Mormon studies is the interdisciplinary academic study of the beliefs, practices, history and culture of those known by the term Mormon and denominations belonging to the Latter Day Saint movement whose members do not generally go by the term "Mormon". The Latter Day Saint movement includes not only The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) but also the Community of Christ (CoC) and other groups, as well as those falling under the umbrella of Fundamentalist Mormonism.
Academic works within Mormon studies don't typically take positions for or against faith claims, although the author's personal standpoint of belief might influence their study. Nonetheless, some scholars' studies of Mormonism are primarily apologetic, either pro- or counter- LDS faith claims.
Since 2012, the principal academic journal of pro-Mormon apologetics has been Interpreter; prior to 2012, it had been FARMS Review under the same editorial leadership. Counter-Mormon apologetics of a particular faith community are generally classed with that communities' apologetics; scholarly criticisms of a more secular nature—at least those not veering into anti-Mormonism—nonetheless are often classed within Mormon studies.
Mormon studies is predominantly historical and a branch of American studies—yet, because of growth trends, more than half of the movement's adherents live outside the U.S., making it a subset of Latin American studies, Pacific studies, Canadian studies, and European studies, as well. In addition to general historians, scholars with expertise in such fields as social anthropology and women's studies contribute or concentrate in Mormon studies as well. Mormon studies academics often present their researches not only at standard academic forums but at more broadly popular gatherings—whether devotional, socially activist, or of some other nature. Likewise, some who are not trained academically in history or another social science, conduct and present Mormon-studies research of note.
Also there are 19th-century converts to Mormonism from outside the U.S. who did not emigrate to the gathering place of the Mormon corridor. (A 2010 work, Mormonism: A Historical Encyclopedia, terms this group the Ungathered.)
The primary journals for international Mormon studies are Dialogue journal and, since 2008, the IJMS.
Awards for writing or service in the field of Mormon studies are presented annually by scholarly societies. The Mormon History Association (MHA) and the John Whitmer Historical Association (JWHA) each present annual awards for various categories within Mormon history, such as books, biographies, documentary history, journal articles, and lifetime achievement. The MHA also gives awards for theses and student papers. The Utah State Historical Society (USHS), which frequently engages Mormon history, also presents awards for books, articles, and student papers. Literary awards are presented by the Association for Mormon Letters, often awarding Mormon publications in biography, criticism, and special categories. Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought honors the best contributions to its journal and Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture awards the best article submitted by a woman.
Universities also present awards. The University of Utah gives the Juanita Brooks Prize in Mormon Studies and offers a Mormon Studies Fellowship. Utah State University's Evans Biography Awards focus on biographies significant to "Mormon Country". Student writing competitions are held by Utah State University, the MHA, and the JWHA. BYU Religious Education presents annual awards to its faculty for teaching, research, and service, as well as books in the categories of Church History or Ancient Scripture.
The Mormon Research Funding Database offers researchers the ability to search through all available funding options for LDS centric topics.
Utah State University's Program of Religious Studies, including the Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture, est. 2007
Claremont Graduate University's School of Religion, including the Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies, est. 2008
Utah Valley University
University of Utah, Tanner Humanities Center's Mormon Studies Initiative, within the College of Humanities
University of Virginia, including the Richard Lyman Bushman Chair of Mormon Studies
University of Wyoming
University of Southern California's School of Religion, including the John A. Widtsoe Chair of Mormon Studies, announced 2015
Brigham Young University Religious Education (Provo, Utah; Rexburg, Idaho; Laie, Hawaii campuses; and also the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies) — For official LDS Church approved religious instruction.
Advanced historical research is instead conducted at the LDS Church's Church History Library, while BYU's Harold B. Lee Library and the Huntington Library also hold historical materials important to Mormon studies.
Fuller Theological Seminary's School of Intercultural Studies — Department at multi-denominational Protestant Christian seminary that has occasionally held seminars on Evangelical–Latter-day Saint dialogue and comparative theology
Graceland University — Non-denominational university affiliated with the Community of Christ. Teaches religion classes and is connected with the denomination's seminary.
