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NEW EDITOR FOUND: Dr. Boyd Jay Petersen Named Next Editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought

January 29, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY, January 28, 2015 – The Board of Directors of Dialogue Foundation, publisher of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, has selected Dr. Boyd Jay Petersen to serve as the journal’s next editor. Petersen will succeed Kristine Haglund when her term as editor ends December 31, 2015.
Petersen has taught courses in English and religious and Mormon studies at Utah Valley University since 1995, receiving a Faculty Excellence Award in 2006. As Program Coordinator for Mormon Studies, he has organized conferences on Mormonism and Islam, Mormonism and the Internet, Mormonism and Buddhism, and Mormonism and the environment, among other topics. He has also been a lecturer in the honors program at Brigham Young University. He has published articles and essays in Dialogue, Journal of Mormon History, Irreantum, BYU Studies, FARMS Review and Sunstone. The Mormon History Association awarded him the Best Biography Award for Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life; his most recent book is Dead Wood and Rushing Water: Essays on Mormon Faith, Politics, and Family. He is currently the book review editor for the Journal of Mormon History.
Commenting on his selection, Petersen said: “Dialogue has demonstrated that spirit and intellect are not two separate parts of the human soul that must be shielded from each other. Rather, deep conversation between the two is the only way for each to be fully expressed. Intelligence broadens faith and faith broadens intelligence. My goal is to continue the strong tradition of editorship that has allowed Dialogue to play that role for many thousands of readers, while serving as a venue for Mormonism to engage with the world’s great ideas and debates.”
Dialogue, the oldest independent Mormon Studies journal, founded by Eugene England and others in 1966, will be celebrating its fiftieth year of publication in 2016. The journal is known for groundbreaking articles examining all facets of Mormon life and history by respected Mormon scholars, including Armand Mauss, Claudia and Richard Bushman, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Hugh Nibley, Lester Bush and D. Michael Quinn.Morris Thurston, Chair of the Selection Committee, said, “While there were many outstanding applicants for the position of Editor, we are absolutely thrilled that the process has produced a scholar of Boyd Petersen’s caliber to lead Dialogue into its second fifty years.”
Dr. Petersen has a B.A. from Brigham Young University, an M.A. from the University of Maryland, and a Ph.D. from the University of Utah, the latter two degrees in Comparative Literature. He and his wife, Zina Nibley Petersen, reside in Provo, Utah.