All are invited to attend this free themed tour of Roots of Knowledge. Faculty, students, and staff from across campus have prepared to present on topics they are experts in or have done recent research about. This month’s theme explores Civic Service. Free popcorn for all and prizes for those who visit at least four stops along the tour. If you are interested in presenting at one of the stops in a themed tour please reach out.
Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival (春节, Chūn Jié), is a cornerstone of Chinese culture and civilization. With origins dating back thousands of years, it is deeply intertwined with China’s agricultural heritage, folklore, and the philosophies of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, which have collectively shaped Chinese traditions and thought. Over the centuries, Chinese New Year has influenced a wide array of cultural practices—from social customs to economic activities and religious beliefs. This celebration, timeless in its significance, continues to shape the collective identity of the Chinese people, reflecting the resilience of their civilization. Through its rituals, symbolism, and core values, Chinese New Year remains one of the most enduring and meaningful cultural expressions in China, fostering unity, hope, and prosperity for generations to come.
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Dr. Alex Yuan is a professor and director of the Chinese program at Utah Valley University. He teaches courses in Chinese language and Chinese studies. His research interests encompass teaching Chinese as a second language and diving deeper into Chinese culture, history, and literature.
Much of the art of Counter-Reformation Rome is characterized as dramatic and theatrical. However, in the case of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the terms dramatic and theatrical assume additional denotative meanings because of his direct involvement in seventeenth-century theatrical productions. This presentation explores how Bernini incorporated elements of theatricality into his works as a valuable pedagogical tool to aid the Catholic Church’s efforts to educate audiences and shape public opinion in the continued wake of the Protestant Reformation. My focus will be on three major commissions created in the 1650s when Jesuit dramas and theatrical staging practices had reached a high level of sophistication: the Cornaro Chapel, the Fountain of the Four Rivers, and St. Peter’s Square.
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Charlotte Poulton is an assistant professor of art history in the UVU Department of Art & Design, where she is the area coordinator for art history and the faculty advisor for the undergraduate art history journal Artemisia. She received her Ph.D. in the History of Art from the University of York, England. She specializes in the correspondence between music and painting and has presented and published her research in national and international venues. She is currently directing student research for the Francis Davis Millet Research Project to create an online catalog raisonné project hosted by the Department of Art & Design and the Department of Digital Media at Utah Valley University.
Acoustics is a vast field, often interdisciplinary in nature, that involves the study of sound and objects that vibrate. By way of introduction, I will briefly explain some of the major subfields of acoustics and how they are represented in Roots of Knowledge. I will then turn attention towards one small object in Panel P-3: the tuning fork. The tuning fork is simple in design and in its basic function. It consists of a U-shaped metal bar on a post that—when struck properly—produces a single dominant tone, most notably used for tuning instruments or finding pitch for vocalists for over 300 years. However, more recently it has been used for other applications, such as in engineering, in medicine, and for scientific study and demonstration.
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Dr. Bonnie Andersen has been a faculty member in the Physics Department at Utah Valley University since 2008. She is currently serving as interim chair of the department. She also serves as co-advisor for the Women in Physical Sciences Club. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Physics at Brigham Young University in 2004 and a doctorate degree in physics at the University of Utah in 2008. Her areas of research include studying noise levels on the UVU pedestrian bridge, optimizing components of thermoacoustic engines, and studying clarinet mode transitions.
This lecture explores the music of successful modern Nordic music ensembles like Wardruna and Heilung through the lens of historical reenactment and creative anachronism. These ensembles and others in their orbit evoke pre-Christian Europe and the wild Arctic through a postmodern remix of ancient texts, dead languages, archaic instruments, and 21st-century music production. In many ways, their music is part of a wider interest in niche medievalist fantasy media like Lord of the Rings, Marvel comics, anime, and Dungeons & Dragons. The phenomenon also has significant spiritual and political ramifications beyond fantasy fandom and role-playing. Practitioners of Wicca, Druidry, and Ásatru regularly make Viking reenactment part of their ritual practice, and Viking imagery and runic symbols have been used as visual codes by white supremacists and neo-Nazis for generations. However, the musicians at the heart of this lecture deploy the imagined ancient past in opposition to “blood-and-soil” nationalism, using it as a tool of multicultural solidarity and environmental advocacy.
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Ross Hagen is an associate professor of music studies at Utah Valley University, focusing on musicology and ethnomusicology. Dr. Hagen's research interests involve underground music scenes, black metal music, medievalism, and avant-garde music. Recent publications include the edited volume Medievalism and Metal Music Studies: Throwing Down the Gauntlet (2019), Darkthrone: A Blaze in the Northern Sky for Bloomsbury’s 33 & 1/3 book series (2020), and Ancestral North: Spirituality and Cultural Imagination in Nordic Ritual Folk Music (coauthored with Mathias Nordvig) from Lexington Press (2024). In addition to his academic work, Dr. Hagen has been active as a performer and composer since the late 1990s, specializing in extreme metal and electronic music.
All are invited to attend this free themed tour of Roots of Knowledge. Faculty, students, and staff from across campus have prepared to present on topics they are experts in or have done recent research about. This month’s theme explores Black History. Free popcorn for all and prizes for those who visit at least four stops along the tour. If you are interested in presenting at one of the stops in a themed tour please reach out.
