Here are a few highlights from the Mormon History Association’s newsletter, which you you should receive with your MHA membership.
NEW JMH EDITORS: Christopher James Blythe and Jessie L. Embry have been appointed as co-editors of the Journal of Mormon History. From the newsletter, ” As co-editors, Jessie and Chris are committed to improving the scholarly profile of the JMH. While the journal will continue to be comprised of traditional historical articles, they will expand the journal’s vision to include articles on the Mormon past from a wider range of methodologies and perspectives. They look forward to special issues devoted to a particular theme and genre, as well as new sections of the journal devoted to the analysis of historical documents, visual and material culture, and field notes. They invite and seek contributions from both seasoned and emerging scholars, including those of underrepresented groups. Do not be surprised if you hear from them in the coming months! The next four years promise great things for the JMH.”
NEW BOARD MEMBERS: “During the business luncheon, MHA members elected five new board members, including Jenny Lund as President-Elect, Sara Patterson as Liaison Chair, David Simmons as Financial Chair, and Charlotte Hansen Terry as Student Representative. One of the most exciting changes announced was the addition of a Global Outreach Chair to the MHA board. Vinna Chintaram was elected to fill this important new role. We look forward to exciting things to come from this new position.”
FUNDRAISING FOR A JAN SHIPPS AWARD: MHA is thrilled to announce that we are raising funds to endow an article award in honor of Jan Shipps. A decades-long member of MHA and the first woman to serve as MHA President, Shipps is known to many in the organization as a friend and mentor. A pioneer of academic Mormon history, over many years her articles pushed the field in new and important directions. We feel it worthwhile to prominently feature her name when recognizing our best scholarship. An endowed award in her name will assure that MHA continues to promote and highlight the finest academic work on a yearly basis. We are pleased to report that $2,600 was raised when we announced the award at the 2019 MHA conference, and thank those who so generously donated. Please help us reach the endowment goal of $10,000. Donations may be made through MHA’s website or by mailing a check to MHA, P.O. Box 980398, Park City, Utah 84098 (write “Jan Shipps Article Award” on the memo line). For more information, or to assist in fundraising efforts for the endowment, please contact MHA Executive Director Barbara Jones Brown at barbara@mormonhistoryassociation.org.
Visions and
Visionaries: Joseph Smith in Comparative Contexts
The
Department of Church History and Doctrine at BYU and the Church History
Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announce the
Church History Symposium, March 12–13, 2020. The symposium will convene at
Brigham Young University (March 12) and at the Conference Center Theater in
Salt Lake City (March 13). Keynote speakers include Sheri Dew and Richard Lyman
Bushman (March 12), and President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First
Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (March 13).
MHA submissions are due on November 1, 2019! If you’re looking for co-panelists, feel free to use this Google doc, where you can list what you’re interested in, how many panelists you need, and any other information you’d like to include. We hope that this will be used in conjunction with Women in Mormon Studies and Global Mormon Studies. If you have other organizations whose membership might be helpful for forming panels, comment on this post and I’ll add it!
Anne Berryhill and I are also happy to put folks in touch with one another and to speak about proposed panels. Our emails are available in the CFP.
We are pleased to share details from the Third Annual Book of Mormon Studies Conference. If you’re in or near Utah State University you should consider going!
Friday, October 11
Plenary Session: Book Reviews 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Details forthcoming
Concurrent Sessions 10:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Room 1
Elizabeth Fenton (University of Vermont), “Readymade Books and the Preservation of the Sacred in the Book of Mormon and the Early Church”
Joseph M. Spencer (Brigham Young University), “‘Virgins, Harlots, Brides, and Queens: Women in the Prophetic Texts of First Nephi”
Kimberly M. Berkey (Loyola University), “‘Here Is My Daughter a Maiden’: Daughters in Judges and the Book of Mormon”
I am a practicing Latter-day Saint. I grew up practicing. One of the things that I remember from my childhood in the 1980s is when my father layed his hands on the heads of my siblings and I and blessed us at the beginning of the school year. I recently blessed my oldest child before he left for the first year of college and will bless his younger siblings in a couple of weeks. Today a friend asked me when this practice started.
Twitter was created for certain things, and one of those things occured last week. If you missed the twitter fracas centered on 30-50 feral hogs last week, catch up. It was good.
The Dialogue Foundation’s Board of Directors is pleased to announce that Taylor Petrey, Associate Professor of Religion at Kalamazoo College, has been appointed the next editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.
Petrey holds a BA in philosophy and religion
from Pace University, and both an MTS and a Th.D. degree from Harvard
Divinity School in New Testament and Early Christianity. He joined the faculty
of Kalamazoo College in 2010 and served as the Director of the Women, Gender,
and Sexuality program from 2012 through 2016. He is currently chair of the
Religion Department.
Petrey is the author or editor of numerous books and articles on Mormonism, gender, sexuality, and early Christian thought. His essay “Toward a Post-Heterosexual Mormon Theology” received Dialogue’s “Best Article” award in 2011 and has become one of the most downloaded and cited articles in the journal’s history.
“We are very excited that Taylor has agreed to
become our next editor, said Dialogue Board chair Michael Austin. “He
brings a profound understanding of some of the most crucial issues in Mormon
Studies today–issues surrounding gender and sexuality, international
Mormonism, interfaith connections, and inclusive theology. And he also
understands what it takes to do academic publishing in the information age.”
