To replace our MHA Student Reception, all students are invited to participate in a Zoom social hour on Saturday, June 12, at 7 pm MST. This social will give students a chance to meet other students interested in Mormon history and catch up with friends you already know. Feel free to join the social with your drink or dessert of choice, and enjoy the chance to socialize virtually, learn about resources for students in Mormon history, and make new friends.
Please contact the MHA Student Representative, Charlotte Hansen Terry, to receive the Zoom meeting number and password.
The Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia invites candidates to apply for a post-doctoral Research Associate position. The Research Associate conducts research and supports academic and public events related to the study of religion. Duties will include administrative tasks in support of research activities, the Forum on Democracy and Religion, the Virginia Center for the Study of Religion, and the Mormon Studies Program. The Research Associate will coordinate public events and academic meetings and provide communications and budgetary support. The position may also involve teaching academic courses and an opportunity to present research. This job is ideal for someone who thrives in a higher education environment, has an interest in the study of religion, especially but not limited to American religion and Mormonism. [ADDED LATER: POSITION BEGINS ON 8/24/2021]
The registration deadline for “Restoration, Reunion, Resilience,” MHA’s 2021 annual conference is rapidly approaching. Registration closes at the end of the day on May 26, 2021. The face-to-face component will be held at the Utah Olympic Park complex in Park City June 10-12, 2021. Online content will become available at the same time. Conference registration (for MHA members) is $189 (with access to both in-person and online content). However, there are a variety of options to join MHA and to register for the conference. A full list of fees can be found here.
Joseph and I are thrilled by the line-up of presentations, plenaries, posters, roundtables, and book critiques. The preliminary program exhibits an ever expanding state of the field, including contributions from international scholars never before made possible at MHA. The depth and breadth our MHA 2021 preliminary program represents are truly exciting.
Presenters at the conference must register by the deadline. This will also ensure timely posting of online sessions (since online sessions cannot be posted until all presenters pay membership and registration dues). For other attendees, on-site registration will be available for an additional $40 (not including any meals).
Whether connecting with the program content in-person or virtually, Joseph and I look forward to the opportunity to once again connect with you.
MHA’s Face-to-Face mentorship event will be online at this year’s conference, through Zoom on Friday, June 11, 5:30 pm-6:30 pm MST. The purpose of this hour-long event is to facilitate conversations between applicants and experienced scholars of Mormon history. We are seeking applications from those interested in participating, whether as mentors or as students, non-traditional students, independent scholars, and so forth. Applicants can propose to talk to people about their research, career trajectories, digital humanities, publishing, public history, and more! This is an amazing opportunity to have a one-on-one conversation and to receive specific advice about your unique place in the field of Mormon history.
The final few years of Joseph Smith’s life reveal a man with many responsibilities: religious, familial, and civic. The editors of Joseph Smith Papers, Documents: Volume 12: March-July 1843 (D12) make that abundantly clear in their outstanding volume and give researchers the tools they need to understand better the historical contexts of antebellum America and Latter-day Saint Nauvoo. However, I also felt like I came to know Joseph Smith the person from the 96 documents organized and annotated in D12. In their introduction, they quote Joseph Smith as saying, “when a man is reigned up continually by excitement, he becomes strong & gains power & knowledge.” Smith was never content to operate in one role alone; he saw himself within communities and as a society-builder. Zion, to Smith, was the “pure in heart,” but it was also comprised of people.
Those of us at the Juvenile Instructor, like so many other in the Mormon academic community, are very sad to hear of the passing of D. Michael Quinn, and want to take a moment to honor his legacy as one of the most important historians of Mormonism. Our own Ben Park put together an excellent summation of Quinn life on this Twitter chain, but we’d also like to take a moment here to celebrate Quinn’s tremendous contribution to Mormon history.
