KINGFISHER 2014-2015 THE UNIVERSIT Y OF UTAH COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES
T he KING F ISHER 2014 - 20 1 5
A P U B L I C AT I O N O F T H E
COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F U TA H
Education is not the answer to the question. Education is the means to the answer to all questions. - William Allin
TABLE OF CONTENTS
3 Partnership Board listing 4 Message from the Dean 5 College of Humanities At A Glance Departments, Centers and Programs Listing 7 College News and Updates 13 Research Profiles Jane Hacking, L2TReC Benjamin Slade, Linguistics Ben Cohen, History 19 In Memorium Emma Lou Thayne Professor Harold Bauman Professor Mark Strand Professor David Wells Bennett
21 Alumni Profiles Jane Kinzie Sofia Lingos-Papaliodis James Waldo Jeremiah Johnston Tracy McMillan Rich Ackerman Kristina Baskett Lexie Kite 35 Robert D. Newman A Legacy of Academic Entrepreneurship 37 Convocation Spring 2014 Student Convocation Speech Distinguished Alumnae 41 Donor Thanks
COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES PARTNERSHIP BOARD 2014-2015
Ross C. “Rocky� Anderson Former Mayor Salt Lake City
Gladys Gonzalez Publisher and Editor HMC International
Rhoda Ramsey Former Realtor The Ramsey Group
Grant Bennett President CPS Technologies, Inc.
Richard H. Keller, M.D. Former Chief of Radiology Cottonwood and Alta View Hospitals
Cynthia Buckingham Executive Director Utah Humanities Council
Reza Khazeni Community Partner
Karen Shepherd Community Volunteer Writer, Editor, Businesswoman Former Utah Senator and Member of Congress
Catherine Burns Human Resources Director Gastronomy, Inc.
Leslie Miller President PrintWorks
Joan Smith Former Executive Director The National Conference for Community and Justice
Joel Momberger Program Director Gyeonggi-UT Innovation Program GSBC Center, Gwangyo Technovalley, Korea
Kathy Thomson Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President Sirius XM Holdings, Inc.
Pastor France A. Davis Pastor Calvary Baptist Church
Gary J. Neeleman President, Neeleman International Media Consulting Honorary Consul of Brazil
Randall Tolpinrud Founder Pax Natura Foundation
Geralyn Dreyfous Executive and Creative Director Salt Lake City Film Center
Gerald Nichols Former President NJRA Architects
Mary Tull Director Taft Nicholson Center for Environmental Humanities Education
Martin Frey Managing Partner Mainsail Investments
David Petersen President O. C. Tanner Company
Amy Van Prooyen Managing Partner Van Prooyen Greenfield LLP
Anthon S. Cannon, Jr. Attorney Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP Will Connelly AIA, Architect and Principal Connelly & Co. Architects
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Kathryn Lindquist Trustee, Weber State University Trustee, The Nature Conservancy
David Simmons President and CEO Simmons Media Group
Transformation, calm, multiplicity, unity, felicity, disturbance, revelation...
To poets, the kingfisher magically embodies all of these—a joining of opposites, a preservation of variety, an embrace of challenge and change. “What does not change is the will to change,” begins Charles Olson’s poem “The Kingfisher.” In Greek mythology, the kingfisher paradoxically is associated both with transformation—the story of Alcyon and Ceyx whom, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Zeus turned into a pair of birds—and with the idea of “halcyon days”—a period of calm seas and of general peace and serenity. In Gerald Manley Hopkins sonnet, “As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame,” the iridescent plumage of this spectacular bird is celebrated as an image of both the multiplicity and unity of God’s creation. And in Amy Clampitt’s poem, which bears the same title as Charles Olson’s, “a kingfisher’s burnished plunge, the color/of felicity afire, came glancing like an arrow/through landscapes of untended memory.” The College of Humanities extends this poetic tradition by adopting the kingfisher as a symbol of these fundamental concepts that we in the Humanities practice and teach. We believe in their profound and lasting importance.
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THE COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES AT A GLANCE
Tthe University
he College of Humanities continues as
the heart of
of Utah, supporting its mission
of academic excellence and holistic learning. The College is
award-winning educators and humanists who work attentively with aspiring learners, made up of
making a difference in their lives with well-rounded, thoughtful approaches to education. Within the College of Humanities, we empower our students with guiding principles that include
compassion, embracing diversity, openmindedness, and a desire to make our communities better through critical thinking and collaboration. Infusing the humanities into everything we do prepares students of all academic disciplines to connect to and serve society––preparing them for success here at the University and
opening doors of
opportunity and service throughout life.
All undergraduates enroll in Humanities courses at some point in their academic pursuits. Currently
undergraduate
students
focus
over 4600
their
studies
on
Humanities. Additionally, more than 400 students are currently pursuing graduate and doctoral degrees in the Humanities. The
more than 200 tenure and career-line faculty and associate instructors, who College currently has
continue to be among the most frequent winners of University teaching and research awards, and among the most diverse in terms of ethnicity and gender.
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DEPARTMENTS
Communication English History Languages & Literature Linguistics Philosophy Writing & Rhetoric Studies
CENTERS
American West Center Asia Center Center for Latin American Studies Confucius Institute Middle East Center Second Language Teaching and Research Center (L2TReC) Taft-Nicholson Center for Environmental Humanities Education Tanner Humanities Center University Writing Program
INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAMS & INITIATIVES Applied Ethics Asian Studies British Studies Environmental Humanities Humanities in Focus International Studies Latin American Studies Middle East Studies Peace & Conflict Studies
COLLEGE NEWS AND UPDATES 7 | THE KINGFISHER
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he TANNER HUMANITIES CENTER celebrated its 25th anniversary with a symposium on the lives of Lowell Bennion, Sterling McMurrin and Obert Tanner. The Center also, once again, facilitated bringing an impressive roster of guest lecturers to the University campus and the Salt Lake community. This includes former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard (2014 World Leaders Lecturer) as well as Neil deGrasse Tyson (2014 Tanner Lecture on Human Values) and Margaret Atwood (2015 Tanner Lecture on Human Values). The Center successfully raised over $500,000 in support of the Mormon Studies Fellowship and various Mormon Studies initiatives on campus and in the community.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Tanner Humanities Center Image courtesy of the University of Utah
Margaret Atwood
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he AMERICAN WEST CENTER celebrated its 50th anniversary, making it one of the oldest regional studies centers in the nation. To mark the anniversary the Center hosted "Western Lands, Western Voices: The American West Center at Fifty," a three day symposium in September that explored public engagement in the humanities and social sciences. Prof. Richard White of Stanford University provided the keynote address and participants from more than fifty universities, museums, historical agencies, non-profits, and Native Nations took part in nearly twenty individual sessions.
• Center researchers are completing the fourth in a series of grazing rights histories for the U. S. Forest Service, this one focused on the Fishlake National Forest. • Center staff are also producing a water use history for the Big Sandy Rancheria of Western Mono Indians in California. The project reaffirms the Center’s commitment with providing Native Nations with the research they need to protect their resources and sovereignty. • The Center's oral history programs expanded in 2014 in important ways. "Saline Stories: An Oral History of Great Salt Lake" now includes over twenty interviews documenting the recent history of our inland sea from diverse perspectives. • Finally, the Center has launched a major new oral history initiative to document the impact of the Vietnam War. Building upon our long-standing veterans oral history project, the Utah Vietnam Oral History Project will expand the scope of the interviews to include the Vietnamese American community, those who opposed the war, and those who experienced it on the homefront, as well as American veterans of the conflict. Our goal is to document from these diverse perspectives how the Vietnam War changed Utah and the United States.
T • Over the next two years, in partnership with the National Park Service and the Navajo Nation, the Center will be conducting oral history interviews with Navajos to document tribal history around Pipe Spring National Monument, Arizona.
