As summer closes and fall is upon us, that means it is time for another round of issues from Mormon studies journals. The following are several articles that stood out to me from the latest issues of Dialogue, Journal of Mormon History, and John Whitmer Historical Association Journal. I hope we have some further engagement with some of these articles in the near future, including some more “Responses” articles.

Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 45, no. 3 (Fall 2012). This entire issue was devoted to conference papers from the last year, and demonstrates the depth and breadth going on in the many disciplines of Mormon studies. (Subscribe, download the entire issue, or download individual articles here.)

• Patrick Mason, “Mormon Blogs, Mormon Studies, and the Mormon Mind.” Presented at UVU’s conference on Mormonism and the Media, this is a brilliant examination of the intersections between the “bloggernacle” and the academic study of Mormonism. He posted some of his findings previously, but this published paper includes much more. We’ll hopefully do a bigger discussion–perhaps a small roundtable?–on the broader implications of blogging for the academic world.
• Amanda Hendrix-Komoto, Benjamin Park, and Richard Bushman, ?Conversion in 19th Century Mormonism: Identities and Associations in the Atlantic World.? This was a panel at the Mormon History Association that originally included another stellar paper from another JIer, Christopher Jones. Amanda’s paper is on the familial politics of conversion as seen through the life of Mary Fielding Smith, and my paper looks at the evolving identities of Edward Tullidge as a way to explore the nature of belief. Richard Bushman’s response is a provocative look at conversion, identities, and social history.
• Rachael Givens, “Lost ‘Wagonloads of Plates’: The Disappearance and Deliteralization of Sealed Records.” Rachael’s fascinating paper was presented at the Mormon Scholars Foundation Summer Seminar last year on the gold plates, and is a provocative look at how tracing the evolution of one idea–what the sealed records contained and when they will become available–can tell us about the social transitions within Mormonism. (Rachael previously blogged a portion of the paper here.)
• Saskia Tielens, “The Gold Plates in the Contemporary Popular Imagination.” This paper, from another JI friend, was presented at this year’s Summer Seminar on Gold Plates, and is a fun and sophisticated look at the role of the plates in Mormon material culture. And being that we have already seen the brilliance of Saskia’s analysis here on JI recently (see here and here), you should all be excited.