Mormon Theology Seminar Announcement

In the summer of 2015, the Mormon Theology Seminar, in partnership with the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies and the Neal A. Maxwell Institute at Brigham Young University, will sponsor a summer seminar for graduate students and faculty devoted to reading Jacob 7.

The seminar will be hosted by Union Theological Seminary in New York, New York, from June 8—June 20, 2014. Travel arrangements, housing, and a $1000 stipend will be provided for admitted participants. The seminar will be led by Adam Miller and Joseph Spencer, directors of the Mormon Theology Seminar, with assistance from Brian Hauglid, director of the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies.

This second annual summer seminar will again adapt the Mormon Theology Seminar’s practice of facilitating intense, exploratory, interdisciplinary, and collaborative readings of Mormon scripture for a live two-week format. During the first week, the seminar will meet daily to work word by word through the text of Jacob 7 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 and a joint-report based on the previous week’s collaboration and will culminate in a one-day conference, open to the public, on June 20, 2015. 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 scholars, 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, 2015. Notifications will be sent by February 15, 2015. 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 applicants ability to offer a close, creative, and theologically substantial reading of Jacob 7:26.

Questions and application materials should be directed to anela_ormsby@byu.edu
For more information about the Mormon Theology Seminar, its mission, and archives of its past work, visit:

www.mormontheologyseminar.org

For more information about the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, visit:

www.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu