2023 Church History in the Pacific & Asia Conference “Voices of Latter-day Saint Women in the Pacific and Asia” (…formerly the Mormon Pacific Historical Society Conference) Call for Proposals:
The Department of Religious Education and The Faculty of Culture, Language & Performing Arts at Brigham Young University-Hawaii announce the 2023 Church History in the Pacific & Asia Conference. The Conference will be held March 3–4, 2023 on the BYU-Hawaii Campus in Laie, Hawaii. This year’s conference will specifically consider stories, achievements and voices of women who have shaped, refined and helped realize the Latter-day Saint experience in the Pacific and Asia.
We invite scholars and rigorous studiers of Church History to submit proposals specifically addressing the theme of “Voices of Latter-day Saint Women in the Pacific and Asia.” Proposals should consist of a brief abstract (no more than 500 words) and a current CV or description of your experience. Proposals may be sent to eric.marlowe@byuh.edu. Deadline for the submission of proposals is November 1, 2022. Notification of acceptance will be given by November 15, 2022. Following the conference, selected papers will be considered for publication by the Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian & Pacific Studies at BYU-Hawaii. Please address any questions to Eric Marlowe eric.marlowe[ at] byuh.edu, 808-675-3643.
Display of Book of Mormon Original Manuscript – 1:30 pm Panel presentation: “Complexities of Conservation, Imaging, and Piecing together the Fragments of the Original Manuscript of the BoM for the Joseph Smith Papers,” by Emiline Twitchell, Tyler Thorsted, and Robin Jensen Church History Library, Salt Lake City
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Join the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for a virtual career day event and explore exciting career opportunities with the Church History Department.
Do you have a passion for Church history? Are you a history student who wants to work in your field? Join us for a virtual career day info session, interact with current employees from the Church History Department, and learn about potential career paths and upcoming internships.
The Faith and Knowledge Conference was established in 2007 to bring together Mormon graduate students (a member of any Restoration church) in religious studies and related disciplines in order to explore the interactions between religious faith and scholarship. During the past seven conferences, students have shared their experiences in the church and the academy and the new ideas that have emerged as a result. These papers and conversations provided thought-provoking historical, exegetical, and theoretical insights and compelling models of how to reconcile one’s discipleship with scholarly discipline.
I haven’t read a book as historiographically disruptive to Mormon Studies as K. Mohrman’s Exceptionally Queer: Mormon Peculiarity and U.S. Nationalism. Covering 1830 to the present, it covers a much longer period than most monographs on Mormonism. In addition to a longer framing, Mohrman employs queer feminist theory, queer of color critique, critical ethnic studies, and other methodological tools to reveal what Mormonism’s “peculiarity” (or lack thereof) tells about what it means to be American. The book’s rich examination of Mormonism’s place in the United States and also for what Mormonism’s being defined as “peculiar” reveals about the biopolitics of American exceptionalism. In short, Mohrman argues that Mormonism is not exceptional, and in fact, shows what it means to be American across time in U.S. history.
Documents, Volume 13 was edited by Christian K. Heimburger, Jeffrey D. Mahas, Brent M. Rogers, J. Chase Kirkham, Matthew S. McBride, and Mason K. Allred. Visit josephsmithpapers.org for more information.
The Joseph Smith Papers Project recently released the thirteenth volume of their Documents series, which covers the relatively short period of August-December 1843. It comprises ninety-eight documents, transcriptions, contextualization, and footnoting that “chronicle a busy, often tumultuous period of [Joseph Smith’s] life” (xix). Helpfully, they show a religious leader, politician, businessman, and family man managing many concerns while acting primarily in his prophetic ministry. As with other volumes, D13 shows the workings of a man who saw no distance between the sacred and the profane. This collapsing of boundaries was evident, too, in his personal life. Even as he escaped the Missouri courts, he could not escape difficulties in home life or pressure in his religious ministry.
Book reviews are their own genre. They are not like anything else that you’ll write as a scholar. This is true for several reasons, which I’ll outline, but certainly because they are doing a particular kind of work in their analysis. Articles and books are generally self-explanatory for what they do as pieces of academic writing—book reviews’ values are not as easily grasped at first blanche.
In this post, I hope to share a few pointers for how to write a helpful book review. I use “helpful” and not “good” purposefully. Book reviews are utilitarian and meant to be engaged and digested by more people than will read the book. Know the genre and recognize its value.
Please enjoy the following presentations. One is by Rick Turley, entitled “The Rise and Fall of Mark Hoffman” and was delivered at Utah State University:
The second is by Emily Utt, on time capsules in Latter-day Saint buildings, entitled “Wine, Wheat, and Whatnots: The Material Culture of Cornerstones,” delivered at a presentation for the Utah State Historic Preservation Office:
Christopher James Blythe is Assistant Professor of English (Folklore) at Brigham Young University and editor of the Journal of Mormon History. He received his PhD in American religious history from Florida State University.
Shortly after the trailer for Under the Banner of Heaven released in late March, my Twitter feed filled with commentary about its reproduction of the Latter-day Saint temple endowment ritual. The only twitter post I specifically remember from that evening was from a young ex-Mormon woman who expressed concern that depicting temple ordinances was an act of prejudice. What followed over the next several hours was a textbook example of social media bullying filled with insults and condescension. By the next day, the young woman, now sufficiently bludgeoned and put back in line, had professed her intention to never write about Mormonism again. You are right, guys. I feel terrible. Sorry I didn’t think through how offensive my comments were. Reading her apology was as disturbing as witnessing the initial onslaught. Twitter rarely facilitates healthy discourse, and, in this case, its users already had the mechanisms in place to silence unpopular opinions. It was unacceptable to express even the mildest concern about the treatment of what millions consider a private, sacred rite. I don’t like depictions of the temple ceremony, but I am much more disturbed by the sentiment that Latter-day Saints (and their supporters) should not speak out against a clearly prejudicial take on their religious tradition. So, as a result, I have agreed to write about Under the Banner of Heaven’s depiction of temple ordinances in its third episode.[i]
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.”