HE ASIA CENTER directed by Professor Janet Theiss, and the CENTER FOR LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES direted by Professor Rebecca Horn, each received Department of Education grants this year totaling $7 million, along with designation as National Resource Centers. It is noteworthy that over half of that amount is allocated for fellowships for graduate and undergraduate students who incorporate language study into their programs. In the coming year, the two Centers will select up to 40 students for full scholarships in 13 language categories: Arabic, THE KINGFISHER | 8
Chinese, Hindi-Urdu, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Russian, Vietnamese, Portuguese, Nahuatl, Quechua, Spanish and Haitian Creole. These prestigious grants also support a series of teacher training workshops to help Utah Advanced Placement Art History teachers prepare to teach a revised curriculum with expanded Asian and Latin American content being implemented in Fall 2015. Additionally, the grants support the expansion of the Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC) initiative, which offers University of Utah students the opportunity to study content in such disciplines as history, political science, and communication, among others, in a target language. CLAC languages now include Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian.
offered meditation sessions. Since then, a working group on the topic of empathy has been meeting regularly on campus. The department and the University’s Second Language Training and Research Center (L2TReC) recently were awarded a Flagship Grant, sponsored by the National Security Education Program (NSEP). Over the course of the next three years, Professors Fernando Rubio and Katharina Gerstenberger will lead efforts to test students’ reading, listening, and speaking proficiency in Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, and Russian and develop ideas for enhancing instructional methods in these languages.
T
he LANGUAGES & LITERATURE DEPARTMENT also saw some exciting new developments and honors this year: In Fall 2014, the Department sponsored an interdisciplinary symposium titled: Empathy, Contemplative Practice and Pedagogy, the Humanities, and the Sciences. Under the leadership of Professor Joseph Metz, almost 30 colleagues from a variety of disciplines presented their work over the course of two days. Between panels, experienced teachers
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Several Languages & Literature faculty have outstanding achievements to celebrate:
• Professor Asaad Al-Saleh published a book, "Voices of the Arab Spring: Personal Voices from the Arab Revolutions" (Columbia University Press). • Professor Fusheng Wu published his book, "Selected Poems of Dylan Thomas", a translation into Chinese with a critical introduction and textual annotations (Nankai University Press); his book was discussed in the media from Dylan Thomas’ native Wales to Hong Kong. • Professor Fernando Rubio was the first faculty member from Utah to be elected to the ACTFL Board (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages); he also won the Utah Foreign Language Association’s Teacher of the Year Award.
• 100% of the Writing and Rhetoric Studies Department faculty published this year in top-tier journals in the field. • Professor Jenny Andrus published her book "Entextualizing Domestic Violence," with the Oxford University Press' Studies in Language and Law series. • Professor Christie Toth was the winner of the 2015 Mark Reynolds Teaching English in the Two-Year College Best Article Award for her article “Unmeasured Engagement: Two-Year College English Faculty and Disciplinary Professional Organizations” published in the journal, Teaching English in the Two-Year College. • The department was pleased to be part of the first year experience for students on our Songdo Korea campus. Professors Jay Jordan and Joel Mullen spent the year on our UAC campus, with Jordan teaching global citizenship and Mullen writing.
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T
he College of Humanities Adds a New Department
The College continues to grow and expand, with the addition this year of the new WRITING AND RHETORIC STUDIES DEPARTMENT, with Professor Maureen Mathison as Chair. The establishment of this new department puts the College at forefront of a growing national trend for establishing such focused writing programs. Even though it is a brand new department, it already has some impressive achievements:
ithin the LINGUISTICS DEPARTMENT, undergraduate student Savanne Bohnet and Associate Professor Rachel Hayes-Harb are actively involved in collaborative research with the International Teaching Assistant program at the University to study college students' ability to adapt to the accents of non-native English speaking teaching assistants in the classroom.
U
nder the leadership of new director Professor Jeff McCarthy, the College’s nationally recognized ENVIRONMENTAL HUMANITIES GRADUATE PROGRAM enjoyed great advances this past year: • Professor McCarthy recently announced a new Environmental Humanities Fellowship for first-generation and historically underrepresented students. THE KINGFISHER | 10
Starting in 2015, the program will focus on broadening the conversation in environmentalism by offering a full fellowship in collaboration with the University’s Office for Equity and Diversity. • In August 2014, the program offered a unique seminar in Environmental Leadership. Led by EH Director Jeff McCarthy with instructors Tim DeChristopher and Tom Goldsmith, the seminar was held at the University’s new Taft-Nicholson Center for Environmental Humanities Education, located in Centennial Valley, Montana. Participants in the seminar examined strategies for organizing and delivering social change.
• The program continues to bring important environmental voices to campus: the philanthropist and conservationist Greg Carr; UCLA professor and food commentator Allison Carruth; and world-renowned primatologist and peace activist Jane Goodall, to name a few from this year.
• The band Stellarondo performed in a program fundraiser in Park City. American writer Rick Bass stole the show with his storytelling to music.
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HE PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT was pleased to welcome two new colleagues this year
• Terry Tempest Williams brought students to Canyonlands and Arches to meet with rangers, writers and locals as part of her extraordinary course “Art, Advocacy and Landscape.” 11 | THE KINGFISHER
• Professor Anne Peterson came to us from Notre Dame, where she completed her Ph.D. last summer. She works in Aristotle's Metaphysics among other things and has been teaching classes on Aristotle and on Human Nature. • Professor Erin Beeghly came to us from the University of California, Berkeley, where she completed her Ph.D. last May. Her work is focused in Political Philosophy and she
has been teaching classes this year on Stereotyping, Ethics and Philosophy through Literature.
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he HISTORY DEPARTMENT welcomed a new colleague this past year, ShawnaKim Lowey-Ball, who recently completed her Ph.D. at Yale University. She will be teaching South East Asian History.
of Persuasive Messages in Strategic Communication", drew from his extensive experience as an advertising and PR professional and highlighted the myriad types of persuasion in everyday life. He reviewed guest lecturers he had hosted in his Communication class who spoke on how persuasion was essential to topics ranging from magic and fundraising to law, fashion, torture, and politics.
Congratulations are also in order for History Professor Matt Basso, who’s book, Meet Joe Copper: Masculinity and Race on Montana’s World War II Home Front (University of Chicago Press, May 2013), has been awarded both the Pacific Coast Branch Book Award from American Historical Association Pacific Coast Branch, and the Philip Taft Labor History Book Award from Cornell University’s ILR School and the Labor and Working Class History Association.
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he DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION honored Alan (Skip) Branch as this year’s Parry D. Sorensen Distinguished Lecturer at the Town and Gown Forum on Nov. 11, 2014, at the Little America Hotel. Each year, the event celebrates the important role professional communicators play in the education of University of Utah Communication students and honors the distinguished career of the late Communication Professor Emeritus Parry D. Sorensen.
