UROP Project

religion, FBI, records, polygamy, fundamentalism
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Research Mentor: Paul Anthony, he/him
Department, College, Affiliation: Religion, Arts and Sciences
Contact Email: panthony2@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:
Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Open to all majors
Project Location: Remote
Research Assistant Transportation Required: No, the project is remote
Remote or In-person: Fully Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 6,
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Not participating in the Roundtable

Project Description

Researchers would be responsible for reviewing, cataloguing, and flagging particularly relevant or interesting FBI records pertaining to a federal investigation of polygamists under the federal White Slavery Act from the 1930s through the 1970s.

Research Tasks: Document review, data entry, data analysis, document summary, document organizing

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Required: Comfort with basic use of Excel, Dropbox, and Google Drive, ability to accurately summarize and distill information from primary source material, strong organizational skills, and self-motivated.

Mentoring Philosophy

This project is part of my dissertation into the relationship between the state and polygamous Mormons and ex-Mormons in Utah, Arizona, and Texas. My philosophy is that research is a collaborative effort. Mentors and researchers work together, sharing what they learn with each other because that's how knowledge should work. Any successful academic project requires cooperation, transparency, and mutual respect. my hope is that researchers helping with this project will join me in learning about how to use federal law enforcement records to tell a story about marginalized religious practices in the United States, as well as how to organize and distill decades-old information to make telling that story easier.

Additional Information


Link to Publications