Mormonism and Whiteness

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

"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


“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


LaShawn Williams
Assistant Professor of Social Work, Utah Valley University
Co-Founder, Black LDS Legacy Committee, author at Rational Faiths
Monday, March 1st | more information forthcoming

Joanna Brooks
Professor of English and 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  | more information forthcoming


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

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