Parkin, Jill Derr, Karen Lynn Davidson, Monte Shelley, and students in her senior seminar course to produce a database and website for the poems of Eliza R. Snow (erslexicon.wordpress.com).

10 BYU CO L LEG E O F H U M A N ITIES

MELEA NELSON

English Comparative Arts and Letters In an event covered by the Trinidad and Tobago In winter 2015 the Department of Humanities, Guardian, the National Library and Friends of Classics, and Comparative Literature was Mr. Biswas hosted a talk by Aaron Eastley on renamed the Department of Comparative Arts Seepersad Naipaul’s newspaper writing career. Eric Eliason has been working with students to publish a book on a Caribbean drawn thread work project. Jill Rudy and her Mentored Environment Grant students, Jessie Riddle, Megan Armknecht, Madeleine Ji-Young Dresden, and Kristy G. Stewart, presented at the American Folklore Society’s annual meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They introduced the Fairy Tales on Television Philosophy Visualization (FTTV) project, a colDan Graham received the PA laboration with Jarom McDonald, Christensen Lectureship. Derek C. director of BYU’s Office of Digital Haderlie joined the department in Humanities. Brian R. Roberts fall 2014 and will continue teaching received a Humanities Center through summer term 2015, when Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the LDS hymnbook, linguistics Fellowship and studied in Indonesia he expects to start a PhD program in professor Marvin Gardner joined other members of the 1985 Hymnbook for the winter 2015 semester. John S. philosophy. Brandon Bowen, who is Bennion received the Nan Osmond Executive Committee at a fireside and sing-in. finishing a PhD in philosophy at the Grass Professorship. Debbie L. University of Utah, will be teaching Harrison received a College of spring term. Humanities Excellence in Teaching Award. Greg and Letters. Also in winter 2015 the Art History Spanish and Portuguese Clark received the James L. Barker Lectureship. and Curatorial Studies Program, which includes Christopher C. Lund is the principal invesSirpa Grierson received the Religious Education faculty members Martha Moffitt Peacock, tigator on a four-year grant from the U.S. Transfer Professor Award, and Brian Jackson Mark J. Johnson, Heather Belnap Jensen, Department of Education to support internareceived the Alcuin Teaching Fellowship. and James R. Swensen, was transferred to the tional education and language study in Utah. Department of Comparative Arts and Letters. French and Italian Grant funding totals $6.6 million, $4.6 million Heather Belnap Jensen’s coedited book, Faculty members Daryl Lee, Marc Olivier, and of which is earmarked for student scholarships. Women, Femininity, and Public Space in European Cinzia Noble have been on leave this school Valerie Hegstrom attended a conference at the Visual Culture, 1789–1914 was published in 2014 year. Recent visitors to campus sponsored by University of Lisbon on Spanish, Portuguese, by Ashgate. Mark Johnson was awarded a threethe department include Fatou Diop Sall from and Latin American women writers, where she year appointment to an Ancient Studies profesSenegal, Souleymane Bachir Diagne from presented a paper on a Portuguese nun she has sorship at BYU. In October Larry H. Peer gave Columbia University, and Malina Stefanovska been studying for more than 15 years. Blair a reading from his new book of poetry at the from UCLA. E. Bateman received a Humanities Center University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis. Fellowship. During the spring and summer of German and Russian Linguistics and English Language 2014, Jeff Turley directed the Rural Mexico Cindy Brewer and Robert McFarland both In fall 2014 BYU’s linguistics master’s program Literacy program in Guanajuato, Mexico.

BYU PHOTO

D EPA RTM E N T N OTE S

FAC ULT Y R E S E A RC H

By Study and Faith A look at individual and group research in the college.

Palabras and Palavras Linguistics

professor Mark Davies (left) recently received a $200,000 National Endowment of the Humanities grant to develop two very large corpora of Spanish and Portuguese. Davies will expand his online Corpus of Spanish to 2 billion words from 21 Spanish-speaking countries and the Corpus of Portuguese to 1 billion words from four Portuguese-speaking countries. These two corpora will join the other corpora from corpus.byu.edu, which are used by more than 170,000 researchers and teachers each month.

The Value of Experiential Language Learning LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, PRINTS & PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION, CARL VAN VECHTEN COLLECTION [REPRODUCTION NUMBER, E.G., LC-USZ62-54231]

Although some argue low language enrollments are a result of students pursuing preprofessional goals, Sam Eisen, director of the Language Flagship at the U.S. Department of Education, asserts in a new article published by the Russian Language Journal that the language flagship model used at universities across the United States— including BYU—is helping bridge the chasm between the humanities and professional training. In his article, “The Language Flagship Model and the Humanities,” written in conjunction with BYU’s Humanities+ Symposium, he mentions the need for more professional-level language study and shows how internships and experiential learning through language flagship programs give students moments of epiphany and presence that take them well beyond the traditional classroom and study abroad experiences.

Research Groups Humanities faculty with common interests collaborate in a number of research groups. Adaption Studies African Worlds American Modernity Derrida and the Question of Religion Jacques Derrida was one of the world’s most influential philosophers of the latter half of the 20th century, and religion intrigued Derrida in the last decade of his life. This group explores how faith, agency, and Messianic advent inform not only Derrida’s late writings but also much of his early work.

Environmental Humanities Genre Fiction and Modern Thought Humanities Lab Intermedial Fairytales This project charts the presence of a wide number of fairytales that have made their way into several decades of American television—an act of scholarly retrieval made at once more possible, vivid, and interactive through digital technology.

