By August 4, 2012
The Southwestern States Mission series will not publish for the next several weeks. The academic year cometh so my day job is going to require more attention for a bit. When we return (in no particular order):
By August 2, 2012
This is the first substantive post in a series about Mormon literature and the creation of a history of Mormon girls. This post tries to think about Mormon literature expansively and thus, takes as its subject a film that has sometimes been referred to as the ?fourth Mormon gospel.? Next week, Susanna Morrill gives us her take on Mormon teen romances.
I first watched Johnny Lingo at my cousin?s birthday party. I remember more of the confetti cake and sprinkles than I do of the movie that night, but I enjoyed it enough that I insisted that Liz and I watch it one night after the Joseph Smith Summer Seminar. We popped some popcorn, put in the DVD, and curled up in some blankets. When the movie came on, the first thing I thought after a decade or longer absence was, ?Oh my gosh, I can see his nipples!?
By August 1, 2012
We are extremely excited to introduce our new guest poster, Saskia Tielens. Saskia has commented sporadically on JI before and has proven herself to be an astute observer of Mormonism and Mormon studies. A summary of her presentation on Mormonism’s gold plates and material culture can be found here. This is how she introduces herself.
Saskia Tielens earned her BA and MA in American studies from Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. She is about to start her second year as a PhD student in Dortmund, Germany, and is writing her dissertation on the ritualization of Mormon history as well as teaching various courses in the American studies department there. Most recently, she was a participant in this year’s summer seminar on Mormon culture, led by Richard Bushman. Saskia particularly enjoys coming at Mormon studies as a non-Mormon, and considers the concept of funeral potatoes to have enriched her life.
Her first contribution, reflections on teaching a class on Mormonism as a non-Mormon in Europe, will go up tomorrow morning.
Join us in giving Saskia a warm welcome.
By July 30, 2012
After some discussion, Juvenile Instructor has decided to try a new type of post today. Instead of having a single-author or making a single argument, this post is a conversation between two scholars about a topic. It should add a different flair to JI and will hopefully spark some discussion. In this case, Max and Amanda discuss the Book of Mormon and its place within Mormon history and scholarship as a whole. Both Max and Amanda are non-members and thus, may (or may not) have a different perspective than historians writing from a believing perspective.
Max: Hi Amanda. We’re trying something new today at JI: a conversational post.
Amanda: Hi Max, Glad to be a part of this.
Max: To get started, there has been a great deal of discussion in the bloggernacle as of late about how to approach the Book of Mormon as a scholarly source. I’d argue that most scholars, especially non-members (like us), get hung up on the “historicity” of the Book of Mormon, or as many would argue, the lack thereof. The inability of some scholars to move beyond ?historicity? is partly a result of the nature of the text itself. From the Book of Mormon?s inception, there has been an insistence that the book is historical.
By July 29, 2012
Below is a much-condensed version of a paper I presented yesterday at the History of Mormonism in Latin America and the US-Mexico Borderlands conference in El Paso, Texas. Our own Jared T organized the conference, which I judge to have been a smashing success. My paper attempted to sketch some of the relationships among the Mormon colonies in Sonora and Chihuahua, Mexico, and the Southwestern (later Central) States Mission from 1900 to 1905.
By July 28, 2012
Mormon women?s history is alive and thriving, as seen in the rich and diverse offerings at the 2012 Mormon History Association conference in Calgary, Alberta. Out of forty sessions within the two-day period, a full four sessions were entirely devoted to women?s historical and/or contemporary activities, with another three panels examining early Mormon marital practices and broader examinations of polygamy.
By July 25, 2012
I am at the Schlesinger Library this week doing research in the papers of Corinne Allen Tuckerman, a woman who lived with her husband in Salt Lake City during the turn-of-the-century. A member of the first class to matriculate at Smith College, she was also the President of the National Congress of Mothers, a founder of the Parent and Teachers Association, and a fierce opponent of polygamy. Tuckerman wrote letters to the presidents of seminaries and colleges asking them what their classes taught about marriage, gave lectures about the evils of polygamy, and helped to found Hallock Hall in Utah as a refuge for working class girls. Because the publication of our first edition of the ?What I learned from Jack Weyland? series is going to be a bit postponed, I thought I would give you some snippets from her correspondence:
By July 24, 2012
We’re happy to announce that we’ve added an enlightening new permablogger to our ranks.
Her bio:
Cristine Hutchison-Jones (call me Crissy!) received her BA in American Studies and Religion from Florida State University in 2001, and her PhD in Religious and Theological Studies from Boston University in 2011. She is a cultural and intellectual historian of religion in the United States with a focus on religious intolerance and representations of minorities. Her dissertation, “Reviling and Revering the Mormons: Defining American Values, 1890-2008,” explored images of the Mormons in American news, fiction and non-fiction writing, and television and film. She is the author of “Center and Periphery: Mormons and American Culture in Tony Kushner’s *Angels in America*.”
Welcome, Crissy!
By July 22, 2012
Pioneer Day, July 24, commemorates the 1847 arrival of Mormon settlers in Salt Lake Valley. Some church members and missionaries in the Southwestern States Mission observed the holiday, but, as with the Fourth of July, city-dwellers celebrated more elaborately.
By July 20, 2012
To whom it may concern:
I’m thrilled that you’ve taken an interest in Mormon studies. I think that there is much interdisciplinary work to be done in this emerging (sub)field and welcome the perspectives you bring from your own discipline. There seems to be some confusion on your end, though, about what historians do. Let me try and assuage your concerns by assuring you of two things:
© 2026 – Juvenile Instructor
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