Has John Gee Been "Booted" from the Maxwell Institute?

[_Doctor Scratch]

I am beginning to feel like a broken record: 2019 is truly turning out to be a monumental year in the world of Mopologetics. I don't know if readers caught it, but on the thread on Interpreter's subscribers, Bond James Bond wrote, in very hard-to-read white text, that:

Gee got fired I hear

Whoa! If true, this is an extraordinary development. What on earth could be going on? If you look at Gee's page on BYU's website, it would seem that he's still with the MI:

SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW

John Gee is a Senior Research Fellow, and the William (Bill) Gay Research Professor at the Maxwell Institute. He is the editor of eight books, and has edited a peer-reviewed international Egyptological journal. He has published over eighty articles and one book. He has served on the board of trustees of national and international organizations.

However, a separate page tells a different story:

John Laurence Gee graduated from BYU in 1988. Later, he became a graduate student in Near Eastern studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and received his MA in Near Eastern studies in 1991. He earned his PhD in Egyptology at Yale University in 1998, completing his dissertation on ancient Egyptian ritual purity.

Gee was the William "Bill" Gay Research Professor of Egyptology at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at BYU when this was written. In this role, he is an editor for the Studies in the Book of Abraham series and a member of the editorial board of the Eastern Christian Texts series.

(emphasis added)

Huh! This would seem to employ that he is no longer the William "Bill" Gay Research Professor--a position that, one assumes, given the title, is permanently attached to the Maxwell Institute.

Is this true, though? I personally intend to wait for additional confirmation--especially of the public variety. That said, I will say that I received news of this via an "anonymous informant," who indicated that Gee has apparently been given a separate (though inferior) position in DCP's home department.

This is quite stunning. If it is true (and I must emphasize that I do not know for certain if it is or not), then it will mean that the "Mormon Studies" takeover of the MI is now complete. You have to wonder who will get to occupy the (apparently?) now-vacant William "Bill" Gay Research Professor Chair.

[_Bond James Bond]

How did that get into my post? Sounds like gossip I heard on Twitter. Get out of my DMs whoever you are ;)

And by "fired" I me most probably transferred to another job away from the Maxwell Institute or is in the process of being moved to another job. Probably not a "pack your crap and get out" type of firing like those of us in the private sector get to experience.

[_Gadianton]

I'm sorry guys but I don't by this at all.

Didn't Elder Holland just recently give a thorough mud-hole stomping to the New MI for not being faithful disciple scholars? Wasn't the SeN comment section alive with speculation about a reversal of power even? In particular, Midgley seemed very confident the end was near for the new MI.

[_Shulem]

Office: 801-422-8269

[_MsJack]

And by "fired" I me most probably transferred to another job away from the Maxwell Institute or is in the process of being moved to another job. Probably not a "pack your ____ and get out" type of firing like those of us in the private sector get to experience.

Perhaps the language you're looking for is . . . "was removed."

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2109

I heard something about an attempt to reassign him to Classics, but Classics "nope'd" that. But that confuses me. If he isn't at the MI, ANE seems like the best place for him. So I don't know how accurate that is.

Whatever the case, I wish him well.

[_Doctor Scratch]

And by "fired" I me most probably transferred to another job away from the Maxwell Institute or is in the process of being moved to another job. Probably not a "pack your ____ and get out" type of firing like those of us in the private sector get to experience.

Perhaps the language you're looking for is . . . "was removed."

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2109

I heard something about an attempt to reassign him to Classics, but Classics "nope'd" that. But that confuses me. If he isn't at the MI, ANE seems like the best place for him. So I don't know how accurate that is.

Whatever the case, I wish him well.

MsJack: is Classics the same as ANE? I guess I am confused about the way that the departments are structured. *I* was told that Gee was indeed being given a spot in ANE (i.e., DCP's home department), but that this was effectively a "demotion," and that he would not be eligible for "Continuing Status" or whatever it's called. This is all very curious because, as you may recall, there was recently a shake-up in the BYU Classics department that involved a boycott of BYU by one of the discipline's professional organizations, due to BYU being historically intolerant towards a number of different groups of people. Of course, DCP self-censored his own blog post on the matter, and all those old-school Mopologists--Gee, Peterson, Hancock, Midgley, and so on--are hard-core critics of homosexuality. Thus, I can't help but wonder if any of that played a role in what you are describing as Gee getting '"nope'd."'

[_Doctor Scratch]

I'm sorry guys but I don't by this at all.

Didn't Elder Holland just recently give a thorough mud-hole stomping to the New MI for not being faithful disciple scholars? Wasn't the SeN comment section alive with speculation about a reversal of power even? In particular, Midgley seemed very confident the end was near for the new MI.

