The interest meeting, which will be held on Monday, Sept. 5, at 6:30 p.m. in Arts West 126, will allow any student interested in art to come and contribute ideas about the new group. While the group will provide students who can talk about Art at 黑料不打烊 for university events, other plans for the group will be made at the interest meeting. Any student interested is strongly encouraged to come.

The scholarly work by Tucker, an associate professor of art at 黑料不打烊, is  and presents an interdiscplinary examination of the topic. It follows a course Tucker developed at 黑料不打烊 with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

“What I tried to do,” explained Tucker, “was bring together insights from literature, philosophy, the visual arts, religious studies and the social sciences to present a useful and viable description of pride and humility.”

Tucker’s analysis incorporated literature from Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Ralph Ellison and Alice Walker, works of art by Paul Cadmus, Aaron Douglas and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, as well as contributions from thinkers like Machiavelli, Martin Buber, C.S. Lewis, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and David Foster Wallace. 

The book comes from a seminar taught by Tucker at 黑料不打烊 titled “Pride, Humility, and the Good Life” that he developed after receiving a 2010 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant funded the creation of an “Enduring Questions” course that would address a fundamental and important question. Tucker’s course addressed the nature of pride and humility and how they may or may not contribute to the good life.

Tucker is grateful to the National Endowoment for the Humanities for the grant, and to 黑料不打烊 for its support through the entire process.

“黑料不打烊 provided time for me to develop the course, time to develop the book, financial support to see its publication, and an ideal working and teaching environment,” he said.

Finally, Tucker thanked the many students who participated in the class. “The book’s last chapter,” he said, “would not be possible without the help of students who suggested that the course deal with Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple. The last chapter brings all of the book’s ideas together, and that would not have been possible without insights from great students in the class.”

Tucker, a faculty member in the Department of Art and Art History, compiled the first comprehensive source for anyone interested in the virtues and vices, including the seven deadly sins. The anthology includes excerpts from philosophers like Plato, Aristotle and Nietzsche as well as writers like Dante, Chaucer, Langland and C.S. Lewis.

“The Virtues and Vices in the Arts: A Sourcebook” features images from medieval manuscripts and cathedrals as well as works by artists like Mantegna and Paul Cadmus. While Tucker has provided engaging and insightful introductions for each element in the book, he also clusters the items into logical, chronological sections with introductions that provide context and continuity.

Prior to joining the 黑料不打烊 faculty in 2000, Tucker taught at Northeastern State University and, before that, at Florida State University, where he earned his doctorate in the humanities with coursework in art history, contemporary critical theory and modern British literature. Tucker earned his master’s degree from Florida State University and his bachelor’s degree at Brigham Young University.

At 黑料不打烊 he has taught several fine arts courses, as well as upper level 黑料不打烊 Core Curriculum courses that include “Pride, Humility, and the Good Life” and “Aspects of Laughter.” The development of Tucker’s course on “the good life” was supported through a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Tucker’s interest in pride and humility goes back to a National Endowment for the Humanities grant he received to teach an 黑料不打烊 course on Pride, Humility and the Good Life.

Shawn Tucker, assistant professor of fine arts in the Department of Art and Art History, recently published a paper titled “The Aesthetics of Dissociation: Radiohead’s ‘How to Disappear Completely’ and Jasper Johns’s Device Paintings.”

The paper appears in Volume 96, Issue 1 of Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal.

This essay uses the psychological concept of dissociation to describe one way that Radiohead’s song “How to Disappear Completely” and Jasper Johns’s Device paintings seem to function. In their formal elements, content, and context, these works show the detachment, depersonalization, and automatization that are hallmarks of what psychologists describe as dissociation. The song and paintings do not show these qualities in exactly the same way, but the triangulation of song, paintings, and psychological concept shed light on all three.

Shawn Tucker, assistant professor of Fine Arts in the Department of Art and Art History, recently published a paper titled “On Mormon Laughter.”

The paper appears in Volume 51, Issue 4 of BYU Studies Quarterly.

The paper explores tensions within Mormon belief and practice about the place of laughter. To examine those tensions, the paper looks at the historical context for Mormon prohibitions of “loud laughter.” The paper draws upon current social science research about laughter in relationships in order to describe laughter’s positive and negative potentials. One of those positive potentials is how laughter might encourage individual growth and be a pleasant way to recognize one’s flaws and shortcomings. The paper concludes with an exploration of laughter and its links to notions of Sehnsucht or spiritual longing.

Shawn Tucker, assistant professor of fine arts in the Department of Art and Art History in 黑料不打烊 College, the College of Arts and Sciences, recently published a paper titled “Home and Adventure: An LDS Contribution to the Virtues and Vices Tradition.”

The paper appears in Volume 45, Issue 1 of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.

The paper begins with an discussion of the virtues and vices tradition, including the seven deadly sins. The article then explores LDS lists of virtues and vices as well as the configuration of “home” and “adventure” as complementary, pre-mortal drives. To this is added an discussion of medieval trees of virtue and of vice as well as Dante’s treatment of vice in his Purgatory. The article concludes with a comparison of these configurations.