SJHR Thought Pieces

Just before starting the SJHR program, I evaluated closely the areas within my sphere of influence, most noticeably my personal advocacy efforts for women within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was then that I decided I would center gender issues within my courses, particularly the intersection of gender and religion.

One of the assignments in the Global Justice class was to fill at an I-589 U.S. asylum application form by taking on a fictitious, yet credible identity. Using some factual news articles as a backdrop, I created a fictional narrative of a young women seeking asylum for religious persecution after leaving the Muslim faith and converting to Christianity. This assignment required details of mistreatment and violence and authentically highlighted the myriad of ways religion and gender intersect with social justice and human rights issues.

In the Action Research class, I analyzed and contrasted a quantitative (Ali et al., 2008) and qualitative (Schnabel, 2018) study of Muslim and Christian women which looked at the role religion and feminism play into their lives. I found myself favoring interpretivist and qualitative research, recognizing the importance of the individual’s lived experiences and voices as a vital part of research. The nexus of the assignment and my own lived experiences offered further validation of the need to further the work of increasing women’s roles and visibility within religions.

The following papers took deeper, more specific dives into religion.

First Piece:

The first paper I wrote in the SJHR program was my paper titled, "The Efforts of Women to Break Down Traditional Gender Roles in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints", and took a critical approach to overall gender behaviors and patterns within the Church. Although I hadn't yet framed my research question, this paper sets the stage for understanding the way the Church embraces traditional gender roles, therefore shielding the women within the Church from more visible roles.

Second Piece:

While not related directly to women, my research and study of the Church's Indian Placement Program connects to my original research by recognizing that regardless of unfair and even inappropriate policies and traditions in the past, the ability of the Church to pivot from outdated or troublesome behaviors gives hope that some current practices and traditions can change as well.

Third Piece:

In keeping with my focus of women and religion, the paper titled, "Their Women were Incredible" explores the role women played in the Mormon Migration during the 1800s. Despite the roles of women in the Church today filling more of an ancillary role, this paper asserted the women of the early church were far more visible than the women of the Church today. These early female church members were strong, capable women and key players in the Mormon Migration and the settling of the Salt Lake Valley.