Skip Branch and Communication Chair Kent Ono
Branch’s talk, titled "Persuade Me? An Analysis of the Role THE KINGFISHER | 12
RESEARCH PROFILES
Second Language Learning and Research Jane Hacking Co-Director of L2TReC
“you have to live where the language is spoken”
“learning a language is difficult” “you have to have a gift for learning languages”
These are just some of the popular misconceptions about learning a second language. At the Second Language Teaching and Research Center (L2TReC) we are engaged in a variety of research projects that share the common goal of investigating how people learn second languages. We are particularly interested in the development of second language proficiency. Language proficiency refers to the ability to use language in real world situations in a spontaneous interaction. It does not refer to knowledge about the language, but to the ability to communicate in the language. There are many different ways one can develop this ability, from living in a foreign country to studying the language for an extended period of time, or simply being exposed to it growing up. Some of our work focuses on children learning a second language through the State of Utah’s Dual Language Immersion (DLI) program. Since its inception
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“only children can really learn a second language well”
in 2008, the DLI program has grown to encompass five languages – Chinese, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish at 118 schools across the state. In Fall 2015, Russian will be added. There are currently about 25,000 children enrolled in DLI where during grades 1-6 they receive half their instruction in English and half in the second language. At L2TReC we are building a database of speech samples from students at different grade levels. The goal is to create an online portal for teachers and researchers interested in understanding how language develops over time in children learning in an immersion classroom setting. We have been able to use preliminary samples to investigate some interesting questions. For example, a popular belief about language learning is that Chinese is more difficult than Spanish. This has been shown to be the case for native English speakers (it might not be so for native speakers of, say, Korean). Data gathered from adult learners indicate that it takes an English speaker
twice as many hours of instruction to reach the same level of proficiency in Chinese than it does in French or Spanish. But we also know that children learn languages differently than adults. Will the child data mirror the adult findings? Do kids who are in Chinese DLI display lower speaking proficiency in third grade than do Spanish DLI students? It turns out that Chinese DLI students do indeed have lower proficiency scores than Spanish DLI students, a result that confirms what we might expect. But what such scores don’t tell us is how the language use of each group differs. The database we are building will allow researchers to investigate just such questions thus contributing to new research that seeks to establish which features of speech correlate with different proficiency levels. Is it possible, for example, that even when students are at the same proficiency level, their language use is different? We used our pilot samples to explore this issue by looking in detail at the kinds of vocabulary students used when they spoke. In second language research, we do this by measuring something called lexical diversity, or how many different words a person uses in a stretch of speech. When we looked at a set of Spanish and Chinese speech samples all rated at the novice level of proficiency, we saw that the Spanish samples contained greater lexical diversity than the Chinese samples. So, even when students were receiving the same overall rating for their speech, the way their language was developing was different. This kind of research identifies key quantitative and qualitative changes in language use that correlate with changes in proficiency ratings. Through access to large amounts of language samples produced by learners at different levels, we can describe and quantify, for example, how an Intermediate speaker differs from a Novice speaker. Or we can identify what features of a student’s speech are crucial for progress from one level of proficiency to the next. This is, obviously, vital information for researchers in the area of second language acquisition, but it is also extremely valuable for teachers. Teachers will be able to use our database to explore the language features of learners at, above and below the proficiency levels of their students. L2TReC is working with teachers in the immersion programs to help
them understand how to facilitate their students’ progress through the proficiency continuum. L2TReC researchers are also interested in how adult learners’ proficiency develops in a second language. We are currently engaged in a large scale project at the University of Utah and Salt Lake Community College in which we are testing the reading, listening and speaking abilities of students studying Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. This project is funded in part by a grant from the Language Flagship, which is part of the National Security Education program. We are measuring adult learner’s proficiency in speaking, reading and listening and also gathering background information about the learners and doing systematic observations of classroom teaching. Our goal is to identify pedagogical practices and learner characteristics that correlate with successful language acquisition. For example, the information that we are gathering via biographical questionnaires will allow us to determine how individual and contextual factors may affect acquisition. Do learners who study abroad reach significantly higher levels of proficiency? To what extent does using the language outside the classroom have a facilitating effect? As with the children’s initiative, this project will provide valuable information for teachers and curriculum designers. For example, a systematic process of classroom observations will allow us to identify classroom practices that tend to result in higher levels of learner proficiency. A significant component of these projects is dissemination of research findings to the scholarly community and outreach and support for K-12 and college level second language instructors. As part of our outreach mission, L2TReC organizes regular talks and workshops on language teaching and learning that are open to language professionals and the public in general. Over the past year we have invited some prominent national and international speakers to talk on a variety of issues from the acquisition of reading and listening skills to the design of curricula that promote advanced language proficiency. We also share our research findings through publications in scholarly journals and presentations at national and international conferences. The center’s name, L2TReC, echoes the idea that learning a language is a long trek. Our mission is to conduct and support research that facilitates greater understanding of this journey and helps chart effective pathways to language proficiency. THE KINGFISHER | 14
The Livalect of Reggae: Language and Rastafari Benjamin Slade Department of Linguistics
Further study of the structure of Rasta language and investigations into its history offers an opportunity of observing how innovative morphological systems spread out from tiny groups of speakers, which may advance our understanding of the pathways of language change. In “More Axe”, an alternate version of the wellknown Bob Marley & the Wailers’ song “Small Axe”, released by Lee “Scratch” Perry as a single on his Upsetter Records in 1970, an attentive listener may note the unusual words in the line “Why boastest thyself, O mighty man? Playing smart and not being clever; working outiquity to achieve vanity, but the goodness of JAH Idureth for Iver”. The line itself represents a transformed mash-up of Psalms 52:1 (“Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness of God endureth continually”) and Proverbs 22:8 (“He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity”), with in-iquity inverted to out-iquity, and endureth changed to Idureth. The Rastafari movement is an Africa-centred spiritual ideology that arose in 1930s Jamaica, prefigured by Black Nationalist/Pan-African movements spear-headed by Marcus Mosiah Garvey. It uses the (King James) Bible and certain other documents such as the Ethiopian Kebra Nagast as its scriptural texts, 15 | THE KINGFISHER
but also has incorporated certain features of Indian Hinduism, particularly outward aspects such as the wearing of dreadlocks and the ritual use of cannabis. The deity of Rastafari, referred to as “Jah”, is understood to be manifest on earth in the form of Haile Selassie I, the last Emperor of Ethiopia (r. 1930-1974), from whose pre-coronation name “Ras Tafari” (“prince Tafari”) derives the label of the movement. Rastafari gained international recognition via the promotion of Rasta messages and tropes via the medium of reggae music (e.g. “One Love”), as many musicians of the late 1960s and early 1970s adopted Rastafarianism, including Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh, and Jimmy Cliff. Rastas constitute a fairly small proportion of the Jamaican population, between 1-5%, and there is a long history of suppression and persecution of Rastas by the Jamaican authorities, sometimes violently as in the 1963 Coral Gardens massacre. The speech of Rastas exhibits various linguistic innovations, including garden-variety extensions of
productive morphological patterns to produce neologisms like upful “positive” or livity “lifestyle”, as well as words like politricks “politics” or shitstem “system”, example of puns and word-play common in other varieties of English. But we also find examples of more unusual linguistic innovations, such as examples like outiquity and Idureth, which are interesting in that they are instances of larger, systematic novel creations found in Rastafarian English. The form outiquity is but one example of a transformative process which underlies many other Rasta words, including downpress “oppress”, overstand “understand”, outformer “informer”, blindgarette “cigarette”, livalect “dialect”. The change itself in all of these cases is a sort of semantic reversal: an element is replaced by its polar opposite: thus in to out, up to down, under to over, see to blind, die to live. But what is more interesting is the trigger for the change is connotational rather than denotational. The connotations of the components of each word are made to align with connotations of the word itself. Thus, in has positive connotations, but iniquity carries negative connotations, so is transformed to outiquity, allowing for an alignment of connotations of part and whole. Likewise, under carries negative connotations, but understand positive ones, and so must be changed to overstand in order to properly convey its positive vibrations. Words like Idureth and Iver are part of a larger group of commonly used “I words”, other examples of this class being Iquality (< equality), Imen (< Amen), Icient (< ancient), Ises (< praises). Some I-words show development of specialised meanings, such as Irie (<merry) “relaxed, cool, positive” and Ital (<vital) “Rastafarian ‘kosher’, vegetarian food suitable for Rasta diets”. At first blush, all of these examples may appear to simply involve replacement of the first letter/sound with I/[ɑɪ], but Idureth and Icient make it clear that it is generally the first syllable. However, the pattern of I-replacement is considerably more complex than that, as can be seen from Iration (<creation) and Irous (<desirous)---for which we would expect Iyation and Isirous, respectively. The morphological process involved here then is not simple replacement of the first sound or syllable, but are rather akin to the process of blending
The speech of Rastas exhibits various lingustic innovations ...
which underlies creations in English which range from the flippant chillax (<chill+relax) and adultolescent (<adult+adolescent)to the scientific endorphins (<endogenous morphine), positron (<positive electron), memristor (memory resistor) to the commercial Verizon (Latin veritas “truth”+horizon), Comcast (communication+broadcast). Here various factors are involved in how two words blend: thus chillax is preferred to hypothetical relill. One factor involved is maximizing overlap, so chillax takes advantage of an overlap of l, which does not occur in the hypothetical alternative. Likewise, Irous maximizes overlap between the I component and desirous by aligning I with the position of the homophonous [ɑɪ] sound in des[ɑɪ]rous. Further evidence of the complexity of I-word formation can be seen in the case of monosyllable base-words, e.g. food become yood in Rasta Talk. The historical origin of I-words is not entirely clear, but work done by the Smithsonian anthropologist Jake Homiak in the 80s and 90s suggest that I-words like Iration were innovated by a small group of Rastas known, appropriately enough by an I-transformed title, the I-gelic House. Certain members of this group, such as I-rice I-ons, were in frequent contact with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh in the late 60s, and this may represent one pathway for the spread of I-words. Further, it seems likely that I-words are connected in some way or other to changes in the Rasta pronominal system which appear in the 1950s, where Jamaican Patois mi is replaced by I: thus Patois Mi see she, She see mi, Dis mi book become Rasta Talk I see she, She see I, Dis I book. Further, even you is usually replaced by the I. These changes in the pronominal system may have been reinterpreted as involving the replacement of the sound sequence [ju] by [ɑɪ], and thus unity would become Inity, with the change subsequently generalizing and spreading to affect more words. Further study of the structure of Rasta language and investigations into its history thus offers an opportunity of observing how innovative morphological systems spread out from tiny groups of speakers, which may advance our understanding of the pathways of language change, and, moreover, of the nature of grammatical systems which may develop in natural language.
