Fred Woods

Fred E. Woods completed a BS degree in psychology (1981) and a MS degree in international relations (1985) from Brigham Young University. In 1991, he earned a PhD in Middle East studies from the University of Utah with an emphasis in Hebrew Bible. He has been a professor of Religious Education at Brigham Young University since 1998 and feels blessed to instruct great BYU students. From 2005 to 2010, he held a BYU Richard L. Evans Professorship of Religious Understanding and from 2019 to 2021 the BYU endowed Moral Education Professorship. Dr. Woods has lectured at scores of universities in the United States and internationally. He is the author of numerous academic articles treating a variety of topics and has authored many books.

In the past 15 years, he has also produced a number of documentaries which include, That Promised Day: The coming forth of the LDS Scriptures (2010) Mormon Yankees: Giants on and off the Court (2011), Finding Refuge in El Paso (2012) and Divine Providence: The Wreck and Rescue of the Julia Ann (2014), Laie: Refuge from the Storm (2015), and Melting the Ice: A History of the Latter-day Saints in Alaska (2018), The Saints of Tonga: A Century of Island Faith (2019) and most recently "The Latter-Day Saint Image in the British Mind (2021), and "Bright Lights in the Desert: The Latter-day Saints of Las Vegas" (2022), both award winning films. In addition he directed and produced, "A Swede and a Seed: The life of Ivar Sandberg." Most recently Professor Woods produced "Montana Saints" and two films are forthcoming about the 1984 preventive flood fight of Cassia County as well as the history of Latter-day Saints in St. Louis.

Professor Woods continues to research the globalization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which includes his specialized research on the maritime segment of the story of the Latter-day Saint gathering to an American Zion—the sailing before the trail portion of Mormon immigration to the United States. Dr. Woods has authored scores of articles on this topic and has many publications dealing with international studies on the website: https://saintsbysea.lib.byu.edu/about/ (of which he is the chief editor and compiler), a major source of information on this topic). Another global project is launching a database titled Icelandic Saints.

His most recent book, Ports to Posts: Latter-day Saint Gathering in the Nineteenth Century, has been decades in the making. Professor Woods is also currently involved with research and co-authoring books on the history of Latter-day Saints in North and South Dakota, titled Dakota Saints and another work titled, Montana Saints. In addition, he is involved in developing a massive website titled "Saints by State" which includes a collection of all published sources on the Church in America, augmented by Latter-day Saint encyclopedic entries, maps, charts, chronologies, short stories, interviews, documentary films. This website will be released in 2030 for the commemorative bicentenary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is married to JoAnna Merrill, and they have five children and fourteen grandchildren.

Saints by State Documentary Films

"Fire & Redemption: The Explosion of the Steamboat Saluda" (Missouri)
"A Swede and a Seed: The Story of Ivar Sandberg" (South Dakota)
"Flood of Memories: The 1976 Teton Flood Disaster and Recovery" (Idaho)
“Bright Lights in the Desert: The Latter-day Saints of Las Vegas” (Nevada)
“Melting the Ice: A History of Latter-day Saints in Alaska” (Alaska) 
“Laie: Refuge from the Storm” (Hawaii)
“Finding Refuge In El Paso” (Texas)

Recent Books

Fred E. Woods, Ports to Posts: The Gathering of Latter-day Saints in the Nineteenth Century. University of Nebraska Press (2025)
Fred E. Woods, Jay H. Buckley, and Hunter T. Hallows, eds., The Life and Adventures of Mr. Eli Wiggill , forthcoming Spring 2024, Greg Kofford Books.
Malcolm Adcock & Fred E. Woods, Bright Lights in the Desert: The Latter-day Saints of Las Vegas, (The University of Nevada Press, 2023).

Malcolm Adcock, Fred E. Woods, The Latter-day Saint Image in the British Mind – (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2022). See also https://gregkofford.com/products/latter-day-saint-image ). It has a companion documentary film now available now on BYU TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtMZYPfdcFg

Recent Articles and Book Chapters Published

Fred E. Woods, “Cassia County Community Unity: Reflections on the Flood Prevention Fight of 1984,” Latter-day Saint Historical Studies, vol 25, nos. 1-2, (Spring & Fall 2024), 225-246.

Fred E. Woods and Cheryl Jensen, “Picketing Against Porn in Mesquite: Community Values vs. a ‘Vice’ Enterprise,” Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, forthcoming December 2023.

Fred E. Woods and Tiffany Taylor Bowles, “The Nineteenth Century Gathering of Latter-day Saints,” Pioneer vol. 69, no.2 [2023], 3-9.

