This thesis is an exploration of the work I have completed during graduate study at UNO. My time has been spent investigating concepts of evaluation and the attribution of meaning. The main thrust and impetus of my art has been to explore the subjective way people interpret visual language and how that interpretation can be manipulated and undermined. By undoing these associations I hope to reveal the tentative nature of meaning.

This dissertation analyzes how government agencies influenced the religious expression of Mormons of the Territory of Utah in the 1870s and 1880s, Quakers of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, and Muslims of Brooklyn, New York, from 2002 to 2013. I argue that nineteenth-century federal marshals and judges in the Territory of Utah, mid-twentieth century FBI agents throughout the United States, and New York Police Department officers in post-September 11 New York were prompted to monitor each religious community by their concerns about polygamy, communism, and terrorism, respectively. The government agencies did not just observe the communities, but they probed precisely what constituted religion itself.

Low public acceptance of evolution among Americans in general, and conservative Protestants specifically, has recently received increased attention among scholars of both religion and the public understanding of science. At the same time, members of another major religious tradition, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), reject evolution at rates similar to evangelical Christians, yet there remains a dearth of studies examining the lack of acceptance of evolution among Mormons. Using a nationally representative survey of Americans that contains an adequate number of LDS respondents for advanced statistical analyses, this study examines patterns of evolution acceptance or rejection among Mormons. Findings reveal a moderating relationship between political identity and education, such that educational attainment has a positive relationship with evolution acceptance among political moderates and liberals, but a negative association among political conservatives. These findings highlight the central role played by the politicization of evolution in low rates of evolution acceptance among American Mormons and emphasize the need to—where possible—examine relations between ‘science and religion’ within and across specific religious traditions.

The purpose of this study is to determine if there are differences in characteristics of home environment, school environment, or within the students themselves, between college students enrolling in classes taught at the LDS Institute of Religion, who come from homes where both parents are "inactive" in the LDS church, and a similar group of students who do not enroll.

Irrigation has played an important part in the development of the Western States. Its beginnings have often been associated with the Mormon settlement in Utah. However, irrigation had its inception in the West long before the Mormons came to the Great Basin in 1847. The spatial extent of irrigation before this date included limited acreage in nearly every Western State.Before their arrival in the Great Basin the Mormons had become acquainted with irrigation methods. Knowledge of irrigation had diffused to them primarily from the Spanish in the Southwest. Thus, they were well prepared to begin their irrigation enterprises in the West. After establishing the practice of irrigation securely in Utah, this region then served as a source area from which irrigation methods then diffused to other Western areas.Eventually, the status and influence of Mormon irrigation waned. In more recent years Utah has fallen behind other Western States in total irrigated acreage and in the application of new irrigation technology.

This research will focus specifically on SWB [spiritual well being] among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). By virtue of his membership in this denomination, the researcher is more familiar with the theology, religious life and traditions of the LDS than those of any other denomination. Latter-day Saint theology has been well defined, and because of a fundamental belief in the prophetic ability of a single leader of the church, the doctrine and practices of the Latter-day Saints are consistent throughout the United States and the world.

Each year thousands of Latter-day Saint males return to their homes after serving a two year religious mission. According to Latter-day Saint doctrine and cultural beliefs, these young men are expected to resume a normal life including dating and involvement in romantic relationships. Research and Latter-day Saint doctrine related to the dating behavior of returned missionaries (RMs) is reviewed. Most previous research has emphasized the quantitative analysis of single aspects of RMs dating behavior such as dating frequency and social status. In an attempt to add to this field of research, this qualitative analysis explored the attitudes and experiences of a group of recently returned male missionaries as they described their own process of returning to dating and seeking romantic relationships. The returned missionaries in the sample reported having four main desires or objectives related to their courtship. These were the desire to: 1) feel personally prepared for marriage, 2) avoid rejection and disappointing relationships, 3) be involved in romantic relationships/marriage, and 4) obey gospel doctrine regarding the appropriate timing of marriage. Because these desires were sometimes in opposition with each other, participants were compelled to continually prioritize their desires according to which they felt were the most important at the time. Participants incorporated various dating strategies in an effort to find a dating style which would allow them to manage their desires in a way that those desires which were most important to them were fulfilled most and those which were least important were fulfilled less. Conditions including family of origin, past dating experience, missions, interpretation of LDS marriage doctrine were found to influence the development of desires of participants. Similarly, the context of the RMs current feelings, beliefs, and attitudes regarding dating and marriage impacted what desires they had, which desires they prioritized the most, and finally which dating approach they used to manage their desires. Based on the current analysis, a model illustrating the process RMs experience as they become involved in dating is proposed and discussed. This model depicts the relationships between the conditions which influence the RMs courtship desires, the dating behavior they use to manage their desires, and the outcomes of their behavior.

