Emily Esfahani Smith to give Grace A. Tanner Lecture in Human Values

Published: January 10, 2022 | Author: Southern Utah University | Read Time: 2 minutes

Author and psychologist Emily Esfahani Smith to give Grace A. Tanner Lecture in Human ValuesWe’re all striving for happiness, but our culture’s obsession with instant gratification is only making us miserable. Drawing from over one hundred interviews, and years of research into positive psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy, best-selling author Emily Esfahani Smith will deliver the Grace A. Tanner Lecture in Human Values on Thursday, February 3, at 11:30 am in the Gilbert Great Hall on the campus of Southern Utah University.

Originally scheduled for 2020, the lecture will expand on her viral TED talk “There’s More to Life Than Being Happy,” which has been viewed over 10 million times. Smith is a writer in Washington DC who draws on psychology, philosophy, and literature to write about the human experience—why we are the way we are and how we can find grace and meaning in a world that is full of suffering. Her internationally best-selling book, The Power of Meaning, was published by Crown and has been translated into 16 different languages.

The former managing editor of The New Criterion, Smith’s articles and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and other publications. Her articles for The Atlantic, “There’s More to Life Than Being Happy” (about the Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl) and “Masters of Love” (about romance and marriage), have reached over 30 million readers. In 2017, the New York Times published her article about rethinking success called “You’ll Never Be Famous—And That’s OK.” And her profile for the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine of Joe Rago, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who tragically died at the age of 34, was shortlisted for a Folio magazine award in 2018. In 2019, she was a Poynter Journalism Fellow at Yale University.

Smith is also a reporter for the Aspen Institute's Weave project, an initiative founded by the New York Times' David Brooks to address the problems of isolation, alienation, and division. At Weave, Smith finds and tells the stories of people who are working to rebuild the social fabric. Smith’s lecture and theme of “building cultures of meaning” will be delivered as a part of the Year of Grace which celebrates the legacy of Grace A. Tanner and recognizes 40 years of the Grace A. Tanner Center at SUU.

“We invite members of SUU and the Cedar City community to attend this year’s Grace A. Tanner Lecture either in person or online via live stream,” said Tanner Center Director Dr. Danielle Dubrasky. 

The Grace A. Tanner Center at SUU seeks to promote access to scholarly and scientific learning in all areas of human values which embrace moral, artistic, intellectual, and spiritual concepts. Refer to the Tanner Center website for other details about Tanner Center events or email the Tanner Center directly at tannercenter@suu.edu.


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