Category: conference announcements

The MSSA sponsors the Glenn M. Vernon lecture every other year at the SSSR meetings.  This year, the Glenn M. Vernon lecture will be given by Joanna Brooks, Professor of English and Comparative Studies and the Associate Dean of Graduate and Research Affairs at San Diego State University.  Her talk will be titled: What Forty Years of Mormon Feminism Teaches Us About the Study of Women in Religion: An Intellectual Agenda for the Next Forty Years.  The talk will be October 24th at 7:30 pm in the Grand Pacific Ballroom C at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa.

The 20th Annual Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture has just been announced:

Title: Heroes and Hero Worship: Brigham Young and the Utah War

Speaker: Ronald W. Walker

Date: Thursday, October 2, 2014, 7 p.m.

Location: Logan LDS Tabernacle, 50 N. Main, Logan, Utah

Summary: How do men and women shape history? Do human values have a role in the writing of history? At a time when the so-called New Mormon history appears to be running its course (after occupying center stage for the past half century), it may be time to rethink our approaches. Can the use of narrative biography and the expression of human values bring new understanding to Utah and Mormon history? The Utah War is an ideal opportunity to test these suppositions. The event has an intriguing cast of characters, with Mormon leader Brigham Young certainly among them. Along the way, we will discuss other questions. How soon did Mountain Meadows begin to shape events? What were constitutional theories behind Mormon resistance to the Utah Expedition? Did Mormons support the war effort? The Utah War also asks an important moral question. When and why men and women should fight a war?

Announcement here.

We invite you to the Mormon Media Studies Symposium 2012 on November 8 – 9 at the BYU Conference Center in Provo, UT. The symposium is dedicated to fostering the academic study of all aspects of Mormons and the media, past and present. This year there will be a special focus on what has been called the ‘Mormon Moment’ and the media.

The 2012 symposium theme – “Mormon Moment(s) and the Media” – was inspired by Newsweek magazine’s June 2011 cover story, entitled: “THE MORMON MOMENT.”  The two-day conference will feature academic paper presentations and panel discussions by expert scholars and media practitioners on a wide variety of topics including: Media coverage of religion, Mormonism and Mitt Romney during the 2012 campaign; the “I’m a Mormon” advertising campaign; Book of Mormon Musical; media literacy and media use in LDS families; Internet use and blogging by Mormons; LDS musicians, music, radio, and television; and much more.

The symposium is free and no pre-registration is required.  If you would like to pre-order lunch, please call (801) 422-7692.  I invite you to view the schedule here or see the attached flyer. You may also visit the symposium website for more information.

When: Fri Mar 30, 2012 to Sat Mar 31, 2012
Where: Claremont, California

Given the recent global economic recession, high unemployment rates, and strident political debates on issues such as deficits, taxation, and economic growth, concerns about money are high on public and personal agendas. From monasticism to communitarianism to prosperity theology, religion has been an important variable in cultural attitudes and ideologies toward participation in the marketplace. Brigham Young, for instance, instructed nineteenth-century Utah Mormons to produce their own food and goods, and not to trade with “gentiles,” and various towns experimented with the United Order. This separation did not last, however, and throughout the twentieth century, Mormons followed a path of economic integration. With such an example in mind, this conference seeks to explore how Mormons have theorized about and used the goods of this world personally, socially, and theologically across time and in various settings.

Possible questions to be explored include: Does LDS theology—from Joseph Smith to the early Utah period to the present—say anything distinctive about Mormons’ relationship to the market? How has the economic communitarianism of 19th-century Mormonism played out over the past century? How do Mormon teachings affect the financial and economic decisions of Mormon individuals, families, and communities (for instance, the connections between Mormon millennialism and food storage, or the dilemma of women in the workplace)? What can be said about major LDS “titans of industry,” ranging from Marriott to Covey to Romney? In what ways are Mormon economic ideals shaped by their original American context, and how do they translate in the international sphere, particularly in areas that do not hold as strongly to free market capitalism? To what extent were Latter-day Saints involved in the financial and housing industries that have been pointed to as major elements of the 2008 recession? Is there a coherent body of Mormon teaching about poverty, along the lines of a “preferential option for the poor”? In sum, is there anything distinctively “Mormon” about the ways that Latter-day Saints, historically or currently, operate as economic agents?

Since these questions, and many more, can be approached from a wide variety of disciplines and methods, we invite papers from all possible fields of academic inquiry. We strongly encourage graduate students to apply. A limited number of stipends will be available to conference presenters who need assistance for travel and lodging.

Abstracts of approximately 250 words, a one-page CV, and a presenter’s bio should be submitted by November 1, 2011. Authors will be notified of acceptance by December 1.
Please send submissions or questions to:

conference@claremontmormonstudies.org

Original Source: http://www.claremontmormonstudies.org/conferences/