Colleen McDannell receives 2019 Mary Nickliss Prize from the Organization of American Historians

During its annual meeting in Philadelphia, PA, the Organization of American Historians announced that Colleen McDannell, professor of history at the University of Utah, received the prestigious 2019 Mary Nickliss Prize in U.S. Women's and/or Gender History.

McDannell’s book, “Sister Saints: Mormon Women since the End of Polygamy” examines women’s activism within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from the 1880s to the twenty-first century. It rests on ambitious research, balancing archival materials with women’s personal recollections and interviews and reveals the selective, gendered silences and guardedness that shaped women’s involvement in the Church. Moreover, McDannell shows this to be an involvement simultaneously social, political and theological.

Founded in 1907, the Organization of American Historians is the world's largest professional association dedicated to American history scholarship. With more than 7,500 members from the U.S. and abroad, the organization promotes excellence in the scholarship, teaching and presentation of American history, encouraging wide discussion of historical questions and equitable treatment of history practitioners.