For me, what stands out most about Quinn’s scholarship are controversy and indefatigable research. Controversy in Mormon history had been with the movement since the beginning with scholarship on Mormonism often dividing between believers and non-believers. Quinn was somewhat pioneering in tackling controversial topics as both a believer and an “insider” in his work at the church archives and at BYU. Scholars like Marvin Hill had been edgy, but Quinn fully embraced the most controversial topics and even held a kind of press conference to refute Boyd K. Packer’s 1981 “The Mantle is Far, Far Greater than the Intellect.”
The Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is looking for a historic sites curator to serve as a digital operations specialist. As a standing member of the division’s visitor experience team, this individual will assist in extending the reach of historic sites significant in Church history for a global audience.
This is a full-time position.
RESPONSIBILITIES
In order of importance. Includes percentage of time spent on each.
It is time to jumpstart your research in Mormon women’s history with an MWHIT grant! Our organization is thrilled to offer two research grants annually to help one student and one independent scholar forward his or her study of Mormon women’s history. For example, these funds could be devoted to childcare to allow blocks of time for writing, travel for a research trip, acquiring digitized copies of records, editing assistance, and so forth. The work of women scholars and those interested in women’s history desperately needs to be shared, and that means YOU or someone you know! Forward this email to a friend who may also be interested. The deadline to apply for an MWHIT research grant is Saturday, May 1, 2021.
Click here for details on the Student Grant and here for details on the Independent Scholar grant.
In an effort to connect researchers to one another, feel free to respond to this email with your research interests and needs. We will see if we can provide you with contacts of persons who share your interests! Thank you to all who have supported our bazaars and other fundraising efforts to make these grants possible.
The Book of Mormon Studies Association (BoMSA) is pleased to announce its fifth annual meeting, to be held in person on October 7–9, 2021, at Utah State University. The event is sponsored by USU’s Department of Religious Studies and with thanks to Patrick Mason, the Leonard J. Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture.
This annual event gathers a variety of scholars invested in serious academic study of the Book of Mormon. It has no particular theme but instead invites papers on any subject related to the Book of Mormon from any viable academic angle. This year’s two plenary guests will be Terryl Givens (Maxwell Institute) and Laurie Maffly-Kipp (Washington University). We plan to begin this year’s conference on Thursday evening by participating in the Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture offered by Dr. Maffly-Kipp, who will then be involved in a special plenary session the next day at the BoMSA meeting. We anticipate that this adjustment to our traditional schedule will give attendees the opportunity to participate in the Arrington lecture while also creating space for more sociality over the course of the BoMSA conference weekend.
Steve Fleming on BH Roberts on Plato: “Interesting, Jack. But just to reiterate, I think JS saw the SUPPRESSION of Platonic ideas as creating the loss of truth and not the addition.…”
Jack on BH Roberts on Plato: “Thanks for your insights--you've really got me thinking.
I can't get away from the notion that the formation of the Great and Abominable church was an…”
Steve Fleming on BH Roberts on Plato: “In the intro to DC 76 in JS's 1838 history, JS said, "From sundry revelations which had been received, it was apparent that many important…”
Jack on BH Roberts on Plato: “"I’ve argued that God’s corporality isn’t that clear in the NT, so it seems to me that asserting that claims of God’s immateriality happened AFTER…”
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. …”
Recent Comments
Steve Fleming on BH Roberts on Plato: “Interesting, Jack. But just to reiterate, I think JS saw the SUPPRESSION of Platonic ideas as creating the loss of truth and not the addition.…”
Jack on BH Roberts on Plato: “Thanks for your insights--you've really got me thinking. I can't get away from the notion that the formation of the Great and Abominable church was an…”
Steve Fleming on BH Roberts on Plato: “In the intro to DC 76 in JS's 1838 history, JS said, "From sundry revelations which had been received, it was apparent that many important…”
Jack on BH Roberts on Plato: “"I’ve argued that God’s corporality isn’t that clear in the NT, so it seems to me that asserting that claims of God’s immateriality happened AFTER…”
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. …”