Islands, Oceans, and Americas Jazz-Blues for the Humanities

Fulbright Senior Scholar From January through June 2015, English professor Brian Roberts was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in American literature and American studies at Sebelas Maret University in Indonesia. For several years, Roberts has worked with Keith Foulcher from the University of Sydney to research the American writer Richard Wright’s 1955 trip to Indonesia to attend the Asian-African Conference, a landmark meeting of representatives from 29 postcolonial Asian and African countries. Together they will publish a book titled Indonesian Notebook: A Sourcebook on Richard Wright, Modern Indonesia, and the Bandung Conference (Duke University Press, spring 2016). The 1955 Indonesia trip of American writer Richard Wright (right) is the subject of a forthcoming book by Brian Roberts.

Medieval and Renaissance Studies Post-Historicisms Psychoanalysis Reading Group Romantic and Victorian Translation Studies As perhaps the nation’s premier institution for research on language acquisition, BYU is now creating new conversations about the process whereby languages (and, more broadly, cultural adaptations) pass into one another. This group includes scholars from across the university and hosts guests from around the world.

Urban Humanities Women’s Studies Teaching and Research Group (WSTAR)

S P RI N G 2015

The BIRTH of

FA I T H

in the CRISES of SELF-UNDERSTANDING BY TRAVIS T. ANDERSON

How do we develop the kind of faith that increases and grows but that also helps us grow along with it?

Illustrations by David Habben

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The German theologian and philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher is considered the father of both modern Protestant theology and contemporary hermeneutics (interpretation theory). When he died in 1834, he was so beloved a teacher, pastor, and public figure that his coffin was reportedly followed through the streets of Berlin by devastated mourners stretching back well over a mile, and thousands of other Berliners and travelers lined the route to pay their respects.1 For generations of contemporary Christians, Schleiermacher’s name has become almost synonymous with the ability to balance intellectual rigor and faith. But when this famous religious writer and teacher was still a young man, struggling on his own at school, his belief in the teachings of his devout father collapsed almost completely under the weight of doubt and skepticism. On a cold winter day in January 1787, his struggles culminated in this agonizing lament: “Faith is the regalia of

the Godhead, you say. Alas! dearest father, if you believe that without this faith no one can attain to salvation in the next world, nor to tranquility in this—and such, I know, is your belief—oh! then pray to God to grant it to me, for to me it is now lost.”2 The mature faith Friedrich Schleiermacher found in the wake of his personal crisis was not the same faith he had lost. The naïve faith of his youth was refined by the twin furnaces of experience and self-examination. And Schleiermacher himself was transformed in the process. History and the scriptures themselves are replete with stories of faith and lives transformed by those two fires. The book of Job is perhaps the quintessential scriptural example

How do we become not someone who merely possesses faith like a pendant on a chain but someone whose faith is living and transformative? Again, the life and teachings of Jesus provide the answer: we must become disciples, not mere believers.

of a sustained assault on faith successfully endured. And yet, contrary to most superficial readings of the story, surely that assault occasioned not just suffering but a genuine crisis for Job (and for the members of his family, who are often completely ignored), a crisis in which Job experienced real doubt and despair even though he responded to comforters and doubters alike with unwavering conviction. If there had been no crisis, if his faith had emerged essentially unchanged, then the experience would have not really been a trial but merely a graceful passage through senseless pain and persecution. The very nature of faith is like water in the wild: it is purified only in tumbling over and fighting its way through hard places; it must constantly be replenished and refreshed if it is not to dry up; and it can increase only if it has a source beyond itself. Christ taught the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well that whoever would drink of the water He had to offer would never thirst again, for it would refresh the soul like “a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). But we must drink that water for the soul to be refreshed. And we must drink it not just once, but continually—as our sacramental rites suggest. After all, if we read John 4:14 carefully, we note that Christ said whoever would drink of that water would never thirst again, but He did not say a single drink or cupful would suffice. While the water in a well might never dry up, we must still repeatedly draw and drink it for it to do us any good. A well from which we cease to drink is no better than a well with no water at all. TRANSFORMATIVE FAITH So, as we pass through life’s crises, how do we develop and exercise the kind of faith that increases and grows but that also helps us grow along with it? Asked differently, how do we become and remain faithful “doers of the word” and not just ideologically consistent “hearers only”(James 1:22)? How do we become not someone who merely possesses faith

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like a pendant on a chain but someone whose faith is living and transformative? Again, the life and teachings of Jesus provide the answer: we must become disciples, not mere believers. The word disciple derives from the Latin discipulus and translates the Greek mathētēs, which means “the student and follower of a teacher” and “one who becomes a teacher in like manner.” We drink faithfully of the water Jesus offers us by studying His life and following His example. But that means becoming like Him, striving to enact in our own lives the principles and values He exemplified in His. Just as the original disciples of Jesus grew in faith and understanding only as they struggled on a daily basis to become as He was, we must undergo a similar transformation if our faith is not to remain dormant. Bruce Hafen, former provost at BYU, reflected on precisely that transformation in a devotional address he gave at BYU when he was the young president of Ricks College in 1979. He suggested that both our understanding and expression of faith typically traverse a number of different stages on the road toward what he characterized as “spiritual and intellectual maturity.”3 President Hafen observed that we begin such a journey by seeing the world and others in simplistic, mostly black-and-white terms. Being a lifelong lover of film, perhaps I can borrow from that familiar domain in illustrating his point: Like in childish or cartoonish movies, the moral universe seems to someone with naïve faith as if it is peopled by good guys and bad guys, structured by laws that are simply broken or obeyed, and colored by consequences that are ultimately just and usually swift. It would seem there is no need for subtlety of interpretation or difficulty of deliberation in such a universe, for there appears to be no ambiguity in the way its related events unfold and have meaning. This is not to say that at this stage we don’t see apparently unjust things happen, but when they do happen, we

believe that (despite our ignorance) they must have a just purpose and express God’s will—and like disasters that befall strangers at a great distance, they often don’t seem to involve us or to require our intervention and concern. Hafen noted in his address that at this stage of spiritual development we express our faith by exercising a childlike optimism and goodness—“it is typical . . . to trust [our] teachers, to believe what [we] read, and to respond with boundless enthusiasm”4 to the challenges we encounter. While childlike faith has many virtues, notes Hafen, it is possible only when “we simply do not—perhaps cannot—see the problems that exist.”5

Surely Job experienced real doubt and despair. If there had been no crisis, then the experience would have not really been a trial but merely a graceful passage through senseless pain and persecution.

