Session Abstract

Despite the common theoretical recognition that no religious tradition is univocal or uniform, that variables such as geography, education, race, class, and gender inevitably problematize religious identity, scholars still sometimes write as if Mormonism were a single, monolithic identity. This panel showcases ways in which reductionist stereotyping can be successfully transcended by probing less familiar Mormon “lives, places, and stories.” A diverse group of scholars and disparate methodologies combine to consider questions of how race, region, and gender historically have influenced identity construction among adherents of the dominant expression of Mormonism, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Session presenters include seasoned historians as well as up-and-coming practitioners who together provide much-needed nuance at a time when Mormonism commands a prominent place in national discourse.

Historically, Mormonism has been cast as a "Western" phenomenon. Although this is understandable given the notoriety of its 19^th century theocratic kingdom in the Great Basin, this has tended to lock Mormon history into discernible narrative ruts and disproportionate attention to the American West. The proposed session significantly reorients Mormon history. Patrick Mason pulls attention from the Mountain West, simultaneously recovering a significant Southern thread for the Mormon story and a significant Mormon story for histories of the South. Though small in numbers, Mormons wielded disproportionate influence in the postbellum South; they functioned as cultural "others" around which Southerners could craft visions of religious, racial, and gendered purity. Grant Underwood explores Mormonism in New Zealand, half way around the world from its Great Basin capital, and in so doing stresses the movement's early (and persistent) transnational character. Moreover, he focuses on non-EuroAmerican Mormons, the New Zealand Maori, whose identity construction presents a notable example of how cultural encounters can be made to yield a successful cultural hybrid that reflects multiple, compatible identities. Susanna Morrill offers an examination of Mormon women's historical agency, but does so with new subjects. Rather than 19^th century polygamous wives, Morrill examines Mormon women and gendered power in the 20^th century, and from a perspective of intellectual and cultural history. For Morrill, a Mormon doctrinal peculiarity—the concept of the divine feminine—and the wildly popular Twilight series (by LDS author Stephenie Myer) help illuminate the forms and function of Mormon women's agency. 

Taken together, the papers offer historians compelling case studies in the history of religious identity formation. The current political "Mormon moment" makes these topics timely, and the authors' interdisciplinary skill in connecting Mormonism with broader questions will interest historians in several fields.