I am the newest BYU Prof!

Many of my close friends and family already know this, so it won’t be a surprise to them, but I am still giddy to announce that I have accepted a job at BYU Religious Education starting in Fall 2014.  Hiring decisions were recently made public, so I can finally share the good news with our readers.  My life-partner and I will be moving to Orem this July, so let us know where we can find a supportive ward!

I would like to share a bit of the back story about how all of this came to be.  Officials from BYU Religious Education approached many of us at the blog over the last few years acknowledging some of the concerns of the LDS graduate student community.  Out of these conversations they invited me to apply, and have actually created a special position for me funded by the office of the President to bring some of a new vision.  President Samuelson, as many observers have been reporting in national magazines, has been turning BYU into a secular liberal institution, and I am pleased to report that this trend will continue under President Worthen.

As part of these changes, I have been asked to put together some new courses. In addition to further side lining apologetics and promoting secular Mormon Studies in its place across Religious Ed, I am working on a new Religious Ed course on the collected works of Joanna Brooks, with possibly another that focuses on the podcasts and Facebook posts of John Dehlin!