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Water & Cities: A Case From India Ben Cohen Department of History
In India and beyond, water is not only important for biological needs, but it also plays other roles in society. For most of human history, we 足homo sapiens 足have chosen to live near water sources. This is not surprising as water is essential for life. Our bodies are about 60% water; we can live without food for weeks, but die in a matter of days without water; Earth is about 70% covered by water; and we scour the heavens believing planets that might have water might also have life. As we have settled near water, our clusters of shelters became villages, towns, and cities. Examples are easy to find, Chicago grew up on the banks of Lake Michigan; New Orleans located itself along the Mississippi River and near the Gulf of Mexico; and American West pioneers chose a spot close to, but not on, the Great Salt Lake. Further afield London is on the Thames, Paris is on the Seine, and Geneva is on the Rhone while some of Asia's greatest cities are also along major rivers: Baghdad on the Tigris, Seoul on the Han, and Benares on the Ganges. For me, as a scholar of India and South Asia who is writing a book about water in India, the last example is 17 | THE KINGFISHER
particularly important. In India and beyond, water is not only important for biological needs, but also plays other roles in society: its control has political and economic repercussions as well as social and symbolic ones. Yet, the shape of water in India 足whether in the form of a river or a lake, a reservoir or a reflecting pool 足has not received proportionate scholarly attention. While India's sacred rivers have been the subject of scholarly attention, Indian history is often told as a succession of one kingdom followed by another. Focusing on narrowly defined political issues, historians rarely stop to notice the role that water has played in these histories that are not only political, but social and cultural as well. I study an area of India called the Deccan, a semiarid region of south-central India. Rivers crisscross its breadth, most flowing off to the east and emptying into the Bay of Bengal. The modern Deccan is shared by no less than seven of India's most important states: the most recent one created in 2014, Telangana. This
state has as its capital the city of Hyderabad, India's fourth largest city with a population swelling above seven million people. The city, however, is a relatively recent one. Hyderabad was first laid out by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah in 1598. Muhammad Quli was a ruler in the Qutb Shah Dynasty (1518-1687). Their initial palace fort was a hilltop called Golconda (gollu konda lit. round hill in the local language, Telugu). Golconda became synonymous with fabulous wealth for the diamonds, pearls, and precious stones cut, polished, and set by the jewelers who served the Qutb Shah rulers. Golconda was not only a large, easily defended hilltop location, but also at the confluence of two rivers: the Musi and the Esa. They meet at the foot of the fort, thus, the choice of Golconda was important for both its elevation and its proximity to the rivers. South Asia's Hindu and Islamic traditions both value water, and especially where water bodies meet. One ruler of Golconda, Abdullah Qutb Shah, as part of his annual repertoire of political symbolism, took a bath at the confluence. A court reporter witnessed the auspicious dip on January 25, 1662. This ritual bath symbolically conferred meaning on the rivers confluence, important within the Qutb Shah's Muslim background, but also equally recognizable and important to the Hindu populace of Golconda and Hyderabad. Over time, the fort confines became increasingly crowded, and water plentiful near the Musi, but less so at the top of the hill became scarce. The Qutb Shah rulers relocated to the growing city of Hyderabad where they, and their successors continued their rule in the Deccan. In the eighteenth century, the Mughal of north India came to the Deccan and replaced the Qutb Shahs of Golconda. In their place the Mughals installed Nizamul-Mulk, the first of a series of rulers with the family name Asaf Jah. The Asaf Jah
rulers embraced Hyderabad city and the Musi River. Perhaps no moment in the city's history under the Asaf Jahs and its relationship with the river is better known than the great flood of 1908. In September of that year, the already monsoonsodden soil of the Deccan and the Musi River's catchment were drenched by severe thunderstorms. These storms were the by-product of a cyclone that had spun apart in the Bay of Bengal. On the night of September 27th, parts of the Musi River's catchment received over twelve inches of rainfall. Early the next morning, the river began to rise as it flowed through the heart of Hyderabad city. In the course of a few hours, it rose to a height of 45 feet w ashing away bridges and buildings, and resulting in over 15,000 casualties. At the time, the Asaf Jah ruler was a benevolent prince named Mahbub Ali Khan. On that morning as news of the flood's severity reached Khan, he mounted a white stallion and rode to the water's edge. There, like the Qutb Shah ruler centuries before, he waded knee-deep into the rushing waters. In his hands he carried a gold tray replete with all of the traditional (Hindu) gifts that are given to a bride at her marriage. Mahbub Ali Khan's Hindu priestly advisors suggested that the river was imbued with the spirit of an angry goddess who should be sent away like a bride is sent from her natal home. As Khan submerged the tray in the swirling waters, as if by magic (but explainable by the nature of the flood), it began to recede. While engineers fixed the Musi’s tendency to flood, water remains a critical issue. The new Telangana government announced plans to rejuvenate not only the Musi as it passes through Hyderabad, but also to restore hundreds of water tanks around the state, many dating to the Qutb Shah era or earlier. Water's social, cultural, political, and economic history flow together in complex and sometimes unforeseen ways. Researching the relationship between water, cities, and the environment allows us to recast stories we tell about the past in a different light. Old narratives are challenged and often able to be rewritten. For Hyderabad, the Deccan, and India, these relationships are just beginning to be explored and better understood.
Water's social, cultural, political, and economic history
flow together in complex and sometimes unforeseen ways. Researching the relationship between water, cities, and the environment allows us to recast stories we tell about the past in a different light. THE KINGFISHER | 18
IN MEMORIUM 19 | THE KINGFISHER
Emma Lou Thayne 1924-2014
Professor Harold Bauman 1925-2014
Emma Lou Warner Thayne (Undergraduate degree and Masters degree in English) passed away peacefully on December 6, 2014, surrounded by her family. She was born on October 22, 1924, to Grace Richards and Homer (Pug) Warner. The only girl, she grew up with three brothers (Homer, Rick, and Gill) and as she often said learned early to, "try hard, play fair, and have fun." Emma Lou was a poet, teacher, essayist, public speaker, and humanitarian. She loved deeply and without bias. She was an activist for women, peace, AIDS awareness, and mental health. Her commitment to such causes has been recognized in many ways, including the Madeleine Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts (1997), the David O. McKay Humanities Award (1978), a Doctor of Humane Letters conferred upon her by the University of Utah (2000), an Honorary Doctorate from Salt Lake Community College (2003), and the Gandhi Award for Peace (2012).
Professor Bauman (History Department) was born and raised on a farm in Java, South Dakota. He joined the US Navy Medical Corps as a Pharmacist’s Mate during World War II and was stationed in Oregon, where he met his wife, Myrla.
excerpt from the Salt Lake Tribune December 2014
Harold attended the University of Oregon on the GI Bill, eventually earning a Ph.D. in History from the University of Iowa. He then became an Associate Professor of History of Science and Medicine at the University of Utah. He joined the faculty in 1965, and was awarded the prestigious University Distinguished Teaching Award in 1972. He was instrumental in the development of many innovative curricula at the University and retired from the University as an Emeritus Professor in 2009 after serving a long and distinguished career. Dr. Bauman, also known fondly as “super professor” by his students, was well known for his almost encyclopedic knowledge of history.
Professor Mark Strand 1934-2014
excerpt from the Salt Lake Tribune November 2014
Professor Strand (English Department) passed away on November 29, 2014. He was born on Prince Edward Island in Canada, his mother a painter, his father a salesman whose work led to the family living in many locales from Peru to Cleveland. He majored in art at Yale University, but decided he was better suited for writing. He received a master's degree from the University of Iowa's prestigious Writers' Workshop, and later taught at Iowa, Columbia University and the University of Chicago among other schools. Strand taught at the U from 1981 to 1994. Strand received numerous honors, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for "Blizzard of One," a gold medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a National Book Award nomination this fall for "Collected Poems." He was appointed Poet Laureate for 1990-91, although he did not count his time in Washington among his great achievements. "In fact, he counted his years at the U among his happiest", said the chair of its English Department, Barry Weller.
