Over 300 People Attend 2024 Arrington Lecture

LOGAN, Utah — This year’s Arrington Lecture on Oct. 10 drew over 300 attendees, making it one of the highest-attended lectures in the series to date. The guest lecturer was Jana Riess, a senior columnist for Religion News Service and a frequent contributor to the Salt Lake Tribune. Participants included students, faculty, staff and community members, all eager to engage in the annual discussion about the Latter-day Saint community.

Riess’s lecture was titled “Latter-day Saint Women and the Quiet Erosion of Certainty,” which explored data from the 2022-23 Next Mormons Survey, highlighting significant trends in the shifting landscape of religious certainty among Latter-day Saint women and contrasting it with the experiences of their male counterparts.

“The Arrington Lecture stands as a testament to the enduring commitment of Utah State University's Special Collections & Archives to fostering dialogue and developing knowledge of the role the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has played in our shared history,” said USU Libraries Dean Jennifer Duncan.

For those who are interested in learning more about Arrington, Dean Duncan continued: “Leonard Arrington’s papers are held in our closed stacks and are regularly accessed by researchers from students to eminent researchers examining topics related to the history of the Intermountain West, so we see the impact that his work continues to have today.”