This study examined sexual orientation change efforts, identity conflict, and psychosocial health in a sample of 1,612 same-sex attracted Mormons. A minimum of 66% of participants reported engaging in sexual orientation change efforts, usually through multiple methods, and across more than 10 years (on average). Religious change efforts such as personal righteousness (e.g., prayer, fasting, scripture study, improved relationship with Jesus Christ) and counseling with church leaders (e.g., bishops), along with individual methods (e.g., introspection, private study, mental suppression) were found to be far more prevalent and significantly more damaging than therapist- (e.g., psychotherapy, psychiatry) or group-led change efforts. Overall, 0% of those attempting change reported an elimination of same-sex attraction, and less than 4% reported any change in sexual orientation. Conversely, the majority of participants reported these efforts to be either ineffective or damaging. Regarding the navigation of sexual and religious identity conflict, the vast majority of participants were found to have either rejected their religious identity (53%) or compartmentalized their religious and sexual identities (37%), with significantly fewer reporting the rejection of their same-sex sexual identity (6%) or the successful integration of the two identities (4%). Overall, the (a) acceptance of a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender identity and (b) “coming out” to family, friends, work, and religious associates correlated positively with quality of life and self-esteem, and negatively with internalized homophobia, identity confusion, depression, and sexual identity distress. Regarding various religion-based approaches to same-sex attraction, the following were generally positively associated with psychosocial health (e.g., quality of life, selfesteem) and negatively correlated with psychosocial harm (e.g., internalized homophobia, sexual identity distress, depression): (a) embracing biological (vs. developmental) views on the causes of same-sex sexuality, (b) decreased LDS Church participation, (c) eschewing celibacy, and (d) pursuing committed, legal same-sex relationships. Heterosexual marriages for same-sex attracted participants were estimated to have a 69% divorce rate, with very low average quality of life ratings for those remaining in the marriages.

The purpose of this study is to present the origin and development of the San Juan Mission in southeastern Utah in its work with Indian people, principally since 1940. One of the responsibilities of the San Juan Mission was to teach the Indian people the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It is also the purpose of this study to show what has been accomplished in regard to the original call and also determine what remains to be completed. The history of the San Juan Mission has been indexed under the following chapter headings: Introduction to San Juan and the Call of the Mormons to Colonize, Establishing Communities and Relationships among the Indians, San Juan Stake Mission, Albert R. Lyman's School, San Juan Stake Indian Branches, San Juan Area Indian Seminaries.It was found that an enormous amount of time, money and effort was contributed to teaching and assisting the Indian people. It was also discovered that much more needs to be done before the San Juan Mission call fills the demands of the original injunction by Apostle Erastus Snow.

Debates over Mormons in the nineteenth century United States were rarely solely about Mormonism. This dissertation examines the ways in which Utah-oriented discourses of outsider groups influenced political debates at the local, regional, and national levels between 1848 and 1893. As recent studies by Sarah Barringer Gordon and Terryl Givens have shown, the conflicts around which these discourses developed pertained to Mormons and polygamy specifically, but also to broader questions of religious freedom, racial diversity, and the extent to which a community might operate autonomously within the United States. The dissertation expands on decades-old analyses of visual and literary representations of Mormons, considering intertextual dynamics and drawing on a broad source base including non-traditional artifacts such as government reports, objects, maps, and personal writing. My analysis of the changing attitudes towards and representations of Mormon settlement is informed by the growing historiographies of anti-polygamy, anti-Mormonism, and the relationship between gender, family and empire. Examining anti-polygamy discourse through the lens of settler colonialism offers a fresh perspective on the motives, anxieties, and priorities of United States policymakers seeking control of the resources and people of the Great Basin. I will argue that this analytical viewpoint, which has been used primarily in indigenous and subaltern studies, can also be meaningfully applied to a religious sect that was part of the racial majority. Exploring objections to Mormon settlement over time reveals the extent to which Mormon self-fashioning was seen as potentially destabilizing to Anglo-American categories of race and gender—and the profound implications of those categories in political and economic terms. Overall, my analysis reinforces the significance of monogamy as a means of maintaining political control and enforcing racial order. The resolution of the “Mormon Question” in favor of the prevailing kinship model contributed to gendered imperial practices of the United States in the subsequent period of overseas expansion. As a site of confrontation between United States expansionism and distinct social and cultural configurations, the Great Basin was a principal laboratory for the development and testing of issues of United States colonial policy prior to the Spanish-American War.