By matt b.August 31, 2012
The Call for Papers is below. Please use this thread to, should you desire, make contacts, organize panels, and find other like-minded scholars planning on joining us in 2013
The 48th annual conference of the Mormon History Association will be held in Layton, Davis County, Utah, on June 6-9, 2013. Our theme emphasizes the particular history of Davis County and other early Wasatch Front Mormon settlements, but also invites broad investigation of what ?Wests? of all types, times, and places have meant to various branches of the Restoration movement. Further, the idea of multiple Mormon frontiers challenges us to consider Mormonism?s encounters with other groups, cultures, and institutions.
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By August 30, 2012
THE FOURTH BIENNIAL FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE CONFERENCE
WESLEY THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
WASHINGTON, D. C.
FEBRUARY 22?23, 2013
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By Ben PAugust 28, 2012
On October 4-6, Gordon College will play host to the 28th biennial meeting for the Conference on Faith and History. Keynote speakers include David Hempton (recently appointed as Dean of Harvard Divinity School) and Mark Noll, and there are loads of fascinating paper topics that will be addressed. Most relevant to this crowd, there are two Mormon-themed sessions with familiar faces. Bellow you’ll find the panels, papers, and names.
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By Tona HAugust 27, 2012
Continuing discussion of Women and the LDS Church: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
Aug 24-25, 2012 Tanner Humanities Center, University of Utah and the LDS Church History Library
Organizers ? Kate Holbrook and Matt Bowman
The perfect cap to my summer, which included more writing about Mormon women and their history than was usual for me, was attending both days of the ?Women and the LDS Church Conference.? On a personal note, it gathered many scholars I either knew or wanted to know, including nearly a quorum of the JI permabloggers, and I was thirsty to be part of the conversation and soak up some Western sunshine. The conference featured incredibly high-quality presentations and honest but never rancorous audience participation, and a warm Salt Lake welcome both at the gorgeous City Library and in the sandstone brick building of the Fort Douglas Officers Club on the University of Utah campus. Like a pilgrim to Lourdes, I came away with a vial of sustaining water. I hope we will be talking and thinking about what happened at this conference for a very long time.
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By Andrea R-MAugust 27, 2012
Overheard at this weekend’s conference: ?This could be Mormon women?s Seneca Falls.?
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By AmandaAugust 26, 2012
A few days ago, I requested the Scott Kenney Papers at the University of Utah?s special collections. Inside Box 3 were some letters between Joseph F. Smith and Susa Young Gates written in 1906. I assumed that they would be about the manifesto or Susa?s recent trip to Germany. I opened the box and began to read one of the letters.
It began with a paean to Joseph F. Smith as one of the world?s great religious leaders:
Thou art a poet, an artist, a musician. A musician because the best and highest expression of the great masters finds an echo in thy soul. The great paintings are alive to you; and your words, written and spoken, often betray the very soul of poetry. The precious note I have of yours breathes poetry in every line. It is too precious to me for other eyes than mine, even to rest upon.
At first, I thought that Susa had simply developed a deep and lasting friendship with Joseph, but the next line caught me off guard.
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By ChristopherAugust 23, 2012
Earlier this week, Max Mueller posted at Peculiar People some thoughtful reflections on non-Latter-day Saint historians of Mormonism and their role as “friendly critics” to Mormons and Mormonism. He used recent op-eds authored by Helen Radkey and John Turner on proxy baptisms and Mormonism’s history of racial exclusion, respectively, to frame his argument. It’s well worth reading and recommended to all JI readers.
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By RobinAugust 21, 2012
The following post comes from intrepid researcher by Erin Jennings. Erin (BS, Cameron University; MSE, Arkansas State University) is an independent historian and current board member of the John Whitmer Historical Association. Among her areas of focus, Erin has extensively researched Jesse Gause, Charles Anthon, and the Whitmer family. She has published, ?The Consequential Counselor: Restoring the Root(s) of Jesse Gause,? in the Journal of Mormon History, and ?The Whitmer Family Beliefs and Their Church of Christ,? in the book Scattering of the Saints: Schism Within Mormonism, edited by Newell G. Bringhurst and John C. Hamer. The Juvenile Instructor thanks Erin for kindly sharing an important document she recently found:
A relentless eight-year search has finally come to an end for me. Thanks to an ever-growing trove of digital tools, I?ve finally located an elusive Oliver Cowdery letter that in February 1830 Cornelius Blatchly claimed was reproduced in a New York newspaper in 1829.
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By AmandaAugust 18, 2012
A few days ago, Christopher Jones posted a link on the backchannel for Juvenile Instructor, linking to a post by a New Zealand Mormon. The post explored the effects that correlation and the homogenization of the Mormon Church has had on Mormon communities outside of the United States. The conversation that ensued that was so interesting that we decided to post an edited version here:
Christopher Jones: Amanda, David, Max, others: thought you’d be interested in this. It’s written by a New Zealander, but touches on issues that relate to each of your respective research interests in some way or another. Really fascinating stuff.
Unlatching from the Amerimormon Cultural Teat
http://kiwimormon.com/2012/08/07/unlatching-from-the-amerimormon-cultural-teat/
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By Tona HAugust 15, 2012
My new calling as ward choir director came with the keys, so to speak, to the closet of old music. I cleaned it out, took it all home, and spread it all over the floor of our library to organize. I didn?t intend for this to be an archival research moment, but as I sorted and tossed I became drawn into the experience and starting reading slower and slower? it was, in a sense, a historical archive dating back at least to the late 1970s.
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