Renowned Historian Richard E. Turley Jr. to Deliver 2025 Arrington Lecture at USU

LOGAN, Utah - Utah State University Libraries is proud to present the annual Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture, featuring distinguished historian Richard E. Turley Jr. This event brings a foremost expert on Latter-day Saint history to campus for an evening of scholarly insight and historical exploration.

The lecture, titled "Team History: The Latter-day Saint Historical Enterprise, 1986–2025," will be held Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. in the Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall on USU's Logan campus. Turley will explore how collaborative research has transformed modern Latter-day Saint historical scholarship over the past four decades.

Richard E. Turley Jr. brings exceptional credentials to this year's lecture. As the former managing director of the Church History and Family History Departments of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he has helped shape the most significant historical projects in the field for nearly forty years. His impressive portfolio includes authoring or editing more than twenty books on Latter-day Saint and Western United States history.

Turley's distinguished career has earned him numerous prestigious awards, including the Herbert Feis Award for distinguished contributions to public history from the American Historical Association, the Historic Preservation Medal from the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Leonard J. Arrington Award from the Mormon History Association. Most recently, he and co-author Barbara Jones Brown received the Juanita Brooks Best Book in Utah History Award from the Utah Historical Society for their book, Vengeance Is Mine. He is currently working on a biography of church founder Joseph Smith.

The annual Arrington Lecture honors the legacy of Leonard J. Arrington, a pioneering historian whose work established new standards for Mormon historical scholarship. This event offers the university community and general public an opportunity to engage with cutting-edge historical research and methodology.

Event Details:

• Date: Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025
• Time: 7 p.m.
• Location: Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall, Logan Campus
• Audience: Open to the public For more information, contact Sara Grove at sara.grove@usu.edu.