Mormon Studies Courses - An Overview

At the occasion of the Harvard Divinity School's new course in Mormonism (taught by Melissa Proctor), the Boston Globe announced that "Colleges scramble to offer curriculum on Mormon religion." The assertion left me wondering if the "scrambling" has to do more with the sudden new interest in things Mormon spurred on by Mitt Romney's presidential campaign or with the inchoate nature of Mormon Studies as an academic field. Regardless, it leads to a very fair question: at what point can it be said there is such a thing as an academic field called "Mormon Studies"? One course at Harvard does not an academic field create. Actually, a host of courses in Mormonism would not by themselves constitute such a field. M. Gerald Bradford's 2007 assessment of the future of Mormon Studies ("The Study of Mormonism: A Growing Interest in Academia") wisely outlines other factors critical to a bonafide academic field of Mormon Studies.

Still, I thought it would be worthwhile to look at what courses in Mormon Studies there have been to date.  Harvard's current class is by no means the first of such courses. Warner P. Woodworth taught "Mormonism as a Social Movement” for the University of Michigan’s Department of Religion around 1970 (He claims this to have been "the first college credit course on Mormon studies at a major university.")

Below is a list of courses put together by me and some BYU librarians of such courses. Interestingly, BYU has no formal Mormon Studies program despite a strong slate of courses (one cannot major in Mormonism at BYU, though there is an American Studies program that could accommodate a Mormon Studies emphasis). I'd be interested in any corrections and additions:

Mormon Studies Courses at Brigham Young University

• Anthropology 280 Archaeology and the Scriptures (Book of Mormon archaeology)
• Anthropology 346 Anthropology of Mormonism
• English 268 Literature of the Latter-day Saints (taught by Gideon Burton, Eric Eliason, John Bennion, Bruce Jorgensen)
• English 368 Literature of the Latter-day Saints (taught by Gideon Burton, Eric Eliason, John Bennion, Bruce Jorgensen)
• English 360 R American Literature in Cultural Setting (19th Century Mormon)
• English 485 Textual Criticism of the Book of Mormon
• History 382 Mormonism in the American Experience
• History 390R Sec1 Mormon Women’s History
• History 565 Sources and Problems in Latter-day Saint History
• Psychology 353 LDS Perspectives and Psychology
• Sociology 327 Sociology of the LDS Church and Its People
• Sociology 527 Sociology of the LDS Church and Its People
• Theatre and Media Arts 351R / 515R TMA Special Projects (Mormon Cinema)

Mormon Studies Courses beyond Brigham Young University

• Harvard Divinity School, HDS 2839, "Mormonism and the American Experience"
• Utah Valley State College:
  1) ANTH 3460 "Anthropology of Mormonism" (taught by David Knowlton, Phil Gordon)
  2) COMM 3870 "Mormon Cultural Studies" (taught by Dennis Potter)
  3) ENGL 3780 "Mormon Literature" (taught by Jen Wahlquist and Boyd Petersen)
  4) RSLT 3620, "Mormon Theology and the Christian Tradition" (within the Religious Studies Program and Dept of Philosophy and Humanities. Taught Fall 2006 by Brian Birch and projected for Spring 2009).
• University of Utah, Anthropology 4143, "Anthropology of Mormonism"
• Claremont Graduate School
  1) Religion 323: Mormons in Social Science Perspective (taught by Armand Mauss)
  2) Religion 432: "Mormonism and Christian Theology" (taught by Brian Birch, Spring 2008)
• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, "Mormonism and the American Experience" (taught by Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp)
• University of Alabama, "The Anthropology of Mormonism" (Charles W. Nuckolls)
• Utah State University, History 4910: "Biography, Autobiography, and Joseph Smith" (taught Spring 2008 by Philip Barlow)

Courses at Brigham Young University with a Mormon Studies Component

• English 360 R American Literature in Cultural Setting
• Family Life 100 Strengthening Marriage and Family: Proclamation Principles and Scholarship
• Geography 245 Geography of Utah (includes Mormon cultural landscape)
• History 364 Utah History
• History 566 Sources and Problems in Utah History
• Philosophy 215 Intro to Philosophy of Religion
• Philosophy 415 Philosophy of Religion
• Theatre 494 Religion and Film (unit devoted to LDS film)

Courses beyond Brigham Young University with a Mormon Studies Component

• University of Utah:
  1) Anthropology 4124 / 6124, "Religion In Latin America"
  2) History 4660, "Utah History"
• University of Wyoming, "Religion in America" and "Religion in the American West"

Comments

[Liz Busby]

Wow, this is a cool list! I wish I had had this list when I first came to BYU. Maybe I'll be auditing some courses in the fall . . .

[alea]

Another one to add to your list would be the University of Utah's Anthropology of Mormonism (Anth 4143).

[smb]

I think some of this publicity is just a response to Romney. In the mid-1990s Harvard Divinity School offered a similar course devoted specifically to Mormonism, taught by Timothy Fulop, a Protestant historian of early American religion. Difficult to keep Romney out of the loop, though, even then. Fulop found himself inundated by calls from the Kennedy campaign trying to figure out how to beat Romney without coming off as bigots.

Does SVU not have courses on Mormonism?

[Gideon Burton]

I combed the catalog of Southern Virginia University, but nothing there even looks tangentially related to Mormon Studies (No courses in religion, even). SVU is hosting the Mormon Scholars in the Humanities conference in May, 2008, but my impression is that they are a small liberal arts college that doesn't want to mount any programs it cannot sustain, and the Mormon angle there is supplementary to (and quite apart from) academics. In other words, they have a devotional series, but no one is teaching Mormonism as an academic subject.

[Paul Reeve]

"Does SVU not have courses on Mormonism?"
During my three years at SVU I was the only LDS member of the history faculty (there were three of us total). The concern was offering a wide enough variety of American and European history classes to sustain the major. I hoped to work up a Mormonism and the American Experience class, but the other demands superseded it.

I think HIST 4660 (Utah History) at the University of Utah would qualify for the list of courses beyond BYU with a Mormon Studies component.

[Paul Reeve]

I should add that Phil Barlow is teaching a class at USU this semester on the biographies of Joseph Smith. I get the impression that it is being taught under a special studies rubric and not on the books (yet?).

[Justin]

The syllabus for Barlow's class is here.

[Katherine Morris]

This is a great list. I would also add that Royal Skousen has taught Textual Criticism of the Book of Mormon through the Linguistics and English Language Department as a senior seminar (Elang 495). Also, Eric Eliason, and I think some others, have taught a Mormon folklore class at BYU that's popular.