The intent of this study was to investigate those artists in early Utah art history who played an important part in the development of water color painting.

This fictional novella takes place during the narrator Smoot's two-year mission to Melbourne, Australia. It chronicles the intertwining of the lives and destinies of three main characters: Smoot, a Utah native who struggles with carnality and lack of conversion and spirituality; Babakian, an Australian convert who used to be a punk rocker and has become frustrated with Mormonism's blandness and conformity; and Samantha, a nonmember part-Tongan Utahn with whom Smoot was involved before his mission. Speaking generally, the novella is about how Babakian misuses his creative powers of art and sexuality, how Samantha explores the gospel and changes her life, and how Smoot matures spiritually and learns to sacrifice.

This thesis includes the narratives of three Burmese Muslim refugee mothers who made their homes in Logan, Utah, within three years of locating in the United States. Each woman’s life is written about in a different style of writing – journalism, ethnography and creative nonfiction –and is then followed by analysis looking at each piece in terms of representation

The scholarly field of traditionally religious women has during the last decade gone from a so called “paradox-approach” which identifies women’s agency with the capacity of acting autonomously – something most clearly demonstrated through acts of resistance – to a nonparadox approach defining agency as a continuum encompassing both resistance to and compliance with traditionally religious structures. While the latter approach assumes that women’s participation in traditional religions is not necessarily a paradox – mainly because some women value religious submission – this thesis argues that the paradox of women and religion becomes essential when speaking about religious feminism. This has proven particularly evident in this study’s Grounded theory approach to blog posts written by Mormon feminists. By combining theories on cognitive dissonance with religious ambivalence this thesis finds that Mormon feminist bloggers express an agency of virtuous ambivalence where they perceive the relationship between their faith and their feminism as dissonant but simultaneously describe this as an ambivalence of religious virtue which bestow upon them a sense of freedom, authenticity and creative potential.

The purpose of this paper was to define and discuss the early Mormon women's newspaper, Woman's Exponent, and its editors in developing a literary culture among Mormon women. Woman's Exponent served as the primary source of research to show through its literature that the women of Utah were encouraged to express themselves freely, and present their way of life to a world that held a grossly distorted view of them. The Exponent provided the forum for skilled writers to polish their craft, and new writers to develop their talents. The literary influence of the Exponent encouraged the women writers to publish individual volumes of poetry, biography, and histories. The writers acknowledged the Woman's Exponent as their platform for expression, their window-on-the-world. It faithfully recorded their history and served as the cradle for literary culture among the mormon women.

The primary purpose of this research was to gain insight into what childhood was like in turn-of-the-century Mormon polygamous families. This purpose was executed through two main avenues: basic empirical data and descriptive accounts. This type of research was crucial inasmuch as previous research and commentaries dealt with adult relations but little was known about children in this complex Mormon family structure. In order to gain an understanding of childhood in Mormon polygamous families during this era, forty elderly individuals who were reared in plural marriages were interviewed in depth. A field type design was employed using a historical-cultural; in short, retrospective history taking. Questions focused on the general family life style, respondent-sibling interaction, respondent-parent interaction, and respondent-father's other families interaction. Children in Mormon polygamous families encountered the events of Western rural America, as would any children at the turn-of-the-century, including hard physical work, large families, home based entertainment, and traditional values. Looking back in time, respondents in this study saw their families as supportive, nurturant, and for the most part as "normal" within the cultural context of Mormon community. Stress, however, was manifest primarily in the avenues of degree of contact with their father's other families, the complexity of multiple households, and the self-imposed questions that generally existed in the society during a time of persecution as well as internal change of the Mormon church.

Missionary work has long been an important aspect of Christianity. At least as early as the 1870's, Protestant women began journeys to foreign lands to work as missionaries and teach people about Christianity, both the spiritual dimension and the lifestyle. These were primarily independent women who sought to enlarge the women's sphere from the confined, domestic life to which they were accustomed and because of its decline by the 1930's, historians have often labeled these missions as a "feminist movement." Meanwhile, in 1898, their counterparts from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also began filling missions, but with a different purpose. These women, known as "Lady Missionaries," did not seek out the new role, but were assigned by Church leaders to share the Mormon message and to show that Mormon women were something other than the stereotypical downtrodden, polygamous wives often portrayed by the media. The greatest evolution of the Lady Missionary program occurred during its first three decades as the LDS Church defined the role of the Lady Missionary and established guidelines for all to follow. Three women of this period are Inez Knight, Stella Sudweeks, and LaRetta Gibbons. Knight, the first Lady Missionary, labored in England from 1898-1900, where she stood on corners as an example of a "real, live Mormon woman" and faced religious persecution from non-Mormons. Sudweeks filled her mission in the mid-West from 1910-1912, where she had been motivated by anti-Mormon sentiments, but faced less difficulties than Inez while sharing her message and also had more training and established expectations than those previously. Finally, Gibbons worked form 1933-1935, mostly in Colorado, where she spent comparatively more time among new converts teaching them their role within the Church and encouraging them to share their religion with neighbors. Their accounts and experiences show that women have long had a steady and significant role in the LDS Church's missionary program, which has long gone unnoticed and offers a new perspective on Mormon women.

