7 Takeaways from #MHA2018

Another MHA has come and gone and it was one of my favorites yet. Lots of colleagues, friends, and acquaintances in one place speaking about a topic that occupies a lot of my brainspace. The plenaries and Judith Weisenfeld’s Smith-Pettit Lecture were all excellent, and you’ll all want to read all of them in JMH or future books. Rather than recap the conference, I’ve jotted down some quick thoughts on what I’m taking away from the 2018 MHA Annual Meeting.

Gender: More women presented at MHA than in previous years. This is unequivocally a good thing. I heard some grumbling that including more women was “too much too fast.” This seems insensitive and shows much more about the speaker than about the program. There’s no way for every worthy paper to be accepted for any conference (ask any member of any program committee). Thinking that there were too many women suggests that there is a right number of women or that women are somehow a supplement to the program. The program committee did an excellent job organizing their programs around the conference’s theme and balancing the need for new and seasoned voices on a variety of topics. My hat goes off to them  

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MHA Awards 2018

Congratulations to all of the winners! JI-ers are in bold.

Individual Awards

Arrington: Gary James Bergera

Special Citation: Cherry Bushman Silver

Book Awards

Best Book: Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women’s Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870 (Knopf, 2017).

Best Biography: Carol Cornwall Madsen, Emmeline B. Wells: An Intimate History (University of Utah Press, 2017).

Best First Book: Brent M. Rogers, Unpopular Sovereignty: Mormons and the Federal Management of Early Utah Territory (University of Nebraska Press, 2017).

Honorable Mention: Mary Campbell, Charles Ellis Johnson and the Erotic Mormon Image (University of Chicago Press, 2016).

Best Documentary Editing: Jill Mulvay Derr, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds., The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History (Church Historian’s Press, 2016).

Article Awards

Best Article: Amy Harris, “Early Mormonism’s Expansive Families and the Browett Women,” in Rachel Cope et al., eds., Mormon Women’s History: Beyond Biography (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2017): 83-112.

Women’s History: Andrea G. Radke-Moss, “Silent Memories of Missouri: Mormon Women and Men and Sexual Assault in Group Memory and Religious Identity,” in Rachel Cope et al., eds., Mormon Women’s History: Beyond Biography (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2017): 49-81.

International: Lamond Tullis, “Tzotzil-Speaking Mormon Maya in Chiapas, Mexico,” Journal of Mormon History 43, no. 2 (2017): 189-217.

Excellence: Jeffrey David Mahas, “‘I Intend to Get Up a Whistling School’: The Nauvoo Whistling and Whittling Movement, American Vigilante Tradition, and Mormon Theocratic Thought,” Journal of Mormon History 43, no. 4 (2017): 37-67.

JMH Award: Tonya Reiter, “Black Saviors on Mount Zion: Proxy Baptisms and Latter-day Saints of African Descent,” Journal of Mormon History 43, no. 4 (2017): 100-123.

Student Awards

Dissertation: Taunalyn Ford Rutherford, “Conceptualizing Global Religions: An Investigation of Mormonism in India,” Claremont Graduate University.

Thesis: Jessica Nelson, “The ‘Mississippi of the West’: Religion, Conservatism, and Racial Politics in Utah, 1960-1978,” Utah State University.

Graduate Paper: Matt Lund, “Missionary Widows: The Economic and Social Impact of Mormon Missions on Families,” University of Utah.

JSP Jobs: Editorial Assistant and Source Checker

Editorial Assistant: Church Historian’s Press (Church History Department) (Contract Position) 

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Four Tips for Attending MHA as a Non-Mormon

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Taves’s Revelatory Events, pt. 6: What Jane Lead Said (pt. 2)

The passage I cited in my previous post (“The Angelical Key”) contained the following side note: “This Vision is a more distinct Revival of a former one, that was given several Years before, and is already Published in the First Volume of this Diary, pag.22 Entitled, The Key of the Great Mystery. Which ought therefore to be compared with this.”

