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Plenary Speakers
Mark Paterson is Professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. He has an interest in the history and science of bodily sensation, and technologies of the senses. He is author of books including The Senses of Touch: Haptics, Affects and Technologies (Routledge, 2007), Seeing with the Hands: Blindness, Vision and Touch After Descartes (Edinburgh UP, 2016), How We Became Sensorimotor: Movement, Measurement, Sensation (University of Minnesota Press, 2021) and most recently Affective Touching: Neurobiology and Technological Applications (Cambridge UP ‘Element’, 2025). He is on the Editorial Board of the journals The Senses and Society (since 2008) and Multimodality & Society (since 2021).
California Institute of Integral Studies
Title forthcoming.
Jacob Sherman Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He taught previously at King’s College London and the University of Cambridge and was most recently a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion at the University of Gothenburg and an Extraordinary Research Fellow as the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology in Cambridge. By training a philosopher, theologian, and religious studies scholar, he is the author of Partakers of the Divine: Contemplation and the Practice of Philosophy, and the co-editor of The Participatory Turn: Spirituality, Mysticism, Religious Studies. His writings have appeared in publications such as the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Modern Theology, Theology and Science and Communio. He writes and lectures frequently on topics related to contemplative traditions, metaphysics, disenchantment and re-enchantment, philosophy and poetics, and nonreductive approaches to understanding our relation to nature. He is currently writing on a new manuscript entitled The Book of Nature: A Study in Legibility.
Reed College
Johanna Winant is Associate Professor of English and Humanities at Reed College. She is the co-editor of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century (Princeton 2025) and the author of Lyric Logic: How Modern American Poetry Reasons (Columbia 2026). In addition to these books, she has published a number of scholarly essays on modern literature in journals and in edited collections and handbooks. Johanna is a co-editor of the book series Re/Verse at Amherst College Press, and she also writes essays for the public at magazines including Boston Review and Slate.
BYU Participants
“Healing Hands: Touch as Reconnection and Revitalization in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead“
Joseph S. Blanchard is a recent graduate of Brigham Young University’s College of Humanities, where he earned a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Humanities with supplemental studies in Psychology and Modern Hebrew. His research interests include phenomenology, covenant ethics, Jewish philosophy and the Restored Gospel. Over the past year, he has worked with Drs. John B. White and Jenae M. Nelson on various papers and conference presentations connected to the Worth and Excellence Initiative. Currently, Joseph is pursuing an M.S. in Curriculum and Instruction through Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, PA.
“The Handkerchief Blessing: Embodying Spiritual Power in the Material World”
LaReina Hingson received her MA in Linguistics and JD in Law from Brigham Young University, and her PhD in Communication Studies from Purdue University. She has published in several journals across language and religion, including the Journal of Pragmatics, the Interpreter, and Language and Communication. She has taught at BYU in Linguistics and Religious Education, and performs research on the intersections of language meaning/construction, the body, and religious sites.
Logan Horita is a senior at Brigham Young University majoring in English and currently works as a research assistant at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. His research interests include Latter-day Saint thought, theology, religious studies, and literature, with his current work examining the concept of divine paternity in Christian and Latter-day Saint theology.
Sefia Horita is a recent graduate of Brigham Young University, where she earned a B.S. in Exercise and Wellness from the College of Life Sciences. Her academic interests extend beyond the health sciences to include interdisciplinary inquiry across the humanities and religious studies. This symposium marks her first academic conference presentation.
“The ‘Healing Power’ of Touch in Reynolds Price’s ‘Good Night’”
Bruce W. Jorgensen, a native of Salina, Utah, earned degrees in English from BYU (BA 1966) and Cornell (MA 1969; PhD 1978), and taught literature, creative writing, and critical writing at BYU 1975-2014. Since retiring he has been reading and writing whatever (and almost whenever) he feels like, including essays on James Salter, Alice Munro, Eudora Welty, and Reynolds Price, and on Mormon poetry and fiction (some of which are obscurely published online and elsewhere).
