Widtsoe Foundation looking for colleagues in an "advisory network"

[Melissa I]

Dear colleagues,

I've recently joined the board of the John A. Widtsoe Foundation, which aspires to provide support for scholars around the world engaged in 1) interfaith dialogue and 2) global Mormon studies. What follows is a personal inquiry in this capacity as a Widtsoe Foundation emissary. However, as a GMS person I am also kind of selfishly interested in making this work, because anytime someone wants to invest money in GMS, I am all for it!

I am writing to ask whether any members of this list would be willing to be part of a sort of advisory network (like the GMS network, but less diffuse, more focused, specifically committed to advise the Widtsoe Foundation). It would be kind of like a super-advisory board or council. These scholars don't have to be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and they don't have to be full-blown professors at universities. Principally the Foundation is trying to better understand how it can support the academic potential of Mormon studies scholars around the world. (Fellowships at the masters, PhD, or postdoctoral level? Regional conferences? Translation of abstracts of books, journal articles, and chapters? etc.)

Being part of the Widtsoe advisory network would mean you would be willing to respond to emails (on the order of probably one or two emails a month), join a couple of zoom calls (I'm thinking maybe 2 per year for most locations--more intensively if the Foundation decides to concentrate an effort in one particular area), and potentially help people in the network liaise with local academics or academic institutions (for a conference, for instance, or workshop). 

As I mentioned before, the Widtsoe Foundation has both "devotional" and "academic" arms. The project I'm mentioning here is in this academic arm, but just so you know, there are these two arms--that's the kind of entity that Widtsoe is.

We are looking for a dozen or so people to be involved on the level I mention above. We hope these people will be

1) native to a place that's not the U.S.

2) interested in the study of Restoration traditions and connected to academic institutions (either as a current student or as a graduate or employee) in their home region

3) eager and willing to tell us dumb U.S. folks when we are totally bonkers, insensitive, or dumb (like maybe some stuff in this email?)

4) visionaries--what investments will help Mormon studies take root and become self-sustaining outside of the United States?

5) but also practical--what will actually work? (for instance, maybe the postdoctoral research fellowships often given to young scholars at U.S. universities wouldn't work in places where religious studies are less mature--in this case, maybe undergraduate research scholarships or masters scholarships would be better?)

Anyway, if you would be interested, I would love to hear from you. In any case, if anything comes of these efforts (for instance, fellowships, or workshops) I will definitely report back to the group. Please also feel free to forward this call for advisors to people you think would be interested. 

Please respond by February 15th--this will help me get a better sense of what we're looking at in advance of the next Widtsoe Foundation board meeting.

Best

Melissa

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Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye

Senior Lecturer, University of Auckland

Historian, Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

[Holly Miller Jones]

Hi Melissa,

I'm interested. Feel free to email me privately for more info.

Holly