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Program Faculty

"There’s no end to the spiritual and intellectual evolution that can take place by pursuing the humanities."

―Ken Burns

Lepa Marinkovski

Lepa Marinkovski
Humanities Scholar Director

 Lepa Piquk Marinkovski
Assistant Professor of English
University of Utah

I teach courses in English Language Arts teaching methods, adolescent and young adult literature, diversity in American literature, and literature of the American West.

My research focuses on how identity is formed and how power operates in adolescent literature, on indigeneity and decoloniality, and on storytelling and teaching and learning theories in U.S. cultures and Indigenous knowledge systems. I am especially interested in the relationships among literacy, reading comprehension, and socio-emotional development. I believe deeply that literacy skills grounded in self-efficacy can save lives.

I am grateful every day for the opportunity to work alongside colleagues and students whose curiosity, creativity, and perspectives continually enrich and inspire my teaching and research, and even my parenting.

At the heart of my work is the belief that storytelling, the sharing of knowledge and wisdom, and a commitment to recognizing our shared humanity shape all the questions I ask. These include: What does it mean to be an effective teacher? A student? What does it mean to be a grown-up, and is that different from being an adult or a teenager? What does it mean to be human?

While intentionally broad, these questions encourage a critical thinking practice and a kind of self-trust that I believe is essential to learning and to life.

I grew up in South Central Alaska with my four sisters, brother, and parents. We are Iñupiaq and Macedonian, and both cultures were central to our upbringing. I played in the woods and climbed trees. I also played in gravel pits, which conflicted me even as a child; I lamented the scraping away of the bluffs and the loss of solid ground for the birds and raspberry bushes.

I have worked multiple seasons in Alaska’s commercial fishing industry, and this experience has become part of a larger project I am developing on extraction industries, including oil, and their complex relationships with land, wildlife, Indigenous rights, and subsistence practices.

A question that continues to guide my curiosity is: Which questions am I comfortable answering with “I don’t know,” and which ones lead me to ask even more questions?

I now live in Salt Lake City with my two daughters and two cats. When I am not teaching or writing, you can often find me on hiking trails, in local coffee shops enjoying the company of strangers, with friends in unhurried conversation, at the library with my daughters, or in my backyard among the trees.

 

Last Updated: 6/11/25