In the summer of 2024, the Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar, with support from the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies and the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University, will sponsor a summer seminar for graduate students and faculty devoted to reading 2 Nephi 2.

The seminar will be hosted by Matthew Bowman at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California, from May 26 through June 7. Travel arrangements, housing, and a $1250 stipend will be provided for admitted participants. The seminar will be led by Adam Miller and Joseph Spencer, directors of the Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar.

This ninth annual summer seminar will again adopt the Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar’s practice of facilitating intense, exploratory, interdisciplinary, and collaborative readings of Latter-day Saint scripture in a live two-week format. During the first week, the seminar will meet daily to work word by word through the text of 2 Nephi 2:11-27 from a variety of disciplinary perspectives (philosophical, historical, literary, anthropological, rhetorical, political, archeological, sociological, etc.) in order to promote theologically rich readings of the text. The second week will workshop conference papers based on the previous week’s collaboration and will culminate in a one-day conference, open to the public, on June 7, 2024. The conference proceedings will then be gathered and edited for publication.

The seminar welcomes applications from a wide variety of academic disciplines, cultural backgrounds, and geographic locations. Graduate students, junior faculty, and scholars based outside the U.S. are especially encouraged to apply, though applications from senior and independent scholars are also welcome.

Applications should be submitted by January 15, 2024. Notifications will be sent by February 1, 2024. Application materials should include (1) a full curriculum vitae, (2) a 200 word statement regarding the applicant’s interest in the seminar, and (3) a 500-750 word essay that demonstrates the applicant’s ability to offer a close, creative, and theologically substantial reading of 2 Nephi 2:25.

Questions and application materials should be directed to maxwell_institute@byu.edu

For more information about the Maxwell Institute, visit: mi.byu.edu

For more information about the Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar, visit: www.ldstheologyseminar.org

Media Contact: Ashley Pun Eveson