LDS Church Institutes of Religion — Offers official LDS Church approved religious instruction, often at locations adjacent to institutions of higher learning
Association for Mormon Letters
Church History Department of the LDS Church
European Mormon Studies Association
Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research
John Whitmer Historical Association
Mormon Historic Sites Foundation
Mormon History Association
Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology
Sunstone Education Foundation
Individuals from a variety of cultural or philosophical standpoints produced prolific Mormon-themed research, scholarship, or their popularization, in an era now past. Then, beginning in the decade of the 2000s, Mormon studies finally came into its own as an independent field of study when the sub-discipline became featured by then at a few academic institutions in the Western United States.
Some of the individuals with recognized expertise in the field are listed below. In consideration of space, members of Latter Day Saint movement denominations' overall leadership are not included. (Dallin H. Oaks is listed for work he published prior his becoming a member of the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve.)
Thomas Bullock (1816–1885)
William Clayton (1814–1879)
Appleton Milo Harmon (1820–1877)
Edward Tullidge (1829–1894)
L. John Nuttall (1834–1905)
Edward H. Anderson (1858–1928) — Journalist. Biographer of Brigham Young
Nephi Anderson (1865–1923) — Mormon author of fiction and non-fiction
Andrew Jenson (1850–1941) — Assistant Church Historian of the LDS Church
B. H. Roberts (1857–1933) — Assistant Church Historian of the LDS Church 1902–1933. Made first attempts to shift from apologetics to a professional historical approach.
John Henry Evans (1872–1947): Latter-day Saints University — Biographer, various early LDS leaders
LeRoy R. Hafen (1893–1985): University of Denver; BYU
Bernard DeVoto (1897–1955): Northwestern; Harvard — Preeminent writer-historian of the American West sometimes writing on Mormon subjects
Juanita Brooks (1898–1989) — Independent. Also served as a dean at Dixie Junior College
Paul Dayton Bailey (1906–1987) — Journalist. Author of histories of about Mormon pioneers
Samuel W. Taylor (1907–1997) — Novelist and screenwriter who authored the Mormon-themed humorous novel Heaven Knows Why! in 1948
Lowell L. Bennion (1908–1996): Salt Lake City's LDS Institute of Religion — Sociology of religion. Ecumenical outreach, practical philosophy
Wallace Stegner (1909–1993): University of Wisconsin; Harvard — Writer-historian called "The Dean of Western Writers," sometimes writing on Mormon topics
Ivan J. Barrett (1910–1999): BYU
Hugh Nibley (1910–2005): BYU — Known as the father of LDS Apologetics
W. Cleon Skousen (1913–2006) — BYU religion professor, 1967–1978. Prolific popularizer among LDS of its theology. (Also an influential, conservative American Constitutionalist and faith-based political theorist)
Brigham D. Madsen (1914–2010): University of Utah — Historian
Dale Morgan (1914–1971) — Influential independent Utah historian
Fawn Brodie (1915–1981) — Critical, psychobiographer of Joseph Smith. Became UCLA professor
Leonard J. Arrington (1917–1999): Utah State Agricultural College; BYU; LDS Church Historian, 1972–1982 — Economist, known as the "Dean of Mormon History" and "the Father of Mormon History."
Richard D. Poll (1918–1994): BYU; Western Illinois University
Paul R. Cheesman (1921–1991): BYU — Archeologist
Stanley B. Kimball (1926–2003): Southern Illinois University — Scholar of Eastern European history and also of Utah pioneer history
Truman G. Madsen (1926–2009): BYU — Homiletic biographer of Joseph Smith, Jr.
Harold Schindler (1929–1998) — Utah journalist. Biographer of Orrin Porter Rockwell
Carlfred Broderick (1932–1999): University of Southern California — Psychologist, family therapist and popular author. Also wrote a handful of pieces in publications intended for an LDS audience
Helen B. Andelin (1932–2006): LDS Relief Society — Popular author. Studied home economics at BYU. Taught women's classes in her local LDS Church, expanding materials prepared for this purpose into Fascinating Womanhood (1963)
Eugene England (1933–2001): BYU — Founder of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought
Valeen Tippetts Avery (1936–2006): Northern Arizona University — Historian specializing in women's studies. Biographer of Emma Hale Smith
Jerald Tanner (1938–2006) — Independent, evangelical pamphleteer and provocateur who, with his wife Sandra (born 1941), documented such things as what he believed to be historical LDS doctrinal changes
William Robert Wright (1935-2012): Lawyer; biographer of David O. McKay
Stanford Cazier (1930-2013): California State University, Chico; Utah State University
Marvin S. Hill (1928-2016): BYU; Yale
Robert V. Remini (1921-2013): University of Illinois at Chicago — Biographer of a number of notable Americans, including Joseph Smith, Jr.