Professor David Wells Bennett 1927-2014 excerpt from the Salt Lake Tribune February 2014
Professor Bennett (Philosophy Department) passed away February 14, 2014, at the age of 87, after a long and patient battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was born January 1, 1927, to Wallace F. and Frances G. Bennett. He attended East High School and went on to the University of Utah, where he received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics. During this time, he also played the viola in the Utah Symphony, where he met his one true love, violinist and pianist Bonnie Stone. They were married March 18, 1952. David went on to obtain a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Columbia University in New York, then returned to Utah to take up a career in the Philosophy Department at the University of Utah. He taught there for 30 years and was known as a voice of reason and uniter of divergent factions. He had four papers accepted for publication in noted scholarly journals (one after his retirement). He pursued his interest as a logician, meeting weekly with colleagues in the Utah Logic Group for 24 years after his retirement, and working to solve the Twin Primes conjecture until shortly before his death. THE KINGFISHER | 20
ALUMNI PROFILES 21 | THE KINGFISHER
YOUbelong W
ithout doing a single thing, friends & alumni of the College of Humanities belong to a group of amazing people who in broad and diverse ways are changing the face of our world. For more than 150 years, the College of Humanities has provided relevant, meaningful education. Humanities graduates continue to shape our communities as writers, educators, business leaders, policy makers, artists and parents. More than 30,000 Humanities alumni now live in all 50 states and in most of the countries of the world. The following alumni profiles are examples of just how our alumni are using their Humanities education to impact and improve the world. THE KINGFISHER | 22
From Teaching, To Satellites, Human Resources, Generators... and Azaleas Jane Kinzie BA in English, ‘66
... even though I've taken an unusual and somewhat rambling career course, I find that I use my Humanities education every day ...
Jane Kinzie’s life (BA ’66) is a perfect example of the value and flexibility of a Humanities degree. Her path has taken her from training to be a teacher in Salt Lake City, to working for the first commercial communications satellite company in the world. Along the way, she built a rich and diverse life, and lives now surrounded by stunning azaleas in Bethesda, Maryland. A Utah native, Jane attended East High School before moving to the University of Utah to study English. She completed a bachelor's degree in English in 1966, then moved quickly to complete a master’s degree in English at the University of Oregon. With freshly minted degrees in hand, Jane moved into the business world. She started her career at Comsat, then a young satellite company that had launched “Early Bird,” the world’s first commercial communications satellite. “It was very exciting, to be 23 | THE KINGFISHER
right there, at the birth of the satellite business.” Jane subsequently was hired by Intelsat, and advanced to be the organization’s Director of Human Resources. “I worked at Intelsat at a very exciting time when more and more countries were joining the organization and satellites were being designed and launched. I was able to help build personnel policies and processes for an international organization based in Washington, D.C. with employees from 80 countries.” Because of the global nature of the company, Jane was asked to travel extensively for her job, something she enjoyed immensely. Her love of people, combined with a quick mind and sharp intellect, continued to open doors for her, as one success led to another. But it wasn’t until she moved into her home in Bethesda - a home surrounded by hundreds of azalea blossoms - that she found her true passion. She and the home’s previous owner were
drawn together by a shared love of azaleas. "I think the owner actually sold me the house because I shared his passion for azaleas!" Jane jokes. She took the opportunity and ran, learning everything she could about azaleas (200 varieties!), cuttings, cultivation and retail gardening. In 1994 she combined all that newfound expertise to establish Kinzie Farms Nursery and Jane’s Azaleas, providing azalea plants and cuttings to local garden centers and landscape companies. The company now boasts twelve 100-foot long greenhouses where azaleas are cultivated from cuttings, grown over a few seasons until they are large enough for retail distribution. “You have to really be thinking two years in advance with the plants,” she notes. “I’m always trying to imagine what will be in demand in the future. It seems crazy, but it just takes that long to cultivate the plants, so we have to always be planning ahead.”
It's interesting that I started my educational path in English ...
Jane’s Azaleas continues as a thriving business with clients in Bethesda and surrounding communities, and is admittedly a labor of love for Jane. But like most Humanities degree holders, who change careers 6 – 8 times over the course of their lifetimes, Jane wasn’t satisfied to just settle down. In the aftermath and devastation of Hurricane Isabel, Jane and her husband, Robert (an entrepreneur and successful businessman), quickly realized a new market gap in providing automatic standby generators to private residents. They soon turned this gap into an opportunity, founding Kinzie Backup Generator Systems, a dealer for Cummins generators. Jane recognizes that she’s living a great life, and has had wonderful business and personal opportunities. “It's interesting that I started my educational path in English mostly because of my mother, who wanted me to be an English teacher. However, even though I’ve taken an unusual and somewhat rambling career course, I find that I use my Humanities education every day in writing, editing, and critical thinking.” THE KINGFISHER | 24
Making Possibilities Happen Sofia Lingos-Papaliodis HBA in Communication & HBA in Psychology
... the U gives you opportunities in a way most other schools just don’t. In the nine years since Sofia Lingos-Papaliodis graduated from the U, she has earned a law degree, opened one of the first corporate international solo law practices, joined the faculty at Northeastern University School of Law as an adjunct law professor, found time to win a few awards, serve on several boards, get married, and have a baby. However, if you knew Lingos as an undergrad, none of this would surprise you. During her four years at the U, this Utah native was Captain of the Debate Team, a Phi Beta Phi sorority sister, ASUU Communication Director, floor president of the Residence Hall Association, founder of the U women’s crew team, and earned honors degrees in Communication and Psychology. Needless to say, Lingos took the opportunity to get involved in nearly everything the U had to offer. “At the U, it was exciting to have all these opportunities available. There were so many 25 | THE KINGFISHER
things I wanted to experience at college and I was determined to try them all. I always took a huge course load, and participated in countless extracurricular activities. I put myself out there, as I still do today. I take advantage of opportunities when they arise, and alternatively create them where they do not. When you put yourself out there often enough, you get a reputation that you belong there.” Her advice to students is no different: “Get involved in everything. Make the most of your experience at the U,” she says. “There is an organization for everyone on campus, and the U gives you those opportunities in a way most other schools just don’t.” That "up-for-anything" attitude has gotten Lingos to a place no one has ever been: One year out of law school at Northeastern University, she launched her own international corporate law firm. Lingos Law
provides representation to small businesses and entrepreneurs, as well as meets the broad legal needs of GreekAmericans here and overseas. This unprecedented venture was possible because Lingos made opportunities happen. Prior to opening Lingos Law, she worked in-house for two international corporations, on diverse matters at a medium sized Boston-based general practice firm, in-house with a major insurance company, and as a judicial intern at the Massachusetts Superior Court. “The most exciting thing I’ve experienced so far, is launching my own practice. I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur and an attorney, and from the beginning my plan has been to build my own firm,” she reflects. “I took positions to get experience as part of my business plan and was able to begin building my practice in the background. It was a novel idea to build my own practice right after graduating, but I made it happen just a year later.”
the ability to sit down with different people and work successfully, no matter the differences,” she says. In addition to teaching at Northeastern and running her own firm, Lingos is the youngest appointed member of the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Management Division. She recently won “Greek America’s Forty Under 40” award; and has been named a 2013 and 2014 Rising Star by New England’s Super Lawyers, an honor bestowed on only the top 2.5% of all practicing attorneys within their first 10 years of practice. She has remained involved with the U and serves on the University of Utah’s Alumni Association of New England’s Board of Directors. On top of all the other boards and philanthropic endeavors in which she participates, she and her husband welcomed their first baby, Alexandra, in November 2014. On behalf of the U’s College of Humanities, we want to thank Sofia for representing the U in such a stellar way. We look forward to watching her succeed and are thrilled to count her among our alums.
It was a novel idea to build my own practice right after graduating, but I made it happen just a year later.
Lingos says her time studying in the Communication Department helped set her up for success in compelling ways. “Obviously, my job is to communicate. The main complaint most clients have about their attorneys is a real lack of communication,” she says. “Nobody wants to deliver bad news, but the bad news gets worse the longer you take to deliver it. Good communication is all about delivery, and my studies in the humanities gave me a unique ability to consider the message and how it’s being delivered to my client. Now I feel like communication is one of my greatest skills – I’m able to keep up happy, ongoing relationships with my clients.” One class she took in intercultural communication at the U had a profound impact on her, as well. She says she has implemented a lot of the concepts she learned as an undergrad into her international law firm and her curriculum at Northeastern Law. “Having the ability to think in advance about how to deal with people in other cultures and countries is vital. Being sensitive to cultural differences gives me THE KINGFISHER | 26
From Philosophy BA to Harvard C.T.O. James H. Waldo BA Philosophy ‘73, MA Linguistics ‘75, MA Philosophy ‘76
Philosophy is basically a way of analyzing problems, and having learned that, it was actually a very useful technique to use for designing computer systems.
