Maxwell Institute Podcast #148: The Weight of Legacy, with Kate Holbrook
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Kate Holbrook, PhD (1972–2022) was a leading voice in the study of Latter-day Saintwomen and Latter-day Saint foodways. As managing historian of women’s history atthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints history department, she wrote, studied,and interpreted history full-time. Her major research interests were religion, gender,and food. Her primary professional activity was to discover, encourage, and celebratewomen’s flourishing in the scholarly and spiritual realms.

A popular public speaker, Kate was voted Harvard College’s Teaching Fellow of theYear for her work as head teaching fellow in a course that enrolled nearly six hundredstudents, and she co-edited Global Values 101: A Short Course) (Beacon Press, 2006),based on that class. In 2012, Kate co-organized a conference entitled “Women and theLDS Church: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives).” She and her co-organizer,Matthew Bowman, edited a collection of essays that sprang from this conferenceentitled Women and Mormonism: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives). Kate hasalso published essays and book chapters about Latter-day Saint women andhousework, Nation of Islam Muslims, Latter-day Saints and food, religion andsexuality, and religious hunting rituals.

Kate grew up at the feet of the Rocky Mountains and returned there in 2006, to liveamong the historic sites, cultural currents, and food environments where herscholarship had its roots. She earned a BA in English and Russian literature fromBrigham Young University, an MTS from Harvard Divinity School, and a PhD inReligious Studies from Boston University. For her dissertation work on Latter-day Saintand Nation of Islam foodways, she was the first recipient of the Eccles Fellowship inMormon Studies at the University of Utah. She was proud wife (to Samuel Brown) andmother (to Amelia, Lucia, and Persephone Holbrook-Brown).

Kate and her family developed this endowment together. It was Kate’s wish as shedeparted mortality that these funds serve to help the women of the Church to flourish

in their scholarly and spiritual lives. Kate herself benefited from a similar gift (fromRuth Silver of Denver, Colorado) early in her scholarly career, when she and Sam hadminimal financial resources, and she needed time and money to devote to the study ofwomen and religion. She hoped that such giving would become more and morecommon over time.

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