By June 18, 2010
The Church History Library will be holding a Women’s History Lecture Series for the second half of 2010. It begins 8 July with a lecture by Chad Orton, CHL archivist, titled “Those They Left Behind: Experiences of Missionary Wives and Children, Unsung Heroes of the Restoration”. Knowing the caliber of these lecturers and their work, the lectures will in no doubt
By June 16, 2010
Much to our collective dismay, Elizabeth has decided to step down as a contributor here at Juvenile Instructor. Liz came aboard almost two years ago and for a long time was the lone female blogger here. She’s contributed a number of insightful and provocative posts during her tenure, and more recently launched two of JI’s more successful series—Secularism and Religious Education, exploring the ways different Mormon students at Divinity Schools have grappled with secularism and their individual educational pursuits in Religious Studies and Women in the Academy, profiling several up-and-coming female Latter-day Saint scholars. Perhaps more than all of that, though, Liz is known for incorporating the personal into her academic and historical reflections.
By June 15, 2010
Jon Butler argued in Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People that colonial Americans were not really “Christianized” until late in the eighteenth century. In making his argument, Butler was essentially applying the “dechristianization” thesis to colonial America (he mentions Mormons in a later chapter). To shed light on these arguments, I wanted to summarize the debates over the dechristianization thesis.
By June 14, 2010
The year 1890 looms large in American history. It ranks up there with 1776, 1877, and 1945 as important dates that historians have used to organize our past. It also shapes collective memory. Mormons most readily associate 1890 with the Woodruff Manifesto and the ?official? end of polygamy. For Americans, and westerners more specifically, 1890 represents the end of the Frontier, the most American part of our history, to paraphrase Frederick Jackson Turner. According to C. Vann Woodward, the 1890s marked the hardening of segregation in the South.
By June 11, 2010
Esteemed Friends of the JI,
I have an exciting announcement for all of you interested in Mormon women?s studies and who have the desire to be published! Deseret Book is creating a new series called Women of Faith in the Latter Days and is calling to YOU for submissions. The volumes will be primarily story-and-faith-based and will provide an important opportunity to generate interest in Mormon women in popular LDS culture, with an aim to inspire deeper research at present and in the future. We need thorough, historically-based research (which you are all so good at!) in conjunction with narratives of faith and testimony. Below you will find the prospectus for the volumes. Share the story of an LDS woman you admire and submit an article for any volume listed. Feel free to send an email to the address below for additional details. Thanks all! Brittany
By June 10, 2010
A week or two ago when my wife was out of town, my daughter (yes, that one) said something at dinner that caught me off guard. “I don’t believe our church is true.” She’s eight. That in and of itself didn’t catch me totally off guard because a month or so before she asked while we were doing scripture reading, “what if our church isn’t true and God is mad at us for going to the wrong church.” At that time I told her that I knew that if she prayed God would lead her in the way He saw fit.
By June 8, 2010
[The following is the introduction to my recently published article in Dialogue. I post it here with three goals in mind: 1) To get any feedback/corrections/accusations on the article, as well as to provide discussion for anyone else who finds the topic as fascinating as I do. 2) To fulfill my guilt and anxiety to post something of substance here, but doing so without much work on my part. 3) To remind everyone what a great resource Dialogue is, and how awesome they are for strengthening their online presence. For those who haven’t done so yet, go to their website right now and subscribe and/or donate!]
By June 7, 2010
A conference sponsored by the Latter-day Saint Council on Mormon Studies, and
the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame
Held at Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA
March 18-19, 2011
By June 6, 2010
I am pleased to welcome fellow Yalie Melissa Proctor as the next participant in this series. Her academic journey has led her through the worlds of Near Eastern Studies, philosophy of religion, and Mormon women’s history. Her interview reflects her passionate pursuit of her interests as well as her significant contributions to the study of Mormon women.
Education
B.A. BYU Near Eastern Studies (1998)
M.A. Yale Divinity School (2001)
visiting scholar Princeton (2005-2007)
visiting faculty Harvard Divinity School (2007-2008)
visiting faculty the college of the Holy Cross (2008-2009)
visiting fellow, Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah (spring, 2010)
Ph.D. candidate Brown University (2010)
Currently I’m a Ruth Landes Memorial Research Fellow through the Reed Foundation in New York City.
By June 4, 2010
(Cross-posted at Religion in American History)
Over at Religion Dispatches, Joanna Brooks has a two-part post asking ?Who Says the Tea Party isn?t a Religious Movement?? In challenging Lou Ruprecht?s answer of ?no,? Brooks notes that ?for the Mormon sector of the movement (including Tea Party icon Glenn Beck), ? the Tea Party taps into a powerful and distinctive complex of Mormon beliefs about the divinity of the U.S. Constitution and the last-days role of righteous souls from the Rocky Mountains in saving it from destruction.?
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