Registration deadline is April 15th, 2025!

The Area Studies Teaching & Collections Symposium will be held on May 7-8, 2025 – May 7 at the University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library and May 8 at Brigham Young University’s Harold B. Lee Library. The symposium explores ways to build and use area studies collections in higher education. Engage with academic faculty, graduate students, and library professionals across Utah! Hear from scholars specializing in Asian, Latin American, Middle East, Indigenous, and Pasifika Studies. Additional topics include using area studies’ primary source materials in teaching and scholarship and creating inclusive library collections.

• Register by April 15, 2025 using the registration page.
• Interested in presenting a lighting talk? Find more information and application here.
• Visit the symposium’s website to learn more about the event and invited speakers.
• Email our team with any questions.

Agenda

Wednesday, May 7, 2025, at J. Willard Marriott Library,
University of Utah (UU), Salt Lake City

9:00 AM Catered Light Breakfast & Opening Remarks

9:20 AM “Super-powering Area Studies Collections Through Pop Culture”, Mara Thacker, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

10:35 AM Break

10:45 AM Two-part Session: “Saltwater Kingdoms: Fossil-Fueled Water and Climate Change in Arabia”, M. Christopher Low, University of Utah “The Questions (and Collections) that Matter in the Pacific”, Adrian Bell, University of Utah

12:00 PM Catered Lunch

1:00 PM “University of Utah Special Collections, Rare Books, and Fine Arts Exhibition”, Rachel Ernst, Lyuba Basin, Luke Leither, University of Utah

2:15 PM Break

2:25 PM “Indigenous Materials in Libraries and the Curriculum”, Kathia Ibacache and Leila Gomez, University of Colorado Boulder and Javier Munoz-Diaz, Farmingdale State College

3:45 PM Closing Remarks

4:00 PM End

Thursday, May 8, 2025, at Harold B. Lee Library,
Brigham Young University (BYU), Provo

9:00 AM Catered Light Breakfast & Opening Remarks

9:20 AM “Teaching Historical Literacy with Primary Sources”,  Jeff Nokes, Brigham Young University

10:35 AM Break

10:45 AM Lightning Talks (Submit a Proposal Above!)

12:00 PM Catered Lunch

1:00 PM “Brigham Young University Special Collections and Rare Books Exhibition”,  Maggie Kopp, John Murphy, Brigham Young University

2:20 PM Break

2:30 PM “Building a Graded Reader Collection for Increasing Second Language Proficiency”, Jeff Peterson, Brigham Young University

3:45 PM Closing Remarks

4:00 PM End