2025 Conference Logo

Please note: the agenda presented here is a draft and subject to change. 

Click on the session numbers for abstract and bio.


Time

 

 

Session

Presenter(s)

Location

Saturday, September 20, 2025

8:00-10:00 a.m.

 

 

Light Breakfast (included in registration fee)

 

 

 

 



W. Cleon Skousen and Hugh B. Brown: Polar Opposites, Or—A view from the Right and Left in LDS Politics

8:30 a.m.
Chair: Eric Paul Rogers

Session 301

“W. Cleon Skousen: His Life as a Public Intellectual and Influencer”

Jo Ann Skousen

 

 

“W. Cleon Skousen and Hugh B. Brown: Polar Opposites, Or—A view from the Right and Left in LDS Politics”

Matthew L. Harris


Women at the Edges of Mormonism

8:30 a.m.
Chair: 

Session 302

“Fanny W. Custer: A Case Study of Method and Margins”

David Golding

 

 

“‘The Name and Blood of His Chosen Ones’: Ina Coolbrith and the Smith Family?”

Amanada Hendrix-Komoto

“Helen Foster Snow at the Edges of Mormonism”

Spencer Stewart

 

 

“Susan Stryker: The RLDS Upbringing of a Transgender Historian”

Makoto Hunter (Scholarship Recipient)

 

 


Political Legacies and Restoration Visions

8:30 a.m.
Chair: Jason R. Smith

Session 303

“Of Prophets and Presidents: Harry S. Truman and the Smiths”

Mark A. Scherer

 

 

“The Politics of Restoration: Redeeming America through the Martyred Visions of Joseph Smith Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy Sr.”

Derek R. Sainsbury
Katie Harrington Dunn


Restoration on Trial: Legal Battles over Office and Ownership

8:30 a.m.
Chair: Katherine Peake 

 

Session 304

“‘Jurors and Witnesses who do not Blush to Declare’: County Government in Antebellum Missouri”

Sherilyn Farnes

 

 

“The Temple Lot Case: Rightful Owner vs. Rightful Successor”

Mark Tensmeyer

 

 



9:45 a.m.

 

 

Break 

 

 

 

 



Honoring Heritage and Fostering Transformation: Exploring Values, Identity, and Evolving Pedagogies in Restorationist Traditions

10:15 a.m.
Chair: 

Session 311

“Evolving Pedagogies and Historical Consciousness in Restorationist Traditions: A Case Study of the Reorganized Church (Community of Christ)”

Roger Allen Rose

 

 

“Fractal Patterns of Values: Reimagining Restoration Curriculum Through History, Theology, and Identity”

Ken R. Mulliken

 

 


Latter Day Saints and Local Politics: Free Labor and the Free Press in the Early Restoration

10:15 a.m.
Chair: 

Session 312

“Saints and Slaves: Patchwork Evidence of Abolitionists Among the Early Mormons”

Paul DeBarthe

 

 

“The Saints and Local Politics in 1830s Kirtland”

Seth L. Bryant


Evolutions in Latter-day Saint Religious Education

10:15 a.m.
Chair: Eric Paul Rogers

Session 313

“Evolving Understandings: The Impact of Changing Definitions of ‘Doctrine’ on Religious Education in the LDS Church”

T. Kendall Buchmiller

 

 

“Navigating Doubt: Four Decades of Evolving Approaches in LDS Religious Education”

Jared M. Halverson

 

 

“Evolving Attitudes Toward Gender, Marriage, Family, and Sexuality in LDS Seminaries and Institutes of Religion”

Iliana Christensen
Eric Paul Rogers

 


The Reorganized Church and Race

10:15 a.m.
Chair: Matthew L. Harris

Session 314

“The RLDS Church and Race: From Prophetic Principles to Respectability”

William D. Russell

 

 

“Black Americans in Community of Christ: A Journey of Hope”

Gwendolyn Hawks-Blue

 

 



11:30 a.m.

 

 

Break 
Tour Bus Load

 

 

 

 

12:00-5:30 p.m.

Bus Tours

Historical Sites Tours
WWI Museum
Brown v. Board of Education
Pre-registration Required.
Box lunch included in registration fee.

Kenneth L. Alford
Matthew L. Harris

Off Site

6:30 p.m.

Keynote 321

Presidential Banquet and Address
“Visions of Peace in the Church of Christ: John Whitmer’s Family of Conscientious Objectors and Their Pre-1830 Religions”

Mark L. Staker

 

 

 

 

 

2026 Board Installation

 

 

 

 

 

JWHA 2025 Conference Agenda At-a-Glance