COLLEEN MCDANNELL, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH, RECEIVES 2019 MARY NICKLISS PRIZE IN U.S. WOMEN'S AND/OR GENDER HISTORY FROM THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORIANS

BLOOMINGTON, IN—During its annual meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Organization of American Historians (OAH) announced that Colleen McDannell, University of Utah, received their prestigious 2019 Mary Nickliss Prize in U.S. Women's and/or Gender History, which is given annually for the most original book in U.S. women’s and/or gender history.

 Colleen McDannell, University of Utah, Sister Saints: Mormon Women since the End of Polygamy (Oxford University Press). This original, ambitious study examines women’s activism within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) from the 1880s to the twenty-first century. It rests on ambitious research, balancing archival materials with women’s personal recollections and interviews. It reveals the selective, gendered silences and guardedness that shaped women’s involvement in the LDS church. Moreover, McDannell shows this to be an involvement simultaneously social, political, and theological. McDannell is not herself a member of the LDS faith, and her “outsider” position strengthens a history that addresses an “outsider” audience. It explains LDS tenets evenhandedly. At the same time, McDannell demonstrates, unflinchingly, how the patriarchal Mormon hierarchy deployed not only threats but also crafty flexibility in its determination to stifle women’s initiatives—for example, bringing the church’s relief societies, once controlled by Mormon women, into church officialdom to disempower women. Though clearly siding with LDS feminists, McDannell recognizes the work of those who accepted the male domination of the religion and demonstrates how the LDS establishment is dependent on the underestimated leadership and labor of all Mormon women. McDannell also highlights the religion’s growing diversity. The story she tells shows how local, national, and even global issues intersected these women’s activism, even as it also helps explain the longevity of the LDS as religion, institution, and community. It includes, for example, discussion of the role of LDS women in the fight for the equal rights amendment, the controversies over reproductive rights, and the impact of the web and social media. McDannell also uses scholarship from different fields altogether in building her analysis—for example, Deborah Tannen’s analysis of gendered differences in language. Not least, the book is beautifully written, with a deft combination of narrative and analysis.

The award was announced on April 5 by OAH’s 2019–20 President Joanne Meyerowitz.
For more information, visit oah.org or call 812.855.7311.

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ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORIANS
Founded in 1907, the Organization of American Historians (OAH) is the world's largest professional association dedicated to American history scholarship. With more than 7,500 members from the U.S. and abroad, OAH promotes excellence in the scholarship, teaching, and presentation of American history, encouraging wide discussion of historical questions and equitable treatment of history practitioners. It publishes the quarterly Journal of American History, the leading scholarly publication and journal of record in the field of American history for more than a century. It also publishes The American Historian magazine. Formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association (MVHA), the association became the OAH in 1965 to reflect a broader scope focusing on national studies of American history. The OAH national headquarters are located in the historic Raintree House on Indiana University's Bloomington campus.