Director's Message
This issue of the Beehive marks the seventh anniversary of Mormon Studies at the U. The Tanner Humanities Center has striven to examine, with integrity, the Mormon experience – its history, people, and institutions. This means reaching out and interacting with all segments of the diverse LDS community. We are proud of our achievements. We have hosted classes and conferences, brought leading LDS academics to lecture, and provided fellowships to young scholars working on their doctoral dissertations. We are humbled by the trust and support we have received from donors who have contributed nearly $800,000 to insure the health of our programs. On our drafting table for June 2018, is a conference considering race in the LDS Church and the impact of the 1978 priesthood revelation on its fortieth anniversary.
The good news is spreading on campus and we are pleased to be joined in our Mormon Studies effort by the U’s College of Humanities. Working with the Tanner Center, the college under the leadership of Lexie Kite has recently secured two-years of funding to create the Simmons Professorship in Mormon Studies. This professorship has been awarded to historian Paul Reeve. Paul is the author of numerous books and articles on Mormon history, including Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness.
This is a first step to a larger goal. As my tenure as director of the Tanner Center draws to a close in 2019, it is important to insure the continuation of our Mormon Studies initiative. With this in mind, Lexie Kite has begun to solicit funds to create the Jane Manning James Presidential Endowed Chair in Mormon Studies at the University of Utah. Jane Manning James was an early convert to the LDS Church and one of only a handful of African-American pioneers who left Nauvoo for Utah. Central to this position is funding allotted to continue Mormon Studies programming.
We hope that you will join us in keeping a shoulder to the wheel and supporting this work. Perhaps, the day dawn is truly beginning to break!
Bob Goldberg
Professor of History
Director, Tanner Humanities Center
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Please continue to help us fund an initiative that unites campus and community and reminds us that understanding, tolerance, and respect go hand in hand and can truly lift the world.
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