Global Mormon Studies 2022 Conference
No One Exists in Isolation: International Latter-day Saints and Their Neighbors
March 21-24 2022
Coventry University, England
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has illuminated how profoundly each of us is affected by the people around us. While each person has the right and responsibility to make individual choices, they are also always responding to their neighbours’ choices and decisions as they do so. Such negotiations are not limited to public health crises but are an integral part of many social interactions that hinge on questions of political, ethnic, and religious identity. This recognition prompted the conference committee to alter the conference theme somewhat from “On the Outside Looking In” to “No One Exists in Isolation,” in order to foreground these kinds of negotiations.
The Global Mormon Studies 2022 Conference thus includes papers and presentations that examine how interactions between international Latter-day Saints and their neighbours shape both the lived experience of being a member of the Church and the church’s development internationally. Being a Latter-day Saint outside the continental United States can create a disconnect between the culture of a local community and the perception of church culture as fundamentally American. International Latter-day Saints are uniquely positioned to observe the ways in which an “American” culture both helps and hinders the growth of the global church, while also bringing new perspectives on familiar issues, such as marriage, family structure, gender roles, and sexuality. In a similar vein, those of other faiths also bring a valuable perspective from which they can bring to light aspects of church culture which may be difficult for its own members to recognise.
Organising Committee
Julie K. Allen, Brigham Young University, Co-Chair
Amy Hoyt, University of the Pacific, Co-Chair
Alison Halford, Coventry University, host
Registration
Registration for in-person attendance of GMS 2022 is now closed, but you can still register to attend virtually.
To keep costs down, we are handling registration quite informally. To confirm your participation in the conference, please write to gmsconference2020@gmail.com and/or submit payment of $50 for professional scholars/$25 for graduate students and independent scholars to Julie Allen via PayPal (juliekallen@gmail.com) or Venmo (@JulieKAllen). Upon receipt of your payment, we will send you a registration confirmation and payment receipt.
Schedule
The conference will begin in the late afternoon on Monday, March 21, 2022 with an optional walking tour of Coventry, followed by a welcome reception and our first keynote speaker. Paper presentations are scheduled for Tuesday, March 22, followed by a group dinner, and Wednesday, March 23, with an optional informal excursion to the Cotswolds on Thursday, March 24. You can view a full schedule for the conference here.
Transportation Info and Accommodations
We recommend that attendees fly into London, England and take a train from Euston station, London to Coventry (which will take between an hour to an hour and a half, depending on the train provider). Travelling by car will take about two hours depending on time. A closer airport (although usually more expensive) is Birmingham International, which is only fifteen minutes from Coventry. The Ibis Coventry Centre is the hotel most conveniently located to the conference venue, but there are many other hotels and B&B options in the area.
Accommodations
The nearest: the Ibis Conventry Centre, located on Mile Lane, about a five minute walk from the train station and ten minutes from the main centre of Coventry.
The cheapest: Premier Inn Belgrade Plaza in the city centre, a fifteen-minute walk to the university and about a five-minute walk to Coventry Cathedral.
There are also serviced apartments at Belgrade Plaza, which are more expensive but have cooking facilities if you want to stay longer.