GROWING UP But those very challenges and problems eventually awaken in most of us what Hafen described in his address as “a growing awareness that there is a kind of gap between the real and the ideal—between what is and what ought to be.”6 That awareness often begins to develop when bad things happen to us and ours—for if we know we have been striving earnestly to live a godly life, then calamities cannot be easily explained away as divine punishment for sin or as the natural “just desserts” of our mistakes, and we are thus forced to ask ourselves that haunting question, “Why me, O Lord? Why me?” Awareness of either apparent or genuine injustice can then harden into disillusionment, which is always painful and sometimes devastating. It usually creeps up on us like fog in the darkness—we don’t notice it until the lightning flashes of failure, loss, hurt, or some other personal disaster open our eyes, little by little, to the recognition that where there was clarity and stability, it is now difficult to discern even vague outlines of the world we once knew

so well. In a world covered by this fog, God seems not to care about undeserved suffering and tragedy, prayers receive no apparent answers, promises appear to go unfulfilled, imperfections in others become obvious, and we find ourselves increasingly confused and uncertain about what we previously believed with complete confidence. Hafen wisely counseled his listeners to respond to such crises not with denial but with honesty and courage: [We need] to be more realistic about life’s experiences, even if that means facing some questions and limitations that leave one a bit uncomfortable. That very discomfort can be a motivation toward real growth. . . . If we are not willing to grapple with the frustration that comes from honestly and bravely facing the uncertainties we encounter, we may never develop the kind of spiritual maturity that is necessary. . . . We must develop sufficient independence of judgment and maturity of perspective that we are prepared to handle the shafts and whirlwinds of adversity and contradiction that are so likely to come along in our lives. When those times come, we cannot be living on borrowed light.7 Real growth requires that we confront disappointment and tragedy with a sustained effort to understand life and its challenges, and it requires us to realize that a crisis of faith is less the consequence of changes in the world and in others than it is the result of a profound transformation in ourselves. To put it simply, when we progress from a satisfaction with the world as it appears to someone with simple faith toward an understanding troubled by ambiguity and uncertainty, we are growing up. And just as physical growth is awkward and often painful, so too is spiritual growth. But here the analogy becomes strained. While our bodies will continue to age and develop whether we want them to or not, any

S P RI N G 2015

genuine emotional, intellectual, or spiritual growth requires not only our consent but our active participation. While change is inevitable, change for the better is not, and growth is change for the better. The difficulty is to push forward and continue growing once we have discovered through sad experience that growth always requires an uphill trek. Hafen’s reflections on the transformations of faith end with the sage observation that at higher levels of spirituality we must learn to “not only view things with our eyes wide open but with our hearts wide open as well.”8 I will venture to suggest that the faith of someone who has learned to live with an open heart is a faith reborn—a faith of generosity, love, and trust, but also a faith tempered by the knowledge that becoming like the Christ requires us to haul in the net, feed the hungry, minister to the sick, strengthen the faithless, and even, at times, upend the tables of a few moneychangers, rather than waiting for God and His angels to solve the world’s problems while we worship in the detached comfort of our pew at church. It also requires serious and consistent self-examination. But those efforts to change the world and ourselves for the better still require God’s help if the results we truly long for are to be realized. Hence, at this stage, faith is still required—perhaps required more than ever. It just needs to be a mature faith, a faith rooted deeply in both a clear understanding of the world as it is and an informed trust in God’s willingness to help us transform it and ourselves into the form of what ought to be. Retreating into bitterness and disbelief is not a remedy for the immaturity and innocence of naïve faith—it is its dark reflection. Blind denial is simply the mirror image of the blind faith it abhors, not the wisdom it wants to be. KNOW THYSELF Socrates was justly famous for his allegiance to the ancient Greek aphorism “Know thyself.” I would propose that we follow his example with equal fervor, for faith develops fully only when faithful action is coupled with selfunderstanding. In a very real sense all of Western philosophy is a protracted attempt to know and understand both the world and the

16 BYU CO L LEG E O F H U M A N ITIES

human mind that inhabits it. Science may appear to have taken over the former task, but there is a critical difference between understanding matter and understanding the material world. I myself particularly appreciate efforts by late-19th- and 20th-century existentialists like Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Heidegger to engage the enduring questions science can never answer for us, and I find especially appealing their writings on the lifeaffirming power of love, authenticity, and being for others. If any transformation of our faith involves a correlative transformation of the self, then striving to better understand ourselves as we navigate the uncharted landscape of our future—rather than waiting for crises to initiate that transformation—can only help us strengthen our faith and prepare for such crises. Those two projects are inextricably intertwined. Just as Enoch and Moses and Joseph emerged from their respective trials of faith with stronger faith but also with a clearer understanding of their own nature, character, and capacities, so too can we. And if we seek God’s help as we struggle to understand ourselves, rather than muddling through with nothing but our own limited resources, we will grow all the faster. God reminded Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee” (Jeremiah 1:5). On our own we have only the mirror of this life’s experiences in which to see who we are. But God also knows who we were and who we can be. And it is that expanded, eternal perspective, illuminated by a light that is not our own, that opens upon the faith necessary to move mountains and transform lives—including our own. This article is taken from an address given by Travis T. Anderson, a BYU associate professor of philosophy, on Sept. 11, 2014, as part of the Philosophy Lecture Series. Notes 1. Jonathan Hill, The History of Christian Thought (IVP, 2003), p. 232. 2. Brian A. Gerrish, A Prince of the Church: Schleiermacher and the Beginnings of Modern Theology (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1984), p. 25.

