Painting of a row of churches

Mormonism and the
Challenges of Whiteness
Virtual Speaker Series

Fall, 2020  &  Spring, 2021

The Center for the Study of Ethics and the Department of English & Literature are pleased to present a Virtual Speaker Series entitled “Mormonism and the Challenges of Whiteness." This year-long series features cutting-edge scholarship on Mormonism's engagement with race and its connection to the evolution of whiteness in the United States. Scholars and activists will engage these issues through a variety of academic disciplines including History, Religious Studies, Literary Criticism, and Sociology. 

All events will be hosted online and are free and open to the public.

Speakers & Schedule

Speaker Roundtable Discussion

LaShawn Williams
Assistant Professor of Social Work, Utah Valley University

W. Paul Reeve
Simmons Professor of Mormon Studies, University of Utah

Peter Coviello
Professor of English, University of Illinois at Chicago


Thursday, April 22nd
3:00 - 4:30 p.m.
free and open to the public

session video

 

"Innocent as Donny Osmond"
Thinking Through Mormon Conceptions of Sin and White Supremacy

Joanna Brooks
Professor of English & Comparative Literature, San Diego State University
author of Mormonism and White Supremacy: American Religion and the Problem of Racial Innocence
(Oxford University Press, 2020)

Thursday, April 1st
3:00 - 4:30 p.m.
free and open to the public

session video 

 

"The Identity Development of an American Faith"
Latter-day Saints, White Supremacy, and Black Lives Matter

LaShawn Williams
Assistant Professor of Social Work, Utah Valley University
Co-Founder, Black LDS Legacy Committee, author at Rational Faiths

Monday, March 1st | 3:00 - 4:30 p.m.
free and open to the public

session video


“A Law Written in the Heart of our Race”
Polygamy and the Degeneration of Whiteness

W. Paul Reeve
Simmons Professor of Mormon Studies, University of Utah
author of Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness
(Oxford University Press, 2015)

Tuesday, December 1st  | 3:00 - 4:30 p.m.

session video

 

"Barbarism, Heresy, and Depravity"
Imperial Secularism and the Mormon Dilemma

Peter Coviello
Professor of English, University of Illinois at Chicago
author of Make Yourselves Gods: Mormons and the Unfinished Business of American Secularism
(University of Chicago Press, 2020)

Thursday, October 1st
3:00 - 4:30 p.m. 

SESSION VIDEO


For more information, contact Lydia Kerr at LKerr@uvu.edu.  

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