Department Highlights
Each year our dedicated faculty and students make valuable strides in academic discovery in their respective fields. Here are a few highlights.
Anthropology
In 2024, David Johnson led a field school in Petra, Jordan, where students helped excavate a Nabataean tomb. While there, he received an award for his archaeological research and years of service in Petra. Artifacts from this and other Petra projects were displayed in a student-curated exhibit at the BYU Museum of Peoples and Cultures. Becky Schulthies took anthropology students to Morocco to complete various ethnographic projects that would inform their senior theses. Several students presented their original research at the Utah Conference on Undergraduate Research. Jordan Haug, Jacob Hickman, Becky Schulthies, and Greg Thompson accompanied their 18 student mentees to present at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting. Undergraduate students continue to be accepted into excellent graduate programs, including at UCLA, University of Dundee, UC Berkeley, University of Wyoming, and BYU. The university recognized Jaime Bartlett with an Adjunct Faculty Excellence Award.
Economics
The department continues to host its popular visiting scholar lecture series, and Olga Stoddard delivered our department devotional in March 2025. She coauthored the paper “Strength in Numbers? Gender Composition, Leadership, and Women’s Influence in Teams,” which was published in the Journal of Political Economy. The Journal of Labor Economics published Brigham Frandsen’s article “Machine Labor,” which he coauthored with Nobel laureate Joshua Angrist. Christian vom Lehn received the Marjorie Pay Hinckley Early Career Faculty Award from the college and Brigham Frandsen, Lars Lefgren, and Emily Leslie received the FHSS Excellence in Impactful Scholarship Award for their paper “Judging Judge Fixed Effects,” which was published in the American Economic Review and has been cited more than 200 times. Josie Fillmore was recognized for her work at the BYU Major Fair with a Staff and Administrative Employee Recognition Award.
Family Life
Two family and consumer science education students, Kourtney Glenn and Ashley Berges, were selected as national ambassadors to promote careers in technical education. The school hosted a total of 12 Faith and Learning Initiative lectures. According to student feedback, the seminars helped students strengthen their testimonies and discipleship, connect to their heavenly parents and Savior, and prioritize trust and patience over doubt. David Dollahite and Loren Marks continue to publish research from the American Families of Faith Project. The project includes in-depth interviews with 700 people in about 300 families across 33 states and from a variety of religious and ethnic groups. Jocelyn Wikle collaborated with Riley Wilson of the economics department and Chloe Gibbs from the University of Notre Dame to understand the impact of full-day kindergarten on families through the analysis of nationwide data from surveys collected from federal agencies, the US Census Bureau, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the national education data. The research was published by the Annenberg Institute.
Geography
David Simpson worked with students to complete urban development research and recommendations for the Tólikan (Sweetwater) Chapter of the Navajo Nation. Perry Hardin and Ryan Jensen led the Kilimanjaro: Adventure Travel in Tanzania study abroad and Sam Otterstrom led Landscapes and Nations in Western Europe. For BYU Green Week, the department, the BYU Library Geospatial Services and Training Lab, the Ballard Center, and the Sustainability Office partnered to host a “mapathon.” Over 157 students mapped more than 7,000 features in 11 countries, including Mozambique and Papua New Guinea. Faculty and students presented research posters and students competed in the World Geography Bowl at the 2024 Association of American Geographers annual meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii. Students Ethan Schatz and Abner Hardy were recognized at the conference in the list of top 10 most useful Geography Bowl players. The department initiated a visual works art contest with the theme Genius Loci, or “the spirit of the place.” Students were invited to think broadly of “place” and submit original photography, art, graphic design, or maps.
History
Amy Harris worked extensively with family history major Kris Kale on the Early British Census project—an initiative which aims to bring together all pre-1841 British census records into a single searchable database. The college awarded student Becca Driggs the Interdisciplinary History Award for her essay “‘Great Injustice in American Literature’: African American Girlhood in Black and White Authored Children’s Publications, 1887–1920,” which was published in the college’s student journal The Thetan. Driggs also worked with another student to propose a park that was approved by the Orem City Council. The park is at the site of the graves of two infant children of Scandinavian pioneer Eva Charlotta Andersson. Andersson was the second wife of her husband; due to anti-polygamy laws, she lived mostly in hiding and was unable to bury her children in a proper grave. Professors across the department served in key roles for Truth and Reconciliation: A Conference of the BYU Slavery Project. Jenny Hale Pulsipher led the third Native American Rights Seminar, sponsored by the college and the American Indian Studies minor. Brian Cannon returned to research after serving for six years as department chair. Spencer Fluhman, former director of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, began his tenure as department chair on May 1, 2025.