3. Bruce Hafen, “Love Is Not Blind: Some Thoughts for College Students on Faith and Ambiguity,” speeches. byu.edu. 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid., p. 5. 6. Ibid., p. 2. 7. Ibid., pp. 5–6. 8. Ibid., p. 8.

God knows who we were and who we can be. And it is that expanded, eternal perspective, illuminated by a light that is not our own, that opens upon the faith necessary to move mountains and transform lives— including our own.

cora pack Interned in Siena, Italy, at an art museum

connor race davis Interned in Washington, D.C., with a leading nonprofit

matthew smith Interned in Paris at the U.S. embassy

sharisa nay

ariel mika buehner

Interned in Moscow at the Dostoevsky Museum

Interned in Yuzawa, Japan, teaching English

cameron anderson Interned in Guanajuato, Mexico, with the Mexican secretary of education

Where in the world our students goâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;thanks to donations for humanities internships

nternships are Dean Rosenbergâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top fundraising priority. He invites your support. A gift of $500 funds a Utah internship; $1,000 allows a student to intern on the East or West Coast; and $2,000 provides for an international experience. To fund an internship, contact Matt Christensen today at 801-422-9151 or by email at mbchristensen@byu.edu.

In and

Out of

With a surge of faculty interest and a slate of new courses, the revamped and renamed Africana studies program promises to help students become critical-thinking global citizens.

Africa

By Amanda Kae Fronk

t all started on the coast of West Africa in 1995. BYU French teaching professor Chantal Thompson fell in love—with Africa. Until then Thompson had spent her career teaching French and writing French textbooks, but that changed after a month in Senegal studying Francophone African literature with some of the continent’s most-respected authors. “I love the people—they’re not necessarily rich materially, but they are so rich in human values,” she says. “Some of

them do live in sheer poverty, but they are happy because they have the right priorities: family, faith—very strong faith.” Thompson returned to BYU with one question burning in her mind. “I went to the Kennedy Center, and I said, ‘How come we don’t have African studies at BYU?’” she remembers. The directors of the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies didn’t need much convincing and immediately set Thompson to work developing an

Senegal, to speak at BYU on women’s rights in West Africa. Her presentation in winter 2015 is just one of many put on by the Africana studies program to introduce students to culture and thought from across the Africana world.

18 BYU CO L LEG E O F H U M A N ITIES

BRADLEY SLADE

Chantal Thompson (left) invited Fatou Diop-Sall (right), professor of sociology at Gaston Berger University in

African studies minor as the program’s founding director. The program combined courses on African literature, languages, and culture and, at one point, attracted some 70 students. Unfortunately, BYU lost some faculty with African expertise, which hurt the program. It wasn’t until a number of new faculty with a penchant for African studies recently joined the ranks at BYU that the program was revamped and broadened. To incorporate fields such as Afro-Brazilian literature, the African diaspora in the Caribbean, and African-American studies, a new curriculum and a name change were in order. The new Africana studies program involves three colleges and faculty from 11 departments and incorporates broader scholarship on Africa and its diaspora across the world, specifically populations in the United States, the Caribbean, and Brazil. Beginning fall semester 2015, students will be able to select from 21 classes with a variety of course titles, such as European Imperialism and the African Postcolony, Introduction to Jazz, Literature of the New Negro Era, Francophone African Literature, and History of Modern Africa. “[Africa] is one of those areas of the world that we haven’t studied enough,” says assistant professor of English Peter Leman, an expert in East African literature. “Because we’ve entertained so many stereotypes and misconceptions about Africa for so long, I think the program really helps students change the way they think about Africa, helps students be the kind of intelligent, critical-thinking, global citizens that we hope they will be.”

Five Facts You Would Learn in the Africana

Studies Minor

Want a taste of life as an Africana studies minor?

GEORGE HANDLEY (LEFT), CHANTAL THOMPSON (RIGHT)

Here’s a primer to get you started.

1. Africa is not a country. This might

sound basic, but English professor Peter Leman says that it’s a mistake many make that can cloud perceptions of Africa. “There are a lot stereotypes people have and a lot of assumptions people have about Africa,” he says. “One is simply that people talk about Africa as if it is a country, but it’s actually a continent of 54 different countries”—and some 2,000 to 3,000 languages! “It’s such a diverse place,” Leman says. 2. Africa is about to take a prominent place on the world stage. Due to its wealth

of resources, French professor Chantal Thompson says that Africa is a place to keep your eyes on. In the Washington Post, The Economist, and BusinessInsider, African countries make up about half of the countries on lists of the fastest-growing economies. Thompson remembers then–secretary of state Colin Powell’s response at a BYU Q&A to the question “If you could target two areas of the world to focus on, . . . what areas would you say?” “He didn’t even hesitate,” recalls Thompson. “China and Africa.” Leman agrees that Africa’s economy is on the rise: “We sort of have this perception [of Africa] as poverty-ridden—and, of course, poverty is a problem—but it’s also a booming place as far as industry growth.” 3. In the 1920s people of the African diaspora recognized their robust and rich literary heritage. In a flurry of liter-

ature, music, and visual arts, the Harlem Renaissance “was a rediscovery of and a taking pride in the contributions of African culture. It was a search for roots,” says humanities professor George B.

Nobel Prize–winning poet Derek Walcott plays music

A Bedick mother carries her child in her village in east-

with a St. Lucian folk band. His poetry focuses on the

ern Senegal. Chantal Thompson visited the isolated

history of slavery in the Caribbean, writing that George

village as part of her travels to understand Senegalese

Handley says tops his list of great literature.

culture.

