Zoom Webinar: “Lamanite as a Religious Signifier and Settler-Colonial Encounter”

Thanks to Kathleen Flake for passing this on this great event!

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Review of Recent Books on Joseph Smith’s Translation, Part One

Brown, Samuel Morris. Joseph Smith’s Translation: The Words and Worlds of Early Mormonism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.

Davis, William. Visions in a Seer Stone: Joseph Smith and the Making of the Book of Mormon. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020.

This past year saw a number of important publication on Joseph Smith’s translation; in addition to the ones above, also Michael Hubbard MacKay, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Brian M. Hauglid, eds. Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith’s Translation Projects in the Development of Mormon Christianity (Salt Lake City: University of Utah, 2020) in which Brown has an essay.

But first I want to compare Brown and Davis. In this post, I give a summary of their works and then discuss the implications more in a follow up.  

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Call for Interview Volunteers: Latina Mormon/LDS Mothers in Arizona (English and Spanish)

I am Bri Romanello, a Ph.D. Anthropology student at Arizona State University. A bit about myself: I have been a member of the LDS Church my entire life and am deeply involved and passionate about the well-being and representation of women’s experiences within our community. I am also very interested in the immigrant experience and the lives of Latina women living and parenting in the United States. This is why I am conducting a study with Latina Mormon/ LDS mothers in Arizona I want to use my opportunity as a Ph.D. student to better demonstrate the immense diversity and contributions of Latinas and mothers in our Church and also local communities.

During this interview, I will be interested in learning about your personal story, your membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and your experiences as a mother. This interview is anonymous and you can use a different name if you wish.

If you agree to participate in this study, it will involve an interview that should last no more than 75 minutes depending on the amount of information you choose to share with me. I would like to demonstrate my gratitude by offering you a small gift of $25 for your time and participation. Please fill out this form and I’ll get back to you in the next 72 hours: https://forms.gle/3eMefUC7LZ3spsFA9

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From the Desk: Matthew Harris

Thanks to Kurt Manwaring for making us aware of this interview with Dr. Matthew Harris, on The LDS Gospel Topics Series: A Scholarly Engagement! You can read the rest of the interview HERE.

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Announcing the The Juanita Brooks Series in Mormon History and Culture

The University of Utah Press announced this morning the creation of The Juanita Brooks Series in Mormon History and Culture. Here is more from their email announcement (sign up for email updates from the press HERE):

This series, named for pioneering Mormon historian Juanita Brooks, welcomes exciting new academic monographs and contributed volumes of previously unpublished essays that break new ground in the study and understanding of Mormon history and culture. Books that explore understudied or controversial aspects of Mormonism are considered essential to the intellectual mission of the series, as are works that put Mormon history and culture in conversation with contemporary scholarly trends in transnational studies, Native American and Indigenous studies, the study of the American West, women’s history, and regional histories. Always open and inclusive, the series accepts proposals from established and emerging scholars and writers alike, while striving to publish rigorous scholarship accessible to an informed general audience.