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.
The Rocky Mountain American Religion Seminar invites applications to participate in a historical teaching seminar, “Teaching Hard History: The Bear River Massacre.” The seminar will be held in person on January 15, 2022, from 9 AM to 4 PM, at the University of Utah. The seminar will provide all materials necessary to participate. Applications are due on December 7, 2021.
On January 29, 1863, the United States Army killed between 250-400 Northwestern Shoshone men, women, and children in what is today Preston, Idaho. The event has been labeled a “battle,” suggesting that both sides were equally aggressive in preparing for violence. Indeed, until February 2021, the memorial established by settlers to commemorate the Army’s violence called it the “Battle of Bear River” rather than the “Bear River Massacre.” In the decades following the Massacre, the Shoshone homesteaded, joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They have also kept the memory of “Boa Ogoi,” the Shoshone name for the Massacre, alive through oral and community histories.
The workshop will gather middle and high school teachers and graduate students to model how to teach settler/indigenous encounters in Utah, focusing on the Bear River Massacre. Students will learn the historical contexts of the Massacre, its historical afterlives, and how religion has shaped the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone since 1863.
Joseph Stuart, a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Utah, will lead the morning’s meetings. He will outline the historical backdrops of the Bear River Massacre from multiple perspectives but centering on the lives of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone. He will also model a primary source activity for educators to use in the classroom.
In the afternoon, Darren Parry (Northwestern Shoshone) will share his family’s and peoples’ history in the decades following the Bear River Massacre. The afternoon will conclude with a primary source activity on historical memory adaptable to classroom settings.
Before attending the seminar, attendees will be expected to read a provided copy of Parry’s book, The Bear River Massacre: A Shoshone History.
To apply to participate, please send an email with the following information to jstuartteaching@gmail.com:
Your name, phone number, and email address
The name of the school where you teach (or the name of your academic institution if you are a student)
A short CV
2-4 sentences on how attending the workshop will help you as an educator
Applications are due on December 7, 2021. Travel stipends are available for those driving more than 20 miles to attend. Lunch will be provided.
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.
Signature Books was founded in 1981 to promote the study of the Mormon community at its intersection with American history. Over the years Signature has created a unique literary repertoire–publishing biographies, documentary histories, personal essays, poetry, regional history, fiction, humor, etc. Signature is committed to expanding the scope of Mormon studies, broadly defined, and to enhancing opportunities for creative and scholarly expression. Signature champions works that are honest, thoughtful, and grounded in the best critical thinking; that emphasize human experience and intellect; that advocate civil discourse; that engage and challenge; and that encourage new ways of approaching the past, present, and future.
Few figures in the development of Mormon studies during the late-twentieth century are more significant than D. Michael Quinn. Educated at Brigham Young University, the University of Utah, and Yale University, Quinn was among scholars who revisited and revised the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He worked as a researcher under Church Historian Leonard Arrington and produced a series of significant works emblematic of the New Mormon History. At times Quinn’s work sparked backlash, and his identity as queer, Chicano, and independent put him at odds with his surrounding culture. His controversial scholarship and activities led, first, to his forced resignation as a full professor at BYU and then, later, to his excommunication from the church.
Quinn’s legacy has only grown with time. His many articles and books continue to inform and influence scholarship today. The Mormon studies community mourned when he passed on April 21, 2021, at the age of seventy-seven.
We will hold a one-day conference examining the life and legacy of D. Michael Quinn on March 25, 2022, at the University of Utah. Sessions will explore both his experiences as a historical figure as well as his impact on historiography.
The John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics seeks applications from junior scholars and recent Ph.D. graduates for up to four postdoctoral fellowships in residence at Washington University in St. Louis. The appointment is for one year, renewable for a second year. Eligible applicants must complete the Ph.D. by July 1, 2022, and are expected to have completed it no earlier than January 1, 2017. In exceptional cases a qualified applicant who completed the Ph.D. prior to 2017 or who hold a J.D. without a Ph.D. may be considered. Research associates will spend most of their time pursuing research and writing for their own projects. They will also serve the intellectual life of the Danforth Center on Religion and Politics through participation in its biweekly interdisciplinary seminar and events hosted by the Center. Their teaching responsibilities will include: 1) developing one course per year to complement and contribute to the Center’s curricular offerings, and 2) possibly assisting in one additional course each year (depending on the particular teaching needs of the Center). Washington University in St. Louis is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and especially encourages members of underrepresented groups to apply.
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.”