Handley, who researches the impact of the African diaspora throughout the Americas. Parallel movements that celebrated African heritage in the Americas took place throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, bringing together artists like American poet Langston Hughes and Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén who both wrote poetry infused with black vernacular, Hughes in English and Guillén in Spanish. 4. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders found inspiration in a broader Africana world. In post–World

War II Africa, during multiple anticolonial movements, African nations sought independence from European imperialism. The literature produced by Africans during this time told of their struggles for freedom—and many African-American leaders, like King and Malcolm X, took note, says humanities professor Robert Colson. During this period African Americans started “seeing the struggle for civil rights in the United States as a broader black struggle for freedom and independence

throughout the world. There’s this global sense about it,” Colson explains. 5. Africana literature doesn’t just inspire people of Africa and the African diaspora. Though it may often tell sto-

ries foreign to BYU students, the stories contain meaningful lessons for all. “One of the primary values of the humanities is vicarious compassion,” says Handley. “Even though in a novel you’re reading stories about people that aren’t real in some literal sense, their experiences are very real and very true. Learning how to respond to them is really important to [your] moral development as a person.”

WEB: Find book recommendations by the

College of Humanities faculty involved in the Africana studies program at humanities.byu.edu/africana-book-picks. Along with Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, these faculty members share poetry from Mozambique, memoirs of life in Rwanda during the civil war, and other literary works.

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Humans of the Holocaust Seven decades after the end of World War II, scholars and students still seek to comprehend the incomprehensible. By Kimberly A. Reid

s debris settled from the last battles of World War II, citizens across Germany woke up to a horrifying reality: Not only did the war claim the lives of many of their siblings, parents, and children, but the Nazis also murdered about 6 million Jews and 9 million Roma, Sinti, disabled, and Slavic people. For 15-year-old Hans-Wilhelm Kelling, the news was devastating. Years of propaganda assured him that Germany only bombed

forgotten. It’s important that we keep teaching this. It’s difficult to teach; it’s difficult to learn; but the potential of genocide happening again is still there, and so it needs to be told.”

The “Ordinary” Guard

Kelling learned the true history of Germany’s involvement in WWII little by little. When he discovered that an estimated 5,000 women guards worked in concentration camps alongside the men, he was shocked. He began to wonder: “Who were these women? Why did they want to perform such heinous duties?” Through his research, he began to piece together a picture of the female guards. First, women guards usually came from the lower classes, who often resorted to jobs requiring manual labor. So when the Third Reich needed women, it was an easy sell: nice working hours, attractive uniforms, housing, and opportunities for advancement—often at quadruple the pay and for what seemed like a quarter of the work. Unfortunately, many of the women didn’t understand what the job actually entailed until it was too late. The pressure to be cruel sank in quickly— women learned to scream at and beat prisoners within days. If you didn’t comply, you were severely punished. “If you worked in a

The cruelty of Nazi prison guards, such as those from the Bergen-Belsen camp (left), has shocked BYU professor Hans-Wilhelm Kelling. A teenager in Germany at the end of the war, Kelling has spent decades seeking to understand the Holocaust; his most recent project examines the transformation of average female citizens into harsh prison guards.

TOP TO BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT: © IWM (BU 9700), (BU 9699), (BU 9689), (BU 9736), (BU 9681), (BU 9711), (BU 9731)

military targets. “I learned after the war [that] that’s not true,” says Kelling. “It was a rude awakening.” Seventy years later, Kelling, now a BYU German professor, is still piecing together exactly what happened in his beloved country during those dark years, seeking answers both personal and professional through scholarly inquiry. His latest research delves into the transformation of average female citizens into harsh prison guards. Researching the writings of those on the other side of the fence from Kelling’s guards, BYU Italian associate professor Ilona Klein says the voices of the Holocaust continue to captivate us today because they teach us what it means to be human. Klein teaches a class on the Holocaust—or, as it’s called in Hebrew, the Shoah—that focuses on autobiographical testimonials of survivors. “It’s a class that allows us to probe the horrible depths of what humans are capable of and to probe the beautiful strength that humans are capable of,” she says. Both Kelling and Klein admit how painful studying the Holocaust can be. But, as Klein says, “It’s important that WWII not be

TOP TO BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT: © IWM (BU 3788), (BU 4069), (BU 4099), (BU 4070), (BU 4008), (BU 4007), (BU 4103)

camp that was reasonably organized and you did not obey orders,” says Kelling, “then you were transferred to some of the camps in Poland where criminal acts were part of the daily routine.” Kelling points out that there were three different types of female guards. The first were women who probably would have committed crimes even if they weren’t guards. The second group, which research suggests was the largest, were females who didn’t care about their work or the prisoners, following orders mechanically and doing the minimum amount of work required to avoid punishment. The third group was very small, comprising women who had moments of compassion on the prisoners and genuinely seemed disturbed by the events happening around them—but with the pressure to perform, they too enforced the rules and punished offenders. For Kelling, these groups raise the question Are there people who are predestined to be cruel? His response: “We all have that in us. We all have a side that we need to be aware of. If we are faced with certain situations, we wonder how we will act.”

If This Is a Man

In 1945 26-year-old Primo Levi was one of 450 displaced Italian Jews who survived the Nazi concentration camps. Although some Holocaust survivors waited until the sunset of their lives to write their stories—and others found the experience too painful to ever share—Levi felt the urgency to record his story right away, meticulously documenting every memory of Auschwitz in crisp detail. Levi’s autobiography, Se questo è un uomo (literally If This Is a Man, but often known in

The survivors of the Bergen-Belson camp (above and right, shown here during the camp liberation) represent the 5 percent of Nazi prisoners who survived. BYU professor Ilona Klein and her students study the writings of survivors, exploring what it means to be human and remembering the 95 percent who never left the camps.

