Women have always played a large role in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But how do women today, especially women of color, negotiate their faith through a historically patriarchal religion? And how can western scholars really probe this issue for women around the globe, without enforcing their own pre-conceived paradigms? On this episode of Scholars & Saints, Nicholas speaks with Dr. Caroline Kline, Assistant Director for Global Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University, about her 2022 book, Mormon Women at the Crossroads: Global Narratives and the Power of Connectedness. Dr. Kline engages oral histories from her ethnographic study of Mormon women of color in the U.S., Botswana, and Mexico. In so doing, she presents two major theoretical lenses that look at Mormon women's agency from their own perspective: through connectedness to loving families, strong communities, and a profoundly loving, personal God.

To find out more about Dr. Kline and her upcoming projects, click here.

This bonus episode of Scholars & Saints is taken from the Tenth Annual Joseph Smith Lecture, delivered by UVA's new Director of Mormon Studies, Laurie Maffly-Kipp at the Darden Center in Rosslyn, Va on October 19, 2024. Click here for more information about Prof. Maffly-Kipp and her lecture.

Each fall, the University of Virginia's Mormon Studies Program sponsors the Joseph Smith Lecture Series: a public lecture on religion in public life, with particular emphasis on religious liberty and civic leadership. The Lecture is designed to honor the legacies of both Thomas Jefferson and Joseph Smith but is not limited to either the American or Mormon experience. If you like or learn from what you hear, we would appreciate your support of the Joseph Smith Lecture Series Endowment Fund.

This bonus episode of Scholars & Saints is taken from the 2023 University of Virginia Mormon Studies research workshop entitled: "Mormonism in Africa and the African Diaspora." During the workshop, biomedical pathologist and LDS historian Dr. Gregory A. Prince delivered remarks on the depth of materials and research potentiality within the Gregory A. Prince Collection, a compilation of historical LDS documents and research materials Dr. Prince donated to UVA. To learn more about Dr. Prince and his collection, watch his interview with former Bushman Chair of Mormon Studies, Kathleen Flake, or browse his digital research excerpts.

For more information, including lecture slides and transcript, please visit this link: https://mormonstudies.as.virginia.edu/event/research-workshop-mormonism-in-africa-and-the-african-diaspora-open-to-the-public/

For over a century, the LDS Church forbade Black Latter-day Saints from temple ordinances, and Black men from the priesthood. How did Black Latter-day Saints experience this discrimination, and what effects and consequences of these restrictions carry over to today? On this episode of Scholars & Saints, Nicholas speaks with Dr. Matthew L. Harris, Professor of History and Director of Legal Studies at Colorado State University-Pueblo, about his 2024 book, Second Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality. Dr. Harris draws from first-hand accounts of Black Latter-day Saints during the temple and priesthood ban, details the Church's past global response to race, explains the reaction of the LDS Church to the Civil Rights movement, and presents the Church's contemporary work at racial reconciliation.

To find out more about Dr. Harris and his upcoming projects, click here.

This bonus episode of Scholars & Saints is taken from the 2023 University of Virginia Mormon Studies research workshop entitled: "Mormonism in Africa and the African Diaspora". During the workshop, Dr. W. Paul Reeve, Simmons Chair of Mormon Studies and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Utah, delivered this lecture detailing how data allows us to ask and answer new questions about Latter-day Saint racial history and illustrated his point with his database "A Century of Black Mormons": https://exhibits.lib.utah.edu/s/century-of-black-mormons/page/welcome

For more information, including lecture slides and transcript, please visit this link: https://mormonstudies.as.virginia.edu/event/research-workshop-mormonism-in-africa-and-the-african-diaspora-open-to-the-public/

How is it that Mormonism can be considered "America's most successful, homegrown religion" and yet have undergone vast assimilation to American culture in the late 19th and 20th centuries? Dr. Benjamin Park, Associate Professor of History at Sam Houston State University, details Mormonism's evolutions and transitions from its inception to today on this episode of Scholars & Saints. Drawing on his book, American Zion: A New History of Mormonism, Dr. Park takes host Nicholas Shrum on a historical tour of Mormon history. He investigates instances of Mormon cultural assimilation, racial relations, educational practices, and the broader role that Mormonism plays in understanding American history and its undergirding religious influences.

To find out more about Dr. Park and his upcoming projects, click here.

This bonus episode of Scholars & Saints is taken from the 2023 Ninth Annual Joseph Smith Lecture, delivered by UPenn's Dr. Anthea Butler at the University of Virginia. Click here for more information about Dr. Butler and her lecture.

Each fall, the University of Virginia's Mormon Studies Program sponsors the Joseph Smith Lecture Series: a public lecture on religion in public life, with particular emphasis on religious liberty and civic leadership. The Lecture is designed to honor the legacies of both Thomas Jefferson and Joseph Smith but is not limited to either the American or Mormon experience. If you like or learn from what you hear, we would appreciate your support of the Joseph Smith Lecture Series Endowment Fund.

Global Mormonism is an ever-growing field of study for scholars as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints membership has exploded throughout the Global South, especially in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. But how has Mormonism fared in Europe, especially in historically Catholic nations? Sociologist Hazel O'Brien takes host Nicholas Shrum on a tour of two pseudonymous LDS wards in the Republic of Ireland, mining the deep ethnographic depths of her 2023 book, Irish Mormons: Reconciling Identity and Global Mormonism. Dr. O'Brien details the experiences of real Mormons in Ireland as they negotiate their Irish heritage with a faith other than the predominant Irish Catholicism, and as they relate to a Church still predominantly organized and ruled by Americans. Dr. O'Brien also examines the broader experiences of religious minorities in Ireland, the country's changing socio-religious landscape, and a way forward for Mormonism as it sets it sights more globally.

To find out more about Dr. O'Brien and her upcoming work, click here.