Meet Student Fellow Zach Stevenson.
Where does a love for literature and writing get you? If you’re anything like Zach Stevenson (American Studies, French ’24) it might land you in the streets of Paris at a socialist party protest. Stevenson’s passion led him from Provo to Paris, where he did hands-on work in journalism sponsored by the College of Humanities. Back in Provo, Stevenson’s hard work has now given him the opportunity to work as a College of Humanities undergraduate student fellow.
Last summer, Stevenson traveled to France for one of BYU’s international study programs to test anthropological research methods. During his internship, he learned about the French political system and worked closely with the French Socialist Party. Stevenson says, “I interviewed members, I went to a few protests, went to their events. My question was, how are members of the socialist party talking about the future of their party?” Since the last socialist president left office in 2017, the party hasn’t been performing well in elections, so in order to stay relevant, Stevenson found that they will likely eithe rally with other French political parties or double down and continue as an independent entity.
Upon Stevenson’s return to Provo, he was awarded a year-long student fellowship. As a student fellow, he helped organize the HUM Grant Symposium and received a scholarship. Stevenson also writes articles that the Humanities Center showcases on their website. Stevenson hopes that these two experiences, and the opportunities they gave him to do research, learn about the French political system, and observe how a university college functions will help him achieve his goal to become a professor and journalist.
Stevenson’s desire to pursue this goal began during his childhood, when he was surrounded by the news and long-form journalism. He says, “My family was subscribed to The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. There was a family culture of staying up to date on the news.” Studying in the College of Humanities and participating in the experiential learning opportunities it offers has allowed Stevenson to improve his journalism skills, including writing, research, and investigation. Additionally, he’s been able to participate in academic research that has allowed him to strengthen the skills he would need as a professor. He even had the chance to publish two papers that recently won awards at the 2023 Religious Education Student Symposium. Stevenson says, “Going from the ideation phase to having a fully-fledged article or paper at the end is gratifying and empowering because you can see evidence that your thinking is important.”
He’s currently interested in researching the presence of religion in post-1945 secular American literature. He says, “The secularization thesis holds that the more modern and technologically advanced we become, the less and less religious we’ll become. But the data hasn’t borne that out.” Religious imagery, language, and themes still appear in literature; Stevenson wants to figure out what that might mean. He says, “What I’ll be doing is looking at contemporary American fiction and finding ways in which the religious pops up in new, unexpected, and nuanced ways.”
Continuing the family tradition of staying up to date with the news, Stevenson plans to publish in the popular press after completing an interdisciplinary PhD program. He says, “My goal is to be a university professor, but also do long-form journalism as a contributing writer at somewhere like The Atlantic, or The New Yorker .”
Learn more about the Humanities Center fellows here.
