I’m thrilled to return to my alma mater, Harvard Divinity School (MTS ’08) to present my book, Race and the Making of the Mormon People.

I’d like to thank Charlie Stang, the new director of the Center for the Study of World Religions, for this invitation. Professor Stang has new and exciting things in the works at CSWR, which will continue to leverage HDS’s great resources to address the world’s most contentious social and ethical issues.

In the fall of 2009, when Ron Walker and Rick Turley came to Harvard on their book tour for Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Laurel Urlich asked me to be the respondent. Luckily, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into–or the stature, honestly of the three giants in the field of Mormon studies (especially the late Ron Walker, who became a mentor and friend) I was responding to!

Tomorrow, it’s Janan Russell‘s turn to respond to my book on a subject that just might rival Mount Meadows as the thorniest issue in Mormon history. I know she’s better prepared to offer studious critiques than I was nine eight years ago.