For 35 years, the Tanner Humanities Center has brought the world to the University of Utah, inviting transformational writers and humanist leaders such as Margaret Atwood, Tony Kushner, Isabel Allende and Mohamed ElBaradei to exchange ideas with our faculty, our students and our community, and to provoke us to examine ever anew the complex history of human flourishing.

The humanities begin in wonder and end in understanding. We have provided a home for a generation of fellows to produce research on human creativity and resilience in times of war, famine, oppression and peace, from medieval Europe to Imperial China to the Navaho experience over three centuries. Three and half decades of enrichment. We look forward to decades upon decades more.

For a full recap of the work done at the center click here.

What is the Tanner Humanities Center?

Republished from Now U Know
By Morgan Aguilar

You may be familiar with the College of Humanities and have even attended class or grabbed coffee inside the Carolyn Tanner Irish Humanities Building, but what, then, is the Tanner Humanities Center?

Founded in 1988 as the Utah Humanities Center in the College of Humanities, the Tanner Humanities Center seeks to advance “humanities exploration and engagement through academic research, educational enrichment and public outreach.” They do this by supporting innovative scholarly projects and creating opportunities for interaction among scholars, students and lifelong learners.

“Exchange is the common thread weaving together the many research, teaching and outreach programs the Center offers,” said Erika George, director of the Tanner Humanities Center. “Our support for research incubates new ideas. Our support for teaching enables educators to explore new ways to share ideas—both on and off campus. We introduce new ideas to new audiences through our public lectures and programs. We bring people together to exchange ideas. Our new Tanner Talks bring leading interdisciplinary scholars, public figures, faculty, and students together for open, unscripted conversations about contemporary challenges confronting humanity.”

In 1995, the center was endowed through a generous gift from the family foundation of Obert C. Tanner—renowned entrepreneur, philanthropist and professor emeritus of philosophy—and renamed for Tanner and his wife, Grace.

In fall 2008, the Tanner Humanities Center moved from the U’s Carlson Hall to the first floor of the Carolyn Tanner Irish Humanities Building. This move enabled the center to house administrative and fellowship offices in one area, offer convenient and professional meeting and conference spaces and cultivate close relationships with the College of Humanities and other schools, colleges, centers, departments and programs with its central campus location.

Since then, the center’s directors and staff members have worked diligently to expand programs, reach new audiences, diversify funding sources and elevate the center’s profile in Utah, the country and the world.

“I believe we can learn to think critically and to solve complex problems with creativity through examining the Humanities,” said George. “I believe we can learn to understand our changing world and appreciate others in it by increasing our capacity for empathy through exploring the Humanities. I believe humanity needs the Humanities perhaps more urgently now than ever to see what stands between us and what stands before us as we move forward.”

The Tanner Humanities Center invites all members of the campus community and beyond to get involved in these efforts by attending some events and getting to know them on social media. Find links to their events and social accounts below.

Now U know!