Konden R Smith Hansen

Interests

Teaching

Courses taught: Religion in America, American Religious Traditions, Religions of the World, Religion and Popular Culture, Western Mysticism, Mormonism, Christianity, New Testament, Intro to Religion, Ritual, Symbol and Myth, Religion and Film.Proposed Courses: Mormonism, Religion and Terrorism/violence, Health and Healing in American Religion, World Religions, Religion and pop culture, Religion and film

Research

American 19th century millennialism, Secularism, Mormonism and American identity formations, World Fair's, Violence/Terrorism and Religion

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Books

• Smith Hansen, K. R., & Paulos, M. (2021). The Reed Smoot Hearings: The Investigation of a Mormon Senator and the Making of an American Religion. University of Colorado Press-Utah State University Press.
  More info

  This book examines the hearings that followed Mormon apostle Reed Smoot’s 1903 election to the US Senate and the subsequent protests and petitioning efforts from mainstream Christian ministries disputing Smoot’s right to serve as a senator. Exploring how religious and political institutions adapted and shapeshifted in response to larger societal and ecclesiastical trends, The Reed Smoot Hearings offers a broader exploration of secularism during the Progressive Era and puts the Smoot hearings in context with the ongoing debate about the constitutional definition of marriage. The work adds new insights into the role religion and the secular played in the shaping of US political institutions and national policies. Chapters also look at the history of anti-polygamy laws, the persistence of post-1890 plural marriage, the continuation of anti-Mormon sentiment, the intimacies and challenges of religious privatization, the dynamic of federal power on religious reform, and the more intimate role individuals played in effecting these institutional and national developments. The Smoot hearings stand as an important case study that highlights the paradoxical history of religious liberty in America and the principles of exclusion and coercion that history is predicated on. Framed within a liberal Protestant sensibility, these principles of secular progress mapped out the relationship of religion and the nation-state for the new modern century. The Reed Smoot Hearings will be of significant interest to students and scholars of Mormon, western, American, and religious history.
• Smith Hansen, K. R. (2019). Frontier Religion: Mormons and America, 1857-1907. University of Utah Press.
  More info

  At the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Mormons were deliberately excluded from one of the main attractions, the Parliament of Religions. Organizers believed that Mormonism, with its connections to polygamy, did not merit a place alongside other world religions being showcased for the similar ways in which they inspired people to follow God. At the same time, however, Americans who had long shown hatred or distrust toward their Mormon neighbors had begun to see Mormonism in a different light. Underlying this new view of Mormonism was a rapidly developing belief in America’s fading western frontier as a place linked to core American values such as self-reliance, personal freedom, and democratic rule. With a unique history intimately tied to the frontier, Mormonism began to be seen less as something outside America, and more as a faith closely associated with the country’s most important principles. In Frontier Religion Konden Smith Hansen examines the dramatic influence these perceptions of the frontier had on Mormonism and other religions in America. Endeavoring to better understand the sway of the frontier on religion in the United States, this book follows several Mormon-American conflicts, from the Utah War and the antipolygamy crusades to the Reed Smoot hearings. The story of Mormonism’s move toward American acceptability represents a larger story of the nation’s transition to modernity and the meaning of religious pluralism. This book challenges old assumptions and provokes further study of the ever changing dialectic between society and faith.

Chapters

• Smith Hansen, K. R. (2021). Mormonism in North America. In Bloomsbury Religion in North America(p. 40). Bloomsbury.
• Smith, K. R. (2015). “Early Mormonism: A Promised Land: Early Mormon Success in America and England 1830 to 1850”. In World Religions: Belief, Culture, and Controversy(pp Web). religion.abc-clio.com/Analyze/Display/1979376?cid=13: ABC-CLIO.
• Smith, K. R. (2012). Mormonism and the World’s Colombian Fair 1893. In Mormons and American Popular Culture(p. 30). Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.
• Smith, K. R. (2010). Muslim Boy Scouts. In Edward E. Curtis, Encyclopedia of Muslim-American History(pp 91-92). New York: Facts On File.
• Smith, K. R. (2010). Muslim Girl Scouts. In Edward E. Curtis, Encyclopedia of Muslim-American History(pp 217-218). New York: Facts on File.

Journals/Publications

• Smith, K. R. (2009). The Reed Smoot Hearings and the Theology of Politics: Perceiving an" American" Identity. Journal of Mormon History, 118--162.
• Smith, K. R. (2008). Appropriating the Secular: Mormonism and the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. Journal of Mormon History, 153--180.

