Student researchers connect scripture to real-world issues and disciplines
Five BYU–Hawaii students presented research at the Small Plates of Nephi Conference May 29–30 at Brigham Young University. Hosted by The Interpreter Foundation, the conference brought together 49 presenters from various disciplines to examine the scripture through academic perspectives, expanding conversations and including student voices alongside established scholars.
Student research
For Talia Tanuvasa, a senior from California studying communication, media and culture with a minor in intercultural peacebuilding, the conference provided an opportunity to explore peacebuilding through the scriptures.
Tanuvasa’s research focused on the Tree of Life and how it connects to peacebuilding. She explained one of the concepts of peacebuilding: the box perspective. “It’s an internal perspective where you're not seeing the other person you're in conflict with as a person with needs and values. You can change from in-the-box perspective to a transformative perspective,” she said. When connecting the box perspective back to the scriptures, she said the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about transformation.
Tanuvasa said it is not by accident that in the scriptures that Jesus Christ does not give us an exact outline on how to live a happy life. “He provides us with the guidance we need for us to get there on our own,” she remarked.
Tanuvasa also said it was interesting to hear from scholars and researchers in different fields of academia. “There was a wide range of researchers that took parts of the Small Plates and looked at them through their academic lens,” she added.
Edwin “Shao” Abache, a junior studying political science and intercultural peacebuilding, presented research on how the Small Plates of Nephi can function as political ideology. He said what motivates his research is the idea that scripture can be applied to everyday life—not just spiritual understanding. “Scriptures are something we have to read beyond a spiritual scope,” he said.
Abache said studying the text also deepened his appreciation for the people behind it. “The writers had to sacrifice their love, their blood and their lives in order for us to read the Book of Mormon,” he said.
Faculty perspectives
Matthew Bowen, BYUH director of Religious Education, said he hoped the conference would give students the opportunity to present their own research in an academic environment. “There’s a misconception that you have to have graduate degrees behind your name in order to contribute to a scholarly conference, and it’s not true,” he said.
Bowen and Karamea Wright, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Religious Education, said they were impressed by the contributions of BYUH students. Wright said the conference highlighted students' ability to participate in academic conversations beyond the classroom. “[With] the unique training, experiences and vantage point that they have, we need to be better at empowering them to see what opportunities they can take to fulfill the mission of our university,” she said. Wright added that, as a BYUH alumna, she had professors who allowed her to learn and grow, and she aims to give the same opportunities to her students.
“As educators and as professors, our job is to make way for people who are better than us,” Wright remarked. In her role as a professor and mentor, she said was able to encourage and support students to continue researching.