Laurie Maffly-Kipp

Laurie Maffly-Kipp is a Professor and Archer Alexander Distinguished Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, affiliated with the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics. Previously, she held a faculty position at the University of Virginia as Director of Mormon Studies. Her research focuses on African American religions, Mormonism, and intercultural religious dynamics in Pacific borderlands.

She earned a PhD in American History from Yale University and taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for 24 years before joining Washington University. Her work bridges religious history, race studies, and colonial encounters, with notable publications including Setting Down the Sacred Past and American Scriptures.

Awarded the James W.C. Pennington Award (2014) and multiple fellowships, she has led major projects funded by the Lilly Endowment and NEH. She served as past president of both the American Society of Church History and Mormon History Association.