Dr. Lewis to Give Grace A. Tanner Lecture in Human Values

Published: August 28, 2018 | Read Time: 3 minutes

SUU Lecture Series brings Dr. Sarah Lewis to campusHow do images tie us to a sense of place? How do they operate as a catalyst of memory? And how do they reflect and inform our values? A bestselling author, curator, and Assistant Professor at Harvard University, Sarah Lewis’ work examines how images shape culture and history. Dr. Lewis has been invited to give the 2018 Grace A. Tanner Lecture in Human Values at Southern Utah University titled “Images, Place, and Restorative Justice.” In this new talk, drawing from examples throughout history, Dr. Lewis explores the power of visual artifacts to activate cultural memory, to reflect our surroundings, to shift perceptions, and to affect profound change. The Tanner Lecture will take place on Thursday, September 20th, 2018 at 11:30 am in the Gilbert Great Hall of the Hunter Conference Center as part of SUU’s A.P.E.X. Event Series. The lecture will be followed by a reception, and an extended Q&A session will be held at 2:30 pm at the Southern Utah Museum of Art.

Dr. Lewis’ book The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery has been reviewed widely and translated into seven languages. Dr. Lewis was also the guest editor of the “Vision & Justice” issue of Aperture which received the 2017 Infinity Award for Critical Writing and Research from the International Center of Photography. Through her groundbreaking scholarship merging visual literacy with social justice, Dr. Lewis uses art and photography to reveal America’s cultural memory. Dr. Lewis’ articles on race, contemporary art, and culture have been published in many academic journals including the Smithsonian and The Museum of Modern Art . She has held positions at Yale’s School of Art, the Tate Modern, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Dr. Sarah Lewis is currently in the Department of History of Art and Architecture and the Department of African and African American Studies at Harvard University.

The Grace A. Tanner Center at SUU seeks to promote access to scholarly and scientific learning in all areas of human values which embrace moral, artistic, intellectual, and spiritual concepts. This year the Tanner Center will explore the influence of place on human experience. Various events will invite participants to consider what it means to have a sense of place, how that perspective shapes the values of individuals and communities, and why our connection to place may be changing in the modern world. “We invite members of SUU and the Cedar City community to attend the Fall 2018 Tanner Lecture and join us for a reception with Dr. Lewis afterwards,” stated Dr. Danielle Dubrasky, Director of the Tanner Center.

Additional events related to Dr. Lewis’s visit include a moderated Q&A session from 2:30 - 3:30 pm at the Southern Utah Museum of Art, and a special broadcast of the APEX Hour Radio Show from 4:00 - 5:00 pm. As the director of A.P.E.X. Events, Dr. Lynn Vartan said, “Our team of event producers are proud to be assisting with this prestigious event. We are excited to host Sarah Lewis on campus and to present her to the SUU and Cedar City communities. Please join us for her talk which is free and open to the public.”

For more information about other Tanner Center events, please refer to the Tanner Center website.


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