The New-York Historical Society invites candidates with a humanities MA or PhD to apply for the position of Public Humanities Fellow in connection with the traveling exhibit Acts of Faith: Religion and the American West, which opens at the New-York Historical Society in New York City in November 2022. We are looking for candidates with significant expertise in 19th century religion, particularly as it relates to Native American religion and spirituality. Applicants must have graduated from a humanities MA or PhD program (including public history and museum studies) within the last five years, and have a desire to practice publicly engaged scholarship. This is a two-year, full-time position, with the anticipated dates of Sept. 2021 through Aug. 2023, and the possibility of remote work during the first year. The position comes with a National Endowment for the Humanities stipend of $50,000 per year plus benefits. Some travel may be required.Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until the position is filled. For more information and to apply for the fellowship, click here.
Theme: Landscape, Art and Religion: The Intermountain West and the World
For its 57th Annual Conference in Logan, Utah, the Mormon History Association has joined forces with the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts to create a program that we hope will bring an art element into the sessions. We have selected a theme which we believe will evoke provocative historical papers and also suggest art topics, meaning all the arts: literature, visual art, music, film, theater, architecture, design, and so forth.
The theme, “Landscape, Art, and Religion: The Intermountain West and the World,” grows out of the assumption that the natural environment shapes culture and society. Social organization, the economy, and artistic expression are formed and directed by the landscapes in which they rest. During the first century of Mormon settlement, the intermountain landscape influenced many aspects of human life In the twentieth century, the Intermountain West remained the heartland of Latter-day Saint culture, but church members had to adapt to other landscapes, cultural and physical, as Mormonism expanded around the globe.
The program committee invites scholars young and old, local and global, to investigate all aspects of this theme. Because of the collaboration with the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts, we hope many will take the occasion to explore artistic dimensions of society and culture. How are the riches and the tensions of Mormonism’s natural settings manifest in literature, music, the visual arts, film, and all the other art disciplines?
As a spur to thought, here are possible session topics that stem from the theme:
The meaning of valley in Mormon culture
From Promised Valley to Great Basin Kingdom
Picturing the West
Painters’ Impressionist West
Photography of the Intermountain region
The desert as metaphor
The Two Dixies
Comparative slaveries in Utah and the American South
Pacific Mormonism
Lifestyle, climate, art, and religion in the islands and Australia
NativeTruth
Indigenous and settler economies
Desert and mountain landscapes in Native American religions
Navajo poetry
Gathering as Gain and Loss
Homesick immigrants
Mountains as Image, Resource, and Obstacle
Mining, logging, grazing
Experimental migration routes
Landscapes as religious art
The Female Economy in a Desert Landscape
Experiments and everyday realities
Mountain Mormons and Plains Mormons
Did environment matter?
Ecological Impacts
Mormon town planning
Reflections on Classic Intermountain Texts
Great Basin Kingdom, Promised Valley, Giant Joshua, Educated, On Zion’s Mount,
Refuge
Borderland Religion
Mormon settlements in Arizona and Mexico
Diaspora
Establishing Mormonism in other social and natural ecologies
Cosmopolitan Religion
Culture shock for outbound Mormons
MountainMusic
Hymnody and musical theater
FictionalMountains
The place of landscape in recent Mormon novels
Of course, as always, sessions on all aspects of Mormon history are welcomed. We hope to attract the best current scholarship. Though individual papers will be given full consideration, proposals for complete sessions, whose participants reflect MHA’s ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion, are most likely to be accepted.
Please submit (1) a 300-word abstract for each paper or presentation and (2) a one-page CV for each presenter, including email and cell phone contact information Full session proposals should include the session title and a 150-word abstract outlining the session’s theme, along with a confirmed chair and commentator or moderator, as applicable. Individuals may only be included as presenters in one proposal per conference. Previously published papers are not eligible for presentation at MHA. Limited financial assistance for travel and lodging at the conference is available to student presenters and some international presenters. Proposals from international presenters or others who cannot attend the meeting in person will be considered for the online version of the conference. All presenters—including poster session presenters and online presenters—must be MHA members and registered for the conference format (in-person or online) in which they present.
The deadline for proposals is November 15, 2021. Send proposals to the program co-chairs at logan2022@mormonhistoryassociation.org as a single PDF. Acknowledgment of receipt will be sent immediately. Notification of acceptance/rejection will be made by January 15, 2022.
The Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia invites candidates to apply for a post-doctoral Research Associate position. The Research Associate conducts research and supports academic and public events related to the study of religion. Duties will include administrative tasks in support of research activities, the Forum on Democracy and Religion, the Virginia Center for the Study of Religion, and the Mormon Studies Program. The Research Associate will coordinate public events and academic meetings and provide communications and budgetary support. The position may also involve teaching academic courses and an opportunity to present research. This job is ideal for someone who thrives in a higher education environment, has an interest in the study of religion, especially but not limited to American religion and Mormonism. [ADDED LATER: POSITION BEGINS ON 8/24/2021]
The final few years of Joseph Smith’s life reveal a man with many responsibilities: religious, familial, and civic. The editors of Joseph Smith Papers, Documents: Volume 12: March-July 1843 (D12) make that abundantly clear in their outstanding volume and give researchers the tools they need to understand better the historical contexts of antebellum America and Latter-day Saint Nauvoo. However, I also felt like I came to know Joseph Smith the person from the 96 documents organized and annotated in D12. In their introduction, they quote Joseph Smith as saying, “when a man is reigned up continually by excitement, he becomes strong & gains power & knowledge.” Smith was never content to operate in one role alone; he saw himself within communities and as a society-builder. Zion, to Smith, was the “pure in heart,” but it was also comprised of people.
The Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is looking for a historic sites curator to serve as a digital operations specialist. As a standing member of the division’s visitor experience team, this individual will assist in extending the reach of historic sites significant in Church history for a global audience.
This is a full-time position.
RESPONSIBILITIES
In order of importance. Includes percentage of time spent on each.
It is time to jumpstart your research in Mormon women’s history with an MWHIT grant! Our organization is thrilled to offer two research grants annually to help one student and one independent scholar forward his or her study of Mormon women’s history. For example, these funds could be devoted to childcare to allow blocks of time for writing, travel for a research trip, acquiring digitized copies of records, editing assistance, and so forth. The work of women scholars and those interested in women’s history desperately needs to be shared, and that means YOU or someone you know! Forward this email to a friend who may also be interested. The deadline to apply for an MWHIT research grant is Saturday, May 1, 2021.
Click here for details on the Student Grant and here for details on the Independent Scholar grant.
In an effort to connect researchers to one another, feel free to respond to this email with your research interests and needs. We will see if we can provide you with contacts of persons who share your interests! Thank you to all who have supported our bazaars and other fundraising efforts to make these grants possible.
The Book of Mormon Studies Association (BoMSA) is pleased to announce its fifth annual meeting, to be held in person on October 7–9, 2021, at Utah State University. The event is sponsored by USU’s Department of Religious Studies and with thanks to Patrick Mason, the Leonard J. Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture.
This annual event gathers a variety of scholars invested in serious academic study of the Book of Mormon. It has no particular theme but instead invites papers on any subject related to the Book of Mormon from any viable academic angle. This year’s two plenary guests will be Terryl Givens (Maxwell Institute) and Laurie Maffly-Kipp (Washington University). We plan to begin this year’s conference on Thursday evening by participating in the Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture offered by Dr. Maffly-Kipp, who will then be involved in a special plenary session the next day at the BoMSA meeting. We anticipate that this adjustment to our traditional schedule will give attendees the opportunity to participate in the Arrington lecture while also creating space for more sociality over the course of the BoMSA conference weekend.
The Department of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University together with the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announce the 2022 Church History Symposium to be held on March 10–11, 2022. The symposium will convene at Brigham Young University on March 10 and at the Assembly Hall in Salt Lake City on March 11. Keynote speakers include Elder Gerrit W. Gong, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Sarah Barringer Gordon, University of Pennsylvania Professor of Constitutional Law and History.
Steve Fleming on Study and Faith, 5:: “The burden of proof is on the claim of there BEING Nephites. From a scholarly point of view, the burden of proof is on the…”
Eric on Study and Faith, 5:: “But that's not what I was saying about the nature of evidence of an unknown civilization. I am talking about linguistics, not ruins. …”
Steve Fleming on Study and Faith, 5:: “Large civilizations leave behind evidence of their existence. For instance, I just read that scholars estimate the kingdom of Judah to have been around 110,000…”
Eric on Study and Faith, 5:: “I have always understood the key to issues with Nephite archeology to be language. Besides the fact that there is vastly more to Mesoamerican…”
Steven Borup on In Memoriam: James B.: “Bro Allen was the lead coordinator in 1980 for the BYU Washington, DC Seminar and added valuable insights into American history as we also toured…”
David G. on In Memoriam: James B.: “Jim was a legend who impacted so many through his scholarship and kind mentoring. He'll be missed.”
Recent Comments
Steve Fleming on Study and Faith, 5:: “The burden of proof is on the claim of there BEING Nephites. From a scholarly point of view, the burden of proof is on the…”
Eric on Study and Faith, 5:: “But that's not what I was saying about the nature of evidence of an unknown civilization. I am talking about linguistics, not ruins. …”
Steve Fleming on Study and Faith, 5:: “Large civilizations leave behind evidence of their existence. For instance, I just read that scholars estimate the kingdom of Judah to have been around 110,000…”
Eric on Study and Faith, 5:: “I have always understood the key to issues with Nephite archeology to be language. Besides the fact that there is vastly more to Mesoamerican…”
Steven Borup on In Memoriam: James B.: “Bro Allen was the lead coordinator in 1980 for the BYU Washington, DC Seminar and added valuable insights into American history as we also toured…”
David G. on In Memoriam: James B.: “Jim was a legend who impacted so many through his scholarship and kind mentoring. He'll be missed.”