The Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah announces the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation Fellowship in Mormon Studies for 2009-2010.

These fellowships, to be awarded to two qualifying graduate students “of unusual ability and achievement” for the 2009-2010 academic year, are full time research, writing, and speaking positions, complete with stipend and office. Writes Paul Reeve,

The Tanner Humanities Center is pleased to announce it has been awarded a grant from the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation for $36,000 to establish the Eccles Fellowship in Mormon Studies. The award has been designated to support two doctoral students in researching and writing their dissertations ($18,000 stipend for each), one in 2009 and one in 2010. This fellowship targets Ph.D. candidates across the United States and the world who are researching the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its members, and Mormon culture in the fields of History, Anthropology, Sociology, Education, Economics, Business, Political Science, Religion, or Literature. Through publications, work in the classroom, and in public forums, these future academics, writers, and teachers will have an impact on the study of Mormonism and on students and the general population.

This fellowship is the first in the United States and the world to focus specifically on Mormon Studies. In offering this opportunity at the University of Utah, the Center recognizes the important and unrivaled archival resources for research located in Salt Lake City and Utah. It also begins to redress the imbalance of opportunities facing thsoe who choose to study Mormonism in contrast to Judaism, Catholicism, or Islam. This fellowship will also enhance the recent trend that seeks to raise Mormon Studies to a new standard of academic excellence.

Application information and deadlines can be found here.

This is an exciting day for those of us who care about Mormon Studies. I eagerly await news of the lucky scholars — those “of unusual ability and achievement” — who will take advantage of this fellowship. Even more do I await the work they will produce.

Thanks to the Eccles Foundation, the Tanner Humanities Center, and the University of Utah for their generous support of this scholarship.