The latest Exponent II issue is now available here. Also, don’t forget that submissions are due for our upcoming Summer 2013 Temple-themed issue on April 15th. Please visit our website for more information and email your submission to editorATexponentiiDOTorg.

Letter from the Editor

Last month, my oldest son, Asher, was baptized. It was an occasion Asher and I looked forward to; family came from out of town, we invited lots of friends. It was a lovely day.

After the baptism, I thought about the friends who came and those who didn’t. It’s not that I have hurt feelings towards those who couldn’t come. Those Saturday baptisms are hard to attend while juggling dance schedules and baseball games.

I was, above all, touched at who came. Many who came are our friends who question the Church (and live miles from our stake center). They knew this day was important to me and my family, and they came to witness this event even as it brought up difficult and tender feelings around their own relationships with the Church.

The majority of my friends who didn’t make it to the baptism were members of my ward. I love these friends. They are the ones I call when I need an emergency babysitter or if I want to go for a run after a long day. I thought we were pretty close.

But, then, I had to pause…maybe we’re not that close, and it is my fault we aren’t closer.

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Call For Submissions: Women Reflect on Temple Worship
Summer 2013

As members of the LDS Church we are taught that receiving temple ordinances and doing temple work is an essential expression of our faith. While this message is universal within the Church, individual experiences and responses to the temple are varied and unique. The Summer 2013 issue of Exponent II will be devoted to exploring the diverse experiences of Mormon women as they relate to the temple.

Exponent II is respectful of the sacred nature of the temple and will not be publishing details of temple worship. Rather we are focused on how women have interpreted their temple experience, how they have felt empowered or limited by their temple participation and what role temple worship plays in their spiritual lives. The deadline for submissions will be April 15th, 2013 and can be sent to editor@exponentii.org.

The following are a list of possible topics to spur your writing imagination:

Your first experience with the temple
Experiences as a temple worker
Evolving relationship to the temple
A particular temple that’s meaningful to you
Why did you receive your endowment when you did (i.e. before mission, marriage, other) and how did that timing affect your experience?
What do you think about the Church’s devotion of resources to temple building?
Experiences with family in the temple
Funny temple stories (300 words or less)

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by minouye

As Mormonism continues to develop internationally, so too does the field of Mormon studies. More and more foreign scholars are looking to do work in the area, but often lack the requisite resources. The International Mormon Studies Book Project is a new effort to provide critical resources for developing Mormon studies internationally by purchasing books to form a base Mormon studies collection at institutions where scholars have demonstrated a keen interest in doing research on Mormonism. Currently, institutions interested in partnering with the IMS Book Project span the globe, from Asia to Australia to Europe. The first two IMS Book Project collections are slated for donation to Jianghan University（江汉大学) in Wuhan, China, and the newly formed French Institute for Research on Mormonism (Institut Français pour la Recherche sur le Mormonisme) in Bordeaux, France. In the coming months and years we hope to place as many IMS Book Project collections as continued donations will allow and as interested recipient institutions can be found.

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Exponent II will have it’s first Cyber Monday tomorrow…the first 30 people to subscribe, resubscribe, or send a gift will get both the Winter 2011 and the Winter 2012 issues to start their subscription.

The Winter 2011 issue is a lovely one with some Christmas-themed pieces. And, the Winter 2012 issue is even more exciting! It’s been guest edited by Mormon Women Project. With striking artwork and powerful essays, it’s the perfect way to introduce someone to Exponent II and Mormon Women Project.

You’ll get an email confirming that you are one of the lucky subscribers to get the extra Winter 2011 issue free.

Already have a subscription? Consider getting Exponent II’s Habits of Being: Women’s Material Culture for yourself or someone you love.

Click on the pictures below to place your orders now…

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If you’re anywhere near Boston this Thursday night, please join us at Brandeis University for an event sponsored by the Hadassah/Brandeis Institute. Janet Bennion, an anthropologist who studies Mormon polygamy (and the author of the book Polygamy in Primetime) is joined by our own Laurel Ulrich for a conversation on what Mormon feminism looks like.

Wouldn’t it be great to have some real Mormon feminists in the audience as visual aids? Thursday night, 7:00. Park in the Epstein lot and find us in the Epstein building. If you’re on public transit, take the Fitchburg train line to the Brandeis stop, which is right next to the Epstein building. Or shoot us a heads-up in the comments and we’ll see if we can arrange some carpools.

 

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