Awards

Leonard J. Arrington Award

Awarded annually to a scholar whose contributions are truly outstanding for distinguished service to Mormon history. The selection committee will consider the influence of certain individual works by nominees for this award, as well as their cumulative records of meritorious scholarship in general. Awarded since 1999, this award is named and given in memory and recognition of a founding member of the Mormon History Association and premier mentor and promoter of Mormon history. This award replaces the Grace Fort Arrington Award for Historical Excellence that was offered from 1981 through 1998.

Best Book Award

Endowed By: Ken Demas

Ken Demas, a longtime supporter of the University of Utah History Department and friend of Mormon Studies, left a generous behest to fund a $2,000 annual award for the best book published in Mormon history. After serving in the Pacific theater during World War II, Ken enrolled as a student in the History Department at the University of Utah. He would have graduated except the Army reactivated him for the Korean Conflict. Ken nonetheless maintained a lifelong loyalty to the U and recalled his time there with fondness. The History Department has partnered with the Mormon History Association (MHA) to honor Ken’s legacy and bestow the Ken Demas Best Book Award in Mormon History at MHA’s annual conference. MHA’s book awards committee determines the winner of this award.

The Ella L. Turner Award for Best Biography

Sponsored By: Turner and Bergera Families

$1,500 awarded for the best published biography in the field of Mormon history. Funded in honor of Ella Larsen Turner, a published historian and genealogist, and her daughter, Ella Ruth Turner Bergera (pictured), a published family historian, novelist, and poet.

Best Personal History/Memoir Award

Sponsored By: Dawn Parrett Thurston and Morris Ashcroft Thurston

$1,200 awarded biennially (next at the 2025 conference) for the best published Mormon memoir or personal history. Funded in honor of Barbara Ashcroft Thurston and Morris Alma Thurston (pictured), whose dedication to preserving family history and genealogy was an inspiration to their childrens’ mission to promote well-written and compelling personal life stories.

Best First Book Award

Sponsored By: The Hartley Foundation

$1,500 awarded biennially for an author’s FIRST book published on Mormon history. Next awarded at 2026 conference. Funded by the Hartley Foundation to honor noted recently deceased Mormon historian William G. Hartley (pictured).

Best Documentary Editing/Bibliography

Sponsored By: Melanie and Richard Park

$1,200 awarded biennially (next awarded at at the 2026 conference) for the best published book of documentary editing or bibliography on Mormon history. Funded by Melanie and Richard Park in honor of Curtis Bolton (pictured), an ancestor who helped with both the writing of Joseph Smith’s history in Nauvoo as well as the translation of the Book of Mormon into French

Best Book on International Mormon History

Sponsored By: Wilfried Decoo in memory of his wife Carine Decoo-Vanwelkenhuysen

$1,500 awarded biennially for the best book on international Mormon history (next awarded at the 2025 conference). Funded by Wilfried Decoo in memory of his wife Carine Decoo-Vanwelkenhuysen (pictured), a lover of Mormon Studies, who passed away in 2018 following a long illness.

Ardis E. Parshall Public History Award

Endowed By: Kelly and Heather Stone and MHA Members

Awarded annually to a public history project related to Mormonism that contributes new insight, demonstrates rigorous scholarship, engages primarily with a public outside of the academy, portrays complexity and diversity in respectful ways, and broadens the field of public history. The award honors Ardis E. Parshall, a pioneer in Mormon Studies public history.

Best Indigenous Studies Award

Sponsored By: BYU Charles Redd Center for Western Studies

The Best Indigenous Studies Award is given annually, in honor of Northwestern Shoshone historian Mae Timbimboo Parry, to recognize scholarly excellence in Indigenous studies presented or published in the preceding year. Submissions may include various formats of traditional scholarship such as a published book, essay, book chapter, or article. Other forms of public scholarship and engagement are also welcomed and could include public history or public programming projects, digital media, events, exhibits, advocacy, and so forth.

Best Article Award

Endowed By: Armand Mauss and MHA Members

The Jan Shipps Best Article Award is given to the published article or essay that best exemplifies the legacy of one of MHA’s most important founders, scholars, and leaders. Overall quality is a crucial consideration, as well as an author’s use of interdisciplinary tools, interpretive innovation, and/or incorporation of distinct Mormon traditions.

The Lavina Fielding Anderson Award for Best Article Publishing in The Journal of Mormon History

Sponsored By: Anonymous

$500 Awarded for best article published in the MHA’s journal in the previous year as determined by the JMH Board of Editors.

Best Article on Mormon Women's History

Sponsored By: Mormon Women's History Initiative Team

$450 Awarded for an outstanding article on the experiences of Mormon women in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Sponsored by the Mormon Women’s History Initiative Team (MWHIT), an independent group of scholars from around the United States who encourage research, writing, and publications on Mormon women’s history.

Best International Article Award

Sponsored By: Joseph and Julia Todd

$500 Awarded for the best international Mormon history article (in print or online journals), in honor of Andrew Jenson (pictured), Assistant LDS Church Historian, for his outstanding contribution in documenting nearly every LDS congregation around the world.

Best Dissertation Award

Sponsored By: Gerald Edward Jones' son Gerald L Jones

$800 Awarded for the best doctoral dissertation on a Mormon historical theme (next awarded at the 2025 conference). Funded in honor and memory of the many students of Gerald Edward Jones (pictured), who served for many years as an administrator and instructor for the LDS Church Education System.

The D. Michael Quinn Best Thesis Award

Sponsored By: Anonymous

$500 Award for the best master’s thesis on a Mormon historical theme (next awarded at the 2026 conference). Given in honor of D. Michael Quinn, an award-winning historian and former professor at Brigham Young University whose influential scholarship reshaped the study of Mormon history. His major publications include Early Mormonism and the Magic World View and the landmark Mormon Hierarchy trilogy (Origins of Power, Extensions of Power, and Wealth and Corporate Power), as well as biographies of J. Reuben Clark. Quinn received multiple best book awards from the Mormon History Association and the John Whitmer Historical Association and was honored by the American Historical Association with the Herbert Feis Award. Named a Distinguished Historian by the Organization of American Historians, he continued publishing as an independent scholar until his death in 2021.

The Martha Bradley Evans Best Unpublished Graduate Student Paper Award

Sponsored By: Anonymous

$500 The Best Graduate Paper is funded in honor of Martha Bradley Evans, a distinguished historian and educator who taught at the University of Utah, where she served as Dean of the Honors College and later as Senior Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs. An award-winning teacher and past president of the Mormon History Association, her scholarship explores Mormon history, women’s history, architecture, and religious communities. Her major publications include Kidnapped from That Land, The Four Zinas, Pedestals and Podiums, and Glorious in Persecution: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1839–1844. She received MHA’s Best Biography Award and the Leonard J. Arrington Award and was named a Fellow of the Utah Historical Society.