Today on the Talk Mormonism podcast I am joined by Dr. Cristina Rosetti, author of a recently published paper for the July edition of the Journal of Mormon History titled: “Hysteria Excommunicatus: Loyalty Oaths, Excommunication, And the Forging of a Mormon Identity.” Cristina holds a PhD in religious studies from the University of California Riverside, and come fall, she’ll be working as a visiting assistant professor at Claremont Mckenna College. Her research focuses on the history and lived experience of Mormon fundamentalists in the Intermountain West. She’s also working on an upcoming biography of Joseph W. Musser, the man some refer to as “the Father of the Fundamentalist Mormon movement.”
In our interview we covered the tumultuous period in LDS history in which the practice of polygamy, aka the new and everlasting covenant of marriage, was being phased out under the direction of President Heber J. Grant. We’ll talk about the stigmas, loyalty oaths, and excommunications that helped forge what Cristina Rosetti calls “a new Mormon identity.”