Presentations

• Smith Hansen, K. R. (2021, Fall). “Unintended Consequences: Listening and the World Parliament of Religion, 1893”. 7th World Parliament of Religion, Science, and Philosophy, MIT World Peace University, Pune, India. Online.
• Smith Hansen, K. R. (2021, Spring). Meet the Authors, Frontier Religion. American Academy of Religion/Western Region.
• Smith, K. R. (2017, June). Mormon Assimilation and the Frontier Spirit at the World’s Fair 1893. Annual Mormon History Association meeting. St. Louis, Missouri: Mormon History Association.
• Smith, K. R. (2018, March). Teaching Against the 'World Religions Paradigm' in World Religions Courses. Western Region for the American Academy of Religion. Berkeley, California: American Academy of Religion.
• Smith, K. R. (2019, March). Marketing the Meaning of America: Redefining Religion at the New York World's Fair, 1964-1965. American Academy of Religion, Western Region. Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University.
• Smith Hansen, K. R. (2020, Fall). Judaism at the 1893 World's Fair and the Making of a "World Religion". JLL Sunday Salon at Temple Emanu-ElTemple Emanu-El.
• Smith Hansen, K. R. (2019, Fall). Speaking Truth to Power: What's Next for the Religious Institutions After #MeToo, with Karen Seat, Alison Jameson, and Daisy Vargas. University of Arizona, Humanities Festival.
• Smith Hansen, K. R. (2019, March). Religion at the World's Fair 1964-1965. Western Conference for the Study of Religion. Tempe, AZ.
• Smith Hansen, K. R. (2020, October). Frontier Religion. Religious Studies & Classics Faculty Colloquium Series. University of Arizona: Religious Studies and Classics.
• Smith, K. R. (2015, September). The World Columbian Exposition 1893. Parliament of World Religions. Salt Lake City, Utah: Parliament of World Religions.
• Smith, K. R. (2013, Summer). Approaching the Secular in a Post Secular America: Correlating Critical Thought and (non) Faith in the Classroom. Western Conference for the Study of Religion. Tempe, Arizona: American Academy of Religion.
• Smith, K. R. (2012, Summer). The Scientific Study of Religion, Mormonism, and the World’s Fair of 1893. Mormon History Association. Calgary, Alberta. Canada: Mormon History Association.
• Smith, K. R. (2011, Fall). The Dawning of a New Era: Mormonism and the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. Faculty Forum. Tempe, Arizona: Arizona State University.
• Smith, K. R. (2011, Summer). Qualifying Liberty: Utah and the Frontier Wars of 1856 to 1858. Regional meeting for the American Academy of Religions. San Francisco, California: American Academy of Religion.
• Smith, K. R. (2010, Summer). Mormons at the World’s Fair: A Study of Religious and Cultural Agency and Transformation. Western Conference for the Study of Religion. Tempe, Arizona: American Academy of Religion.
• Smith, K. R. (2008, Summer). “Appropriating the Secular: Mormonism and the World Columbian Exposition of 1893”. Annual Meeting of the Mormon History Association. Sacramento, California: Mormon History Association.
• Smith, K. R. (2008, Summer). “The Reed Smoot Hearings and the Theology of Politics: Perceiving an ‘American’ Mormon Identity”. Biennial Conference of the Claremont Mormon Studies Student Association. Claremont, California: Claremont Graduate School.
• Smith, K. R. (2008, Summer). “Uneasy Bedfellows: Twenty-First Century Mormonism and Contested Versions of Modern American Memory,”. Regional Meeting for the American Academy of Religions. Chicago, Illinois: American Academy of Religions.
• Smith, K. R. (2008, Summer). “’Elements of Perfection’: Imaginations of Race and Gender, Mormonism, and the Kingdom of God in Nineteenth-Century New England”. Western Conference for the Study of Religion. Pasadena, California: American Academy of Religion.
• Smith, K. R. (2007, Summer). “Nineteenth-Century Mormonism or ‘An Unloved Child’: National Culture and the Contested Notions of Americanness and the American Kingdom of God.”. Meeting of the Western Conference for the Study of Religion. Berkeley, California: American Academy of Religion.

Reviews

• Smith, K. R. (2016. Todd M. Kerstetter, Inspiration and Innovation: Religion in the American West(pp web). Reading Religion.
  More info

  Book Review
• Smith, K. R. (2012. Reid L. Neilson, Exhibiting Mormonism: The Latter-day Saints and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair(pp web). Religion in the American West.
• Smith, K. R. (2010. Edward L. Lyman, Susan W. Payne, and S. George Ellsworth, eds. No Place to Call Home: The 1807-1857 Life Writings of Caroline Barnes Crosby, Chronicler of Outlying Mormon Communities. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2005(pp 268-273).

Others

• Smith, K. (2012, May). Mormons and the World's Fair 1893 A Study of Religious and Cultural Agency and Transformation (Dissertation).
• Smith, K. R. (2006, December). Nineteenth-century Mormonism Or" an Unloved Child": National Culture and the Contested Notions of Americanness and the American Kingdom of God (MA Thesis).