Jim Waldo graduated from the University of Utah three times – first, with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy in 1973, followed by a master’s degree in Linguistics in 1975 and a master’s degree in Philosophy the next year. His greatest dream in life back then, one that he says he knew would never be fulfilled, was to someday be a philosophy professor at Harvard University. After graduating with his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Waldo couldn’t find a tenure track job in the field and decided it was time to pursue a new passion. “A friend of mine offered me a job in computer programming, and I took it. I had no background in the field, but the type of philosophy I did was very heavily into analysis and model building, which is much of what you do in computer science. So I showed up the first day in that job with a book on the programming language that we used under my arm, sat in the corner, and read as fast as I could. The rest, as they say, is history.” 27 | THE KINGFISHER
Today, Waldo’s dreams of teaching at Harvard really have come true – they just have less to do with philosophy and more to do with computer science. He is now a Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Computer Science in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard, as well as the university’s Chief Technology Officer. At Utah, Waldo learned that with philosophy, it’s much less about content and more a technique of thinking. “It’s a style of approaching a problem, at least the way I understood it,” he explained. “Philosophy is basically a way of analyzing problems, and having learned that, it was actually a very useful technique to use for designing computer systems.” He said he believes a humanities education is such a vital foundation because “learning how to learn” is at the core of the discipline. “You don’t go to a university to get a job – you go to get an education. An education
is really learning about how to think and how to learn. Once you’ve done that, then you can decide what you want to do,” he said. “You’ve got four years at a university to try out things. I advise students to take one class per semester that is completely out of their comfort zone and do something weird. When I was a philosophy major, I took a linguistics class. That turned out to be an absolute passion.”
Humanities education is such a vital foundation because “learning how to learn” is at the core of the discipline. Waldo says the key to learning is to get your hands dirty. “Really wallow into the data. This thinking is straight out of linguistics – dig in, get your hands in the data. Get confused. And then at some point, it starts to make sense.” As a true testament to his love of learning and to his success in any endeavor he takes on, he said, “I don’t think there’s anything more fun than not knowing what’s going on. This is when you’re in a place very ripe with opportunity. If you actually know what you’re doing, why would you do it? You can’t learn if you already know what you’re doing.”
Prior to taking on the role of CTO at Harvard, Waldo was an instrumental figure at several technology organizations and industrial laboratories, including VMware, Apollo Computer, Hewlett Packard, and Sun Microsystems, where he worked for nearly 20 years. He edited the book The Evolution of C++: Language Design in the Marketplace of Ideas (MIT Press), co-edited Engaging Privacy and Information Technology in a Digital Age (National Academies Press), and was one of the authors of The Jini Specification (Addison Wesley). More recently, he authored Java: The Good Parts. He is currently a member of the editorial boards of Queue magazine and the Communication of the ACM. He also holds over 50 patents. While he was still at Sun Microsystems, Waldo worked with Harvard’s computer science department through an industrial partners program. After advising one of Harvard’s professors on courses and skills the students were missing out on that would prove useful to them as employees at Sun Microsystems, he was offered a part-time position designing and teaching courses. “It was one of those put up or shut up moments,” he said with a laugh. “I started teaching one course per year that I felt the students needed. Later I started teaching a second course that mixed technology and policy in the investigation of privacy. That class quickly became so popular that hundreds of Harvard’s best and brightest would be interested in enrolling, but only 30 were allowed in. It’s quite something when you can pick the top students at a top university for your class.” THE KINGFISHER | 28
Navigating the Web Domain Industry's Legal Landscape Jeremiah Johnston BS Mass Communication ‘99
When I took that media law course, I realized I could be a lawyer, make a difference, and it would be relevant to my interests.
Jeremiah Johnston grew up in Salt Lake City where he attended Judge Memorial High, but left for college at Lake Forest College outside Chicago to play hockey in the late '90s. His plans took a sharp turn when he got injured on the ice and returned home to continue his schooling at the U sophomore year. “Getting hurt was really a blessing in disguise,” he said. “I came back home and really started to appreciate the value that the U of U represents. That year, I got to explore my creative side and bounced around several majors before embracing journalism and the Communication Department.” Johnston wrote for the Daily Utah Chronicle, started learning about graphic design and Web technology that was exploding at the U, and doubled down on all things humanities. One communication class in particular, a media law class taught by Professor David Vergobbi, was the first time he could clearly see that a law degree 29 | THE KINGFISHER
would be an ideal next step that fused his creative side with his love of the law. “I’ve always been interested in the law. As a little kid, I’d read the paper with my dad every day and I realized attorneys were either fixing things or making them harder. When I took that media law course, I realized that I could be a lawyer, make a difference, and it would be relevant to my interests,” he said. At the U, Johnston said he figured out that a law degree with a focus on intellectual property law would be a perfect fit. “I was at Utah at the perfect time, in the perfect place – you could see where the Web was going and I wanted to be part of it,” he said. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication, Johnston worked with a friend and tried to launch a business around 3-D modeling software for ski terrain. But with the tech bubble bursting, his business plan was disrupted and he moved on to Suffolk
University School of Law in Boston. He enrolled in law school to gain an important skill set, without plans to be an attorney. “I’m an entrepreneur first and foremost,” he said. And with that, he focused on international law and intellectual property law, where he graduated cum laude, all while taking time to study in Sweden and serve as the managing editor of the Journal of High Technology Law.
on the Board of Directors in the role of association president, helping to shape the future of domain names in the political space. Johnston was a 2008 “Up & Coming Lawyer” honoree by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and was chosen as one of the Boston Business Journal’s “Forty Under Forty” for 2009. Domainer’s Magazine named Jeremiah its “Domain Educator of the Year” for 2010 for helping spread the word on the value of domain names as a Sedo and ICA spokesperson. At Sedo the last 10 years, Johnston has done it all: legal work, strategic planning, marketing, lobbying, and public relations. While he might not have known how valuable his bachelor’s in Humanities would be to his career early on, he said his degree has only influenced his international law career for the better. His love of writing, journalism, creative design, and theoretical thinking work well for his career that allows him to do a little of everything. "I like to be a jack of all trades I'll be the first to admit that," he said with a smile.
Johnston excelled in law school, despite taking on the added work of two areas of emphasis, and attributes his foundation in the humanities to his success. “I saw lots of people in law school struggling with the communication of concepts,” he explained. “That’s where I felt like my strengths came in handy. The humanities really helped me in that arena – I felt confident writing, speaking, and formulating arguments.”
I'm an entreprenueur first and foremost.
After graduation, he answered a Craig’s List ad for a law student to help with an Internet startup. It was an ideal partnership. Within a few months, Johnston went from being petrified of where his next job would be to convincing the international company, Sedo, to hire him as general counsel. Since 2004, he has worked to keep the largest online marketplace for buying and selling domain names and websites a step ahead of the domain industry’s ever-changing legal landscape. As general counsel and former chief operating officer, Jeremiah oversees a variety of responsibilities for Sedo and helps lead its push into the North American market. Jeremiah represents Sedo as a founding member of the Internet Commerce Association (ICA) and sits THE KINGFISHER | 30
In a League All Her Own Tracy McMillan BS Journalism ‘89
You don't want to dodge tough situations, you want to lean into them. Tracy McMillan graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Utah in 1989 and has spent the last 25 years establishing her fascinating presence as a TV writer, news producer, best-selling author, TV personality, and relationship expert. After a rocky childhood in Minneapolis involving foster care, prison visits, and multiple moms, McMillan moved to Utah site-unseen with her first husband in the mid 80s. Her time in the U’s Department of Communication helped her score an internship at KSL News before moving on to NBC Nightly News and a total of 15 years writing and producing TV news. She followed that up with a career transition to writing film, TV, and books, including the hit shows Mad Men and The United States of Tara, her memoir I Love You and I’m Leaving You Anyway, (HarperCollins) and her latest book, “Why You’re Not Married…Yet”. (Ballantine Books) McMillan 31 | THE KINGFISHER
said
that
despite
moving
to
Utah without having ever been there, she fell in love with Salt Lake City from the first day. “I still consider it a home, even though I don’t get the chance to visit as often as I’d like. I feel like it’s misunderstood to so many people,” she said. Tracy came back in February 2015 for an event hosted by the College of Humanities, speaking about the ups and downs of her life that have taught her much and allowed her to impart her wisdom through writing. "Inside every difficult situation is an awakening;" she explained. “You don’t want to dodge tough situations, you want to lean into them." Among people who research learning, there’s a strong belief that perhaps we’re best at learning new knowledge in our 20s, but wisdom is pattern recognition. It’s in the seeing of those patterns that you start to know something about life,” she told the Salt Lake Tribune in 2010. Her memoir, published in 2011 by HarperCollins,
illustrates the many awakenings McMillan has experienced throughout her life – beginning as a child with a less-than-ideal family dynamic. Her book traces her journey from being the daughter of a pimp, drug dealer, and felon, through her early life in foster homes, which drastically impacted her romantic relationships and the men she pursued. Despite the heavy subject matter, she has a way of reframing her experiences as invaluable learning opportunities, which allows her to offer unique insight on selfacceptance and love. These days, McMillan might be best known for her expertise that was first published in a 2011 story in the Huffington Post titled “Why You’re Not Married,” which was the most-viewed article ever on that site for some time. Time magazine named it one of the Top Ten Opinion Pieces of 2011, and the next year she followed it up with her book by nearly the same name, Why You’re Not Married… Yet, which she describes as a “long, funny conversation about life, love, and what to do about it all.” She explains it as basically “about everything I’ve ever learned in relationships, which is a lot. Especially about what chicks do wrong — since I’ve done so much of that myself — and also what to do right, since I’ve done a lot of that, too.”
