Are you hungry for deep conversation with thoughtful women? Do you need a break from the daily grind? Does a weekend in nature sound healing? Rocky Mountain Retreat (October 13-15) is just around the corner, and we are all looking forward to being together with friends both old and new. We’ll have breakout sessions, singing, yummy snacks, eclipse viewing, labyrinth walking, possible mountain climbing, certainly deer viewing—along with real and meaningful discussion about who we are, shared and divergent faith journeys, religious pain and religious healing, and how to meaningfully participate and help others in our communities both in and out of the church.
Registration is Open as of today! Registration will close at midnight on Wednesday, September 13th. To register, go to www.rockymountainretreat.org
Keynote Speaker: Caroline Kline
Caroline Kline is the assistant director of the Center for Global Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University. She holds a PhD in religion from CGU, and her areas of interest include contemporary Latter-day Saint women’s communities, feminist theory, and oral history. Kline is the author of a number of articles or book chapters that center on Mormonism and gender, including “The Mormon Conception of Women’s Nature and Role: A Feminist Analysis,” (Feminist Theology, 2014) and “Saying Goodbye to the Final Say: The Softening and Reimagining of Mormon Male Headship Ideologies,” (Out of Obscurity: Mormonism Since 1945, 2016). Her book, Mormon Women at the Crossroads: Global Narratives and the Power of Connectedness (2022), explores Latter-day Saint women’s lived experiences in Botswana, Mexico, and the United States.
Keynote Address: Caroline will speak to us about her book, Mormon Women at the Crossroads: Global Narratives and the Power of Connectedness (2022), which explores Latter-day Saint women’s lived experiences in Botswana, Mexico, and the United States:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continues to contend with longstanding tensions surrounding gender and race. Yet women of color in the United States and across the Global South adopt and adapt the faith to their contexts, many sharing the high level of satisfaction expressed by Latter-day Saints in general. Caroline Kline explores the ways Latter-day Saint women of color in Mexico, Botswana, and the United States navigate gender norms, but also how their moral priorities and actions challenge Western feminist assumptions. Kline analyzes these traditional religious women through non-oppressive connectedness, a worldview that blends elements of female empowerment and liberation with a broader focus on fostering positive and productive relationships in different realms. Even as members of a patriarchal institution, the women feel a sense of liberation that empowers them to work against oppression and against alienation from both God and other human beings.
Vivid and groundbreaking, Mormon Women at the Crossroads merges interviews with theory to offer a rare discussion of Latter-day Saint women from a global perspective. (University of Illinois Press re: Mormon Women at the Crossroads)