English as Survival in Auschwitz), is among the works Klein uses in her class on the voices and legacy of the Shoah. One of the questions the class tries to answer is What does it mean to be human? “For every chapter read, you as a reader have to pause and ask yourself if these Jewish slaves are still human—if they can see themselves as human; if the Nazis who were perpetrating these kind of crimes—if they are human,” says Klein. “You ask yourself, ‘What defines human?’ And that’s why the Italian title is so powerful, If This Is a Man. What constitutes being a man?” Statistically, Jewish camp survivors represent only about 5 percent of the people who were captured. “We remember their voices and, through them, we remember the 95 percent who never made it out of the camps,” explains Klein. “I tell my students we’re giving a voice to the voiceless.” To muse on the definition of man by studying the Shoah can be emotionally difficult, which is why Klein’s course also covers the issue of forgiveness from several viewpoints. “The only way to work through feelings is to walk through them,” says Klein. “They cannot be bypassed right or left; they cannot be jumped over.” Klein says that although history doesn’t quite repeat itself exactly, it can, and does, rhyme. “The people who conceived of this evil have the same brain we have, have the same knowledge we have,” she says. “We have to be very careful not to let history continue to rhyme.”

Autobiographical Books Read in Ilona Klein’s Class Se questo è un uomo (Survival in Auschwitz), by Primo Levi Night, by Elie Weisel All but My Life, by Gerda Weissman Klein An Eyewitness Account of Mengele’s Infamous Death Camp, by Miklos Nyiszli

Additional Reading on the Holocaust The Order of Terror: The Concentration Camp, by Wolfgang Sofsky Inside the Concentration Camps, by Eugène Aroneanu The Years of Extermination, by Saul Friedländer Life and Death in the Third Reich, by Peter Fritzsche

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ALUMNI D i s p a t c h e s

P ROF ILE

Bettering Lives Worldwide Sharon Eubank's humanities education helped her become an international humanitarian. When Sharon L. Eubank was a young BYU

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student, she felt like a small fish in a large pond. “There were times . . . I couldn’t force myself to go into . . . class because there were 30 people and a teacher that was going to be calling on people to talk,” she remembers. “How difficult it was to be on a big campus with 26,000 people and try to overcome that!” Some 30 years later, Eubank can’t quite believe where she’s ended up. As director of LDS Charities, Eubank oversees worldwide humanitarian operations in hundreds of countries. In 2014 alone, LDS Charities provided clean water, immunizations, wheelchairs, medical services, and more to millions of people. In fall 2014 Eubank received the BYU College of Humanities Alumni Achievement Award. She says her education at BYU has been vital in carving her path from shy college student to international organization leader. Using her English degree, Eubank taught English to Honda CEOs in Japan for a short time before setting her sights on Washington, D.C. There she worked for U.S. Senator Al Simpson. “They wanted to hire an LDS person who was honest,” says Eubank, even though Simpson wasn’t LDS, “and they wanted someone who knew how to write.” Eubank, with her newly earned BYU humanities degree, fit the bill perfectly. Years later, after the Wyoming senator had retired, Eubank moved from federalgovernment employee to small-business

As director of LDS Charities, Sharon Eubank presented at the United Nations (UN) in New York City on the Church's global humanitarian outreach efforts, in the first UN meeting dedicated exclusively to the Church's welfare system.

owner, starting an educational retail store in Utah. Her experience with small business and the Senate led to her job at LDS Charities. “It’s a huge responsibility to be the implementer for the funds that the members of the Church donate,” says Eubank. One of her recent projects involved supplying tetanus vaccines and other sterile medical supplies to Africa. “To see the impact that’s going to have on half a million mothers and their babies, who both

“Our culture, our society has specialized, but I’m so grateful that I got a liberal arts degree, because it helps me understand and connect with people all around the world. . . . I couldn’t do what I’m doing now without having studied the humanities. I would know the specialties, but I wouldn’t have the heart for it.”

—Sharon Eubank

contract tetanus—boy, that motivates me,” she says. The impact of the funds reminds her of the widow’s mite that contributes to bettering lives around the world. Eubank says that seeking inspiration has been vital to her job. As part of her work at LDS Charities, the once-shy Eubank took the stage before the United Nations to present on the Church’s welfare system. Unsure of what to speak on, Eubank scoured the Church’s website looking for something to bring her message home. She found her message in a post–World War II story of Dutch Latter-day Saints sending potatoes to their former enemies in Germany. “The Spirit told me, this is the story you need to start your remarks with,” remembers Eubank. It was the part of her speech everyone wanted to talk about after. “The Lord cares about the everyday things we do,” says Eubank. “He will always infuse the secular of our lives with the sacred.” —AMANDA KAE FRONK

22 BYU CO L LEG E O F H U M A N ITIES

RET ROS PEC T I VE S

Alumni and friends tell how BYU and the humanities have made a difference.

A Catholic Among Mormons By Antonio Caballos García

I was moved when several friends from the

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LDS Church sent me congratulations from the United States on the election of the new pope, Francis, who for Catholics and other Christians is the 266th uninterrupted successor of the Apostle Peter. As you will have guessed, I am a Catholic. I am also a Knight of the Royal Brotherhood of the Knights of Saint Ferdinand. I do not believe I will ever be anything else (religiously

Spanish travel agent Antonio Caballos García has been a host to—and has been befriended by—generations of BYU students.

