College of Humanities Lectureships

Lynn Williams

James Barker Lectureship

Lynn Williams was born in Wales, the United Kingdom . From 1971–1978, he studied at the University of London, where he majored in Spanish, minored in Portuguese, and completed a PhD in Spanish sociolinguistics . During the last year of his doctoral studies, he taught part-time at the University of Wales, Cardiff . In 1978, Lynn secured a permanent position at the University of Exeter . There he taught Spanish language, Spanish linguistics, Medieval Spanish literature, as well as various aspects of the history and culture of Spain . At Exeter, Lynn served as Deputy Chair of the School of Modern Languages, as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts, and as Chair of the Department of Spanish . From 1997–1998, he was external examiner for Spanish language and linguistics at Oxford University; in 1998, he spent two semesters at Cambridge University, where he taught history of the Spanish language . He has also lectured at various universities in Spain . Over the years, Lynn has written and published on Medieval Spanish literature, Cervantes, Spanish sociolinguistics, language and national identity in Spain and the United Kingdom, seventeenth-century Spanish diplomatic history, as well as the language and culture of the court of Philip IV of Spain . In July 2000, Lynn left Exeter to come to BYU, where he joined the linguistics section of the Department of Spanish & Portuguese . In the department, he has served as associate chair, section head, and graduate coordinator . He is currently working on two research projects: the preparation of the Spanish text of the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) and, in collaboration with Jeff Turley, the transcription and translation of BYU’s Philip II letters . Lynn is married to Mabel, a native of Spain . They have three children and five grandchildren .

Kristin Matthews

P.A. Christensen Lectureship

Kristin L . Matthews, Professor of English, received her PhD in American Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison . Since joining the faculty at BYU in 2004, she has taught courses in American literature, women’s literature, African American literature, and writing, as well as courses for the American Studies

Program of which she was coordinator from 2011–2016 .

She has received multiple teaching awards, including the College Teaching Award (2019), American Studies Professor of the Year award (2016 and 2007), an Alcuin Fellowship (2013), the Faculty Women’s Teaching Award (2012), and the English Department Teaching Award (2008) . Dr . Matthews’s research focuses on how reading Cold War literature creates responsible citizens and a more just society . She explored these ideas in articles published in Book History, Arizona Quarterly, Journal of American Culture, and Journal of Popular Culture, etc . These publications led to Dr . Matthews’s first monograph, Reading America: Citizenship, Democracy, and Cold War Literature (2016) . Dr . Matthews is also interested in how African Americans used reading as a tool during the civil rights movements of the mid-twentieth century . She’s currently working on a coedited volume about Mari Evans’s influence on Black poetry and community activism and a monograph investigating how contemporary Black women are using reading as a weapon in today’s freedom struggle . Along with her research, Dr . Matthews is a fierce advocate of the public humanities . She co-curated the MOA exhibit “At War!” and hosted an accompanying public symposium in 2011—efforts for which she received an Albert J . Colton fellowship from the Utah Humanities Council . Like those she studies, Dr . Matthews believes in the power of reading to enact positive social change and create a “beloved community . ”