Thomas G. Alexander: BYU professor emeritus — Lemuel Hardison Redd, Jr. Professor of Western History
James B. Allen: BYU professor emeritus; Assistant (LDS) Church Historian — Co-founder, Mormon History Association
Philip Barlow: Utah State University
Richard Bushman: Columbia professor emeritus; retired director of Mormon studies at Claremont Graduate University
Ronald K. Esplin: BYU — former director of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; LDS Church History Library — Managing editor of the The Joseph Smith Papers project
Kathleen Flake: University of Virginia — Richard L. Bushman Professor in Mormon Studies; Vanderbilt — Associate Professor or American Religious History
Terryl Givens: University of Richmond — Bostwick Professor of English
Marlin K. Jensen: previous LDS Church Historian/Recorder
Patrick Q. Mason: Claremont Graduate University
Armand Mauss: Washington State University — professor emeritus; Claremont Graduate University — visiting scholar
D. Michael Quinn: Former researcher in Church Historical Department; BYU; after 1988, independent
Jan Shipps: Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis — retired in 1995; Polis Center (Indiana University) — research associate
Ronald W. Walker: BYU professor emeritus; after 2012, independent
R. Lanier Britsch: BYU — retired Historian of LDS missionary work, especially in the South Pacific
Will Bagley: Independent historian of Utah history
Orson Scott Card: Southern Virginia University — professor of writing and literature; popular author (science fiction, fantasy, and biblical historical fiction novels; non-fiction books on creating fictional characters; political commentary); Columnist at Mormon Times
John Dehlin: Author of blog and video blog popularizing Mormon studies
Richard Dutcher: Filmmaker on predominantly LDS topics
John C. Hamer: Independent historian — Journal editor; Co-author, books about Community of Christ history and about LDS movement schisms; Blogger
Robert Kirby — Salt Lake City Tribune columnist who comments in a humorous vein often on LDS subjects
Jon Krakauer: Popular non-fiction author; wrote Under the Banner of Heaven (2003)
William P. MacKinnon: Independent historian — Businessman. Historian of the Utah War
Adam S. Miller: Collin College — Writer of religious criticism and interpretation and also of LDS lay theology
Grant H. Palmer: retired LDS high school level religious instructor; after 1988, ecumenical prison chaplain
Ardis E. Parshall: Independent historian — History blogger and Salt Lake City newspaper columnist; co-editor of Mormonism: A Historical Encyclopedia (2010)
Boyd Jay Petersen: BYU — Biographer of Hugh Nibley; Utah Valley University — Literature of the Sacred and Mormon Literature professor; editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought starting 2016; past president of the Association for Mormon Letters
Levi S. Peterson: Weber State University — English professor emeritus; novelist and memoirist; biographer of Juanita Brooks; editor of Dialogue (2004-2008)
Gregory A. Prince: Independent historian — medical pathologist; biographer of David O. McKay
Robert A. Rees: University of California, Los Angeles — retired professor; University of California at Santa Cruz — retired Fulbright professor; Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley — visiting professor
Jana Riess: Religion reporter and publishing house editor
Peggy Fletcher Stack: Religion reporter at the Salt Lake Tribune since 1991
Jonathan A. Stapley: Independent historian — chemist and businessman
Terry Tempest Williams: University of Utah — resigned; author of works with localized ecological and Mormon ethnological features
Margaret Blair Young: BYU — Mormon African American history
Brady Udall: Novelist often using Latter Day Saint movement themes
Mark Ashurst-McGee: BYU; LDS Church History Department
Alexander L. Baugh: BYU — professor in Church History department; member of the Mormon History Association
John L. Brooke: Ohio State University — director of the Center for Historical Research; author of The Refiner's Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844
Richard O. Cowan: BYU — professor of Church history and doctrine
Reed C. Durham: LDS Institutes of Religion
Jessie L. Embry: BYU — Associate director of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies and associate research professor; oral historian
Scott H. Faulring: BYU — research historian with the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History
Arnold K. Garr: BYU — professor emeritus of Church history and doctrine; lead editor, Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History (2000)
Matthew J. Grow: Church History Department
Grant Hardy: University of North Carolina at Asheville — Professor of History and Religious studies
William G. Hartley: LDS Church History Department; BYU — previous research historian for the Joseph Fielding Smith Institue for Church History
Andrew H. Hedges: BYU — co-editor of The Joseph Smith Papers and previous associate professor of Church history and doctrine
Daniel Walker Howe: Oxford — Professor of America History Emeritus; University of California, Los Angeles — Professor of History Emeritus; author of What Hath God Wrought: the Transformation of America, 1815–1848 (2007)
Richard L. Jensen: BYU; LDS Church History Department — 19th-century European Mormonism; LDS converts' immigration to U.S.
