Biography
J. Spencer Fluhman is executive director of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship and associate professor of history at Brigham Young University (BYU). He graduated summa cum laude from BYU and received masters and doctoral degrees in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research takes up the question of religious identity and the intersection of religion and politics in the United States. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Journal of Religion and Society, Journal of Mormon History, BYU Studies Quarterly, and Mormon Historical Studies. His article, "An 'American Mahomet': Joseph Smith, Muhammad, and the Problem of Prophets in Antebellum America," (Journal of Mormon History, 2008) won the T. Edgar Lyon Award for Best Article of the Year from the Mormon History Association in 2009. His first book, “A Peculiar People”: Anti-Mormonism and the Making of Religion in Nineteenth-Century America (University of North Carolina Press, 2012) won the Mormon History Association’s Best First Book Award in 2013. In 2014, he won the Mollie & Karl Butler Young Scholar Award in Western Studies from the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies. He is currently at work on a biography of LDS apostle James E. Talmage (under contract, Oxford University Press). He has held office in the American Academy of Religion, American Society of Church History, and Mormon History Association. He served as editor-in-chief of Mormon Studies Review from 2013-2018. He was visiting professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate University in 2015 and visiting distinguished professor of Mormon Studies at the University of California-Santa Barbara in 2020.
Research Interests
American religious history, Latter-day Saint history, American intellectual historyTeaching Interests
History of Christianity, American religious history, Latter-day Saint historyEducation
- Ph.D., History , Religious Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2006)
- MA, History , University of Wisconsin-Madison (2000)
- BA, Near Eastern Studies , History, Brigham Young University (1998)
Honors and Awards
- Mollie and Karl Butler Young Scholar Award in Western Studies, Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, Brigham Young University (2014 - 2017)
- Best First Book Award, Mormon History Assocation (2013 - 2013)
- Outstanding Teacher Award, 2012-13, History Department, Brigham Young University (2012 - 2013)
- Professor of the Year Award, American Studies Program, Brigham Young University (2010 - 2011)
- T. Edgar Lyon Best Article Award, Mormon History Association (2009 - 2009)
- Fellow, Young Scholars in American Religion Program, Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, Indiana University - Purdue University, Indianapolis (2007 - 2009)
- Best Graduate Student Paper Award, American Academy of Religion-Society of Biblical Literature, Rocky Mountains-Great Plains Region (2005 - 2005)
Administrative Assignments
- Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship: Director (2016 - 2023)
Professional Citizenship
- Board Member, Mormon Scholars Foundation (2016 - Present)
- Board Member, National Museum of American Religion (2012 - Present)
- Guest Speaker, Utah Valley Institute of Religion (2021 - 2021)
- Guest Speaker, Gonzaga University Law School
- Editor, Associate Editor, Mormon Studies Review, A Publication of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship (2013 - 2019)
- Committee/Council Chair, American Academy of Religion, Mormon Studies Group (2016 - 2018)
- Guest Speaker, BYU Student Life Staff Diversity Training
- Committee/Council Member, American Society of Church History (2017 - 2017)
- Board Member, American Society of Church History (2014 - 2017)
- Publications-outreach, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Guest Speaker, BYU Counseling Center Inservice Training
- Other, American Academy of Religion (2013 - 2016)
- Media Interview, C-SPAN2 (2016 - 2016)
- Media Interview, C-SPAN3 (2016 - 2016)
- Reviewer, Ad Hoc Reviewer, Harvard University Press (2015 - 2015)
- Guest Speaker, LDS Church History Museum
- Reviewer, Ad Hoc Reviewer, Yale University Press (2014 - 2014)
- Media Interview, BYU Magazine
- Media Interview, Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel (2013 - 2013)
- Committee/Council Member, Mormon History Association Nominating Committee (2011 - 2013)
- Media Interview, Missouri Digital News Service
- Media Interview, New York Times
- Media Interview, "Access Utah" Utah Public Radio
- Media Interview, Al Aribiya News Channel, Washington, D.C./Dubai
- Media Interview, Sky News, London
- Media Interview, ABC World News
- Media Interview, WGN Morning News Chicago
- Media Interview, MSNBC
- Committee/Council Chair, Student Awards Subcommittee, Mormon History Association (2007 - 2011)
- Committee/Council Chair, Awards Committee/Mormon History Association (2008 - 2011)
- Board Member, Mormon History Association (2008 - 2011)