Mormon Studies Weekly Roundup

Most of our team that contributes links for the weekly roundup have been preoccupied this week, so the MSWR is a bit light in terms of quantity (though certainly not quality) this week. Let’s jump right in:

James Goldberg has written/curated an informative, fascinating, and, quite frankly, beautiful account of a Latter-day Saint exodus in covered wagons that most Mormons probably know nothing about (I certainly didn’t before reading the post). Check out online exhibit, “The Armenian Exodus,” at history.lds.org, to read more about the early 20th century journey of Mormon migrants from Turkey to Syria. Once you’ve finished there, head on over to Keepapitchinin to read Ardis’s complementary post that adds a bit more detail to the online exhibit and links to previous posts on Armenian Latter-day Saints at Keepa. You’ll be glad you did.

Continue Reading

Mormon Studies Weekly Roundup

This week brings us a diverse assortment of news and research for your perusal.

Study explores impact of early returned LDS missionaries

A recent study conducted by UVU professor of psychology and behavior science Kris Doty examined the effects of returning home early from a mission due to circumstances such as failing physical health, mental health issues, or indiscretion can have on individuals. The study involved survey responses from 348 early returned missionaries. Unfortunately, there is no link to the study anywhere on the Web.

Utah Division of State History, Utah Department of Heritage and Arts, Senior State Historian

A new job listing went up this week at the Utah Division of State History for a Senior State Historian-Digital Editor. “This person will co-manage the Utah Historical Quarterly operations with a Senior State Historian-Print Editor.  Together the co-managing editors will run the day-to-day operations of the Quarterly.” Check it out yo!

Continue Reading

Mormon Studies Weekly Roundup

Welcome to the Mormon Studies Weekly Roundup!

This week did not begin well for ?Mormons in the News? when it was revealed that Orem-born and primary-raised Julianne Hough had apparently missed the memo that blackface is racist and decided to darken her skin for her Crazy Eyes costume. Hough, who is most famous for her appearances on Dancing with the Stars, is also a country singer whose first album debuted

Continue Reading

Mormon Studies Weekly Roundup

Another week, another list of links from the world of Mormon Studies. Let’s get started:

Those of you who enjoyed last month’s series of posts on material culture will want to read Rachel McBride Lindsey’s post at Religion in American History on a recently-rediscovered quilt auctioned off at her grandmother’s childhood church (Tabernacle Baptist Church in Springfield, Missouri). Lindsey concludes:

My grandmother was a small child in 1938 and her memories of the quilt are probably more collective than personal. The quilt is not a proxy of material culture?that capacious category assigned to the stuff we designate as somehow meriting sustained inquiry?and neither is it a proxy of the tiny hands that have grown soft and arthritic, or the many other hands that stitched hundreds of names and sewed its patches into a single tapestry. It is not an unmediated connection to the past, but it is a connection whose twines are composed of threads and stories. Itself a patchwork, it asks us to piece together not only the history of the church and the ownership of the quilt, but also the many other histories of which it is a part.

Another non-Mormon post of potential interest to JI readers is Ken Owen’s thoughts on historical heroes over at The Junto. His concluding thoughts are certainly relevant to readers of Mormon history: “I?ll keep my heroes, for without them, I?d begin to wonder why history mattered at all. But I?ll remember that heroism is also a mug?s game, and I?ll do my best to keep my eyes open to the broader questions?good and bad?raised by the lives of those I admire.” 

Continue Reading

Mormon Studies Weekly Roundup (MSWR)

For your reading pleasure during this General Conference weekend.

What better place to begin than Elder Christofferson’s September 24th devotional address at BYU I, titled “The Prophet Joseph Smith” (transcript here). Christofferson spoke about the work done on the Joseph Smith Papers Projects, as well as advocating for a more complete (but always Spirit-led) understanding of Joseph Smith himself. For a summary of the talk, see the Maxwell Institute’s blog (the post is aptly titled, ” A little learning is a dangerous thing,” … so get a lot of it instead”).

At an October 2 talk at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business, Mitt Romney spoke critically of the government shutdown, but also made it very clear that he would not run for president a third time. As reported by Deseret News:

“I’ve had two bites at the apple. Three strikes and you’re out,” he said. … “Running for president and losing still was one of the greatest experiences of my life,” he said. “Winning or losing is not how you define success. It is what you give your life to.”

Speaking of the University of Utah, this semester, students have the opportunity to take a special kind of Book of Mormon class. The class, which deals with the Book of Mormon as a literary product, is taught by David Bokovoy, an associate instructor with a PhD in Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East from Brandeis University.  According to the Salt Lake Tribune, “The course, sponsored by the donation-funded Tanner Humanities Center and taught by David Bokovoy, examines how the book mimics the Bible in language and tone, and how the story fits as a piece of 19th-century American literature.”

For anyone looking to learn more about the Ordain Women movement, Dialogue Magazine is offering a  virtual round table, featuring Emily W. Jensen, Chelsea Shields Strayer, Lisa Butterworth, Neylan McBaine, and Saren Eyre Loosli. Check it out here.

The Atlantic takes on mythologies surrounding the female reproduction system, including an LDS instructional manual titled, Living, Loving, and Marrying in their analysis. The manual referred to menstruation as “the weeping of a disappointed womb”–medically inaccurate, perhaps, but fully reflective of its time.

Lastly, the Bunyion offers readers a solution to the government shutdown: let the LDS Church run the country. No word on Obama’s response, as yet.

Mormon Studies Weekly Roundup (09.15.2013)

Welcome to this installment of Mormon Studies Weekly Roundup!

To the news:

This week brings formal tidings from the University of Virginia of Kathleen Flake?s appointment as the inaugural Richard Lyman Bushman Chair of Mormon Studies in UVA?s Department of Religious Studies, a development that we celebrated and discussed with her a week ago. The news must have piqued some broader interest as well, because the appointment also was noted in the New York Times.

Some items of interfaith and ecumenical interest. At the Washington Times, Mark Kellner highlighted the recent work of Stephen H. Webb, until recently a professor of religion and philosophy at Wabash College. Webb?s new book Mormon Christianity: What Other Christians Can Learn From the Latter-day Saints, which is now available from Oxford University Press, professes to take ?Mormon theology seriously from an outsider’s perspective, arguing persuasively that Mormons are a part of the Christian family tree, and that their doctrine offers valuable insights and alternatives to traditional Christianity.? It?ll be interesting to see whether the book is a bombshell in the Christian community. Meanwhile, the Deseret News drew attention this week to comments of Rt. Rev. Scott B. Hayashi, Episcopal Bishop of Utah, condemning ?anti-Mormon humor.?

Continue Reading

Mormon Studies Weekly Roundup (MSWR)

Be sure to follow the comment sections from this week’s posts. The comments offer further discussion into this week’s posts, and engage the topics more fully.

DATES TO REMEMBER

Remember that the Mormon History Association’s Call for Papers due date is October 1st.  If you are looking to join a panel, feel free to comment on the link in the last sentence or post in one of the Mormon History Association sites mentioned on that link.

Jared Farmer is speaking at the Salt Lake City Library on Utah environmental history and culture.

Todd Compton is also speaking this Thursday, at Benchmark Books. He will be speaking on his new Jacob Hamblin biography.

The final plug for lectures in today’s post goes to Kris Wright’s upcoming lecture on September 12. You won’t want to miss her look at Mormon material culture, women, and ritual.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE

Jared T presented at the Historical Conference for the Museum of Mormon History in Provo yesterday. Be sure to stay tuned to his blog for a possible overview or notes on the conference. Also, if you haven’t been to the museum and you’re within a reasonable driving distance to Provo, it is definitely worth your time!

In other news from MHA, if you are a subscriber, you can now access many conference presentations in audio form through the MHA website. The 2013 sessions are close to being available to subscribers.

PODCASTS

NPR’s On Point discusses a new book, Ecstatic Nation, which touches briefly on Mormons and popular sovereignty.

NOTES AND NEWS

FMH’a drive to fund the Tracy McKay scholarship drive is open. Read more about the worthy cause here.

BYU  Religious Education recently hired a mother with young children.

You won’t want to miss Keepapitchinin’s posts on Saim Abd al-Samid, a Turkish convert to Mormonism, who was secretly baptized in 1901 (be sure to catch both posts).

Enjoy the links. Let me know if I missed an article you would have liked to see profiled in the MSWR!

Mormon Studies Weekly Roundup (Inaugural Edition)

Welcome to the inaugural installment of our new regular feature, Mormon Studies Weekly Roundup, which will appear each Sunday morning and consist of links to news and interesting items related to the study of Mormon history and culture. JI bloggers will take turn curating the post each week, and although we’re casting the net fairly wide here, the content posted will likely reflect that individual’s own interests. We don’t necessarily expect a lot of discussion to show up in the comments of these posts, though you are more than welcome to comment on any of the linked content and encouraged to post links to any relevant news items we might have missed. Thanks for reading!

_______________________

We’ll start with links to summaries of the two Mormon Studies conferences held last weekend in the Beehive State: FAIR (ably summarized by speed-typist Blair Hodges in a two part series at the Maxwell Institute Blog here and here) and Sunstone (reported on in the City Weekly here). If there other worthwhile reports of either, please do post links to them in the comments (especially if they report on the more scholarly papers presented at either).

Continue Reading