Political Science
Three political science students were nationally honored as Truman Scholars over the past three years: Adam Johnson in 2023 for his work with nonprofit organizations including Conserve Utah Valley, Jane Drinkwater in 2024 for her work making online government tools and technology more user friendly, and Dallin Bundy in 2025 for his work in public service as well as his research on depolarization and bipartisanship. In 2025, the annual Beyond BYU networking event saw 75 students travel to Washington, DC, to network with nearly 60 alumni professionals and choose from nearly 20 site visits. Quinn Mecham and Chad Nelson led 36 students on a study abroad to explore international politics in Europe, visiting more than 100 sites in 13 countries. Ryan Davis taught a political philosophy course using Taylor Swift lyrics to illustrate ethical principles. Three students from the class traveled to the University of Alabama, Birmingham, and presented their work to students in a similar course, Taylor Swift and Philosophy. The department began the Initiative for Peacemaking, hosted an inaugural Peacemaking Conference with academics and opinion leaders who study peace, and sponsored a new student association, The Peacemaker Project. The student chapter of the Political Affairs Society hosted Senator John Curtis during his first campus visit as a US Senator when he delivered the lecture “Inspiring the Next Generation of Public Servants.” Jeremy Pope was named lead investigator for the national Cooperative Election Survey. Chris Karpowitz and Jessica Preece began serving as coeditors for the journal Political Behavior.
Psychology
Julianne Holt-Lunstad presented her research on social connection and human flourishing at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences at the Vatican and contributed to the US Surgeon General’s 2023 advisory “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation.” Jenae Nelson coauthored a study with Sam Hardy and alumni Justin Hendricks (BS ’11) and Jocelyn Cazier (BS ’20) on Latter-day Saints’ experiences with daily repentance. Dawn-Marie Wood supported the department’s student-run Belonging and Diversity Committee in several activities, including cosponsoring a screening of the documentary Join or Die to highlight the value of joining clubs, volunteering, and attending events. Clinical psychology doctoral students received department awards for excellence: Gus Salazar for clinical practice, Leah Talbert for research, Conner Deichman for teaching, and Jeremy Bekker for advocacy. Chad Jensen became department chair in October 2024 and Gary Burlingame retired in 2025.
Social Work
In 2024, four of Steven Hoffman’s students traveled to Washington, DC, to present research at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference. The 2026 cohort of MSW students visited the Utah Islamic Center and Congregation Kol Ami, a Jewish organization, to develop a greater understanding of different religious cultures, which aligned with the theme of the social work conference organized by Cory Dennis, Divine Intersections: Spirituality in Social Work. Hoffman had three papers accepted for publication: “Health Literacy and Mental Wellbeing Among University Students in the United States,” “A Descriptive Look at the Mental Health Literacy of Student-Athletes,” and “Parent-Child Conflict and Adolescent Health Literacy in Mexico: Results from a Nationwide Dyad Study in Mexico.” The last paper was published in Global Public Health. David S. Wood published “Are Veterans Willing to Assist with Firearm Safety for Suicide Prevention?” in Military Psychology. Cole Hooley was awarded a grant from the Association of Social Work Boards and elected to the Lindon City Council. He consulted with Utah’s Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy about regulations they are considering on the use of AI in mental health. Stacey Shaw began her tenure as director of the School of Social Work on May 1, 2024.
Sociology
As part of the Program Evaluation and Assessment Team (PEAT), Scott Sanders led senior students to Bolivia and Peru to analyze the impact of different nonprofits that receive funding from US NGOs. Future PEAT groups are partnering with engineering students to evaluate the impact of their Global Engineering Outreach projects. The Sociology Academic Student Association began operating again in the 2024–25 school year. Hayley Pierce and Jane Lopez received college awards—the Martin B. Hickman Excellence in Teaching Award and the Martin Hickman Diversity and Inclusion Award, respectively. Jacob Rugh received a Faculty Excellence Award from the department. Ryan Gabriel oversaw the African American Civil Rights Seminar in winter 2024, and Hayley Pierce and Jonathan Jarvis both spoke in the Sociology Disciple-Scholar Lecture Series. Melissa Alcaraz was a 2023–24 Visiting Scholar at the Center for Demography and Ecology from the University of Wisconsin. After years of dedicated leadership, in 2025 the department ends its role as host of the Rural Sociological Society and its flagship journal Rural Sociology, for which Carol Ward serves as editor.