Dean C. Jessee: LDS Church History Department; BYU — worked at the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; general editor of The Joseph Smith Papers
Glen M. Leonard: BYU; Utah State University
Benjamin E. Park: Sam Houston State University
L. Jackson Newell: University of Utah — Professor Emeritus of Educational Leadership and Policy; Deep Springs College — President Emeritus
Richard E. Turley, Jr.: Assistant Church Historian of the LDS Church
Grant Underwood: BYU — professor of history
Dan Vogel: Independent historian — Biographer of Joseph Smith, Jr.
David J. Whittaker: BYU — Joseph Smith Papers Project, professor of history, and curator of Western and Mormon history manuscripts; LDS Church History Department
Lavina Fielding Anderson: Independent historian — Feminist. Among the September Six, scholars involved in a 1993 LDS controversy
Claudia Bushman: Columbia — professor American Studies emerita; Claremont Graduate University — Mormon studies program from 2008-2011; Historian
Kathryn M. Daynes: BYU — assistant professor in the Department of History; published on polygamy
Jill Mulvay Derr: retired senior research historian for the Church History Department.
Kristine Haglund — Mormon-themed blogger. Editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought (2009-2015)
Carol Cornwall Madsen: BYU — emerita research historian with the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church history and associate director of Women's Research Institute
Margaret Merrill Toscano: University of Utah — Director of graduate studies, and associate professor of world languages and cultures
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich: Harvard; Preeminent historian of early American women's history. Also, occasional essayist on the topic of LDS feminism
David H. Bailey: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory — Mathematician. Editor, Science Meets Religion website
Robert H. Briggs: Lawyer. Violence in pioneer Utah
John E. Clark: BYU — Archaeologist. Book of Mormon studies
Robert S. Clark: Lawyer. Co-editor, Journal of the Trail
Todd M. Compton: Independent historian — Trained classicist
Steve Evans: Lawyer and specialist in new media. Mormon-themed blogger and essayist
James E. Faulconer: BYU — Department of Philosophy and holds BYU's Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding
Russell Arben Fox: Friends University — Political scientist. Blogger and essayist on LDS-related themes
Avraham Gileadi: BYU; after 1993, independent — Hebraist. LDS apologtics, theological research
Darius Gray: Independent historian — African-American studies
Danny Jorgensen: University of South Florida — Religious studies
Bradley H. Kramer: LDS-themed blogger seeking socio-cultural anthropology doctoral degree
Louis C. Midgley: BYU — Professor Emeritus of Political Science. Active in LDS apologetics
Dallin H. Oaks: University of Chicago; BYU (later, LDS Apostle) — Lawyer. American legal history pertaining to Joseph Smith, Jr.
Nathan B. Oman: William & Mary — Law. Early LDS ecclesiastical jurisprudence
Steven L. Peck: BYU — Biologist. Author-essayist on various Mormon-themed subjects
Daniel C. Peterson: BYU — previous professor of Near Eastern studies. Book of Mormon studies
Julie Marie Smith: Austin, Texas LDS Institute of Religion — LDS-themed blogger; biblical theologian
John W. Welch: BYU — Law. Editor since 1991 of BYU Studies
Kaimipono D. Wenger: Thomas Jefferson School of Law — Law. LDS-themed blogger
