Bushman Symposium This Saturday

[_Daniel Peterson]

Mormonism in Cultural Context
A Symposium in Honor of Richard Lyman Bushman
On the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday
June 18, 2011
Springville Museum of Art
Springville, Utah

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
J. Spencer Fluhman
Steven C. Harper
Reid L. Neilson
Jed L. Woodworth

SPONSORS
Church History Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Mormon Historic Sites Foundation
Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University
Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Amber Media
Susan Bettis
M. Gerald Bradford
Jennifer Elizabeth Harper
Robert L. Millet
Jeffrey N. Walker
Dianne Yancey
Springville Art Museum, especially Vern G. Swanson and Dawn C. Jensen

SESSIONS

Opening Plenary Session 8:00-9:00 AM
Grand Gallery
Welcome
"Joseph Smith, Romanticism, and Tragic Creation"
Terryl L. Givens
Professor of Literature and Religion, James A. Bostwick Chair of English, University of Richmond

Concurrent Session 9:10-10:10 AM
Grand Gallery
"Rethinking Retrenchment: Course Corrections in the Ongoing Campaign for Respectability"
Armand L. Mauss
Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Religious Studies, Washington State University
"The British Colonization of Mormonism"
David J. Whittaker
Senior Librarian and Curator of Mormon and Western Americana, Brigham Young University
Youth Gallery
"The Third Convention, 1936-1946: Joseph Smith, Juan Diego, and Mormon Ideas of Mexican Exceptionalism"
Elisa Pulido
Graduate Student, Claremont Graduate University
"Mormonism's Middle Way"
Tona J. Hangen
Assistant Professor of US History, Worcester State University

Concurrent Session 10:20-11:20 AM
Grand Gallery
"'The Wars and the Perplexities of the Nations': Reflections on Mormonism, Violence, and the State"
Patrick Q. Mason
Howard W. Hunter Associate Professor of Mormon Studies, Claremont Graduate University
"Catholic-Mormon Dialogue: Ecumenical, Inter-Religious, or What?"
Donald Westbrook
PhD Student, Claremont Graduate University
Youth Gallery
"God, the World, and the Long Journey to Divinity: Mormonism, Idealism, and Romanticism"
James McLachlan
Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Western Carolina University
"Mormonism, Enlightenment, and Millennial Peace"
Benjamin Huff
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Randolph-Macon College

Concurrent Session 11:30 AM-12:30 PM
Grand Gallery
"Zion in Exile: Mormonism's Integration of Separatism and Inclusivism"
Mark Ashurst-McGee
Research Historian and Documentary Editor, Joseph Smith Papers Project, Church History Library
"Who Holds the Keys to Eternal Life?: The Radical Answer of Joseph Smith, Jr."
Charles Randall Paul, Ph.D.
President, Foundation for Religious Diplomacy
Youth Gallery
"On Mormon Thought and Its Context(s): Joseph Smith, Thomas ****, and the Tricky Task of Determining Influence"
Benjamin E. Park
MPhil Student, Political Thought and Intellectual History, University of Cambridge
"Joseph Smith as Philosopher King: Early Mormonism and Late Neoplatonism"
Stephen J. Fleming
Graduate Student, University of California, Santa Barbara

Luncheon for Presenters and Invited Guests, Jerald Jacobs Atrium
Remarks: Claudia Lauper Bushman

Concurrent Session 1:30-2:20 PM
Grand Gallery
"Early Mormon Approaches to the Past"
Jordan Watkins
PhD Student, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
"Richard Lyman Bushman’s Historical Thinking in Context"
Stuart Parker
Postdoctoral Fellow, Brigham Young University
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Youth Gallery
"LDS Understandings of Religious Freedom: Responding to Shifting Directions of the First Amendment Pendulum"
Mauro Properzi
Visiting Professor of Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University
"Jacksonian Democracy and the Spirit of Mormonism"
Lynita K. Newswander
Adjunct Faculty of Political Science, University of South Dakota
and Lee Trepanier
Associate Professor of Political Science, Saginaw Valley State University

Concurrent Session 2:30-3:30 PM
Grand Gallery
"The Language of Heaven"
Sam Brown
Assistant Professor, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine
"Joseph Smith and John Milton: Affinities, Infinities"
Rosalynde Welch
Managing Editor, The Mormon Review
Youth Gallery
"Joseph Smith’s Restoration as a Postmodern Work of Art"
Ian Fowles
PhD Student, Claremont Graduate University
"Of Dung, Diamonds, and Plain and Precious Truths: Biblical Editing of Thomas Jefferson and Joseph Smith"
Kurt Graham
Director, Church History Museum
"The LDS Notion of Zion and Teilhardian Thought"
Stephen R. White
Associate Professor, Appalachian State University
and Jonathan R. Nichols
Graduate Student in Leadership & Educational Studies, Appalachian State University

Concluding Plenary Session 3:40-4:50 PM
Grand Gallery
"The Fragmentation of Reality: Joseph Smith's Radical Remedy"
Philip L. Barlow
Leonard J. Arrington Professor of Mormon History and Culture, Utah State University
"After the Golden Age"
Richard Lyman Bushman

The Bushman family will also be hosting a reception at the museum from 6:30-8:00pm.

[_moksha]

"On Mormon Thought and Its Context(s): Joseph Smith, Thomas ****, and the Tricky Task of Determining Influence"
Benjamin E. Park
MPhil Student, Political Thought and Intellectual History, University of Cambridge

Thomas **** sounds like an uncommon name. Is it Canadian?

[_Daniel Peterson]

Indeed it is. Most Canadians are named ****. It's the far northern analogue of the common Sikh name Singh, I think. Nobody knows how it's pronounced, though. And it seems to be indefinable.