Scholars & Saints

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.

How did early Mormons relate with African Americans and Native Americans in the 19th Century West? This is just one of the many questions tackled by the extensive research of W. Paul Reeve, the Simmons Chair of Mormon Studies at the University of Utah. In today's episode, Dr. Reeve discusses his academic journey from Western U.S. history to Mormon Studies, the University of Utah's programs in its Mormon Studies Initiative, and the expanding field of interdisciplinary research between Mormon Studies and racial, cultural, and sexual studies.

To learn more about Dr. Reeve's own research, watch his October 2023 lecture at the UVA workshop on "Mormonism in Africa and the African Diaspora" on his "A Century of Black Mormons" database. Dr. Reeve is the author of Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness (Oxford 2015). Additionally, you can find a copy of his most recent book, Let's Talk About Race and Priesthood on Amazon or Deseret Books. And don't miss his upcoming book, This Abominable Slavery: Race, Religion, and the Battle Over Human Bondage in Antebellum Utah, releasing later this year.

What do an archeologist, historian, philosopher, and literary critic have in common? They're all members of the Department of Religion at Claremont Graduate University! Continuing our series on Mormon studies in the academy, Dr. Matthew Bowman, the Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies at CGU joins host Nicholas Shrum to discuss his own journey to Mormon studies as a trained historian, how Mormon studies emerged as an interdisciplinary field, the history of its foundational authors and scholars, and the current and future state of Mormon studies scholarship at CGU and beyond. 

To find out more about Dr. Bowman and his work, visit his CGU profile page.

What is Mormon Studies? How does one do it? In what way does it fit into the broader field of Religious Studies? In this all-new season of Scholars & Saints, UVA Religious Studies Ph.D. student Nicholas Shrum goes back to the basics of the discipline with renowned LDS historian and Utah State University professor Patrick Q. Mason. The two discuss Dr. Mason's personal journey to Mormon Studies, his experience in making it educationally accessible and engaging, and his broader insights into the field.

The mysterious gold plates are the gravitational center of the Latter Day Saint tradition. Although twelve people other than Joseph Smith claimed to have seen or handled the plates, Smith said he returned them to an angel soon after completing the translation of the Book of Mormon. Even now, nearly 200 years later, the plates continue fascinate and confound interpreters in American culture. Today on my last episode as host of Scholars and Saints, I’m chatting with Richard Bushman, renowned biographer of Joseph Smith, about his new book, Joseph Smith’s Gold Plates.