Philosophy and the field of medicine have complementary roles in helping us ask difficult questions and propose workable solutions to today’s pressing concerns.

A lot changes in a department over time, and that has certainly been true in the Department of Comparative Arts and Letters at BYU. Today, the department includes comparative literature, classics, interdisciplinary humanities, art history, Scandinavian studies, and a master’s degree in comparative studies. To give you a sense of how the department has changed and its vision for the future, I interviewed Kerry Soper and Carl Sederholm, the incoming and outgoing chairs of the department, along with Julie Allen, the department graduate studies coordinator. Their responses are both intriguing and enlightening.

As women have increasingly contributed their time, talents, and mentorship to the humanities, the field has evolved to reflect the unique contributions women make. In the following stories, eight faculty members (one from each department in the College of Humanities) share their admiration for women who have helped redefine the humanities—and what it means to be human.