Rate My Professor Kimberly Abunuwara

Kimberly Abunuwara is an Associate Professor of Integrated Studies and Director of the Humanities Program at Utah Valley University within the Arts and Culture faculty. She earned a Ph.D. in Theatre and Film from Brigham Young University in 1995, an M.F.A. in Acting from the National Theatre Conservatory, Denver Center for the Performing Arts in 1988, and a B.A. in Theatre and Film from Brigham Young University in 1985. Her career at Utah Valley University began in August 2005 as Adjunct Faculty in the Humanities Program and Theatre Department, continued as Lecturer in the Humanities Program from September 2010 to May 2012 and September 2013 to 2014, Adjunct Faculty from September 2012 to 2013, Assistant Professor of Integrated Studies and Humanities from July 2014 to 2018, and advanced to Associate Professor and Humanities Program Coordinator in 2018. Previously, she served as Associate Professor in the Theatre Department at the University of Texas at El Paso from August 1993 to May 1999 and as Adjunct Faculty in Theatre and Media Arts at Brigham Young University from June 2002 to April 2008. Abunuwara received the Instructor of the Year award from Trio Student Support Services at UVU in April 2010 and the Award of Merit in Using Technology to Engage Distance Students from the Utah System of Higher Education in May 2008. She teaches courses including Humanities 1010, Humanities 2020 (History Through the Arts), Humanities 320R (topics: Death and Art, Performance Studies), Humanities 4910 (Capstone), and Integrated Studies capstones such as IS 4980, IS 4990, and IS 3000R.

Abunuwara's key publications include "Complicating Marginalization: The Case of Mormon and Nonreligious College Students in a Predominantly Mormon Context" (with Ryan Cragun and J.E. Sumerau, Journal of Beliefs and Values, 2018), "Yoko Ono and Mallika Taneja: Embodied Knowing" (Interdisciplinary Humanities, Spring 2018), "The Provo Tabernacle and Interfaith Collaboration" (Dialogue, Summer 2018), "Mormon Domestic Art: Comfort and Communion" (Interdisciplinary Humanities, Fall 2017), "The Provo Tabernacle: My Strange and Lonely Place" (Dialogue 48:2, 2015), "Vulnerability and Salvation: Levinas and Ethical Teaching" (Teaching Ethics 13:2, 2013), "Drawing on Levinas to Redefine Education: Making the Unknown a new Priority" (Education 119:1, 1998), "Ehab’s Wife" (Dialogue 31:2, 1998), and "Emmanuel Levinas and Sanford Meisner on Exposedness in Acting" (Text and Presentation Volume 14, 1994). She has given presentations such as "The Walking Labyrinth for Embodied and Enacted Humanism" (Association of Theater in Higher Education, Orlando, 2019), "Yoko Ono and Mallika Taneja" (Humanities Education and Research Association Conference, San Diego, 2017), "Are Mormons Victims or Oppressors" (with Ryan Cragun and J. Sumerau, Mormon Social Science Association, 2016), "Creating an Ethical Classroom" (Center for the Study of Ethics, UVU, 2012), and others on theatre ethics and vulnerability. Additional contributions include service on the Faculty Senate (2014–2018), University Planning Advisory Committee (2015–2017), Shared Governance senate subcommittee (2015–present), and Faculty Development Committee.