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.

Objective
The objective of these workshops is to support a community of scholars who are interested in reflecting collaboratively on the discourses of “Lamanite.” We encourage those with strong ties to Indigenous communities to submit proposals for work that relates to these discourses. Scholarly projects of all kinds will be considered, including studies relating to Indigenous experiences with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Community of Christ, Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and/or any other religious group based on the teachings of Joseph Smith, Jr. A group of scholars will be selected to participate in the workshop by sharing their work in progress. The workshop will also include presentations by experts in various fields of Indigenous studies. Several sponsors will cover travel, lodging, and other expenses for participants.

Participants from the first year’s workshop may be invited to continue developing their work for the following year’s workshop, which will be hosted by Claremont Graduate University in April 2023. These workshops may culminate in a public symposium and/or publication depending on funding and the scope of the projects. 

The workshop co-chairs, Dr. Farina King (Diné) of Northeastern State University and Dr. Michael D. K. Ing (Kanaka ʻŌiwi) of Indiana University, along with a steering committee, will review the proposals and coordinate the workshops.

Description
The Book of Mormon styles itself as a record “written to the Lamanites,” descendants of the House of Israel who left Jerusalem and populated the Americas a millennia before the arrival of Europeans. Later followers of Joseph Smith expanded the category to include peoples of the Pacific. Since Smith’s day, Latter-day Saints have used the term “Lamanite” to make sense of the world and to assign space in various religious frameworks for peoples Indigenous to the Americas and the Pacific, including people of Indigenous/European and Indigenous/Black heritage from Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. This has served to attract people to, and repel people from, Smith’s movements inasmuch as “Lamanite” works as a term of liberation as well as a constraint.

We aim to create a community of scholars to address the category of Lamanite, centering on Indigenous voices concerned with questions of identity, race, religion, settler colonialism, politics, and the relation of “Lamanite” to other facets of life. This will be a space inclusive of not only the dominant approaches in the academy, but also, and more importantly, Indigenous methodologies and protocols from the communities in which these scholars are rooted; making this community a first of its kind.

To accomplish this, we are developing shared spaces for scholars to reflect on these issues, collaborate with each other, and share their scholarship with larger audiences. 

Apply
To apply, submit a CV, a proposal (no more than 500 words) that describes your project and how it contributes to the workshop theme of “Indigenous Perspectives on the Meanings of Lamanite,” and a brief personal statement (no more than 200 words) that highlights your relationship and work with Indigenous communities. Proposals should be emailed as a single PDF to lamanite…@gmail.com, addressed to Drs. Farina King and Michael Ing by Wednesday, December 15, 2021 to be considered.

Thank you to Sponsors and Partners
We truly believe great things will come from this community and hope to see it grow over the years. Ahéhee’ and Mahalo (thanks) for your consideration. We look forward to the possibility of collaborating and coming together in this work.

Special thanks to our committed sponsors that have made this intellectual community and initiative possible: the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies at Brigham Young University, the American West Center and Mormon Studies at the University of Utah, Mormon Studies at Utah State University, Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University, the Center for the American West at the University of Colorado-Boulder, Sunstone, the Mormon History Association, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, the Museum of Mormon History of the Americas, the National Museum of American Religion, Global Mormon Studies, and other partners and scholars from throughout the world.  

Farina King, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of History
Director of the Center for Indigenous Community Engagement
Northeastern State University

Michael David Kaulana Ing, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Religious Studies
Indiana University