speaking) until the day of my death, just as the members of my family have been Catholic for more than five centuries. But in addition to being Catholic, I am a Christian—and a Christian who believes in equality and respect for all other Christians. That is to say, I am a follower of Christ, to whom it does not matter in the least what label any other Christian wears, nor his or her way of worshipping Heavenly Father, as long as he or she respects my form of worship and

my way of thinking about the Creator. Here I they were ignorant and who, through this might add that not once have I felt mistreated genealogical work, have in some way returned in this sense by my Spanish and American to life—all thanks to the fantastic archives of LDS friends—rather the complete opposite, the Catholic church (in those cases when they for I have felt respected. As the owner of a travel In addition to being Catholic, I am a agency in Madrid, I have spent the last 40 years assisting stuChristian—and a Christian who believes in dents from Brigham Young University in their studies equality and respect for all other Christians. abroad in Spain. I have worked in harmony with hundreds of professors and several thousand students, have not been destroyed by fire or barbarism). not only of the Spanish and Portuguese For that I want to express my gratitude to Department but also of various other disciboth churches. plines that have considered it important to Now nearing my retirement, I want to learn in, live in, and appreciate the country leave this grateful testimony, although in where the Spanish language and culture origisome way I hope to continue a few more years nated. I can also assert that few American unitaking care of my dear students and profesversities have a Spain study abroad program sors from BYU. as complete as BYU’s in terms of curriculum, living with Spanish families, and getting to know the country. Never—let me repeat, never—during the nearly 15,000 days that have passed since I began working with the Spain study abroad program, have the BYU students caused any behavior problems. What is more, the majority of Spanish hotels demand a deposit from student groups for the possible damage students might cause during their stay in those establishments, except from BYU students—a fact about which I feel proud when I speak with my colleagues. 50 YEARS AND BEYOND Today some of “my” former professors and Celebrate the College of Humanities’ graduate teaching assistants occupy positions 50th anniversary! We want to know your of responsibility at BYU, and several of “my” favorite memory from your time studyBYU students are now professors in other ing the humanities at BYU. Was it an important American universities. They keep inspiring lecture on van Gogh that left in contact with me and have also entrusted you seeking ponderous nature walks? me with some of their current students. Was it a late-night study session turned I have inherited from Mormons their to a giggling rendition of Shakespeare’s love for genealogy, having attended several Twelfth Night? Share your memories at courses given by the LDS Church in Madrid. humanities50.byu.edu. I surprise my family and friends with the stories and adventures of ancestors about whom

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vox humana

STUDy as an Act of Love We study literature and art to better understand and serve the objects of God’s love and attention. By Thomas B. Griffith

Anna Karenina is in the news. She always seems to be. Last year two new English translations of Tolstoy’s masterpiece were published, and each year it seems that Anna Karenina tops many of those maddening but fun lists of the “best books ever.” I was introduced to the novel at BYU right after my mission. I registered for a hefty spring-term course titled “Readings in the Classics.” Under the tutelage of English professor Mae Blanch, our class read 30 classics of Western literature. Each weekday we met for three hours to take part in discussions led by Professor Blanch and other BYU literary experts. To me, the class was the epitome of a liberal college education. It was transformative, especially reading Anna Karenina. As I waded into the novel, whose size alone was daunting, I struggled—not with following the narrative but with understanding why, at “the Lord’s university,” I was being asked to read a story about adultery.

something BYU humanities professor Arthur Bassett taught his students can help inform the undertaking. If life eternal is to know God and Christ (as the Lord Himself tells us in John 17:3), then, Professor Bassett stressed, we should do our best to understand His greatest project: humankind. We study literature and art because they help us understand the “splendid strangers”1 who the Restoration reveals are kin to us and are the object of God’s love and attention. Wherever we draw that line, we must be careful not to cut ourselves off from the call to understand humankind. As Latter-day Saints, we look for truth wherever it may be found. We are told to “seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom” (D&C 88:118). In that search, we assume truth is found not only within the Church and its canon. It does not surprise us when Nephi teaches that the Lord inspires men and women throughout the world. But have we noticed that Nephi teaches that the Lord will measure our lives by what these men and women write? “For I command all men . . . that “Ours is not to judge Anna. Ours is to they shall write the words which I speak unto them; for out of the books understand her.” —Tom Rogers which shall be written I will judge the world, every man according to their purposes, and how it should be lived. Most works, according to that which is written” important, we do so because such study (2 Ne. 29:11). prepares us to be of greater help to those Quizzed at the judgment bar about Kitty around us. and Levin? I doubt it. But whether we searched But what about my initial concern with for understanding from the experience of othreading a story about adultery? I recall many ers is central to the purpose of our lives. a conversation at BYU about where to draw the line between literature that gives valuable insight into the human condition and works Thomas B. Griffith, a BYU humanities graduate, that degrade. That question is not unique to is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the BYU. Similar line drawing has proven to be a D.C. Circuit. He served as BYU general counsel difficult task for courts and legislatures that and as legal counsel for the U.S. Senate. seek to distinguish between the obscene and Note expressions that merit legal protection. As far 1. G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (Garden City, New York: Image Books, 1959), pp. 20–21. as I can tell, there is no simple formula, but

IVAN KRAMSKOI (RUSSIAN, 1837–87) PORTRAIT OF AN UNKNOWN WOMAN, 1883 (DETAIL)

24 BYU CO L LEG E O F H U MA N ITIES

When Tom Rogers, professor of Russian literature, came to class to lead our discussion on Anna Karenina, I was ready to confront him with my concerns. But I never raised my hand. With the opening words of his lecture, Professor Rogers took the weapon out of my hand and changed my entire way of thinking about the purpose of a liberal education. “Ours is not to judge Anna,” he said. “Ours is to understand her.” There it was. He was calling on us to read Anna Karenina not so we would mimic Anna’s behavior or delight in sin but in hopes that we might see that the elements of the story that so appealed to our emotions were also the very sources of the tragic repercussions that followed. We study the liberal arts to understand others. We confront open allures to learn to avoid them ourselves and, just as important, to warn others of their hidden costs. We study literature and art as acts of love because we care about what others think about life, its

CRO S S ROAD S

From Russia, with Love 1

By Fred Piscop 7

16 20

22 25

45 48

John R. Rosenberg Dean

3 Congressional period, abbr.

Gregory D. Clark Associate Dean

4 Get the point

Ray T. Clifford Associate Dean

5 Onion _ (St. Basil’s Cathedral feature)

Frank Q. Christianson Associate Dean

7 Mannerly chap

BYU COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES

1 Pre-1917 Russian autocrat

6 _ Drago, Russian boxer in Rocky IV

DOWN 2 Alaskan island near Russia

39 42

24 28

To check your answers, visit us online at humanities.byu.edu/magazine.

