Rachel Cope

Biography

Rachel Cope is an associate professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. She received a PhD in American History (with an emphasis in women’s history and religious history) from Syracuse University in 2009. Rachel has published several articles on American women’s spirituality and conversion in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, which have appeared in various edited volumes and journals, including Journal of Spirituality, Lifewriting Annual: Biographical and Autobiographical Studies, Religion in the Age of Enlightenment, New York History, and Magistra: A Journal of Women’s Spirituality in History. She also co-edited Family Life in England and America, 1690–1820 (Routledge, 2015), a four-volume collection of manuscript records documenting the lives of early American and British families. Rachel has been the recipient of numerous research grants and fellowships, most recently a Princeton University Library Research Grant and a short-term research fellowship from the Oxford Centre of Methodism and Church History, both of which are enabling her work on spiritual friendships, the subject of her upcoming monograph. She is an assistant editor of Wesley and Methodist Studies, the lead series editor of the Mormon Studies Series through Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, and one of the founding editors of the Transcribing Early American Manuscript Sermons project.

Courses Taught: Doctrine and Covenants, Church History, Mormon Women’s History

Areas of Expertise: Women’s History, Religious History in Antebellum America

Research Interests: Women’s Religious Experiences, Conversion, Revivalism, Lived Religion, Print Culture, Sanctification, Methodism, and the connections between faith and history

Education

BA, History , institution ()
PhD, American History , Religious History and Women's History , institution ( 2009-01-01 - 2009-12-31 )
MA, American History , American West, LDS, institution ( 2003-01-01 - 2003-12-31 )

Professional Citizenship

Editor, Associate Editor, Wesley and Methodist Studies, 2020-07-01 - 2020-07-31 - Present
Board Member, Mormon Studies Review, 2019-01-01 - 2019-01-31 - Present
Editor, Associate Editor, Wesley and Methodist Studies , 2014-02-01 - 2014-02-28 - Present
Other, Farleigh Dickinson University Press Mormon Studies Series , 2013-04-01 - 2013-04-30 - Present
Reviewer, Ad Hoc Reviewer, Historical Journal of Massachusetts, 2011-01-01 - 2011-01-31 - Present
Reviewer, Ad Hoc Reviewer, Maxwell Institute, 2011-01-01 - 2011-01-31 - Present
Board Member, Wesley and Methodist Studies, 2011-01-01 - 2011-01-31 - Present
Guest Speaker, Past Impressions Interview, 2010-09-01 - 2010-09-30 - Present
Board Member, Journal of Mormon History, 2016-03-01 - 2016-03-31 - 2019-01-01 - 2019-01-31
Committee/Council Member, Mormon Women's History Initiative Team, 2010-05-01 - 2010-05-31 - 2018-01-01 - 2018-01-31
Other, Wesley and Methodist Studies, 2010-02-01 - 2010-02-28 - 2014-02-01 - 2014-02-28
Committee/Council Chair, Mormon History Association , 2011-01-01 - 2011-01-31 - 2012-06-01 - 2012-06-30

Courses Taught

2020

REL C 353 : Section 001
REL C 225 : Section 029

2019

REL C 353 : Section 001
WS 332 : Section 001
AM ST 390R: Section 001

2018

REL C 353 : Section 001
REL C 225 : Section 010
REL C 225 : Section 015
REL E 595 : Section 001
REL C 225 : Section 001
WS 332 : Section 001

2017

REL C 353 : Section 001
REL C 325 : Section 001
REL C 325 : Section 003

2016

REL C 353 : Section 001
REL C 325 : Section 001
REL C 325 : Section 003
REL E 595 : Section 001
WS 395R: Section 001
REL C 325 : Section 001
REL C 325 : Section 007
REL C 325 : Section 014
REL C 325 : Section 017

2015

REL C 353 : Section 001
REL C 353 : Section 002
REL C 325 : Section 001
REL C 325 : Section 003
WS 332 : Section 001
REL C 325 : Section 001
REL C 325 : Section 004
AM ST 390R: Section 001

2014

REL C 353 : Section 001
REL C 353 : Section 002
REL C 325 : Section 001
REL C 325 : Section 003
WS 332 : Section 001
REL C 325 : Section 001
REL C 325 : Section 004
AM ST 390R: Section 001

2013

WS 332 : Section 001
REL C 325 : Section 001
REL C 325 : Section 004
REL C 325 : Section 030
AM ST 390R: Section 001

2012

REL C 353 : Section 001
REL C 353 : Section 002
REL C 325 : Section 001
REL C 325 : Section 011
WS 390R: Section 001
REL C 325 : Section 001
REL C 325 : Section 004
REL C 325 : Section 030

2011

REL C 353 : Section 001
REL C 353 : Section 002
REL C 325 : Section 001
REL C 325 : Section 013
REL C 325 : Section 001
REL C 325 : Section 021
REL C 325 : Section 028
REL C 325 : Section 031

2010

REL C 342 : Section 002
REL C 342 : Section 003
REL C 342 : Section 004
REL C 325 : Section 002

2009

HIST 390R: Section 006

2007

REL C 324 : Section 001
REL C 324 : Section 002
REL C 325 : Section 002
REL C 325 : Section 004

2006

REL C 325 : Section 002
REL C 325 : Section 004

2005

REL A 121 : Section 004
REL C 325 : Section 004

2004

REL C 325 : Section 004

Publications

Harris A, Cope R. August, 2015. Family Life in England and America, 1690-1820. London: Pickering Chatto.

