Brigham Young University’s Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship eagerly announces the appointment of Dr. Laurie Maffly-Kipp as a visiting Neal A. Maxwell Fellow. She will join our vibrant research community beginning in January until June of 2019.Dr. Maffly-Kipp is the current Archer Alexander Distinguished Professor at Washington University in St. Louis’s John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics. After completing her Ph.D. in American History at Yale University she taught both American and Religious Studies for twenty-four years at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During her distinguished career she has served as president of the American Society of Church History and the Mormon History Association. In addition to writing the Introduction to the Penguin Classics edition of the Book of Mormon, her publications include Setting Down the Sacred Past: African-American Race Histories (Harvard University Press, 2010), Religion and Society in Frontier California (Yale University Press, 1994), and co-edited collections such as Proclamation to the People: Nineteenth-Century Mormonism and the Pacific Basin Frontier (University of Utah Press, 2008).Her teaching and research focuses on African American religions, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and other matters concerning intercultural contact.During her time at the Institute, Dr. Maffly-Kipp will continue her current research into international Latter-day Saint history while also organizing and mentoring women in related academic fields. Preliminary plans are underway for her to lead a possible seminar, symposium, and other collaboration opportunities with scholars at BYU and from around the region.Learn more about Dr. Maffly-Kipp here; read her contribution to the Mormon Studies Review here; and enjoy her interview on the Maxwell Institute Podcast here.