Rosemary Avance receives fellowship from the University of Utah

Rosemary Avance, a fourth-year doctoral student at the Annenberg School for Communication, is the recipient of a Fellowship in Mormon Studies from the Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. The first of its kind, the fellowship provides a doctoral candidate with funds to spend a year researching the history, beliefs, and culture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members.

Ms. Avance’s research project is entitled “Voices and Silences: On the Dialogic Construction of Mormon Identities,” and will consider the ways that modern Mormon identities are rendered from multiple, often conflicting sources: secular authorities, faithful members, the media, and heterodox and former Mormons. Her project seeks to contribute to an understanding of Mormon religious identity as a blend of voices and silences in the ritual sphere.

Ms. Avance is currently a doctoral candidate with a focus on religious identity and cultural studies at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. She received an M.A in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania in 2010. Ms. Avance will be in residence at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City for the 2012-2013 school year as she researches and writes her dissertation on the dialogic construction of Mormon identity in the Internet age.

Bob Goldberg, professor of history and director of the Tanner Humanities Center, describes Avance’s research as “an intriguing examination of the formation of LDS social and religious identities in the current ‘Mormon moment.’ The Tanner Humanities Center is excited to extend this research opportunity to Ms. Avance.”