Claudia Lauper Bushman

Claudia Marian Lauper Bushman (born 1934) is an American historian specializing in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

Personal life and education

A member of LDS Church, Bushman is the wife of fellow historian Richard Lyman Bushman. The Bushmans are the parents of six children. Claudia Bushman was recognized as mother of the year for the state of New York in 2000.^[1] She is the sister of Bonnie Goodliffe, one of the organists for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.^[2]

Bushman holds degrees from Wellesley College, Brigham Young University and Boston University.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Bushman is a professor of American Studies at Columbia University.^{[citation needed]} In the summer of 2003, she was the director of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History's Summer Scholars program. For the 2007–08 academic year, Bushman was an adjunct professor at Claremont Graduate University while her husband held the Howard W. Hunter chair at that institution.^[3] Bushman is the author of many books, most recently Contemporary Mormonism: Latter-day Saints in Modern America (Praeger Publishers, 2006).

In 1974 Bushman was involved in the founding of Exponent II, a Mormon feminist magazine.^[4] There was some speculation among the faculty of Brigham Young University that this led to an attempt by university officials to rescind an invitation for her to speak there in 1993.^[5]

Bushman has been heavily involved in cultural activities and public relations in New York City. She was the producer of the youth celebration than coincided with the dedication of the Manhattan New York Temple.

Published work

• Mormons in America
• Building the Kingdom: A History of Mormons in America
• In Old Virginia: Slavery, Farming and Society in the Journal of John Walker
• America Discovers Columbus: How an Italian Explorer Became an American Hero
• Mormon Sisters: Women in Early Utah

Notes

External links

• Claudia Bushman at the MLCA Database
• Works by or about Claudia Lauper Bushman in libraries (WorldCat catalog)