The Preliminary Program for the 2006 SLC Sunstone Symposium has been posted at the Sunstone website.
Who is going? (I’ll be there with my son; I’m participating in a panel on the Ed Kimball follow up to the SWK biography.)
Also, take a look at the program and convey your thoughts. What sessions look interesting to you? What looks like the same old same old?
Personally, I think it looks like there is going to be a lot of fun stuff this year, and I am really looking forward to it.
By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog 
FMH Lisa’s presenting.
I’m going, and I’d love to meet you, Kevin.
This looks interesting! I like the Angel Moroni listening to an iPod.  I just checked flights from Boston, and they’re almost $500! Anyone have any luck finding cheap tickets to SLC?
I’m going to finally see States of Grace. A New York Doll, though my Doll DVD is arriving from amazon any day now.
Session #163 by H. Parker Blount on the four women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus. Did I just read that around the ‘naccle?
#113 My Mormon Dream Bible sounds fun, especially since the guy is a linguist.
#131 FHM Lisa and the Remys, since I’ve been reading their blogs.
I have a fascination with #234, not because other women are envious of me, but because I am envious of everyone. Her article in Sunstone has been like a wormhole on my heart.
#175, because Boyd Peterson is speaking. Whoa, and Kevin Barney. Holy Cow, I’ve got to get that book.
#251 My husband’s speaking.
#325, because I’ve never met Richard Russell in person, and I’ve read hundreds of his postings to Mormon-L.
Oh, #335 a bunch of people are going to query Blake Ostler, who I agree with inasmuch as I understand him correctly.
I’ll mention some of the sessions that caught my eye. I’ll break this up into several posts, as there were a lot.
Wednesday night kicks off with 091, a focus on religion and pop culture. This includes a video montage by BCC alumnus John Hatch on how Mormons are portrayed in mainstream film and TV. This sounds really fun to me.
112 A panel on Dialogue after 40 years (another session with special relevance to BCC, given our integral relationship with Dialogue).
113 The Mormon Dream Bible. I agree, Johnna, that this one sounds interesting. I am particularly interested, as I spent seven years of my life working on a similar sort of project for the NT, which ultimately was deemed too scholarly to fly in the Mormon market.
125 States of Grace screening. I’ll probably go to this, as I would like to see the movie, but I live in Illinos so obvioulsy it never came here.
131 Mormon Feminist Bloggers. As Ronan mentioned, this will include fmhLisa.
133 This session is dedicated to a discussion of the Mormon tattoo taboo.
134 A panel Mormon studies in the academy.
151 The Americanization of Mormonism as reflected in pop culture. This one is by Dennis Potter, and will include a screening of the entire South Park “All About Mormons” episode, which has served as the inspiration for a number of BCC posts.
To be continued…
More sessions of interest to me:
163 Parker Blount on Scarlet Threads in the Lineage of Jesus. (Yes, Johnna, Julie Smith did a very fine post on this topic recently at T&S.)
175 A panel on Ed Kimball’s recent SWK bio. I don’t really have any choice about going to this one, as I’m on the panel.
191 A screening of New York Doll, with commentary by Greg Whitely. I’ve seen the movie and have the DVD, but I’m looking forward to seeing it with an audience, and to seeing what Greg has to say. He gave great responses to a bunch of questions over at T&S.
212. Mark Thomas on a BoM marketing survey. Promises to answer such questions as what features of the book appeal to people and cause them to read it.
214 Kim Ostman, a friend of mine from Finland, is doing a session on Mormon missionaries as suspected American spies in Finland during the Cold War.
To be continued…
More sessions of interest:
224 My friend Todd Compton is going to talk about his book Victim of the Muses.
231 Why We Stay panel, including our own Molly Bennion.
232 A panel on Big Love, Big Issues.
233 A panel on the Sugar Beet, the Mormon Onion.
241 A Saturday’s Warrior sing-along. What an inspired idea! I haven’t heard this since my mission in the 70s, when it was popular, but I might just have to go this. What fun!
251 This is the one with Johnna’s husband on problems with the marriage amendment. (You go, Glenn!)
252 This one is on Two-Wheeled Torture Devices, and is a revisionist take on the handcart disaster by Will Bagley. He acknowledges the mainstream position, as articulated by a panel of four at MHA, that the lion’s share of the fault belongs to Franklin D. Richards. But he thinks the bulk of the blame should go to another. Can anyone guess who? Yes, Brigham Young! Boy, Will sure has it in for that guy.
261 This is John Dehlin’s session on the Promise and Peril of the Internet within Mormonism. It will be a multimedia “year in review” of Mormonism on the internet. (Personal to John: yeah, I’m looking forward to meeting you as well!)
271 This is on the dark side of Mormon art, and will feature Mormon bad boys Brian Evenson and Neil LaBute.
274 The Spirit in Music: the Gospel according to Peter, Paul and Mary. This is a panel including my friend Mike Hicks.
275 This is a panel discussing BCC’s and Dialogue’s Levi Peterson’s autobiography. Our own Molly Bennion will be on the panel.
325 Richard Russell, a retired CES teacher, will continue his series “That’s Not What it Says,” on common Mormon misunderstanding of scripture.
326 Carol Lynn Pearson will do a session on Goodbye, I Love You Twenty Years Later. (I absolutely fell in love–as in real, romantic love–with Carol when I read her book when it first came out.)
331 A panel discussion on Mormon cinema at six.
335 A panel discusses my friend Blake Ostler’s Exploring Mormon Thought. This is for the philosophically minded among us.
341 A Mormon stand-up comedy routine by Bengt Washburn. (I’ve always thought this was a medium that has been underexplored by Mormons.)
351 Bob Rees on Mormon urban legends.
361 Hitchcock and Mormonism.
In other words, there is something for everyone!
I’m very jealous at not being there. Someone tell TPTB that I want a Sunstone Europe sometime…
Ronan, since you’re getting a Boston Bloggersnacker in your honor, followed by living in Vienna, I suspect there is some reciprocal envy to be had.
Ronan,
If you’re willing to help arrange, I could work w/ Dan to pull off a Sunstone Europe. Usually virtually any location is possible, w/ a host, and some willing participants.
Sunstone Seattle happens each year in Molly Bennion’s home–with around 30 or 40 attendees.
Let me know if you want to try to make it happen.
Also, any of you in DC or Boston or even NY who are interested, I’m very confident we could help you pull something sweet together there as well…w/ really cool speakers/guests. Just say the word, and I’ll/we’ll work w/ you to make it happen.
We used to have a regional Sunstone in Chicago, but the woman who planned it moved away. John is right, it can be done on a scaled down basis almost anywhere. A Sunstone Europe would be pretty cool.
There are tremendous resources of intelligent Saints in locations like NY, Washington and Boston; they could put on a pretty full regional symposium if someone were willing to take the bull by the horns and run with it.
As a European, I think Sunstone Europe sounds like a great thing. Ryanair/EasyJet have pretty cheap flights from all kinds of places to all kinds of places, so getting to whereever it will be shouldn’t be a big problem.
I guess one of the biggest problems will be to get a critical mass of interested participants. But at least you can count this Finn in :)
Now, on a related note but not to hijack this thread, would anybody be interested in a European Mormon Studies e-list? If you would, please shoot me an e-mail at kim dot ostman at tut dot fi