Under Petrey’s leadership, Dialogue will enter its 54th year of publishing articles, personal essays, fiction, poetry, and sermons relating to the Mormon experience. Dialogue began publication in 1966 with Eugene England as its founding editor. Since that time, the journal has published four issues a year.
In 2018, Dialogue moved the electronic version of
its journal from a subscription-supported to a
donor-supported publication model. All of its content is now free on the
Internet from the moment of its publication. In 2020, Dialogue will begin
partnering with the University of Illinois Press to produce the print edition
of the journal and will make all of its past issues available through JSTOR and
other electronic databases.
“This is an exciting time for academic journals
generally,” said BYU History Professor Rebecca de Schweinitz, a Dialogue Board
member who co-chaired the search committee that recommended Petrey for the
editorship. “And it is an especially exciting time for Mormon Studies. We need
somebody at the helm who understands both the new audiences that have emerged
and the new technologies needed to reach them. Taylor is an exemplary scholar
with a deep understanding of the modern publishing world.”
“I am thrilled to join Dialogue and to be
a part of the legacy of this great journal,” says Petrey. “This journal
reflects and shapes the best of Latter-day Saint thought, culture, and
scholarship and I can’t wait to embark on the next phase of the LDS tradition’s
premier intellectual and literary venue.”
Petrey will replace Boyd Petersen, who has been Dialogue’s editor since 2016. Please join us in welcoming him to the team. We appreciate your continued support of the journal.
In the July 15, 1891 issue of the (original) Juvenile Instructor, Mormon apostle and editor George Q. Cannon penned an editorial entitled, “Obedience — Do not Kill.” As that title implies, Cannon’s editorial contains both advice to parents on raising obedient children (“the best family government is that in which the judgment of children is appealed to and they are shown, by kind words, that the requests made of them are for their benefit and happiness”) and a denunciation of violence and bloodshed.
Cannon’s aim is broad — he decries both murder and, in words that seem as foreign to modern Mormonism as polygamy — hunting for sport. But his primary focus is on the shedding of innocent human blood, and in light of additional mass shootings this past weekend, Cannon’s words are all too relevant:
The spirit of murder seems to be on the increase in our day. This is partly due to the increase of firearms and to their cheapness, also to the fashion which prevails in many quarters of carrying deadly weapons. The frequency with which shooting is done also has its effect to break down the feeling of sacredness which should surround human life.
George Q. Cannon, “Obedience — Do not Kill,” Juvenile Instructor 26:14 (July 15, 1891), 443
Juvenile Instructor is grateful for a JI-emeritus writer, Brett Dowdle, for writing this review! Dr. Dowdle is a historian for the Joseph Smith Papers Project and holds a Ph.D. in American History from Texas Christian University.
Review, Thomas G. Alexander, Brigham Young and the Expansion of the Mormon Faith (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019).
Despite its immense popularity, few
genres of historical writing are more complex than that of biography. Those
figures who tend to merit the kind of biographies that will be widely read
generally carry with them a host of popular perceptions and myths that either
border on demonization or hagiographic adoration. In most cases, the best
biographies must ultimately find someplace in the muddy middle, displaying the
complexity and humanity of the subject. Thomas Alexander’s recent biography of
Brigham Young does an admirable job of finding just such a place for the
controversial leader. The result is a highly readable and fast-paced biography
that is approachable to both trained historians and the interested public.
The Church History Library is seeking a candidate for a one-year, full-time (40 hours/week) paid internship opportunity working with archivists in arranging, describing, and preparing records for digitization which are related to the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Process archival records in paper, audiovisual, and/or electronic form.
Participate in intake activities of newly acquired collections.
Create finding aids using the EAD register and rendering tool.
Assist in preparing paper and electronic records for digital preservation.
Assist in workflow management of records from acquisitions and processing to digitization and storage.
Review/edit cataloging work of others.
Develop expertise with the cataloging system to capture descriptive metadata, adhering to internal and professional standards.
Contribute to a collegial and professional atmosphere that incorporates the highest standards of behavior and cooperation, promoting teamwork and group purposes.
QUALIFICATIONS
Required: Bachelor’s degree in history, humanities, or related field
Preferred: Master’s (earned or in process) in archival studies, library science, or history
Understanding of archival theory and practices
Proficient in Microsoft Office suite
Strong organizational and time management skills
Highly detail-oriented with excellent writing and editing skills
Willingness to dress and present oneself appropriately
Experience teaching and/or training (in any setting)
Knowledge of the historiography and sources of Church history
Proficiency in working both independently and in a team setting
Experience conducting research and/or working in an archive, including arranging and describing archival collections
WORTHINESS QUALIFICATION
Must be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and currently temple worthy.
POSTING NOTICE/MORE INFO.
Please Note: All positions are subject to close without notice.
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Recent Comments
Glen Larson on CFP: Book of Mormon: “Please add me to your mailing list. Thanks”
Mark Staker on Legacies in Mormon Studies: “Jenny was always generous in sharing her knowledge. She was not only an exceptional educator (who also taught her colleagues along the way), but she…”
Gary Bergera on Legacies in Mormon Studies: “Jenny's great. Thanks for posting this.”
Kathy Cardon on Legacies in Mormon Studies: “I worked in the Church's Historical department when Jenny was in the Museum. I always enjoyed our interactions. Reading this article has been a real…”
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Ben P on Legacies in Mormon Studies: “My favorite former boss and respected current historian!”