In that vision (see “In the Month of August”), Lead seeks a key to unlock a gate to the Holy City, but is unable to make it. Wisdom then comes to her and says that she shouldn’t feel bad since most have failed at this, and then adds,

But in as much as thou ownest and bewailest thy unskillfulness, I will make known to thee what Key will turn this great Wheel of my Wisdom, so as it may move, and manifest it self in thee, through all thy Properties, if thou canst bid up to the Price of it. For understand that it is compounded of all pure Gold…. But the great thing, saith Wisdom, now is to discipline and make thy Spirit a cunning Artist, to give it Knowledge of what Matter in Number, Weight and Measure this pure Key is made up of, which is all pure Deity in the Number THREE; which is weighty indeed, being one exceeding weighty Glory.

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Taves’s Revelatory Events, pt. 5: What Jane Lead Said (pt. 1)

Part 1, 2, 3, 4

The line about an object being touched and transformed by “the Finger of God,” at the beginning of the second paragraph (below) is what struck me about this passage from a vision Jane Lead titled, “The Angelical Key,” from her third journal. I’ve posted some of the numerous similarities between Lead’s visions and Mormonism and the following is one of many more like it. The abundance of passages like the following have convinced me that Joseph Smith knew Lead’s writings well.[1]

The following not only has parallels to the brother of Jared’s experience but also suggests the need for one to create a special object before one could gain knowledge. It doesn’t mention gold plates, but Lead does mention a gold book in another passage and I’ll talk more about that in my next post.

What follows is Lead’s “The Angelical Key,” (see here under November 16, 1678) with some of my commentary afterwards.

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Taves’s Revelatory Events, pt. 4: Personal Reflections

Reading Revelatory Events was curious experience for me. Not only am I Taves’s former student who is researching and writing on Joseph Smith, but I’ve also been a believer in supernatural and revelatory events not only for Joseph Smith and Mormon history, but in my own life.

I’ve naturally engaged in plenty of reflection on these topics, but Revelatory Events brought my experiences into particular focus with discussion of certain traits like highly-hypnotizable individuals and benign schizotypy. Having been friends with some of Ann’s other students at UCSB that worked on cognitive science and religion, I had the chance to discuss these kinds of topics including various methods that scholars use to determine these traits. I do not know the names of these scales, but scholars will do surveys how “susceptible” one is based on their tendency toward being highly imaginative and having unusual/spiritual experiences. Simply put, I’d probably rank high on those charts.

In the spirit of applying these methods to one’s self I’ll mention two experiences I had that had to do with Ann.

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How I Approach MHA Conferences as a Graduate Student

Edje and several readers gave some excellent advice for first-time MHA attendees. I heartily endorse everything that was said, particularly the need to show up to events like the First-Timers’ Breakfast and the Student Reception (find them here with the rest of the program). MHA’s student rep, Hannah Jung, has worked incredibly hard to make the reception successful. Show up. Get some food. Win a book (everyone that attends will get one). Seriously. DO IT.

All this being said, I think that there are several important things that first-time attending graduate students should keep in mind. After all, we have different concerns than other groups. MHA is one of the better academic organizations I’ve seen for encouraging student participation which can be to your benefit. Before diving in, I want to stress that you need to find ways to make conferences work for you. They are significant investments of time, energy, and money. Make sure that you are doing what you can to get the most out of your MHA experience.

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Q&A with Gary Bergera on Editing the Leonard J. Arrington Diaries

Gary Bergera, the editor of the Leonard J. Arrington Diaries and Mananging Director of the Smith-Pettit Foundation, has graciously agreed to answer a few questions about the diaries and their potential use. You can purchase the diaries HERE and read Matt’s review of them HERE.     

1. Which topics of research in Mormon history would benefit most from the Leonard Arrington diaries?

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Attending MHA as an Avocational Historian

A few days ago I posted on what it’s like to attend the Mormon History Association annual conference. Today I’m going to write about why I attend and what it has been like for me in my particular situation. We anticipate a few other posts like this from different perspectives.

There are multiple reasons why someone might attend MHA and I’ll describe a few below but I think the main reason boils down to this: MHA goers are interesting people who know cool stuff. You are an interesting person who knows cool stuff. If we all hang out and talk about the cool stuff we have a good time and learn more cool stuff. If we do this often enough eventually we’ll all be so cool and interesting and together that we’ll need to wear sunglasses.

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