Announcing the 2025 UVA Library Research Fellows in Mormon Studies

The University of Virginia’s Mormon Studies Program is pleased to award the UVA Library Research fellowship in Mormon Studies to the following recipients:

William Perez
Doctoral Candidate, Department of Religion
Florida State University

In his dissertation, “Monarchs of the New Republic: Mormonism, Republicanism, and the Dispute of Happiness,” Florida State University doctoral candidate William Perez explores the deep-seated emotions at the heart of religious conflict in antebellum America. Particularly, he hopes to analyze how white, non-Mormon Americans’ ideals of happiness governed citizenship, race relations, public performance, and gender roles. The Mormon movement offered an alternative pursuit of happiness, which, he proposes, was a root cause of anti-Mormon sentiment in America.

In the Prince Collection, Perez hopes to analyze the sermons and writings of Mormon leaders such as George Q. Cannon, Orson Hyde, and William Smith, particularly as they pertain to the nature of God and celestial marriage; two topics critical for understanding Mormon conceptions of happiness. Looking westward, Perez plans to study written works conceiving of Deseret as a “happy place,” including William Clayton’s “The Latter-day Saints’ Emigration Guide,” and Emily B. Spencer’s “The Rose of Deseret.” He also hopes to study lay voices and their perceptions of happiness, including the autobiography of Mary A. Noble and the letters of Artemesia Snow to her husband, Erastus.

Colleen McDannell
Professor of History &
McMurrin Professor of Religious Studies
University of Utah

The University of Utah Professor of History and McMurrin Professor of Religious Studies Colleen McDannell’s research project is entitled, “Latter-day Saint Agrarian Ideals: From Welfare Farms to Agribusiness.” In this research, Professor McDannell explores the history of Latter-day Saint farming back to the origins of the faith, and argues that the once non-profit, small-scale “welfare farms” of the church have been replaced with for-profit agribusinesses. This late twentieth century change, she proposes, replaced the cultural values of volunteer farm work with the capitalistic orientation of agribusiness, justified by the church as an efficient means to increase global charity.

The Prince Collection will allow Professor McDannell to construct a history of stake-managed welfare farms from their inception by the Latter-day Saint priesthood during the Great Depression until the shift to for-profit farming in the 1980’s. Such sources include Church Handbooks and Pamphlets that guided priesthood leaders, church administrative and organizational documents, stake historical records, as well as reflections on Latter-day Saint charity work.

About the Fellowships

These fellowships are awarded for research in the Prince Collection on any topic related to Mormonism.

The Prince Collection is composed of 108 cubic feet of published and unpublished materials, audio recordings, images and artifacts related to Mormonism in its several varieties, but primarily the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is housed in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library which number more than 400,000 books, 15 million manuscripts, and thousands of maps, broadsides, photographs, audio and video recordings, and artifacts. It is nationally recognized for the richness of its holdings in American history.

A guide to the Collection, including a container inventory may be browsed online by entering the call number MSS 16540 in the UVA Library Search Engine.

Additionally, several diaries and excerpts from the Collection are free to browse on the UVA Mormon Studies Website.