Comments on: Call For Papers: BYU Studies 50th Anniversary Conference, March 12-13, 2010

By: Jared T

Jared T — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:35:04 +0000

David, I think that would be really interesting. Also interesting would be to see how aggressively journals like JMH and Dialogue market themselves to universities and what factors go into a university’s decision to carry one or the other.

By: David G.

David G. — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:16:32 +0000

Interesting, Steve. That would be interesting to get a few more examples of which Mormon-themed journals other universities carry. TCU also carries UHQ, but I suspect they get all the state historical journals.

By: smb

smb — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:14:26 +0000

speaking of BYUS,[1] is anyone going to AAR in Montreal? I’ll be accompanying my brighter half who is speaking on Nation of Islam foodways, plugging away on a laptop. Anyone else planning to attend?
———-
[1] or not.
[2] I don’t get the sense that BYUS is used for promotions boards anywhere (even at BYU), but they’ve published a variety of interesting work over the years.

By: Steve Fleming

Steve Fleming — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:43:11 +0000

Yea, they do J. Oops. No JMH though.

By: smallaxe

smallaxe — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:03:18 +0000

Thanks for the responses.

By: J. Stapley

J. Stapley — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:27:48 +0000

Steve, is that because they get it electronically?

By: Steve Fleming

Steve Fleming — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:17:06 +0000

Interestingly UCSB subscribes only to BYU Studies; they let their Dialogue subscription lapse.

By: Ben

Ben — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:05:36 +0000

Just to build on David and Chris H., an editor of a respected scholarly religion journal recently counseled me to turn to Journal of Mormon History or Dialogue before BYU Studies. But I also agree with the two commenters above me that BYU Studies does have some great material, though. (like the most recent issue, for instance.)

By: David G.

David G. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:07:11 +0000

smallaxe, few non-Mormon American historians would recognize the journal if they saw it on a CV. A few years back, when I worked for Jack Welch as an undergrad, there was talk of changing the journal’s name to something more academic-sounding, but obviously, nothing came of that. In terms of name recognition (and academic respectability), I’d say that BYU Studies lags behind the Journal of Mormon History, Utah Historical Quarterly, and Dialogue. For example, the only Mormon journal my institution (TCU) subscribes to is Dialogue.

Over the years, BYU Studies has published some important New Mormon History-type articles that are important to historians interested primarily in Mormon history but not necessarily broader issues.

By: Chris H.

Chris H. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:55:55 +0000

smallaxe,

BYU Studies would not mean much in my discipline, even at BYU, when it comes to attaining tenure. I think that it could be viewed as a respectable place to publish LDS-Oriented public intellectual work.

Having said that, there is some good stuff in BYU Studies related to my interests.