Thesis (M.A.)--B.Y.U. Dept. of Communications.

Thesis (M.A.) -- Brigham Young University. Dept. of Philosophy Education, 1942. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-231).

Thesis (M.A.)--B.Y.U. Dept. of Communications. / Electronic thesis. Also available in print ed.

For over twenty-five years the Brigham Young University Women's Conference has given women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon) the opportunity to go beyond womanhood and share sisterhood. Spurred by the women's movement of the 1970s, LDS women were pressed to define for themselves what it meant to be a woman in the Church. This discovery and defining process often brought confusion, criticism and conflict. As women sought to reconcile the discrepancies between their own lives and views, their internal definition and the external definition they received from others, a reconstruction began to take place that reflected not only society's stress on “family values” but also the Church's growing globalization and emphasis on LDS fundamentals of family and gospel principles. The conference is a reflection of this transformation and the issues Latter-day Saint women faced in the late twentieth-century. In addition, it is the history of a grass roots conference that grew and was adopted by the Church through the Relief Society. The BYU Women's Conference began in response to the needs of female students at BYU and quickly expanded beyond the BYU community. Early conferences concentrated on identifying the various roles of LDS women. The event expanded to include issues like depression, the Equal Rights Amendment, and the state and national meetings for the International Year of the Woman. Throughout the history of the conference the issue of professional women and working outside the home with its attendant issue of child care stirred controversy and contention. As the LDS Church has grown to be an international church, the conference expanded to address the needs of LDS women in a worldwide church. In expanding the focus, the conference topics evolved from a scholarly focus to a growing emphasis on LDS fundamentals of family and gospel principles. The sponsorship, program and structure of the conference have changed to meet the issues facing this expanded population. Through its annual gathering the conference endeavored to strengthen womanhood through knowledge and faith, assist women in understanding their identity, and recognize the beauty in the diversity of sisterhood.

In January, 1914, the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints brought out the first issue of what was to become the Relief Society Magazine. Before this, the women of the Church had been served by the Women's Exponent, founded in 1872 as the second women's publication in the west. During 1914, the Exponent's successor was a monthly guide to the Relief Society's coursework, known as the Bulletin. In January, 1915, it became the Relief Society Magazine.The magazine became a leader in the Relief Society work as a forum for idea exchange, a medium for administration, an outlet for creative talents, and a lesson guide.In December, 1970, the last Magazine appeared. The end came for the publication in an effort on the part of the Church to strengthen the family unit through combining magazines it published. New eras come, bringing change, but for the women of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, their past includes a Magazine which reflected their interests, strivings, and work.

This thesis seeks to explore the relationship between Mormon assimilation, exceptionalism, and their endeavors in secular reading by analyzing Out of the Best Books (OOBB), a 1964–71 five-volume reading guide and reading program on secular reading established by the Mormon Church for its women’s organization, the Relief Society. Examining the approaches to secular literature in the OOBB program suggests that Mormons can respond to their competing desires to separate and assimilate by making efforts that fulfill both aspirations simultaneously rather than moving exclusively in one direction. Yet OOBB’s efforts to achieve both objectives did not amount to an entirely seamless navigation of this paradox. The program’s attempts to incorporate texts that might challenge Mormon notions of morality as well as their efforts to introduce world literature and fully address their female audience raised additional tensions particularly relevant to contemporary Mormonism, suggesting the complexity of Mormons navigating this identity paradox both within the context of the OOBB program and today. Furthermore, this examination of OOBB offers a venture at fleshing out the history of Mormon reading, confirming Mormons’ relationship to literature as central to their conception and expression of identity and situating Mormon reading endeavors in the broader context of American reading practices.

This study will attempt to analyze the American Foreign Policy towards Turkey around three basic issues, namely the missionary activities, the Armenian question and the Near East Relief Society (NERS). Therefore, the focus of the study is the interaction of the politics and the religion in the United States case and the influence of this interaction on the American policy towards the Near East before and after the First World War.

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of History, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 137-159).

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Communications. / Bibliography: leaves 103-109.

Thesis (M.A.) -- Brigham Young University. Dept. of Philosophy Education, 1942. / Electronic thesis. Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-231). Also available in print ed.