The Virtual Jewel Box

Tanner Humanities Center, University of Utah

0.0 (0)
Arts
Biweekly

Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. We share research, commentary, interviews, dialogue, and storytelling from across humanities disciplines. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University.

Nov 6

Genre-bending fiction, with Jeremy Rosen and Scott Black

Why are writers of literary fiction turning to detective stories, fantasy, science fiction, zombie novels, and other forms of popular fiction? In this episode, Tanner Humanities Center Director Scott Black talks with University of Utah literary scholar Jeremy Rosen about his new book, Genre Bending: The Plasticity of Form in Contemporary Literary Fiction (Stanford University Press). Rosen explains why genre is both a flexible literary framework and a social field made up of readers, publishers, magazines, conventions, and fandoms. He and Black discuss the uneasy status of literary fiction as a category, its commitments to prose style, interiority, innovation, and self-reflexivity, and the ways literary writers borrow genre's forms and pleasures without simply becoming genre writers. They also discuss the distinction between genre and genre fiction why literary fiction may resist market values without standing outside the market Mark McGurl's account of literary fiction as one category among many in the age of Amazon Marlon James's Black Leopard, Red Wolf and Colson Whitehead's Zone One world-building, alternate worlds, and the political possibilities of fantasy and science fiction Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn close reading, scale, and the value of particular experience C. Thi Nguyen's concept of value capture. Episode edited by Dani Lester. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University.
Oct 22

Art, play, and connection, with Gabrielle Zevin and David Roh

Can video games make us better human beings? In this episode, novelist and screenwriter Gabrielle Zevin, author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, joins University of Utah professor David Roh to discuss games as art, collaboration, failure, disability, and the pleasures and limits of virtual worlds. They also consider the nature of creative partnership, the place of play in everyday life, and the spread of gaming jargon like NPC. Zevin spoke at a Tanner Humanities Center event on October 7, 2026. Episode edited by Dani Lester. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University.
Aug 17

Filming Homer’s Odyssey, with Paisley Rekdal, Margaret Toscano, and Scott Black

Adaptations of ancient texts can reveal as much about the present as the past. What does Christopher Nolan’s film of The Odyssey tell us about how to think about war, heroism, and trauma? And what ideas from Homer does it leave behind? University of Utah faculty Paisley Rekdal and Margaret Toscano, with Tanner Humanities Center Director Scott Black, discuss hospitality, bed-making, and the complications of Odysseus himself. Episode image: Detail from Pellegrino Tibaldi, The Blinding of Polyphemus (1550–51), Sala di Ulisse, Palazzo Poggi, Bologna. Episode edited by Dani Lester. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University.
May 25

Real Housewives, Real Humanities - Jordan Rullo, Marcie Young Cancio, and Renato Olmedo-González

In this episode, we discuss the Tanner Humanities Center’s symposium—Receipts, Proof, Timeline: How We Watch The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City—with Jordan Rullo (Department of Psychology and therapist), Marcie Young Cancio (Department of Communication and founder of Amplify Utah), and Renato Olmedo-González (Salt Lake City Arts Council). They explore the underground sophistication of trash TV, toxic communication styles in relationships, and the power of uncomfortable laughter. You can read more about our April 10 RHOSLC symposium on our website, the Salt Lake Tribune, the Daily Utah Chronicle, and KUER. Episode image: Props table at the RHOSLC symposium, photo by Trish Griffee. Episode edited by Ethan Rauschkolb. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University.
Apr 21

Scoring systems, games, and value capture, with Thi Nguyen and Scott Black

How can scoring systems make games feel so joyful, fluid, and alive, yet drain the life from public institutions and everyday work? This is one of the central questions of a new book by University of Utah philosopher C. Thi Nguyen. In The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game, published this year by Penguin, Nguyen traces the philosophical and ideological aspects of scoring systems when used outside of play. With Tanner Humanities Center Director Scott Black, Nguyen discusses games as forms of portable agency, the problem of value capture, and the ways gamification and institutional metrics can narrow and impoverish human life. Recent reviews of The Score: The New York Times — Jennifer Szalai, “Why Keeping Score Isn’t Fun Anymore” The Washington Post — Becca Rothfeld, “A philosopher’s case for living playfully without keeping score” The Guardian — Tim Clare, “A brilliant warning about the gamification of everyday life” The New Yorker — Joshua Rothman, “Is Life a Game?” Episode art: Detail from Georges de La Tour, The Cheat with the Ace of Clubs, c. 1630-34. Kimbell Art Gallery. Episode edited by Ethan Rauschkolb. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University.
Apr 2

Nora Lange, author of Day Care and Us Fools, with Erin Beeghly

Nora Lange, author of Us Fools (2024), discusses her new collection of short stories, Day Care, with Erin Beeghly (Department of Philosophy). Their conversation touches on female desire, motherhood, mischief, and the strange pressures of contemporary life. They discuss the surreal charge of stories like “Hot Spot,” the autofictional elements of the title story, and Lange’s “careening” prose style, which moves through play, surprise, and sudden transformation without losing emotional depth. Along the way, they talk about siblings, marriage, daycare, deadlines, and the elastic feeling of time in parenting, as well as Lange’s interest in genre, from realism to the snow-globe science fiction of “Dog Star.” Episode art: Detail from Joris Hoefnagel, Seven Snails (c.1575/1590s), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. Episode edited by Ethan Rauschkolb. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University.
Mar 17

How we watch The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City - Marcie Young-Cancio

In anticipation of our symposium on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City on April 10, Marcie Young-Cancio, Robert Carson, and Scott Black discuss the show from a humanities perspective, examining its treatment of faith, femininity, Utah culture, entrepreneurship, fan loyalty, and camp sensibility. Marcie Young-Cancio is Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Founder and Executive Director of Amplify Utah. See also: Receipts, Proof, Timeline: How We Watch the RHOSLC symposium program Heather L. King, “Tanner Humanities Center presents a scholarly deep dive into ‘The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’” @ the U Susan Sontag, “Notes on Camp” Episode edited by Ethan Rauschkolb. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University.
Mar 6

Enshittification, with Cory Doctorow and Matthew Potolsky

In this episode, Matt Potolsky (Professor of English) talks with writer and activist Cory Doctorow about digital privacy, platform decay, and the politics of monopoly. Drawing on his recent book, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, Doctorow argues that the erosion of privacy is inseparable from the rise of unchecked commercial surveillance, and that many people care deeply about privacy without recognizing it as such. They also discuss the three-stage collapse of digital platforms Robert Bork and the Chicago School’s influence on antitrust law the IBM antitrust case Yanis Varoufakis’s theory of techno-feudalism algorithmic wage discrimination effective altruism and longtermism AI as a fantasy of boss-without-workers the surprising global resurgence of anti-monopoly politics as a source of hope. Cory Doctorow is a journalist, blogger, and the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction. He is a longtime contributor to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and blogs at pluralistic.net. Episode edited by Ethan Rauschkolb. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University.

Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. We share research, commentary, interviews, dialogue, and storytelling from across humanities disciplines. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University.

Creator

Tanner Humanities Center, University of Utah
Years Active

2025 - 2026
Episodes

29
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
Show Website

The Virtual Jewel Box