JOB AD: LDS Church History Department, Historic Sites Registrar

POSTING INFO

Posting Dates: 12/15/2021 – 01/09/2022

Job Family: Library, Research & Preservation

Department: Church History Department

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JOB AD: Assistant Professor of Church History & Doctrine at BYU

FA-Faculty

Job Title:  Church History & Doctrine Professorial CFS Track

Job Classification: CFS-Professorial 

Required Degree: PhD

Posting close date: January 10, 2022

Start date of this position:  July 1, 2022

Religious Education and the Department of Church History & Doctrine at BYU

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2022 Forthcoming Titles in Mormon History

2022 MHA will be in Logan. The only way to make sure that you’ll have room in your suitcases for everything you buy at exhibits there is to get your shopping done in a way that allows you to only pack a single bag for MHA travels. Plan ahead! 

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2021’s Notable Books, Book Chapters and Articles in Mormon History

Rather than a preamble about what I liked, I want to hear from you: what did you like best? What did I miss?

Global Mormonism

Marie Vinnarasi Chintaram, “Mauritians and Latter-day Saints: Multicultural Oral Histories of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints within the ‘Rainbow Nation,'” Religions 12 no. 8 (2021).

Christopher Cannon Jones, “A verry poor place for our doctrine’: Religion and Race in the 1853 Mormon Mission to Jamaica,” Religion and American Culture 31, no. 2 (2021): 262-295.

Ryan A. Davis, “The Spirituality of Sport: Los Mormones in Argentina, 1938–1943,” Journal of Mormon History 47, no. 4 (2021): 22–51.

“Globalizing Mormonism.” Edited by Matthew Bowman, Caroline Kline, and Amy Hoyt Religions 12 no. 8 (2021).

Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp, “Global Mormonism in Political Context,” Mormon Studies Review 9 (2021): 23-35.

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CFP: Responses to Krakauer’s *Under the Banner of Heaven*

In 2022, the FX Networks will release a miniseries adaptation of John Krakauer’s bestselling book Under the Banner of Heaven: The Story of Violent Faith. First published in 2003, Krakauer compares the beginnings and trajectories of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Robert Crossfield’s School of the Prophets, a fundamentalist Mormon group. Ron and Dan Lafferty, members of the latter group, committed a double murder in their faith’s name. 

To better contextualize the book and the documentary in terms of Mormon history, we invite thoughtful responses to Under the Banner of Heaven to be published shortly before the documentary appears in 2022. Final pieces will be 1,000-2,000 words.  Proposals should be 100-200 words and should include a short CV. 
The deadline for proposals is December 20, 2021. Send proposals to the program co-chairs at jstuartteaching@gmail.com and cristinamrosetti@gmail.com. Acknowledgment of receipt will be sent ASAP. Notification of acceptance/rejection will be made by January 10, 2022.

JWHA Conference Proceedings now Online!

The 2021 John Whitmer Historical Association Virtual Conference can now be viewed on the association’s YouTube Account. The conference schedule can be viewed here.

This year’s conference included the panel discussion “On the Scriptural Periphery: Perspectives on Joseph Smith’s Egyptian Project” (Session 101), an Author Meets Critics session on Mark Staker’s Joseph and Lucy Smith’s Tunbridge Farm: An Archaeology and Landscape Study (Session 201), along with eight other presentations and Jill Brim’s Presidential Address on the Joseph Smith Jr.’s Red Brick Store.

JWHA hopes to have their annual conference in St. George, Utah in 2024.

CALL FOR APPLICANTS: TEACHING THE BEAR RIVER MASSACRE

The Rocky Mountain American Religion Seminar invites applications to participate in a historical teaching seminar, “Teaching Hard History: The Bear River Massacre.” The seminar will be held in person on January 15, 2022, from 9 AM to 4 PM, at the University of Utah. The seminar will provide all materials necessary to participate. Applications are due on December 7, 2021.