This study is one of the first to include data from both male homosexuals and their family members to investigate disclosure of sexual orientation. Being homosexual in U.S. society can be particularly traumatic for males because strong pressures oppose the violation of masculine gender norms. Being homosexual and Mormon has unique complications. Reactions from the Mormon community toward individuals of homosexual orientation is defined by prevailing attitudes toward homosexuality, which are largely based on existing theories of etiology, attribution of etiology, and the religious and cultural beliefs extant in the community. The role of family relationships in the coming out process for Mormon male homosexuals contributed important information towards understanding their development. As a particular example of families facing homosexuality, this qualitative study explored family characteristics reported by a sample of male homosexuals who were raised in Mormon families. Relying on reports from both homosexual males and their family members, these data inform how the coming out process is influenced by, and influences, family relationships, and expand knowledge about how family relations and culture influence development. Findings showed that attitudes prevalent within family, church, and community influenced Mormon male homosexuals' decisions to come out. Religious influences on Mormon homosexuals and their family members had an inhibitory effect on the disclosure of sexual orientation and subsequent support and communication within family relationships. Expectations of negative response increased silence among Mormon male homosexuals about their sexual orientation and resulted in alienation from both church and family. Mormon male homosexuals most wanted their family members to accept them and withhold judgment. They hoped for increased dialogue and understanding. Parents were typically distressed by the disclosure, with fathers having a stronger reaction than mothers. Relationships were strained in terms of family contact and communication. Family members who made efforts to gain information and understand the homosexual son were perceived as more supportive. Implications of how families and Church leaders can insulate the homosexual son from adverse social response and provide needed support are discussed.

This section is a statement on the reason behind my conducting archeological excavations in West Canyon. In light of the large collections which had come out of the area, it was deemed important to excavate before any further destruction of sites in the canyon took place in order to establish, if possible, the cultural affiliations of the prehistoric inhabitants of that area. It was felt before excavation began that there was enough evidence already on hand to suggest Fremont culture affiliation, but this was not sufficient to demonstrate the same with confident conclusiveness. A second goal was to obtain a knowledge of the structural design used by the inhabitants of West Canyon insofar as it could be determined by excavation. A third aim was to locate evidence of agricultural activity in a demonstrable form. As previously mentioned Mr. Hutchings had some charred corn cobs in his display case which reportedly came from West Canyon, but these are not displayed or visibly recorded in association with other specific features of a specifically designated site as they appear in the display, so that the associations remain in question. A fourth project was a survey of the area to determine the extent of occupation and as well as the kinds of occupation, whether they were sedentary groups with definite evidences of sedentary constructions and activities, or nomadic groups whose habitation of the area was transitory. An extension of this same problem was a determination of the overall economic activity if possible, of either kind of group. As suggested in the introduction, I believe the previous archeological work that has been conducted in the canyon has not been sufficient to date. Therefore it was my goal to complete a general research in what must be considered a previously untested area. It is unfortunate that with so much activity of this kind in West Canyon, I must use the term "untested area".

<p>From 1852 to 1910 Congress labored to find the right instruments to eliminate polygamy among the Mormons and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints struggled to retain its claim as the most American of institutions. What these struggles reveal about the shifting role of religion in the developing definition of American citizenship is at the heart of this dissertation. By looking at developing ideas about citizenship in this particular frame, the social and political history of exclusion and inclusion comes into focus and exposes the role religion played in determining who could lay claim to citizenship and who could not, who tried and failed, who succeeded, and why. In the end, the coercive measures of the state and their own desire to join the body politic drove the Saints to unquestionably abandon the practice of polygamy, a central tenet of their faith, so that they could be accepted as American citizens. </p><p>The battle over polygamy and the rights of polygamists was not limited to the floor of the U.S. Congress or the Supreme Court, although those sources are carefully examined here. Debates over polygamy and Mormons' right to be Americans also took place in sermons, novels, newspapers, and popular periodicals. Official actions of the state and popular discourses simultaneously defined citizenship and influenced how Mormons understood their own citizenship. This dissertation is a history of the discourse generated by Mormons and their antagonists, laws passed by Congress, and court cases fought to defend or deny the civil, political and social rights of Latter-day Saints.</p> / Dissertation