Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Theses and Dissertations

Despite the marked decline in the number of students seeking advanced degrees, which is sending shock waves throughout American academia, interest in Mormon-related programs remains remarkably high. This trend becomes considerably more understandable when we realize that almost sixty percent of the Ph.D. dissertations and master’s theses in Linda Thatcher’s accompanying bibliography were completed at Brigham Young University. A sizeable number of their authors will find, or have already found, employment within the Church Educational System. 

Unfortunately, proposed federal cutbacks in higher education funding and a frustratingly low number of jobs in teaching and research raise grave concerns regarding the future study of Mormonism elsewhere. If these trends continue, we may well be deprived in the future of such significant works as Edward Leo Lyman’s exhaustive examination of “The Mormon Quest for Utah Statehood” (University of California, Riverside, 1981), and Warren David Hansen’s analysis of how Joseph Smith’s social thought fit into the currents of social and philosophical thought of his time (Rutgers University, 1980). 

Equally useful, is Michael Guy Bishop’s comparison of American ante bellum thought on familialism and early Mormon attempts to create a family unit which might remain intact in the hereafter (Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1981). LeAnn Cragun’s examination of the Church’s attempts at various times to manipulate its own history provides useful insight for the present (University of Hawaii, 1981).