Jared D. Christensen College Controller

9 Russian site of the 2014 Winter Olympics

Matthew B. Christensen LDS Philanthropies at BYU

10 Soviet-born violinist Isaac

ACADEMIC DEPARTMENT CHAIRS

11 Russians, in old headlines

J. Scott Miller Asian and Near Eastern Languages

14 Lo-cal 21 Western Russia’s continent, for short

Phillip A. Snyder English Corry L. Cropper French and Italian

22 Musical acuity

Michelle S. James Germanic and Russian

24 Soup in Russian cuisine

George B. Handley Comparative Arts and Letters

26 Russian satellite launched Oct. 4, 1957

Diane Strong-Krause Linguistics and English Language

27 Nov. 11 honoree, in U.S.

Travis T. Anderson Philosophy

28 Pianist Gilels, born in the Russian Empire

David P. Laraway Spanish and Portuguese

29 Comedian Fey, who said, “I can see Russia from my house!”

ACROSS

David L. Waddell Assistant Dean

8 “Little Bear,” abbr.

13 Soup servers

Melinda Semadeni Assistant Dean

DIRECTORS AND COORDINATORS OF ACADEMIC CENTERS AND PROGRAMS

1 Russian news agency

38 Pie plates

30 Goosebumps author R. L.

5 Archaeological site

39 Russian pancakes

31 Ranch worker

8 Russia’s org. until 1991

40 Buster Brown’s dog

32 Mr. Onassis, in headlines

42 Fond du _, Wisconsin

34 Russian, ethnically

43 Ayn_, Russian-born novelist

36 Communion or baptism

Matthew B. Christensen Chinese Flagship Center

37 Russian composer Stravinsky

15 Less bothersome in your eye than a beam

44 Russian composer Chekhov

39 Italian cheese festival

Norman W. Evans English Language Center

45 Throw forcefully

41 Young naval officer, abbr.

16 On a cruise, say

47 Russian MiG occupants

44 _-Lorraine (French region)

17 “_ _ Old Cowhand”

Matthew F. Wickman Humanities Center

48 Boring routines

46 Slalom turn

18 Like some tea or coffee

50 Russian city on the Ural

47 Casual-dress day, abbr.

Christopher C. Lund Latin American Studies

19 Medieval people who lent their name to Russia

51 Russian hat material

48 Russian currency unit

20 Thaw in U.S.-Russian relations

52 Classic Russian exile site

49 Russian mountain range

56 Krazy comic strip character

50 Sun and moon, poetically

59 Internet auction site

51 Yardstick units

61 Novi Sad native

53 Skye or Wight

62 Mutinied ship of fiction

54 Russia’s animal

64 Model Macpherson

55 Russian-born art deco master

65 Long. crossers, on maps

56 “Mother of Russian cities”

66 Bonner, Russian dissident

57 Russian empress _ Ivanovna

67 Dick Tracy’s gal

58 Blue-green shade

68 Bard’s “before”

60 “Da,” in English

69 Demo unit, for short

63 Bubbly ginger

12 Stalin, Russian for “man of _” 14 “Lyubov” in English

23 Billable units for an atty. 24 Russian _(cat breed) 25 R,_ “Russia” 27 Bill squelcher 30 Like aged cheddar 33 Mideast rulers 34 Red Russian emblem 35 William Tell’s canton

Kristin L. Matthews American Studies Ray T. Clifford Center for Language Studies

Nicholas A. Mason European Studies

James A. Toronto Middle Eastern Studies–Arabic R. Kirk Belnap National Middle East Language Resource Center Jarom L. McDonald Office of Digital Humanities Jesse S. Crisler Study of Christian Values in Literature Valerie Hegstrom Women’s Studies

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College of Humanities 4002 JFSB, Provo, Utah 84602

Maternidade Olho-te: és negra. Olhas-me: sou branca Mas sorrimos as duas na tarde que se adianta. ... seremos tão iguais, tão verdadeiras, tão míseras, tão fortes e tão perto da morte . . . Que este sorriso de hoje, na tarde que se esvai, é o testemunho exacto do erro das fronteiras raciais. Dos nossos ventres altos, os filhos que brotarem nos chamarão com a mesma palavra.

J. Kirk Richards, artist of The Five Prepared (above), believes art has the power to bring humanity to our lives. “Art in its many forms reminds us of our potential—that we have so much more capacity to fulfill the measure of our creation,” says Richards. “We’re reminded to be compassionate, empathetic, and merciful—not reminded through preaching, but rather through feeling. . . . Even the most simple painting or poem has the capacity to make us see anew.”

E ambas estamos certas —tu, negra e eu, branca— que é dentro dos nossos ventres que germina a esperança.

Glória de Sant’Anna, “Maternity,” in Poets of Mozambique: A Bilingual Selection, translations, introduction, and notes by Frederick G. Williams (Provo: BYU Studies, 2006), p. 159.

Maternity I look at you: you are black. You look at me: I am white. But we both smile in the advancing afternoon. ... we will be so alike, so true, so miserable, so strong and so close to death . . . That today’s smile, in the waning afternoon, is the perfect witness to the error of racial boundaries. From our elevated wombs, the children who’ll appear will call us by the same name. And both of us are sure —you, black, and I, white— that it is from within our wombs that hope germinates.