By October 12, 2015
We hope to have more reflections and commentary on the conference here at the JI. In the meantime, please enjoy the Tweets, which have been Storified at this link!
If anyone who attended the conference is interested in blogging about the experience, please e-mail me at joseph dot stuart at utah dot edu.
By October 6, 2015
Opening plenary session of Black, White, and Mormon: A Conference on the Evolving Status of Black Saints Within the Mormon Fold.
Thursday, October 8, 2015 / 7:00 p.m.
Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Dumke Auditorium
Open to the public. Seating is limited.
Lester E. Bush Jr.
Lester E. Bush Jr. will reflect on the forty-two years since his seminal article was published in Dialogue which undermined the standing historical narrative that the LDS Church’s priesthood ban began with Joseph Smith. We invite Bush to consider the past forty years: what has changed, what has stayed the same, and what steps are yet necessary to bring about change.
Founded in 1992, the McMurrin Lecture supports the serious and knowledgeable study of religion. The McMurrin Lecture honors beloved scholar and teacher Sterling M. McMurrin (1914-1996), who served as U.S. Commissioner of Education during the Kennedy Administration.
By September 30, 2015
Mormon History Association Annual Conference, Call for Papers
The 51st annual meeting of the Mormon History Association will take place on June 9-12, 2016. The conference theme is simple yet evocative: “Practice.” The work of Mormon history in the past few decades has delved deeply into theological, institutional, and cultural research. And yet the richness of the lived realities of the Mormon experience begs to be uncovered in new ways that cut across these familiar categories. “Practice,” in this sense, is used broadly in order to capture the dynamic participation of individual adherents within diverse strains of Mormonism throughout the past two centuries. Several decades-worth of scholarship in “lived religion” provides the tools to capture these fresh perspectives. Mormonism’s distinctive religious morphology and substantial corpus of records creates a promising field for new theoretical understanding. What role does “practice” play in Mormon religiosity? What is the relationship between hierarchical, correlated authority and grassroots implementation and innovation? How do Mormon practices change, evolve, and adapt over generations and throughout global communities? How are global Mormon religious norms shaped by indigenous culture in Salt Lake City, Kinshasa, or Manila?
By September 18, 2015
Senator Harry Reid
The inaugural Joseph Smith Lecture featuring a conversation with Senator Harry Reid, Senate Democratic Leader, will be held on Saturday September 26 at 2:00 p.m. in the University of Virginia’s Newcomb Hall Theater. The conversation will be comprised largely of questions from the audience.
Parking is available in the Bookstore garage immediately behind Newcomb Hall.
Tickets are available for free from University’s box office at https://tickets.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu/single/EventListing.aspx and may be picked up in the Theater’s lobby beginning at 12:24. Seating is open and tickets not picked up by 1:45 will be released to the public.
By August 11, 2015
Black, White, and Mormon: A Conference on the Evolving Status of Black Saints within the Mormon Fold
October 8-9, 2015
In December 2013, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a new essay on Race and the Priesthood on its Gospel Topics page at LDS.org. The statement was the strongest to date in distancing the LDS Church from its prior teachings on the status of black people within Mormon theology. This conference seeks to offer a multi-disciplinary assessment of that status across time and space. It seeks to explore the historical evolution of race based priesthood and temple bans, the historical roots of segregation in America and how it impacts Mormonism, the expansion of Mormonism into inner-city locations in the United States as well as the impact of race on Mormonism’s international reach. It will also consider the intersections between race and Mormon women, notions of social justice within Mormonism, the implications of race upon educational opportunities at LDS universities, and a discussion of how race plays out at the ward level. In short, this conference will talk about race and Mormonism as it seeks greater understanding and higher purpose.
By August 10, 2015
We concluded the inaugural JI Summer Book Club last week. The author of Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, Richard Lyman Bushman, kindly agreed to reflect on the writing of RSR, its reception, and what he would change if he were to write the book again. His response is below.
I am pleased to know your group is working away at RSR. I am sure you will find many questions worth exploring. In my opinion you are preparing for the future. Sometime down the line another biography will be written, and your inquiries are finding the spaces where there is more to say and another perspective to be presented.
By July 28, 2015
As a follow-up to last week’s post on preparing to visit the LDS Church History Library, I’ve written this starter guide for the L. Tom Perry Special Collections at Brigham Young University.[1] In this post, I’ll touch on transportation, lodging, the best food in the area, policies to be familiar with, and finding collections to peruse.
This is only meant to be a brief introduction. Please add your comments, suggestions, and experiences below!
Provo, UT
The Harold B. Lee Library is located at 701 East University Parkway, in Provo. The two exits closest to the library on 1-15 are the University Parkway and Provo Center Street off-ramps, which are north and south of the school, respectively. There are several hotels throughout Provo, as well as Air BnB options, or if you’re feeling adventurous, camping options. There are sidewalks and streetlights throughout most of Provo and is generally safe to walk through during daylight. Visitor’s parking is available east of the library (next to the BYU Law School) and north of the library (in front of the BYU Museum of Art). Here is a map of the BYU campus to help you visualize. One could also use public transportation to get close to BYU campus, but not onto campus itself.
Provo is hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Don’t forget to pack for the weather!
The HBLL from the Abraham O. Smoot Building (ASB). The library is the blue-green glass building directly in front of Brigham.
By July 15, 2015
Last week at The Junto, Jessica Parr offered her thoughts on essential technological preparations for spending time in the archives. It got me thinking: what are some things that researchers should be aware of when they visit the LDS Church History? In this post, I’ll touch on transportation, lodging, the best food in the area, policies to be familiar with, and finding collections to peruse.[1]
This is only meant to be a brief introduction–please add your comments, suggestions, and experiences below!
By June 17, 2015
JI recently finished a roundtable review on Paul Reeve’s wonderful Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness (New York: Oxford University Press: 2015). Dr. Reeve has kindly consented to respond to the roundtable–his thoughts are found below.
By June 15, 2015
TWO job announcements from our friends at MHA, the editorship of the Journal of Mormon History and the Executive Director Position of the Mormon History Association:
Editor Search for the Journal of Mormon History
The Mormon History Association is conducting a search for a new editor of the Journal of Mormon History. The editor determines the content of the quarterly Journal, solicits submissions, oversees peer review, works with submitting authors in performing substantive and stylistic content editing, and coordinates with a production staff to ensure that issues of the Journal are published according to deadline and within budget. The editor has full editorial control of the journal but reports to the MHA board of directors in maintaining a high quality product that serves as the flagship publication for the organization.
© 2026 – Juvenile Instructor
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