Reason for Hope is a conference held each semester that discusses the interface of LDS thought and teachings and the modern secular world. This year’s speakers are Angela Wentz Faulconer, Daniel K. Judd, Renata Forste, and Terryl L. Givens. Following the presentations, they will be available for a question and answer session at 3:00 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.

10:00 a.m. Angela Wentz Faulconer grew up in Cache Valley, Utah, before moving to Provo for college. Faulconer graduated summa cum laude from BYU with a BA in philosophy before attending the University of Notre Dame, where she earned an MA and a PhD in philosophy. She returned to teach at BYU in 1995 and currently balances teaching part-time for the Philosophy Department with family life. She is married to Matthew Faulconer, and they are the parents of three children.

11:00 a.m. Daniel K. Judd was born and raised in Kanab, Utah, where he worked on the family ranch and as a river guide on the Colorado River. Judd is a professor of ancient scripture at BYU, where he has served as a department chair and was recently appointed as an associate dean of Religious Education. He received an undergraduate degree from Southern Utah University, and an MS in family science and a PhD in counseling psychology from BYU. He has worked for the Church Educational System in Utah, Arizona, and Michigan, and was a member of the Family Science faculty at BYU–Idaho. Judd and his wife Kaye Seegmiller of St. George, Utah, are the parents of four children, two daughters-in-law, two sons-in-law, and 10.5 grandchildren.

1:00 p.m. Renata Forste is the director of the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies and an associate international vice president of BYU. Forste has served as Department of Sociology chair, associate dean in the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences, and director of Latin American Studies. Her research focuses on the well-being of women and children in Latin America, Africa, and the U.S. She taught for three years at Western Washington University before joining the faculty at BYU in 1995. Forste received both a BS and an MS in sociology from BYU and a PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago, with emphases in demography and statistics.

2:00 p.m. Terryl L. Givens, a Fellow at the Wheatley Institution, is a professor of literature and religion and Bostwick Professor of English at the University of Richmond, where he teaches courses in 19th century studies and the Bible’s influence on Western literature. Givens completed his graduate work at Cornell University in Intellectual History and at UNC–Chapel Hill, where he received a PhD in comparative literature. He has authored and co-authored many books, including the recently published The God Who Weeps with his wife Fiona. They lives in Montpelier, Virginia where he watches the wildlife and tries to raise fruit trees and bees.

See conference web site.