Scholars in the Humanities
May 26-27, 2017
Boston University
Boston, Massachusetts
Mormon Scholars in the Humanities invites proposals for its 2017 annual conference. The conference topic this year is Wisdom, and papers or panels organized around the theme are encouraged. However, as always, we invite papers on other topics, including those that reflect one’s current professional research interests in the humanities.
Mormons have a long history associated with various conceptions of wisdom. Both the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants each contain more references to wisdom than the New Testament, and together they provide Mormons with a strong scriptural tradition that promotes wisdom as a positive virtue. And beyond these textual examples, Mormons practice and observance of the Word of Wisdom promotes connections between embodiment and knowledge via wisdom. We encourage participants to reflect on the ways wisdom is configured in their own disciplines—the humanities also has a rich tradition of engagement with wisdom—and consider how those configurations speak to contemporary Mormon practice.
Potential topics include:
How do Mormon conceptions of wisdom relate to other wisdom traditions?
In what ways are wisdom and the economic figurally linked in Mormonism?
What role does wisdom literature play within Mormonism, and how does Mormonism theologically or doctrinally engage with these texts?
How is wisdom aesthetically conceptualized and depicted within the Mormon tradition?
How does the Word of Wisdom affect Mormonism’s theological understanding of wisdom, its practice, and cultivation?
What is the relationship between wisdom and gender in Mormonism, and how should we evaluate that relationship?
We invite 250-350 word abstracts for papers, as well as proposals for organized panels. Abstracts and proposals are due January 5, 2017; acceptance notices will be sent out by February 1, 2017.
Please send submissions either as an email or as a MS Word attachment to MSH President Jenny Webb at [email protected]. Please include the author’s full name, affiliation, contact information, paper title, and abstract word count.
All presenters are required to register for the conference, but they are not required to members of the LDS church.
MSH welcomes submissions by independent scholars and graduate students. Graduate students wishing to be
considered for a Graduate Student Travel Fund award should indicate their student status with their submission.
Deadline: January 5, 2017