On September 18, 2022, the John Whitmer Historical Association will celebrate its 50th anniversary, honoring a half century of promoting the study of Restoration history. JWHA will gather at the Community of Christ Temple in Independence, Missouri, September 15-18, to celebrate the golden anniversary.
Interested in attending or learning more? Read more about the event and see the 50th Anniversary Call for Papers. This year’s conference registration is available at a special discount. JWHA accepts papers on historical, cultural, and theological studies of the Latter Day Saint/Mormon movement.
Are you a student needing funding to attend? Applications for conference scholarships are open to both undergraduate and graduate students. JWHA conference scholarships include the following: cash reward, registration fees waived, banquet tickets provided, and free membership the following year.
Scholarship amounts vary from year to year, depending upon available funding. Successful applicants must present their papers at the annual JWHA conference. Winners will need to attend the conference Thursday evening through Saturday to help with various activities. Appy and read more about JWHA scholarships.
Proposals and conference scholarship applications are due April 6, 2022.
The Religious Studies Department at Hamilton College seeks applicants for a Visiting Instructor or Assistant Professor for a one-year leave replacement in indigenous studies beginning July 1, 2022. Candidates with ABD will be considered, although candidates with a PhD are preferred. The department seeks applicants with a specialization in an indigenous tradition in the Americas, with a capacity to teach other indigenous traditions in a comparative perspective. Additional interests include indigeneity theory, gender construction, and the global indigenous rights movements. Discipline is open, but candidates should display a capacity to engage perspectives on religion (traditions, lifeways) in an interdisciplinary undergraduate program. The candidate appointed to this position will teach five courses during the year.
2022 MHA will be in Logan. The only way to make sure that you’ll have room in your suitcases for everything you buy at exhibits there is to get your shopping done in a way that allows you to only pack a single bag for MHA travels. Plan ahead!
Applications are now open for the NEH Summer Institute Mormonism and Mexico: A Case Study in Religion and Borderlands
Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA invites scholars and educators to examine the history of Mormonism and Mexico as a case study to explore the impact of borders and migration on religious change in the modern world.
This institute will encourage its participants to think about the intertwined history of Mexico and the various churches that make up the Mormon tradition as a means to explore deeper questions about borders and religion.We will explore how political and cultural borders between the United States and Mexico have transformed Mormonism, and in turn how Mormonism has provided residents of both nations a way to transcend those borders through its reinvention.
In so doing, the institute will be of interest to scholars in a number of disciplines: historians, students of religious studies and Latinx students, scholars of the American West, cultural pluralism, and migration. The institute focuses on a religious tradition that has been absent from most borderlands and Latinx religious studies, but whose presence in Mexico and the American West is notable. Just so, it will encourage scholars of religion in the United States and of Mormonism in particular to consider issues of globalization and borderlands.
The institute, intended for 25 college and university teachers, will be held June 27-28, July 1-8, and July 18-22, 2022. Approximately half of the institute will be held at Claremont Graduate University and half remotely via Zoom. While in person, attendees will take advantage of the resources of Claremont’s Honnold Library, including the Gomez Collection on Mexican Mormon History, visit a Mormon Spanish-language service and the Cheech Marin Center For Chicano Art, Culture and History, and visit with a number of visiting scholars and speakers.
Each participant will be expected to develop a project, either research, pedagogical, or having to do with public history.
The institute will be directed by Matthew Bowman, Daniel Ramirez, and Caroline Kline.
In 2022, the FX Networks will release a miniseries adaptation of John Krakauer’s bestselling book Under the Banner of Heaven: The Story of Violent Faith. First published in 2003, Krakauer compares the beginnings and trajectories of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Robert Crossfield’s School of the Prophets, a fundamentalist Mormon group. Ron and Dan Lafferty, members of the latter group, committed a double murder in their faith’s name.
To better contextualize the book and the documentary in terms of Mormon history, we invite thoughtful responses to Under the Banner of Heaven to be published shortly before the documentary appears in 2022. Final pieces will be 1,000-2,000 words. Proposals should be 100-200 words and should include a short CV. The deadline for proposals is December 20, 2021. Send proposals to the program co-chairs at jstuartteaching@gmail.com and cristinamrosetti@gmail.com. Acknowledgment of receipt will be sent ASAP. Notification of acceptance/rejection will be made by January 10, 2022.
The 2021 John Whitmer Historical Association Virtual Conference can now be viewed on the association’s YouTube Account. The conference schedule can be viewed here.
This year’s conference included the panel discussion “On the Scriptural Periphery: Perspectives on Joseph Smith’s Egyptian Project” (Session 101), an Author Meets Critics session on Mark Staker’s Joseph and Lucy Smith’s Tunbridge Farm: An Archaeology and Landscape Study (Session 201), along with eight other presentations and Jill Brim’s Presidential Address on the Joseph Smith Jr.’s Red Brick Store.
JWHA hopes to have their annual conference in St. George, Utah in 2024.
Located in Berkeley, California, the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) is the largest and most diverse partnership of seminaries and graduate schools in the United States, pursuin interreligious collaboration in teaching, research, ministry, and service. Since its founding in 1962, the GTU has produced thousands of alumni who teach at eminent universities and seminaries, lead and work in a broad variety of arenas – cultural, economic, inter-religious, nonprofit and political – to achieve the greatest good.
PRIMARY POSITION PURPOSE AND EXPECTATIONS: In concert with the Bay Area Latter-day Saint/Mormon Studies Council, GTU invites applications for a two-year term as Assistant Professor of Latter-day Saint/Mormon Studies. This appointment will begin July 1, 2022, and end on June 30, 2024, with the possibility of renewal. We seek an exceptional teacher-scholar with interests that include, but are not restricted to, Latter-day Saint/Mormon Studies, including the background, origins and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the American Restoration movement out of which it emerged, Latter-day Saint scriptural texts, Latter-day Saint/Mormon culture, and the global church.
Candidates should be conversant with relevant methodologies and theories, demonstrate strong facility with biblical and restoration scriptures, and be able to position Latter-day Saint/Mormon Studies within the Judeo-Christian tradition and American Religious history. The successful candidate will work under the supervision of the Academic Dean and in concert with the GTU Director of Latter-day Saint/Mormon Studies and the Bay Area Mormon Studies Council. Duties include teaching two classes or their equivalent per semester, supporting the general GTU academic program, working with other GTU centers and affiliates, cooperating with other Mormon Studies Centers, and supporting the objectives and activities of the Bay Area Mormon Studies Council. It is expected that candidates will have a devotional grounding in the Latter-day Saint tradition.
GTU is committed to a diversified faculty. Persons from groups underrepresented in the American academy are especially encouraged to apply.
The application deadline is January 7, 2022. Applicants should send application materials electronically to the office of the GTU dean, in care of Sabrina Kennedy, skennedy@gtu.edu. Materials should include a letter of application, a curriculum vitae, and three letters of recommendation. For further questions on the position, please contact Interim Dean and VP for Academic Affairs, Elizabeth Peña, epena@gtu.edu.
The Graduate Theological Union is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
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.”