This presentation is a guided explanation of my senior thesis, A Roots of Knowledge Reading List: Expanding the Narrative of Knowledge—A Reading List of Marginalized Voices in Roots of Knowledge. My thesis was built on the claim that the representation of all peoples and cultures in Roots of Knowledge is biased and disproportionate. In my process, I analyzed the subjects of the piece and then created a 26-book reading list that highlights some of the underrepresented individuals and communities. This presentation will include the list as well as insights into why I chose some books and subjects over others.
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Madison Saville is a recent first-generation UVU graduate with a summa cum laude bachelor’s degree in anthropology. As a student, she was an ambassador for the Honors Program and worked in various student positions across campus. Now she remains at UVU as the admin for the First-Generation Student Success Center. Madison has maintained an interest in world cultures both ancient and modern since her youth and absolutely loved being a part of UVU’s anthropology major. Her passion for history and culture led her to work as a docent in Roots of Knowledge during her junior year. That job sparked the idea that eventually grew into her senior thesis. She hopes to continue her education shortly and get a master's degree in anthropology or museum studies.
All are invited to attend this free themed tour of Roots of Knowledge. Faculty, students, and staff from across campus have prepared to present on topics they are experts in or have done recent research about. This month’s theme explores Women's History. Free popcorn for all and prizes for those who visit at least four stops along the tour. If you are interested in presenting at one of the stops in a themed tour please reach out.
We will be uncovering the energy costs and challenges of meeting the energy demands for members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition using historical records and contemporary data.
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Andrew Creer is a professor specializing in exercise science and is currently serving as the department chair for Exercise Science & Outdoor Recreation at Utah Valley University. His main research interests involve endurance physiology and applied human performance. He has been involved with a number of field studies investigating ultra-endurance physiology and energy expenditure in a variety of locations, including Utah, Oregon, Arizona, France, and Spain.
Roots of Knowledge panel R1 illustrates the revolutionary era at the turn of the nineteenth century, including the French and American Revolutions. The monist intellectual framework of the French Revolution—exemplified by a “left-right” political spectrum—led to totalitarian tyranny, while the pluralist intellectual framework of the American Revolution, as seen in the Federalist Papers, led to constitutional democracy. By importing left-right thinking from Europe in the mid-twentieth century, American politics has become increasingly totalitarian. In order for the American democracy to endure, we must get rid of totalitarian left-right thinking and embrace pluralism.
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Verlan Lewis is the stirling professor of constitutional studies at UVU, where he researches, teaches, and writes about American political thought and institutions. Verlan's writing has been published by The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Political Science Quarterly, Studies in American Political Development, Presidential Studies Quarterly, and Perspectives on Political Science, among others. At UVU, he teaches courses on American politics, the U.S. Constitution, American political thought, and American political institutions. He earned graduate degrees from Cambridge University and the University of Virginia, and has held academic fellowships at Stanford University and Harvard University. His recent co-authored book, The Myth of Left and Right, shows how the familiar left-right political spectrum harms America by undermining constitutional government in the United States.
All are invited to attend this free themed tour of Roots of Knowledge. Faculty, students, and staff from across campus have prepared to present on topics they are experts in or have done recent research about. This month’s theme explores Environmental History. Free popcorn for all and prizes for those who visit at least four stops along the tour. If you are interested in presenting at one of the stops in a themed tour please reach out.
All are invited to attend this free themed tour of Roots of Knowledge. Faculty, students, and staff from across campus have prepared to present on topics they are experts in or have done recent research about. This month’s theme explores Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage. Free popcorn for all and prizes for those who visit at least four stops along the tour. If you are interested in presenting at one of the stops in a themed tour please reach out.
All are invited to attend this free themed tour of Roots of Knowledge. Faculty, students, and staff from across campus have prepared to present on topics they are experts in or have done recent research about. This month’s theme explores LGBTQIA+ History. Free popcorn for all and prizes for those who visit at least four stops along the tour. If you are interested in presenting at one of the stops in a themed tour please reach out.
All are invited to attend this free themed tour of Roots of Knowledge. Faculty, students, and staff from across campus have prepared to present on topics they are experts in or have done recent research about. This month’s theme explores Technology History. Free popcorn for all and prizes for those who visit at least four stops along the tour. If you are interested in presenting at one of the stops in a themed tour please reach out.
All are invited to attend this free themed tour of Roots of Knowledge. Faculty, students, and staff from across campus have prepared to present on topics they are experts in or have done recent research about. This month’s theme explores Medical History. Free popcorn for all and prizes for those who visit at least four stops along the tour. If you are interested in presenting at one of the stops in a themed tour please reach out.
All are invited to attend this free themed tour of Roots of Knowledge. Faculty, students, and staff from across campus have prepared to present on topics they are experts in or have done recent research about. This month’s theme explores Hispanic Heritage. Free popcorn for all and prizes for those who visit at least four stops along the tour. If you are interested in presenting at one of the stops in a themed tour please reach out.
All are invited to attend this free themed tour of Roots of Knowledge. Faculty, students, and staff from across campus have prepared to present on topics they are experts in or have done recent research about. This month’s theme explores Accessibility. Free popcorn for all and prizes for those who visit at least four stops along the tour. If you are interested in presenting at one of the stops in a themed tour please reach out.
All are invited to attend this free themed tour of Roots of Knowledge. Faculty, students, and staff from across campus have prepared to present on topics they are experts in or have done recent research about. This month’s theme explores Native American History. Free popcorn for all and prizes for those who visit at least four stops along the tour. If you are interested in presenting at one of the stops in a themed tour please reach out.
