Department of Theatre and Media Arts professor Scott Christopherson shares his perspective as a documentary filmmaker on the relationship between spirituality and representation.

Bergman collaborated with industry professionals and BYU faculty and students in arranging, performing and recording each song on the album

Buehler encouraged students to explore and embrace their personal histories

Designers explain the thought process behind their project “Unity & Division”

Abby deWitt and Laura McNeil share their thoughts behind their winning designs

Creativity, hard work and a couple of miracles result in a unique dance poster

With so many avenues and options to get the latest information on sports, why do fans visit online forums, such as team message boards? Recent research from BYU communications professors found the reason many fans get online to read and post about their favorite sports team tells a lot about the type of fan they are. As part of the study, a group of sports fans who visit sports forums at least weekly ranked a series of statements. These included things like “I feel a sense of community with the other users of sports forums,” or “I like to visit sports forums for entertainment when I’m bored.” Researchers then interviewed participants to obtain a better understanding of their rankings. A qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data lead to the classification of three different types of online sports fans: tailgaters, trivia seekers and bandwagon fans. Read the full article at news.byu.edu

The American dream is often associated with the idea that anyone can make it in America.

Recent research from BYU communications professors found the reason many fans get online to read and post about their favorite sports team tells a lot about the type of fan they are.

The Utah map is endowed with a significant number of scriptural monikers, some of which will be familiar to readers of the Bible while others are unique to the Book of Mormon. These are at the heart of Daniel George’s project, God to Go West. George is a professor of art at BYU who received his MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design and his BFA from BYU-Idaho. For his project, he has photographed a score of locations in Utah that bear scriptural names given to them by early settlers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Few of these black-and-white photographs are striking, the range of grays eschewing any sense of black so that shadows and highlights disappear or become negligible (George’s is definitely not Ansel Adams’ high-contrast vision of the West). Benefit of the doubt suggests this is not due to a lack of skill but to a purposeful strategy — a desire to emphasize the semantic rather than the aesthetic nature of George’s project. Read the full story by Shawn Rossiter at artistsofutah.org.

BYU Column: From Brazil to California — an Animator’s Path to Pixar

Students participated in a jam session with the accomplished bluegrass duo