Inside the Classroom: Undergraduate Students Present Final Class Projects for “Mormonism and American Culture”

On Wednesday, April 22, UVA’s premier undergraduate course in Mormon Studies, “Mormonism and American Culture”, held its final class meeting of the semester, filled with snacks, posters, PowerPoints, and a broad swath of Mormon Studies topics.

Andrew, a fourth-year computer science major, examined the impact that going on mission had on Latter-day Saints that left “the Utah bubble”. Motivated by his experience growing up in Salt Lake City, he wanted to know, “if you depart from this bubble where everyone is the same religion as you, what does that do to your beliefs?” Andrew concluded in his research that for people who do go on and complete their mission, “there’s a very low chance that [they] will leave the Church.”

Rebekah, a first-year pursuing a major in philosophy, wanted to investigate a preconceived notion she’d encountered that Latter-day Saints chose unique, distinctly spelled names for their children. “I was really curious where that notion came from,” she explained, wanting to know how such a stereotype had come to exist. She ultimately found that parents from Utah were not more likely to give their children unique names (outside of the top 100 most common baby names) than parents in other states. But she noted that when Utah Latter-day Saints did give their children statistically unconventional baby names, they tended to be especially unique, ancestral names with very distinctive spellings, which she believes has led to the stereotype.

Jack, a fourth-year, took this course his last semester before graduation to explore a familial connection: his great-great-great-grandfather, Hector Haight, who helped establish the Latter-day Saint community in Oakley, Idaho. “I grew up hearing stories about the town and about my ancestors,” Jack, a history major, explained, “and [I] wanted to do my own research and get more background on it.” His final project examined the experience of Latter-day Saint expansion westward of Utah, including the establishment of Oakley.

After meeting several missionaries her age, Elise, a second-year commerce major, became fascinated by the subject of Latter-day Saint missions. “I could just never imagine doing something like that,” she admitted, as she discussed the sacrifices and commitments made by missionaries. After these conversations, she began to wonder if some missionaries could be so committed to helping others that they might neglect their own wellbeing. For her research project, she interviewed several missionaries about their mental health experiences while they were on mission. She received a diversity of responses, from those who maintained a healthy mind through continued routines to those who struggled with severe depression during their mission. “For me it was just so eye-opening to get those different perspectives,” she explained, as she felt they showed the diversity of experience and broke any preconceived notions she’d had about missionary work.

Other students presented to their peers on subjects ranging from the Latter-day Saint presence in Malaysia to Mormon views on abortion to Church Primary education — and so much more. For many students, this was the first time they had ever formally studied Mormonism, and they expressed excitement for continued, future study, as well gratitude for the course experience and the guidance of Professor Laurie Maffly-Kipp.