Yes: I'm very interested to hear their explanation for this (assuming it's true; it seems now that multiple people are confirming that it *is* true). This feels a bit like the old case with Dehlin, where the Brethren were divided on the matter (and, indeed, wasn't it Holland who squashed the Dehlin "hit piece"?). It may be the the Mopologists are convinced that Holland is a staunch ally, but there are other Brethren who are fed up with Sic et Non, and all the Interpreter-style crap, and who gave the MI their "real" orders. It would be funny in a way if this turned out to be a retread of 2012, with the Mopologists eventually coming out to allege that there was some "coup" that was executed by some apostate "Judas" in the MI. Who, in other words, will they blame this time? Bradford retired quite some time ago.

[_Physics Guy]

However, a separate page tells a different story

The BYU Religious Studies Center seems to use the same "was X at the time this was written" formula for all of its authors except those who are definitely retired.

[_MsJack]

MsJack: is Classics the same as ANE? I guess I am confused about the way that the departments are structured. *I* was told that Gee was indeed being given a spot in ANE (i.e., DCP's home department), but that this was effectively a "demotion," and that he would not be eligible for "Continuing Status" or whatever it's called. This is all very curious because, as you may recall, there was recently a shake-up in the BYU Classics department that involved a boycott of BYU by one of the discipline's professional organizations, due to BYU being historically intolerant towards a number of different groups of people. Of course, DCP self-censored his own blog post on the matter, and all those old-school Mopologists--Gee, Peterson, Hancock, Midgley, and so on--are hard-core critics of homosexuality. Thus, I can't help but wonder if any of that played a role in what you are describing as Gee getting '"nope'd."'

Nah, Classics and ANE (Asian and Near Eastern languages) are very different departments. They both fall under "humanities," but a lot of departments do. There is some overlap between the two for biblical studies, especially New Testament.

Given that Gee is an Egyptologist, I'm not sure what reason there would be to propose Classics as a new home. Even if he knows Greek and Latin on a secondary basis, BYU has one of the finest Classics programs in the country. They only need to hire the best from candidates who do Classics on a primary basis.

I imagine that's a bigger reason than what went down with CAMWS, though it's possible they're sensitive to any further increase of a negative profile there.

I notice BYU doesn't actually have an Egyptology major or minor; you can do a few Egyptology classes under an Ancient Near Eastern Studies major, and that's it. The other BYU Egyptologists, Rhodes and Muhlenstein, are/were in the Religion department. That could explain part of the alleged difficulty in relocating him.

[_Doctor Scratch]

Physics Guy: thank you very much for that clarification. Still, it seems that there are enough people who've caught wind of this that I'm comfortable (barring any new developments) treating this as, at minimum, highly plausible, if not 100% true.

MsJack:

Given that Gee is an Egyptologist, I'm not sure what reason there would be to propose Classics as a new home. Even if he knows Greek and Latin on a secondary basis, BYU has one of the finest Classics programs in the country. They only need to hire the best from candidates who do Classics on a primary basis.

I imagine that's a bigger reason than what went down with CAMWS, though it's possible they're sensitive to any further increase of a negative profile there.

I notice BYU doesn't actually have an Egyptology major or minor; you can do a few Egyptology classes under an Ancient Near Eastern Studies major, and that's it. The other BYU Egyptologists, Rhodes and Muhlenstein, are/were in the Religion department. That could explain part of the alleged difficulty in relocating him.

Now that I've had a bit more time to think this over, and seeing your commentary here, it occurs to me that this is *huge* in terms of the consequences it has for Book of Abraham apologetics. After Nibley, Gee was *the* point person for defending the Book of Abraham. It has simultaneously been the main source of his "renown," and the most significant albatross around his neck. Defending the Book of Abraham has arguably damaged his professional reputation, and now, the death blow has been delivered. Not only have his Mopologetic Book of Abraham issues been roundly rejected by the field of Egyptology; now, he's been given the shaft by his fellow Mormon academics!

You mentioned Kerry Muhlestein, who, of course, has seemed like the "heir apparent" for Book of Abraham apologetics (and boy, has he taken a beating over it); but Muhlestein, I'm assuming, has got a more secure potions that the alleged "adjunct" sort of position (per what I was told) that Gee is being dumped into. Muhlestein has always maintained something of a "cautious distance" from the classic-FARMS crew, though. I haven't ever known him to engage in the sort of attack-minded tactics that have defined Peterson, Midgley, Hamblin, Smith, and others. Regardless, this is a terrible blow to Book of Abraham apologetics. It seems that even the Lord's University has given up on treating the Book of Abraham like legitimate scripture.