By August 28, 2011
From the event announcement at USU.
Richard V. Francaviglia, a former university professor and administrator, now an independent consultant and researcher, has been selected to present the 17th annual Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture.
By August 26, 2011
The scholar/blogger Historiann (if you are a young Mormon scholar interested in academia, you should really read her blog) has a new post on the ethics of conference participating. Partly because I am lazy, and partly because I think we can generate a good discussion, I’d like to bring part of that debate over here.
By August 25, 2011
The Tanner Humanities Center is proud to present
the 2011 David P. Gardner Lecture in the Humanities and Fine Arts
Please join us for a lecture by
Richard Bushman
By August 24, 2011
We are thrilled that Susanna Morrill, assistant professor of religious studies at Lewis and Clark College, has been kind enough to share her insights on the visionary culture of early LDS women here at the JI. Susanna’s article ?Relief Society Birth and Death Rituals: Women at the Gates of Mortality,? Journal of Mormon History, 36 (Spring 2010), 128?59 as well as her book, White Roses on the Floor of Heaven: Nature and Flower Imagery in Latter-day Saints Women’s Literature, 1880-1920 have garnered wide praise. Let’s give Susanna a warm welcome.
In 2003, faithful LDS member Stephenie Meyer dreamed of a girl and a beautiful, sparkly vampire boy, in love and having an intense conversation in a meadow. Meyer could not get the dream out of her head. Whenever she could get a chance, she wrote a story inspired by the dream. It became the first book in the Twilight series. Meyer described this experience: ?To be honest, I felt like I was guided through the process.?[i]
By August 22, 2011
Continued from Part I.
Sarah Reed, “Fantasy, Fraud, and Freud: The Uncanny Gold Plates in 19th Century Newspaper Accounts.” Sarah, a graduate student in German studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, had the honor of bringing Freud to the party. Specifically, she explored the debates surrounding the Gold Plates through the lens of Freud’s “uncanny,” the idea that a thing or concept can be both familiar and foreign at the same time. Sarah examined how newspaper accounts presented Joseph Smith’s narrative—which in itself possessed many home-grown or native elements—in a way that repressed the familiar and emphasized the exotic. Attackers often contrasted JS’s message with Enlightenment ideals, thereby creating a safe distance between the Mormons and the audience. Fun stuff.
By August 21, 2011
Clement of Alexandria asserted that Plato was an important precursor to the coming of Christ. [1] The quotes I post from Plato here suggest that Mormons could sympathize with Clement’s point of view. The first is Plato’s statement on deification from the Theaetetus.
By August 19, 2011
The Mormon Scholars Foundation Summer Seminar, founded by Richard Bushman and recently co-directed with Terryl Givens, has a tradition of gathering the brightest young Mormon scholars for six weeks to research, engage, and present on specific themes or periods. This year’s group was no exception. A dozen participants ranging from an undergraduate majoring in engineering to an Assistant Professor in Religious Studies (our own SC Taysom!) gathered together to explore the theme, “The Cultural History of the Gold Plates.” I had the great privilege to attend their presentations today, and what follows is my brief recap, broken into two parts.
By August 17, 2011
Neilson, Reid L. Early Mormon Missionary Activities in Japan, 1901-1924. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2010
Dr. Reid L. Neilson, managing director of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ history department, has written a fascinating account of the Mormon Japanese Mission at the turn of the 20th century. Neilson argues that the 19th century LDS missionary experience in the United States and Europe had calcified Mormon evangelizing strategies to a degree that ultimately determined their failure in the rapidly modernizing Japanese nation. While Neilson’s trajectory often wades a little shallow and missionary-centric, his transnational gaze at Mormon mission policy and practice, while situating his study in a comparative Christian missionary framework, offers important inroads for scholars of Mormon history who have too often found themselves mired in the nineteenth century American origins story of a 21st century global church.
By August 16, 2011
Call for Papers
The History of Mormonism in Latin America and the U. S.-Mexico Borderlands
We are pleased to announce a call for papers for a conference on the history of Mormonism in Latin America and the U.S. Mexico Borderlands to be held in El Paso, Texas on July 28, 2012 in conjunction with a 100th Anniversary Commemoration of the ?Exodus? of settlers from the Mormon Colonies in northern Mexico to the United States.
By August 16, 2011
III Brazilian Mormon Studies Conference
Annual Conference of the Associação Brasileira de Estudos Mórmons (Brazilian Mormon Studies Association—ABEM)
January 28, 2012
São Paulo, Brazil
Call for papers
“Mormonism and its relationship with other denominations”
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