which so many women and men have benefited. She said she loves writing so much that if she won the lottery, she still wouldn’t quit. As a representative of so many things the humanities represents – eloquent writing, critical thinking, articulate commentary – McMillan has undoubtedly used her Humanities degree to empower, uplift, and educate millions.
Inside every difficult situation is an awakening.
McMillan and Oprah, 2014
Her revealing insight on love and self-worth earned her a guest spot on Oprah’s couch in early 2014, where the Utah alum spoke candidly with Oprah about finding and seeking healthy relationships through the lens of spirituality and the importance of being honest with oneself. Add to that her 2014 viral TED talk on “The Person You Really Need to Marry,” and McMillan’s career puts her in a league all her own. Her ultimate resilience and love of writing make up a powerful force from THE KINGFISHER | 32
Rich Ackerman BS in Communication, ‘05 Rich Ackerman is a 2005 graduate of Communication with a bachelor’s degree in organizational communication. After graduation, Ackerman returned to his home state of New Jersey to work in the role of Human Resources Manager for Air Contact Transport, a large transportation company specializing in overnight ground delivery in the Northeast. In 2008, he moved to Boston and began working in HR for the Crittenton Women’s Union, a nonprofit working to help low-income women attain economic independence. While at Crittendon, he graduated with a master’s degree in HR from Suffolk University in 2012. In the last three years, Ackerman has moved from HR Manager at Crittendon to Director of HR at YMCA of Greater Boston, and says he is now staying put as the Director of HR at Harpoon Brewery in Boston. He said his love of organizational communication and culture began at the U, where his Communication classes on the subject convinced him to pursue a career in the field.
Kristina Baskett BS in Communication, ‘09 Kristina Baskett is a 2009 graduate of Communication with a bachelor’s degree in mass communication. She was born and raised in Washington, where she became a Junior Olympic Champion before earning a full-ride gymnastics scholarship to the U. She graduated as an NCAA Champion on the uneven bars, 12-time All-American, and earned 7 NCAA medals. After graduating, Baskett worked as an acrobat/dancer in Sea World San Diego’s stage show RipTide, followed by an acrobat position in the Franco Dragone aquatic show Le Reve at Wynn, Las Vegas. She got her first taste of Hollywood in the ABC Family Channel show Make It Or Break It where she performed gymnastics stunts for the lead actors and now lives her passion in Los Angeles as a stunt performer for major motion pictures, commercials, and TV shows. Of her time at the U, she said her Communication classes were her favorite and the skills she learned in film production and editing have come in handy on many occasions. “I feel like I have an advantage over my competition,” she said. “Knowing how to film and edit my own videos makes me more self-sufficient and valuable. I have the U to thank for that!” 33 | THE KINGFISHER
Lexie Kite MS in Communication, ‘09 PhD in Communication ‘13 Lexie Kite earned a master’s degree in Communication in 2009 and a PhD in Communication in 2013. Born and raised in Idaho Falls, Idaho, she and her identical twin sister, Lindsay, pursued identical paths throughout school and now run the nonprofit organization, Beauty Redefined. Lexie also works as a Development Officer for the U’s College of Humanities, where she gets the opportunity to cultivate relationships with fellow alums and donors that allow the College to excel. Her master’s thesis (co-authored with Lindsay) and their complementary doctoral dissertations form the basis for an empowering visual presentation, which they have presented hundreds of times across the U.S. since 2009. Lexie says she is grateful for the education she received at the U that has given her the ability to pursue one of her passions, teaching body image resilience through online education and speaking events. Beauty Redefined has been able to reach millions of girls and women online and thousands in person to help convince them they are capable of more than being looked at – that their value lies in who they are and what they do, and that many profit-driven forces are working to convince them otherwise. THE KINGFISHER | 34
ROBERT D. NEWMAN A LEGACY OF ACADEMIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP
After 14 years of dedicated service to the College of Humanities, we bid farewell in July 2015 to Robert D. Newman, Dean of the College. Dean Newman has accepted a wonderful new position as the President and Director of the National Humanities Center, located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. He will succeed Geoffrey Harpham, who has led the Center since 2003 and recently announced his retirement. Dean Newman was selected for this prestigious position from over seventy applicants in a national search. Dean Newman leaves behind him at the University an impressive legacy. He is known for pushing forward, for expanding boundaries of the College, and not settling for the status quo. In the process he has successfully positioned the University of Utah College of Humanities as one of the most innovative and forward-looking humanities colleges in the country. He came to the University in Fall 2001. At that time he saw a college that, while still the center of most student’s academic
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experiences at the University of Utah, was undervalued by the University and under-appreciated by the community. And Newman saw tremendous opportunity. Newman immediately began to breathe new life into the College. “We needed a cultural change in the college,” he says. “Instead of just waiting at the back of the line for things to happen, we needed people in the College to believe in themselves and in the significance of what they were doing.” According to Professor Jim Lehning, former chair of the History Department, Dean Newman challenged college faculty and students to excel at a national and international level. “His advocacy for the College, its programs and with the [University’s] central administration, local community, and other funding sources, helped provide us with the resources to take up this challenge,” says Lehning. Newman started by building a college leadership team that could share his vision and match his energy, and then launched an aggressive development program targeted to bringing the necessary financial resources to achieve the lofty goals he established for himself and the College. These include a focus
on supporting and retaining the very best University of Utah faculty in the College of Humanities, with a continual push to bring faculty salaries up to levels that would be competitive with peer universities. According to Steve Downes, Chair of the Philosophy Department, the dean "has always been a strong advocate for our talented faculty and has been instrumental in keeping some here who received generous offers from other institutions." Newman realized that faculty salary enhancement alone would not meet the needs of a core of very dedicated scholars and researchers, so he began putting into place a series of funding programs intended to support faculty research. This includes (but is certainly not limited to) funding a new research focus mini-grant program, establishing international travel grants, and international/interdisciplinary research seed grants. The impact of these efforts can easily be seen in the achievements of the College of Humanities faculty – who now receive increased numbers of university teaching and research awards, as well as enhanced national and international recognition as evidenced by prestigious book awards, international grants and fellowships. Fred Esplin, the University’s Vice President for Institutional Advancement, states that Newman has had a remarkable influence on the College and the University during his tenure as dean. “His commitment to excellence, his ability to engage the community in the humanities, and his skill at raising funds for the College have made him among the most successful deans at the U over the past decade,” notes Esplin. “It is a great pleasure to work with Robert and watch him work his magic!” That “magic” has yielded a staggering list of accomplishments in just nine years. In addition to faculty support and retention advances mentioned above, over his 14 years as dean he has overseen an increase in funding equal to about 300% annually. Through a series of innovative community and alumni outreach programs – which includes more than 100 separate events, lectures or gatherings each year - the college has seen enhanced donor and alumni support and added over 2500 new donors to the college. In particular, Newman states that he is proud of the work done in the past 14 years to reconnect with the College’s 17,000 alumni nationwide, an effort that has resulted in an impressive increase in overall alumni giving from two percent when he started, to 23% by the end of 2014.
