The Mormon Theology Seminar and the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship are pleased to announce the First Annual Summer Seminar on Mormon Theology, “A Dream, a Rock, and a Pillar of Fire: Reading 1 Nephi 1.”
The seminar will be held at BYU’s London Centre in June 2014. Graduate students, junior scholars, independent scholars, senior scholars, and European-based scholars from a range of disciplines are invited to apply. Full information is included below. A printable PDF of the call for applications can be found here.
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The First Annual Summer Seminar on Mormon Theology
“A Dream, a Rock, and a Pillar of Fire: Reading 1 Nephi 1”
Brigham Young University London Centre, London UK
June 9—June 20, 2014
Sponsored by the Mormon Theology Seminar
in partnership with
The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
In the summer of 2014, the Mormon Theology Seminar, in partnership with the Neal A. Maxwell Institute at Brigham Young University and with support from the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies and the Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding, will sponsor a summer seminar for graduate students and faculty devoted to reading 1 Nephi 1.
The seminar will be held at the BYU London Centre in London, England, from June 9—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 Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies, and James Faulconer, a Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding and the director of the BYU London Centre.
This summer seminar will take the Mormon Theology Seminar’s practice of facilitating intense, exploratory, interdisciplinary, and collaborative readings of Mormon scripture and adapt it for a live two-week format. During the first week, the seminar will meet daily to work word by word through 1 Nephi 1 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 on June 20, 2014. 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 European-based scholars are especially encouraged to apply, though applications from senior and independent scholars are also welcome.
Applications should be submitted by December 15, 2013. Notifications will be sent by January 15, 2014. 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 1 Nephi 1:2-3.
Questions and application materials should be directed to [email protected].
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.
BYU’s center, or shall we say centre, is just off the NW corner of Hyde Park, near some good Indian food and not far from Portobello road. It’s a great location.