“Healing Hands: Touch as Reconnection and Revitalization in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead”
Hyrum Johnson is a Muji pen fanatic who loves being outside. Despite this, he plans to pursue the very indoorsy career of English professor after graduating with his undergraduate in English Literature in April. Hyrum is interested in 20th-21st century American Literature with a special focus on devisionary Westerns, and will hopefully write a lot of papers in that area over the next eight or so years as he pursues a masters and PhD in literary studies. He prefers paperbacks to hardcovers most of the time.
Dr. Michelle Kesler is an Associate Professor of Cello at Brigham Young University renowned for her dynamic career as both a chamber musician and soloist, with performances spanning the United States, Europe, New Zealand, and Vietnam. Her recent scholarly work delves into the concept of eco-performance, emphasizing outdoor performances that root art with and in collaboration of nature.
A passionate advocate for new music, Dr. Kesler is dedicated to commissioning, performing, and premiering contemporary works. In Fall 2018, she served as the National Parks Artist-In-Residence at Hubbell Trading Post and Canyon de Chelly in Northeastern Arizona, where she premiered three newly commissioned solo cello pieces inspired by the region, engaging with local communities and schools.
As a member of ASTA, Dr. Kesler is equally committed to music education. She presented at the 2022 ASTA National Virtual Conference on “Celebrating Diversity Through Inclusive Programming to Explore Voice” and delivered a lecture recital at the College Music Society titled “Voices from the Deep: An Aural Exploration of the Grand Canyon,” featuring solo cello works inspired by the iconic landmark.
Dr. Kesler earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado and both her Doctoral and Master’s degrees from Arizona State University.
Marc D. Killpack is currently a professor at Brigham Young University in the department of Mechanical Engineering. He completed his Ph.D. in Robotics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Brigham Young University, and a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from both Georgia Tech and AM Paris Tech (formerly ENSAM) in Metz, France. His current research interests center on improving modeling and control for robot manipulation in unstructured and uncertain environments. This includes applications of soft robots to space, search and rescue, disaster response, and human-robot interaction.
“Touch and the Human Connection to Nature in Children’s Picture Books”
Heidi A. Lawrence studies the intersections of literature for young people with Ecopsychology and Ecotherapy, and has a special interest in fantasy and highly imaginative literature. She considers the ways in which such readings allow audiences to re-imagine their connections to the nonhuman world, leading to increased well-being. She is also beginning to think about ways in which fantasy may be flying under the radar in children’s literature. She received her PhD in English Literature from the University of Glasgow in 2022 and her first monograph, Reading Madeleine L’Engle: Ecopsychology in Children’s and Adolescent Literature, came out with Routledge in 2023. She has also published articles and a book chapter on L.M. Montgomery and a book chapter on Louisa May Alcott. She currently has several conference papers and articles in what she likes to call “various stages of dilapidation,” and has been invited to contribute to a Bloomsbury handbook on Louisa May Alcott and to co-edit a collection on L.M. Montgomery’s novel, The Blue Castle. She can’t remember not being able to read and she and her family have close to 3000 books all over the house (the kids counted them all), which they have been informed is far more than the amount needed to be considered an official library. She loves to visit family in Canada and friends in the United Kingdom, and has a VERY soft spot for British chocolate, especially Boost bars and Snickers bars (which taste way better over there).
“Covenantal Touch: Embodiment and the Body as Medium in Latter-day Saint Ordinances”
Jenae M. Nelson, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Brigham Young University, where she directs the Development of Character and Spirituality (DOCS) Lab. Her research examines character and spiritual development across adolescence and emerging adulthood, with particular attention to relational virtues — gratitude, indebtedness, hope, and compassion — and the mechanisms by which they promote human flourishing. A descendant of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa (Ojibwe), she integrates Anishinaabe epistemology with psychological, theological, and philosophical frameworks to advance a relational model of development. Following postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard Medical School and Baylor University, she now co-leads the Worth and Excellence Initiative, translating character science into interventions across medicine, sport, business, and corrections.
“Choreographing Consent: Intimacy Direction for the Modern Rehearsal Room”
Kris Peterson is an actor/director/educator. She is currently the Theatre Education Program Director and Consent Consultant for the Theatre and Media Arts Department at Brigham Young University. There, she mentors students in teaching, directing, and intimacy direction. Prior to her work at BYU, she completed an internship with the Tony-Award-winning Utah Shakespeare Festival and completed acting and directing coursework at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London.
Kris has received four diplomas from Theatrical Intimacy Education and will be working on an official certification from TIE. Last year, she choreographed the intimacy for BYU Ballet’s production of Romeo and Juliet, BYU Opera’s The Coronation of Poppea and for BYU’s production of She Loves Me. She is currently directing Wendy and Peter Pan for BYU’s upcoming 2026-2027 season. This fall she is examining the intersection between mental health and consent in rehearsal spaces by beginning course work in clinical mental health counseling. Kris is a foster mom, an avid horse owner, and a lover of peonies and 80s movies.
Marin Leggat Roper is Associate Professor of Dance at Brigham Young University where she teaches studio and lecture courses including contemporary technique, composition, Writing for Dancers, Laban Movement Analysis, Principles of Somatics, Dance History & Theory, and Teaching Methods for Contemporary Dance. She is a Certified Laban Movement Analyst through Integrated Movement Studies. Past academic positions include George Washington University, Ohio Wesleyan University, Asian International School (Sri Lanka) and Bingham High School. In New York City, Marin founded and directed M.E.L.D. Danceworks, a dance company committed to “dissolving religious and cultural barriers through the art of dance.” She served as a U.S Cultural Envoy to India, and returns often to partner with artistic, educational, and non-government organizations there. Marin is the author of Moving Out Loud!, a movement and leadership program inspiring ‘Bold Living and Bold Leading’ in girls and women through applied somatic principles. At BYU, she brings a somatic perspective into her work as the interim Chair of the Council for Interfaith Engagement, and as a faculty affiliate with Global Women’s Studies.
“A Synesthesia of Connection: Olfactic Haptics and Moroccan Fieldwork”
Becky Schulthies is an anthropologist who has conducted fieldwork in Morocco for more than 25 years. Her research projects have included plant-human communicative ideologies, the languages of electronic media and Moroccan relationality, how communicative practices shape maternal-newborn health in Morocco, the moral economy of artisan work, and collaborative multimodal ethnographic techniques.
“Glancing Contact: The Poetics of Touch and Impermanence in Adania Shibli’s Masaas”
Spencer Scoville is an associate professor of Arabic at Brigham Young University. His scholarly interests revolve around several nodes, including the intersection of Russian and Arabic literature, nahdawi fiction, Orthodox Christianity in the Levant, Arabic science fiction, and translation theory.
“No Cradle Without the Hand: Chieko Okazaki’s Hand-Made Ecclesiology”
Rosalynde Welch is the associate director and a research fellow at BYU’s Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. She holds a PhD in early modern English literature from the University of California, San Diego. Her work focuses on Latter-day Saint scripture, theology, and literature. She is the author of five books, including Ether: a brief theological introduction, and the forthcoming Seven Crossings: Encounters with Christ in the New Testament, co-authored with Adam Miller.
“Covenantal Touch: Embodiment and the Body as Medium in Latter-day Saint Ordinances”
John B. White, PhD, is a Research Fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University. An interdisciplinary scholar of moral theology, ethics, and practical theology, his work addresses character formation, embodiment, and discipleship across sport, medicine, and business. He earned his PhD in theological ethics from the University of Edinburgh and previously taught practical theology and ethics at Baylor University, where he co-founded the Faith & Sports Institute. At BYU, he co-founded the Worth and Excellence Initiative with Dr. Jenae Nelson, which integrates research, education, and ministry around the conviction that every person is loved without condition and called to grow toward their full potential.
Mac Wilson did his doctoral work at Rutgers University where he specialized in ecopoetry from Spanish America. His scholarly interests include ecocriticism, visual culture, poetry, and southern cone culture and literature. Originally from Eden, Utah, Mac graduated from BYU with a BA in Latin American studies with a double major in horticulture. He later graduated with an MA in Spanish from BYU, and a PHD in Spanish from Rutgers. Formally a professional arborist, Mac worked as an arborist at Temple Square in Salt Lake City and still enjoys looking at and occasionally climbing up trees. Currently, Mac lives with his wife, Priscila, and their five children, in Provo.