Symposium on the Lives and Work of Armand Mauss and O. Kendall White

Daryl White, Spelman College
Gary Shepherd, Oakland University
Gordon Shepherd, University of Central Arkansas
David Knowlton, Utah Valley University

Abstract. On October 24, 2020, the Mormon Social Science Association convened to pay tribute to Armand L. Mauss and O. Kendall White, both of whom passed away in 2020. Mauss and White were influential members of the MSSA and leaders in the social scientific study of Mormonism. This tribute is a symposium comprised of three essays on the life and work of these scholars. In the first essay, Daryl White (emeritus, Spelman College) pays tribute to his late brother, noting how O. Kendall White’s biography and scholarship were intertwined, and chronicling Ken’s influence on the nascent sociological study of Mormonism. In the second essay, Gary Shepherd (Oakland University) and Gordon Shepherd (University of Central Arkansas) recount their four-decade association with Armand L. Mauss and describe the profound impact Armand has had on Mormon studies generally, and the social scientific study of Mormonism in particular. Finally,  David Knowlton (Utah Valley University) considers the lives and influence of Mauss and White collectively, reflecting on how their work served as a foundation for the maturing field of Mormon social science.

Daryl White. 2022. “Ken’s Education,” Journal of the Mormon Social Science Association 1, no. 1: 235-245.

Shepherd, Gary and Gordon Shepherd. 2022. “Armand Mauss and the Social Scientific Study of Mormonism,” Journal of the Mormon Social Science Association 1, no. 1: 246-250.

Knowlton, David. 2022. “The Masters and the Beehive: Reflections on Kendall White and Armand Mauss,” Journal of the Mormon Social Science Association 1, no. 1: 250-257.

https://doi.org/10.54587/JMSSA.0109