Newswise — Throughout the religion's 177-year history, issues of race, gender, marriage and missionary work have figured prominently into church life among Mormons. A group of leading American history scholars will discuss how Mormons have dealt with these issues during a one-day seminar Saturday (April 12) at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
"Mormons and American Life" will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, April 12, 2008, in Room CE405 at the IUPUI Campus Center, 420 University Blvd, Indianapolis, Ind.
The Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, part of the School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI, will host the one-day event focused on the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"Given recent interest in Mormons in America because of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign and the HBO television drama "Big Love," which features a western Mormon offshoot family that practices polygamy, the center is offering this seminar as an opportunity for interested individuals to look at the religion from a historical and unbiased perspective," says Philip Goff, director of the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture.
Featured speakers include: Sarah Barringer Gordon, professor, University of Pennsylvania, and author of "The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in 19th Century America" ; and IUPUI Professor Emerita Jan Shipps, considered the nation's leading non-Mormon expert on Mormons.
Gordon, a professor of law and history, was featured in the PBS special, "The Mormons." At the IUPUI conference, Gordon and Kathryn Daynes, associate professor at Brigham Young University, will present "Convictions: Prosecutors, Defendants, and Marriage (s) in Territorial Utah."
Shipps, who has spent more than 40 years studying Mormons, will present "Reality History: Chronicling Convert Expectations and What Mormonism Delivered." Her talk will survey expectations and experiences of Mormonism at key points in Mormon history.
"With my presentation that I am calling "Reality History," I will set the stage for the conference on Mormons in America by examining what potential converts expected when they became Mormons and what they found when they gathered with the (Latter-day) Saints," Shipps says.
Other speakers are: William Deverell, professor, University of Southern California, and director, Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West; Kathleen Flake, associate professor, Vanderbilt University, and author of "The Politics of Religious Identity: the Seating of Senator Reed Smoot, Mormon Apostle" ; and J. Spencer Fluhman, assistant professor, Brigham Young University.
Admission is free of charge and open to the public. Reservations are required. To reserve a seat, call 317-274-8409 or send an e-mail to [email protected].
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