BYU-Idaho Faculty Member Writes Book About Mormonism’s Influence

REXBURG — Jack Harrell, a faculty member in the Department of English at Brigham Young University-Idaho, published a book in June titled, Writing Ourselves: Essays on Creativity, Craft and Mormonism, to share what he has learned through his experience in the LDS faith and its relationship with academics.

“This is for anyone who is interested in the connecting point among writing and creativity and Mormonism,” Harrell said. “I think that writing and the creative process and things that are a part of our Mormon theology blend together well.”

Harrell gained insights he attributes to the influence of religion in his life in creating, writing and teaching.

Spiritual learning is an integral part of his strategy for creative writing and answering questions.

“I have questions and the best way to answer those questions is to write about it. This is something I am trying to get my students to see also,” Harrell said. “Writing can be reporting what you already discovered, but writing is almost always a discovery process itself. You learn something while you write.”

Harrell feels that it is essential for faculty to continue their academic and spiritual learning as they teach.

“Everything the professor does in growth and development goes right into the classroom and makes the classroom better. Then things happen in the classroom that inspire the professor to say, ‘I’ve got to figure this out, I’ve got to figure a better way to approach this, and what are the answers here?’” Harrell said.

When teachers continue in learning they are better qualified and increase in capacity to teach.

“It is important for our students that faculty are engaged in their own professional development and growth,” Harrell said. “It’s not a selfish thing for a professor to learn and grow. I mean who wants to take a class from a professor who hasn’t learned anything since he got his degree?”

Harrell said even though the professor and the student are on very different levels of learning, they can still be struggling in similar ways. When the professor continues to learn, he or she increases in ability to teach and when they increase in ability to teach, they increase in ability to learn.

Harrell emphasizes that his teaching inspires a lot of his writing and vice versa.

“There’s always an exchange between the teaching that feeds the writing, and the writing that feeds the teaching,” Harrell said.

Although Harrell has a busy schedule, he loves to teach his students and continue his own learning. He has researched and written many papers during his career many of which have been compiled in his book.

“Writing Ourselves: Essays on Creativity, Craft and Mormonism” was published this year with Greg Kofford Books in Utah.