From our friends in SoCal.

Authority, Community, and Identity

Call for Papers

The Religion Department at Claremont Graduate University is pleased to announce its annual Mormon Studies Conference, to be held March 6 and 7, 2015 in Claremont, California.  We encourage proposals from graduate students and faculty of all disciplines.  There are limited travel subsidies available for graduate student presenters.  The theme for this year is ?Authority, Community, and Identity.

The study of Mormonism requires an exploration of what it means to be a religious person.  Individuals exist within a community where they negotiate and maintain their identities.  The conference organizers are open to a wide range of paper proposals, including but not limited to topics suggested by the following themes and questions:  How do people negotiate their Mormon identity in joining or leaving Mormonism?  How does ritual impact community maintenance and religious authority?  How have developments in communication changed methods of creating orthodoxy and heterodoxy?  In what ways have changing norms and debates regarding gender and sexuality impacted identity and community?  How have communities of doubt influenced claims to authority and identity?   How has Mormon identity and community developed regionally and internationally?  What role does tradition play in different geographies?  How has secularization altered Mormon community formation and institutional authority?

While this conference will focus on Mormonism in particular, we encourage comparative papers, or papers on related traditions in which the theories or insights developed have some bearing on Mormonism.

Please email paper proposals and a CV to jeffrey.turner@cgu.edu by November 15, 2014.  Proposals should be no longer than 250 words and should be attached as a Word or PDF document.  Please indicate in the email if you would like to be considered for travel funding.