New York Times Lecture and Panel

Perspectives on the 'Mormon Moment'
Laurie Goodstein, New York Times National Religion Correspondent

February 13th, 2013
Noon - 2:00 p.m. 
Ragan Theater
Student Center, Utah Valley University

The 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney was accompanied by unprecedented attention to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Dubbed by Newsweek Magazine as the 'Mormon Moment,' The Book of Mormon Musical, California's Proposition 8, and the elevated profile of prominent Latter-day Saints provided a unique opportunity to observe the successes and challenges of this dynamic religious tradition. The lecture and panel will feature the New York Times' Laurie Goodstein, who has written extensively on Mormons and their place in American political and popular culture. She will be joined by a panel of scholars to address issues related to the rise of Mormonism and the forces that have shaped its development as a distinctive Christian faith.

Schedule of Events
 
12:00 p.m. - Lecture

"Perspectives on the 'Mormon Moment'"
Laurie Goodstein, New York Times National Religion Correspondent

12:30 p.m. -  Panel Discussion

Laurie Goodstein, New York Times 
Kristine Haglund, Editor,  Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought
James Faulconer, Richard L. Evans Professor of Religious Understanding, Brigham Young University 
Peggy Fletcher-Stack, religion reporter, Salt Lake Tribune
Russell Arben Fox, associate professor of political science, Friends University
moderated by Brian D. Birch, director, Religious Studies Program, Utah Valley University


Participants

LAURIE GOODSTEIN is a national religion correspondent for The New York Times. She joined The Times in 1997 after working at The Washington Post for eight years, where she started as a news assistant and became a metro reporter and a national reporter. In 2004, she received the first place award for “Best In-Depth News reporting on Religion” from the American Academy of Religion, the nation’s largest academic association of religion scholars. In both 1995 and 1996, Laurie received the two top awards for religion newswriting – the Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year and the Supple Religion Writing Award. She has also received journalism prizes for her religion writing in Washington, D.C. and New York City. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1984 and a Master’s from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in 1989, where she won a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship. She lives in New York with her husband and sons.

JAMES FAULCONER  is the Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding and associate director of the Wheatley Institution at Brigham Young University. He is a columnist for the Mormon Portal at Patheos and is a frequent contributor to online forums on religion and culture. He received his B.A. in English from BYU, and his M.A. and Ph.D in philosophy from Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of Faith, Philosophy, and Scripture, Transcendence in Philosophy and Religion, and editor (with Mark Wrathall) of Appropriating Heidegger. 

RUSSELL ARBEN FOX  is associate professor of political science at Friends University in Witchita, Kansas specializing in American government, comparative politics, social philosophy, and political theology. He received a Ph.D. in politics from Catholic University of America after studying International & Area Studies at Brigham Young University's David M. Kennedy Center. He has contributed to the New York Times Room for Debate on Mormonism and politics and currently serves as Book Review Editor for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 

KRISTINE HAGLUND  is the editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. A frequent commentator on Mormon online discussions, she is currently a contributor to By Common Consent and has been a guest panelist at Columbia University, the University of Southern California, Wesley Theological Seminary, and has appeared on CSPAN and other public fora. A pioneer in the Mormon "blogosphere," Haglund was a contributor to Times and Seasons in 2004 before joining By Common Consent. She received her A.B. from Harvard in German Studies and an M.A. from the University of Michigan in German Literature.

PEGGY FLETCHER STACK is religion reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune and a widely consulted source for journalists covering The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a force behind the newspaper's award-winning Faith section, her stories and contributions to the Following Faith blog have developed a national and international profile. She is the co-author of A World of Faith and a former editor for Sunstone Magazine. 

BRIAN D. BIRCH (moderator) is associate vice president for academic affairs and director of the Religious Studies Program at Utah Valley University. He is the founding editor of Element: The Journal of the Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology and Teaching Ethics. He received his Ph.D. in the Philosophy of Religion and Theology program at Claremont Graduate University and specializes in religious diversity and comparative Christian thought. His current book project is entitled Mormonism Among Christian Theologies for Oxford University Press.