The John A. Widtsoe Lecture Series has invited Boyd Jay Petersen, author of Dead Wood and Rushing Water and Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life to be the inaugural speaker in the 2014 lecture series.
His lecture, “Mormonism's All Seeing I: The Personal Essay and the Search for Truth,” invokes the legacy of Mormonism's great essayist Eugene England, exploring not just the balance between faith and the critical demands of rigorous scholarship but on the kinds of selves we uncover and create through self-narration and the cultivation of narrative voice. Boyd's writing takes up the legacy of Gene England's project—in its vulnerability and honesty, its generosity and warmth, and in its internal tensions.
Time: Tuesday, January 21st, 5:00pm
Place: Rm 206, Family Life Building, Utah State University.
The lecture is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be available.
Buy It Now-
Dead Wood and Rushing Water: Essays on Mormon Faith, Culture, and Family
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Boyd Jay Petersen teaches English and religious studies at Utah Valley University and Brigham Young University. He is the authorized biographer of Hugh Nibley (Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life. Greg Kofford Books, 2002), was awarded the adjunct faculty excellence award from UVU in 2006, and completed his PhD in comparative literature at the University of Utah in 2007. He currently serves as the program coordinator for Mormon Studies at UVU, book review editor for theJournal of Mormon History, and is a past president of the Association for Mormon Letters. He and his wife Zina are the parents of four children and make their home in Provo, Utah.