The Goalie's Anxiety

Scott Abbott, Director of Integrated Studies continues to investigate the notion of Integrated Studies in his blog "The Goalie's Anxiety". Scott tells us that Peter Handke's novel with that title describes the anxiety of a goalie who must outwit the penalty kicker whose job it is to outwit the goalie. His blog explores the perspectives of goalie and penalty kicker as they relate to interdisciplinary research and writing.

The Goalie's Anxiety

Integrated Studies professors Alan Clarke, JD and Laurie Whitt, Ph.D have organized and directed the annual Symposium on the Death Penalty. Now in its third year, the symposium brings some of the most respected scholars studying capital punishment to Utah Valley University, including Sister Helen Prejean, author of "Dead Man Walking" and Bud Welch, one of the featured keynote speakers in this years symposium.

Welch came to national attention when he rejected the death penalty despite loosing his daughter to the terrorist bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City.

The Symposium is an organic example of interdisciplinary attempts to solve problems related to capital punishment. Speakers range in expertise and experience from religious studies to legal studies and from literary criticism to anthropology.