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2008 FAIR Conference SpeakersWe have a great lineup of speakers for the 2008 FAIR Conference. Below you will find an overview of each speaker's credentials and their presentation. If you would like to see the schedule of when the speakers will be addressing the Conference, visit our Conference overview page. Mike Ash
Presentation: Shaken Faith Syndrome. Brian Birch
Presentation: Philosophy and Mormonism (panel discussion). Jeffrey Bradshaw
Jeff has always had a great love for the book of Moses, and during a recent sabbatical in France, determined to return to its study in earnest. The resultant detailed commentary and analysis, entitled "In God's Image and Likeness" and slated for publication by Greg Kofford books in late 2009, has been praised in advance by the eminent Old Testament scholar Margaret Barker as "remarkable," by BYU Professor of Ancient Scripture and Director of FARMS S. Kent Brown as a "most interesting tapestry," by prominent LDS scientist David H. Bailey as a "uniquely modern and honest treatment," by LDS Bible scholar Kevin S. Barney as "enlightening," and by Professor of Anatomy and Embryology Trent Stephens as a "must read." Presentation: The Book of Moses: A Surprising and Neglected Treasure. Newell Bringhurst
Presentation: The White Horse Prophecy: Myth vs. Reality. Matthew Brown
Presentation: The Israelite Temple and the Early Christians. Ron Esplin
Presentation: The Joseph Smith Papers. Brant Gardner
Presentation: Mormon's Editorial Method and Meta-Message Darius Gray
Presentation: Nobody Knows, the Untold Story of Black Mormons. Brian Hauglid
Presentation: The Book of Abraham. Blake Ostler
Mr. Ostler is a partner in the Salt Lake City law firm of Mackey Price Thompson & Ostler. He is the past Chair for the Education Law Section of the Utah State Bar (1996), and past Chair for the Law for Clergy Section of the Utah State Bar (1990). Presentation: Philosophy and Mormonism (panel discussion). Ugo Perego
Ugo is married to Jenna and they are the parents of two boys and a girl. Presentation: Joseph Smith's DNA Revealed: New Clues from the Prophet's Genes. Daniel C. Peterson
Presentation: Humble Apologetics. Larry Poulsen
Larry devotes a good percentage of his time to the study of the Book of Mormon and the implications of the textual descriptions of Book of Mormon culture and geography. He has published some of his conclusions about the impact of modern and ancient Mesoamerican culture on the interpretation of Book of Mormon text in relation to Nephite and Jaredite geography on his Website and in his blog. Larry has also published in the FARMS Review of Books. Presentation: Book of Mormon Geography: Convergence of Culture and Geography. Vickey Pahnke Taylor
Presentation: The Sariah Dilemma: Finding Increased Faith When Our Children Misplace Their Own. Mark Wright
Presentation: Deification: Divine Inheritance and the Glorious Afterlife in the Book of Mormon and Ancient Mesoamerica. Margaret Young
Presentation: Nobody Knows, the Untold Story of Black Mormons.
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Last Updated
May 06, 2008
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Mike Ash is the owner and operator of the MormonFortress.com
website and has spoken at five of the past nine FAIR Conference. He has been published in Sunstone,
Dialogue, and the FARMS Review, and is the author of Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening
One's Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt. He and his wife live in Ogden, Utah, and have
three daughters and three grandchildren with a fourth grandchild on the way.
Jeffrey M. Bradshaw (Ph.D., Cognitive Science, University of Washington) is a Senior Research Scientist at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) in Pensacola, Florida (
Matthew B. Brown
holds a B.A. degree in history from Brigham Young University. He is the author of eight books (with two more
forthcoming) which explore topics such as Joseph Smith, ancient and modern temples, the Book of Mormon, gifts
of the Spirit, the First Vision, Prophecies, and the Plan of Salvation. Matthew has also had articles published
in the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies and the FARMS Review. He has been invited on several
occasions to lecture to the University of Utah LDS Institute faculty and he will be a presenter at the 2008
Students of the Ancient Near East symposium on "Temples and Ritual in Antiquity" to be held on the BYU campus.
He has written several papers for the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research and has been a speaker
at two previous FAIR conferences.
Brant Gardner's
academic background includes work towards a Ph.D. in Mesoamerican Ethnohistory as the State University of
New York, Albany. His published works on Mesoamerica include an analysis of classical Nahuatl kinship
terminology, an ethnohistoric investigation into the identification of the use of Coxoh to designate a
people and language in Southern Mexico, and an examination of the Aztec Legend of the Suns. His widely
acclaimed six-volume commentary on the Book of Mormon, Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual
Commentary on the Book of Mormon, was recently published by Kofford Books.
Darius Gray...
