Scholarship Awards
We are pleased to announce our 2024 scholarship recipients: Zachary Brady, Allegra Goldstraß, Makoto Hunter, and Cyrus Simper. The recipients helped out at the conference, as well as presented papers.
Zachary Brady is a Utah State University senior earning his BS in English with a minor in Chemistry. He has spent several years as a student research volunteer for the Gender, Sexual, & Religious Identities Lab, (Dr. Tyler Lefevor), and is currently researching Latter-day Women’s experience under the mentorship of Patrick Q. Mason for his honors capstone project. He loves creative writing and has published written works through USU’s Sink Hollow Magazine and Cherish: The Love of Our Mother in Heaven Volume 2. After graduation, Zach will apply to medical school, with hopes to further understand humanity through fertility medicine.
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“I’m so incredibly grateful for my JWHA conference experience and scholarship. This was the first historical conference I had ever attended or presented at, and I learned A LOT. It was refreshing to meet so many of you and learn more deeply about our shared tradition.”
Zachary Brady
Allegra Goldstraß holds a B.A. in Archaeology and Religious Studies. She is currently pursuing an M.A. in Religious Studies at the Center of Religious Studies at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. Her studies focus on the anthropology of religion, eschatology, and the Latter Day Saint movement. Allegra works as a research assistant on the Middle Persian Corpus Dictionary Project, where she has developed an appreciation for the methods of the digital humanities. Outside of her research, she serves as speaker of the student council, where she is involved in a variety of activities, such as the organization of events.
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“I‘m very grateful that I was given the opportunity to travel to the US to attend the JWHA conference and present my research. Meeting new people, making connections, and getting some valuable input on the content of my presentation has helped me to gain new perspectives and ideas that will continue to help me further my research in the future.”
Allegra Goldstraß
Makoto Hunter is a graduate student in history at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She researches the overlap of antipolygamy and anti prostitution in policy and culture as well as the shape of historical memory in the twentieth century Latter Day Saint movement.
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“I remain overwhelmed by JWHA’s incredible generosity to students through the scholarship award and am so grateful to have been selected as a recipient. Even the request to provide volunteer service as part of receiving the scholarship is itself less burden and more blessing! By volunteering at the registration desk, I got to have a personal interaction with almost every attendee, getting to know the breadth of our association and the depth of our camaraderie. To any student who submits a paper proposal to the JWHA conference, I would say to make sure that the very next thing you do is apply for the scholarship. The application process is painless, and the potential outcome, from financial support to making connections, is well worth it. And hopefully, like me, you’ll be hooked on the conference!”
Makoto Hunter
Cyrus Simper holds degrees from Brigham Young University – Idaho where he studied Sociology and Data Science. He has experience as an archivist for the Guy H. Musser Archives. He currently leads projects on the early financing of the United Effort Plan and a penitentiary poetry project. His research interests include Textile Preservation, Computer-Aided Indexing, Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing. Notable publications include studies on COVID-19 mental health impacts and Mormon sacred clothing. He will present his research on patriarchal blessings at the SSSR and plans to pursue a PhD in Computational Social Science.
Thank you to those who contributed to Giving Tuesday to support scholarship. We appreciate your contributions.
