This year, Kris W. and I are running a workshop on Mormonism in Religious Studies (which embraces the methodologies of history, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, etc.). We will meet at the University of Utah on Tuesday, June 7, from 9 AM to 5 PM. We will congregate in Room 351 of the Carolyn Tanner Irish Humanities Center. There is parking close by ($) but the building is also accessible by Trax or UTA bus routes.

As a participant, you will be responsible for presenting a colleague’s paper to the rest of the group. You will be responsible for introducing the paper to the group and assessing the paper’s strengths and weaknesses (5 minutes or less). You will then lead a discussion on the paper for 20-30 minutes.

Participants should submit a paper to their readers by May 27^th, 2016 by 11:59 PM. The papers can be up to 10,000 words, including footnotes. Your submission could be anything from a blog post to a book or dissertation chapter. It is expected that each participant will read each other participant’s paper and make comments for the benefit of the author, either in track changes or by hand.

We will also discuss trends in Mormon Studies, or as I prefer to think of it, the study of Mormonism within an academic framework, often using the tools of religious studies. As a part of that discussion, we will read:

• Jan Shipps, “Richard Lyman Bushman, the Story of Joseph Smith and Mormonism, and the New Mormon History,” Journal of American History 94, no. 2 (September 2007): 498-521 (includes Richard Bushman’s response).
• Stephen C. Taysom, “Mormon Studies and Method: The Rigors of the Academic Study of Religion and the Maturity of Mormon Studies,” Mormon Studies Review 1 (2014): 89-95.
• [Recommended but not required] “What Will We Do Now that the New Mormon History is Old: A Roundtable,” Journal of Mormon History 35, no. 3 (Summer 2009): 190-233.

Dr. Richard Bushman

Dr. Jan Shipps

Dr. Stephen Taysom

Many participants will have read these articles before, but Kris and I feel that they will allow us to have an informative and engaging conversation.

Please let Kris or I know if you would like to attend by e-mail, joseph dot stuart at utah dot edu. We hope to make the workshop an annual tradition–please send a note if you’d like to be included in the future.