developments and programs in the College. According to David Pershing, President of the University of Utah, these efforts have combined to create a strong foundation of support for the College, and have led to the successful creation of several very important endowments in the College - endowments that enhance the academic experience of University students in very tangible ways. “Robert has been responsible for moving the college aggressively forward on a number of fronts,” stated Pershing, “Without his skillful fund raising, the College would not have been able to secure the lovely Carolyn Tanner Irish Building or many of the other program endowments.” Newman recognized very early on that diversity was critical to expanding understanding and critical thinking abilities in students at the University. This, he determined, must begin with the College’s own faculty and so he established this as a priority for his leadership team - with tremendous success. He continued to work hard integrating diversity into every aspect of the College, from student support to community outreach. He has been so successful in these efforts that in 2008 he was honored with the University of Utah Equity and Diversity Award, given specifically for enhancing faculty and student diversity. “Dean Newman’s leadership has ranged from tireless volunteer work in support of greater racial, gender, sexual, and class diversity, to the creation of academic initiatives grounded on the principles of social justice,” states Octavio Villalpando, then-Associate Vice President of Equity and Diversity. “He is a critical partner and supporter of the University’s overall efforts to enhance equity and diversity across the campus.” As Newman nears the completion of his term as Dean of the College of Humanities, he’s pleased with progress made. “Obviously there is still a lot of work to do. But it’s rewarding to look back and see how far we’ve come together,” he states. “I’m very fortunate to have been here in the College during this dynamic and exciting time. It’s been a real privilege to work with such talented faculty, staff, and students and to build such vibrant community and alumni interest in our significant contributions to improving the world. A great university has a great humanities program at its core. We have achieved that and still are realizing our vast potential.”
Newman also takes great pride in building a very effective national Partnership Board for the college, with representatives from a wide range of professions and backgrounds but with a shared passion for the Humanities. This board meets semi-annually and has been instrumental in guiding some of the more innovative THE KINGFISHER | 36
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CONVOCATION SPRING 2014
The College of Humanities recognizes one student at graduation who exemplifies commitment to and passion for studies in the Humanities. For 2014, Haylee Harrell was selected to address the graduating class of 2014 in the College of Humanities.
It was the last question I had expected him to ask me. I mean, he took to philosophy in a way that I could have never have imagined a fifteen year old kid would. Yet, there he was—nervous to ask the question that I felt he had waited the entire car ride to ask me: “Is college worth it?”—And I didn’t know how to answer him because I had honestly never thought about it. College was something that you were just supposed to do, right? I had always considered it as the next step towards being an adult and while I knew it was a privilege, I had never thought about it in the sense of “worth”. So, I thought about it. I took the time to think about my decision to pursue a degree in English. I thought about all my classes, all my professors, my fellow classmates, all the sleepless nights spent writing a paper I should have started weeks ago, or all the sleepless nights reading a book I should have started weeks ago, and then I thought about the experiences that actually meant something to me. I thought back to my first Spring Semester at the U when one of my professors handed me back a monologue I had spent hours stressing over. I was waiting for him to say, “nice writing” or complement me on choosing such a “daring” subject. But instead, he handed me back my seven-page draft and told me, “Haylee, I need you to stay in the room, fight your demons, and say what you need to say.” Right after class I went home, ripped my first draft to shreds, and with mixed emotions and admitted fear—I set out to say what I actually wanted to say. Next class period, skeptically and shaking head to toe, I stood in front of everyone and read a half page monologue that admitted all my fears, worries, and anger I had been feeling about my race—and when I was done, I felt—free. So, the next time I saw that kid, that incredible thinker, I told him: “It’s worth it. If you choose something that makes you look back on all those hard days and smile. Then it’ll always be worth it.”
I am standing here today looking out at a crowd of people who found what made this whole experience called college worth it. You’re a crowd of storytellers, critical thinkers, bloggers, talkers, translators, writers, readers, and most importantly— listeners. We are all here today because the Humanities offered us the amazing opportunity to prosper not only as incredible thinkers but also as attentive conversationalists and despite what everyone else may be thinking—I couldn’t have imagined a more important education to have gotten here at the U. And as we all prepare to enter into what people try and convince us is the “real world”—I have one simple, probably repetitive, message. Find what you love to do and despite what anybody might say—stay in the room, fight your demons, and don’t forget to remind yourself that it’s worth it. Because I promise, all of this, everything we’ve been through—it was all worth it. Thank you Class of 2014, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else today except right here with all of you.
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CONVOCATION SPRING 2014
Each year the college of Humanities recognizes alumni who have excelled in their fields and made a difference in the world. This past spring, the College was greatly honored to claim Elizabeth Grant and Kim Wirthlin as our own, and honor them both with the 2014 Distinguished Alumna Award.
Elizabeth Grant Dr. Elizabeth Grant graduated from the College of Humanities in 1985 with a bachelor's degree in History. She went on to obtain a Master of Education in teaching from Harvard University. She then earned both a master’s degree in sociology and doctorate in education policy from Stanford University. Liz is known for having a strong passion for learning and a deep desire to see that all American children are offered an opportunity to discover, learn and succeed in our nation’s schools. She is currently vice president in the Education Program at American Institutes for Research (AIR). Prior to joining AIR, Liz served as a special assistant in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Her responsibilities include leading efforts on secondary school initiatives and coordinating support for states and the districts in implementing School Improvement Grants in secondary schools. Prior to this role, Dr. Grant worked as Jobs for the Future’s senior policy analyst for federal policy and national advocacy in Washington, D.C. She helped advance policies to improve and expand education pathways for America’s large number of struggling students, out-of-school youth, and youth underrepresented in postsecondary education. She also has worked as education policy council for U.S. Senator Patty Murray, and has more than 12 years of experience in schools serving as an elementary school principal and junior high and high school teacher. Fellow honoree Kim Wirthlin notes of Liz, “She is keenly aware that she has been given much. And from that, she feels the opportunity and obligation to give back. Her personal and professional life reflects her focus and commitment. From being a camp counselor in Maine to teaching in a lock-down school in Roxbury, Massachusetts, to being the principal in an inner city school in Salt Lake City to serving as chief of staff to the assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education, Liz’s desire is that her improvements should bear some proportion to her advantages.”
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Kim Wirthlin Kim Wirthlin is a University of Utah alumna twice over – having graduated from the U’s College of Humanities in 1986 with a Bachelor’s degree in English then returning to the U to complete a Masters of Public Administration in 2002. She is an executive leader with more than 16 years experience in health care strategy, marketing, branding, strategic communications, and government relations. Kim once recalled a favorite quote from Daniel Burnham, renowned architect for the Chicago World’s Fair: “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood...” Kim lives her life with big plans – and blood continually stirred to new heights and new achievements. “What you need to know about Kim,” notes fellow honoree Liz Grant, “is that she climbs mountains.” She has climbed to the top of the Grand Teton a couple of times, has summited Mount Rainier twice, and has been up Denali in Alaska. Perhaps the most remarkable of her climbs was her summiting of Ama Dablam in 2011. For several years, Kim served as the Vice President of Government Relations for the University of Utah, a position she left to accept the role of Associate Vice President for Marketing and Public Affairs for the University of Utah Health Care system. She is now CEO of Wirthlin Strategies, a health care consulting firm specializing in health care delivery systems and payer strategies in the health care reform environment, including effectively navigating the transition from volume to value-based reimbursement, business development, marketing, brand strategy and positioning, strategic communications, government relations/ advocacy, reputation and stakeholder management. Kim is also actively engaged in community service, currently serving on the Fourth Street Clinic Development Board, a member of the International Women’s Forum, past president of the Utah Women’s Forum, and an active member of the McGillis School Board of Trustees. Kim’s mountaineering exploits were featured a couple of years ago in the 2010 Kingfisher publication. In that article, she recalled that people often asked her why she climbs. Her response is illustrative of her life: “I climb partly because reaching and moving past a breaking point compels me, teaches me, strengthens me.”
... reaching and moving past a breaking point compels me, teaches me, strengthens me.” THE KINGFISHER | 40
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hat we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal. - Albert Pike
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e are deeply grateful to the more than 1,000 friends and donors who have given to the College of Humanities this past year in the hopes of improving the future of our students and our communities.
Thank you. THE KINGFISHER | 42
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