Presentations

Cope R. “Teaching the First Vision in its Historical Context” . Church History Symposium . March, 2020.
Cope R. “Early American Visions of the Divine” . The First Vision of Joseph Smith Jr, 200 Years on, . January, 2020.
Cope R. Ungendering the Text: An Historical Re-reading of D&C 25. Mormon Theology Seminar. June, 2019.
Cope R. “Relational Reading and Textual Imagined Communities: Catherine Livingston Garretson’s Spiritual Value Development” . The Asian Conference on Ethics, Religion, and Philosophy. March, 2019.
Cope R. “She Calleth Her Friends: The Writings of Elizabeth Webb” . Conference of Quaker Historians and Archivists. January, 2019.
Cope R. Reading and Religious Community. Methodist Studies Seminar. 2018.
Cope R. Religious Reading. Summer Scholars Colloquium,. 2018.
Cope R, Easton-Flake AA. Reconfiguring the Archive: Women and the Social Production of the Book of Mormon” . Conference on Faith and History. October, 2018.
Cope R. “Reading and Religious Community” . Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies. August, 2018.
Cope R. Relational Reading and Imagined Religious Community. Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing . July, 2018.
Cope R. Expanding the Vistas of Salvation: Spiritual Friendship in the Correspondence of Catherine Livingston Garrettson” . Nineteenth Century Studies Association Conference. March, 2018.
Cope R. Spiritual Friendships. Summer Scholars Colloquium . 2017.
Cope R. Sanctification and Friendship in the Correspondence of Catherine Livingston Garrettson” . Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association. August, 2017.
Cope R. Elizabeth Webb and Crossing Borders . Society for the Study of American Women Writers. July, 2017.
Cope R. Spiritual Friendships and Conversion . American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting . November, 2016.
Cope R. mormonism . Conference on Faith and History. October, 2016.
Cope R. Mary Garrettson . Ecclesiastical History Colloquium. June, 2016.
Cope R. Relational Comversion . Nineteenth Century Studies Association . March, 2016.
Cope R. “Little Mabel: A Depiction of Mary Rutherford Garrettson” . Society for the Study of American Women Writers Triennial Conference. November, 2015.
Cope R, Easton-Flake AA. A Multiplicity of Witnesses: Women and Ways of Knowing. 44th Annual Sidney B Sperry Symposium. October, 2015.
Cope R. “Sanctification and Friendship in the Correspondence of Catherine Livingston Garrettson”. ‘Writing Lives Together: Romantic and Victorian Biography’,. September, 2015.
Cope R. Catherine Livingston Garrettson’s Dream Journal: Reflecting a Personal Theology. Society of Early Americanists Conference . June, 2015.
Cope R. Catherine Livingston Garrettson’s Dream Journal: Reflecting a Personal Theology. Society of Early Americanists Conference . June, 2015.
Cope R. “Teaching Christian History to Mormon Undergraduates” . Conference on Faith and History Biennial Meeting. September, 2014.
Easton-Flake AA, Cope R. Refiguring the Archive: Women and the Book of Mormon Translation. Joseph Smith’s Tranlsation Projects Conference. August, 2014.
Cope R. “The Sanctifying Nature of Religious and Visions,”. Fourth International Conference on Religion and Spirituality in Society. April, 2014.
Cope R. “Back to the Future: Meta Reading and Close Reading in the Archives”. American Society of Eighteenth Century Studies Annual Conference. March, 2014.
Cope R. “Spiritual Dreams Across Faiths” . Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies . August, 2013.
Cope R. “Defending Mormonism: Edith Turpin’s Views on Polygamy” . Mormonism and Exoticism Conference. May, 2013.
Cope R. “Using New Stuff to Think about Old Stuff: Teaching with Digital Archives Roundtable” . Society of Early Americanists Biennial Conference. March, 2013.
Cope R. “Hermeneutics of Doubt vs Hermeneutics of Trust: A Shaker Example” . Annual Conference on Faith and History . October, 2012.
Cope R. “Nurturing Faith: How Nineteenth-Century Women Understood their Growth in Grace” . Nineteenth Century Studies Association Annual Meeting. March, 2012.
Cope R. Choosing Their Own Faith: Female Conversion in Nineteenth Century Mormonism. Religion in the Marketplace . October, 2011.
Cope R. “Within and Without: Mary Frances Sturlaugson as a Symbol of Transformation in Mormon Missions”. Exploring the Shape of Protestant Missions in Mid-Twentieth-Century America. March, 2011.
Cope R. “Female Presence in Religious Archives: Discovering the Documentation of “Forgotten [Church] Members:” . Society of Early Americanists. March, 2011.
Cope R. Mormon Missions in Transition . A Century of Change: American Protestant Missions Regional Symposium, . October, 2010.
Cope R. Finding Connections between Faith and History: A Journey of Discovery” . Faith and History . October, 2010.
Cope R. “Event or Process: Gendered Perceptions of Conversion in the Burned-Over District” . Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. July, 2010.
Cope R. Shifting the Plot: Possibilities in Mormon Women's History . Mormon History Association . May, 2010.