Brian M. Hauglid
was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Near Eastern Studies from
Brigham Young University, a Masters and Ph.D. from the University of Utah. Dr. Hauglid is an associate
professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU. He had taught in the Seminary and Institute program in the Salt Lake
Valley for about a dozen years before coming to BYU. He is a member of the editorial advisory board for the
Eastern Christian Texts Series in the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative and also serves on the editorial board
for the Ancient Texts and Mormon Studies Series in the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
(Maxwell Institute). An avid researcher on the Book of Abraham, Dr. Hauglid is the Co-general editor (with
John Gee) of the Studies in the Book of Abraham Series. With John Tvedtnes and John Gee he compiled
and edited the first volume in the series Traditions about the Early Life of Abraham, in which he
provides over a dozen translations of Arabic traditions about Abraham previously unavailable to the English
audience. He also edited (with John Gee) the most recent volume (3) Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant,
which contains a collection of pertinent scholarly papers on the Book of Abraham. (These volumes are also
distributed through the University of Chicago Press). Dr. Hauglid has contributed articles on the Book of
Abraham, New Testament, temple studies, and Islamic topics. He currently serves as a bishop in Spanish Fork.
He is married to the former Tessa McNamara, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and they are the parents of three
daughters.
Blake Ostler
graduated from Brigham Young University in 1981, receiving a BA in Philosophy, summa cum laude, and
a BS in Psychobiology, magna cum laude. He earned his JD at the University of Utah, cum laude, in 1985.
From 1982 to 1985 he was a William Leary Scholar. He is fluent in Italian and French and conversant in
Swedish, Spanish and German, and conducts scholarly research in Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek and Latin. Mr.
Ostler has published numerous articles in professional philosophical journals including International
Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Religious Studies, BYU Studies, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought
and he is the author of the three volume series Exploring Mormon Thought.
Ugo A. Perego, MSc, is the Director of Operations and
Study Research Coordinator for the non-profit Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation located
in Salt Lake City, Utah and a PhD student in human genetics at the University of Pavia, Italy.
In his eight years with the Foundation, Ugo has supervised the worldwide collection of nearly
100,000 DNA samples and corresponding genealogical records and given nearly 150 lectures on
DNA, genealogy, and LDS Church history topics. Ugo has also authored and co-authored a number
of publications related to DNA and ancestry, including: "Resolving the Paternities of Oliver N.
Buell and Mosiah L. Hancock through DNA" (John Withmer Historical Association Journal,
submitted for publication), "The Phylogeny of the Four Pan-American MtDNA Haplogroups:
Implications for Evolutionary and Disease Studies" (PLoS One, 2008), "Mountain Meadows Massacre:
A Mitochondrial DNA Examination" (Journal of Mormon History, 2006), "The Science of Molecular
Genealogy" (NGS Quarterly, 2005), and "Reconstructing the Y-Chromosome of Joseph Smith:
Genealogical Applications" (Journal of Mormon History, 2005).
A native of southern
California, Daniel C. Peterson received a bachelor's degree in Greek and philosophy from Brigham Young
University (BYU) and, after several years of study in Jerusalem and Cairo, earned his Ph.D. in Near Eastern
Languages and Cultures from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Dr. Peterson is a professor
of Islamic Studies and Arabic at BYU, as well as a member of the board and associate executive director of
its Institute for the Study and Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts, which has produced a computer-digitized
version of the Dead Sea Scrolls, electronically recovered damaged documents from the ruins of Herculaneum, Petra,
and elsewhere, and is engaged in joint publishing ventures with such institutions as the Vatican Apostolic Library
in Rome. He is the executive editor of BYU's three-part Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, which includes not only
the Islamic Translation Series but two sister series: Graeco-Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, and Eastern Christian
Texts. These series publish dual-language editions of classical works of medieval Arabic and Persian philosophy,
Arabic medicine and science, and early Coptic, Syriac, and Christian Arabic literature. (The University of Chicago
Press distributes the volumes.) He is the author of several books and numerous articles on Islamic and Latter-day
Saint topics, including most recently a biography of the Prophet Muhammad (Eerdmans, 2007). Dr. Peterson served
in the Switzerland Zürich Mission, and, for approximately eight years, on the
Gospel Doctrine writing committee for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He currently serves as a
Gospel Doctrine teacher in his home ward. He is immediate past chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation
for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), and edits the FARMS Review of Books. Dr. Peterson is
married to the former Deborah Stephens, of Lakewood, Colorado, and they are the parents of three sons.
Lawrence (Larry) Poulsen earned his PhD in biochemistry from
the University of California at Riverside and recently retired from The University of Texas at Austin
where he was employed as a research scientist and lecturer in the field of biochemistry. He is an author
of numerous publications in the field of biochemical toxicity and protein structure. He was first selected
to have his biography included in "Who's Who in America" in 1998.
Margaret Young...