On January 29, 1863, the United States Army killed between 250-400 Northwestern Shoshone men, women, and children in what is today Preston, Idaho. The event has been labeled a “battle,” suggesting that both sides were equally aggressive in preparing for violence. Indeed, until February 2021, the memorial established by settlers to commemorate the Army’s violence called it the “Battle of Bear River” rather than the “Bear River Massacre.” In the decades following the Massacre, the Shoshone homesteaded, joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They have also kept the memory of “Boa Ogoi,” the Shoshone name for the Massacre, alive through oral and community histories.

The workshop will gather middle and high school teachers and graduate students to model how to teach settler/indigenous encounters in Utah, focusing on the Bear River Massacre. Students will learn the historical contexts of the Massacre, its historical afterlives, and how religion has shaped the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone since 1863. 

Joseph Stuart, a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Utah, will lead the morning’s meetings. He will outline the historical backdrops of the Bear River Massacre from multiple perspectives but centering on the lives of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone. He will also model a primary source activity for educators to use in the classroom.

In the afternoon, Darren Parry (Northwestern Shoshone) will share his family’s and peoples’ history in the decades following the Bear River Massacre. The afternoon will conclude with a primary source activity on historical memory adaptable to classroom settings. 

Before attending the seminar, attendees will be expected to read a provided copy of Parry’s book, The Bear River Massacre: A Shoshone History. 

To apply to participate, please send an email with the following information to jstuartteaching@gmail.com:

• Your name, phone number, and email address
• The name of the school where you teach (or the name of your academic institution if you are a student)
• A short CV
• 2-4 sentences on how attending the workshop will help you as an educator

Applications are due on December 7, 2021. Travel stipends are available for those driving more than 20 miles to attend. Lunch will be provided.

Call for Proposals for 2022 August 4-6 Workshop: Indigenous Perspectives on the Meanings of Lamanite

Workshop Dates: August 4-6, 2022
Location: University of Utah, Salt Lake City
Submission deadline: December 15, 2021

Inaugural Workshop
We write to announce a series of workshops titled, “Indigenous Perspectives on the Meanings of Lamanite,” and invite proposals for the inaugural workshop, which will be held at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, August 4-6, 2022. Proposals are due by December 15, 2021.

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JOB AD: Company Director for Signature Books

Career Opportunity

Company Director, Signature Books Publishing LLC

Signature Books was founded in 1981 to promote the study of the Mormon community at its intersection with American history.  Over the years Signature has created a unique literary repertoire–publishing biographies, documentary histories, personal essays, poetry, regional history, fiction, humor, etc.  Signature is committed to expanding the scope of Mormon studies, broadly defined, and to enhancing opportunities for creative and scholarly expression. Signature champions works that are honest, thoughtful, and grounded in the best critical thinking; that emphasize human experience and intellect; that advocate civil discourse; that engage and challenge; and that encourage new ways of approaching the past, present, and future.

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CFP: D. Michael Quinn: The Life and Times of a Mormon Historian

Few figures in the development of Mormon studies during the late-twentieth century are more significant than D. Michael Quinn. Educated at Brigham Young University, the University of Utah, and Yale University, Quinn was among scholars who revisited and revised the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He worked as a researcher under Church Historian Leonard Arrington and produced a series of significant works emblematic of the New Mormon History. At times Quinn’s work sparked backlash, and his identity as queer, Chicano, and independent put him at odds with his surrounding culture. His controversial scholarship and activities led, first, to his forced resignation as a full professor at BYU and then, later, to his excommunication from the church. 

Quinn’s legacy has only grown with time. His many articles and books continue to inform and influence scholarship today. The Mormon studies community mourned when he passed on April 21, 2021, at the age of seventy-seven.

We will hold a one-day conference examining the life and legacy of D. Michael Quinn on March 25, 2022, at the University of Utah. Sessions will explore both his experiences as a historical figure as well as his impact on historiography. 

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