Fred E. Woods, "A Seed and a Swede: The Ivar Sandberg Story", South Dakota History, vol. 53, no. 2 (Summer 2023): 127-155

Charles Vance, Mark Mendenhall, and Fred E. Woods, “Missionary Families: LDS Case Study,” chapter in Research Handbook of Global Families, ed. Yvonne McNulty et al. (2022)

Sean E. Brotherson and Fred E. Woods, “‘Each one was going to put the hand to the plow and sow the precious Gospel seed’: Early Latter-day Saint Missionary Work in North Dakota,” forthcoming in Great Plains Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 4 (Summer 2022), 275-303.

Fred E. Woods, “Introduction The Latter-day Saint Gathering,” invited chapter for LIVERPOOL TO GREAT SALT LAKE eds. George D. Watt by Ronald G. Watt and LaJean Carruth, (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2022), xv-xxvi.

Fred E. Woods, “The Pluck and Luck of the Irish Saints,” LDS Living Magazine, March 2022 online issue. https://www.ldsliving.com/the-pluck-and-luck-of-the-irish-saints/s/10502

Fred E. Woods, “St. Johns Saints and their Friendly Neighbors: Early Conflict to Community Cohesion,” Latter-day Saint Historical Studies, vol. 23, no. 1 (Spring 2022):183-204.

Fred E. Woods, “‘Our Mormon Neighbors Gave’: Mancos Colorado Saints Intertwined with Community,” Latter-day Saint Historical Studies, vol. 23, no. 1 (Spring 2022):205-223.

Fred E. Woods, “The Ascension of Abraham: A Mortal Model for the Climb to Exaltation,” Religious Educator, vol. 23, no. 2 (Spring 2022):47-63.

Fred E. Woods, Conversion story of Ivar Sandberg: https://www.ldsliving.com/after-accidentally-causing-his-friends-death-this-swede-found-peace-through-the-gospel-in-the-us/s/10892 (published online August 10, 2022).

Mason J. Cameron and Fred E. Woods, “Ping’s inspired dream: How an unlikely friend helped open the Philippines for missionary work,” LDS Living, online, May 26, 2022, https://www.ldsliving.com/pings-inspired-dream-how-an-unlikely-friend-helped-open-the-philippines-for-missionary-work/s/10706.

Fred E. Woods, "African American Baptists and Latter-day Saints in Las Vegas,” Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, 64, no. 3 (Fall 2021), 259-267.

Fred E. Woods, “The Rise of the Sitka Saints,” Latter-day Saint Historical Studies, 22, no. 1 (Spring 2021), 37-56.

Fred E. Woods, “Beneath the Pages: McClintock’s Mormon Settlement in Arizona,” Latter-day Saint Historicical Studies, 22, no. 1 (Spring 2021), 115-155.

Fred E. Woods, “Orson Pratt’s Publishing of The Seer: A Mission to Washington, DC, for a Season,” BYU Religious Education, Washington DC Regional Studies 2021

Fred E, Woods and RIley M. Moffat, "The Genesis and Rise of the Nuku'alofa Tonga Temple," Mormon Historical Studies, vol. 21, no. 1 (Spring 2021): 91-114

Riley M. Moffat and Fred E. Woods, chapter 16 of “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Islands of the Pacific” The Palgrave Handbook of Global Mormonism, eds. R. Gordon Shepherd, A. Gary Shepherd, Ryan T. Cragun (London: Palgrave/MacMillan, 2020), 431-454.

Fred E. Woods, “Leavening the Sourdough: A History of Latter-day Saints in Kodiak,” Latter-day Saint Historical Studies, 21, no. 2 (Fall 2020): 55-78.

Fred E. Woods, “The Balance Between Church and State in Tonga: A study in mutual respect between the Latter-day Saints and the Royal Family,” Journal of Mormon History, vol. 46, no. 1 (Winter 2020): 53-84.

Fred E. Woods, “The Story of the Las Vegas Temple,” LDS Living Magazine for Nov./Dec. 2020 issue.

Fred E. Woods and Thomas L. Farmer, “St. Louis: An Unexpected Refuge,” LDS Living Magazine, March/April 2020 issue.

Forthcoming Documentary Films

"Montana Saints" via BYUtv

Recently Released Films

"Flood of Memories: The 1976 Teton Flood Disaster and Recovery" (Idaho) via BYUtv

Recent Awards/Appointments

BYU University Creative Works Award 2024

BYU Faculty Award for Distinguished Contributions to Accessibility issued by the University Accessibility Center, March 9, 2022, titled the “Good Samaritan Award”

“Bright Lights in the Desert: The Latter-day Saints of Las Vegas” documentary film won third place in the short film/documentary film category at the Utah LDS film festival, March 2022

Historic Preservation Annual Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation by the City of Las Vegas for the preservation of Latter-day Saint History in Las Vegas (May 25, 2022)

John Topham and Susan Redd Butler BYU Faculty Research Award for research on “Saints by State” website (Spring 2022)

“The Latter-day Saint Image in the British Mind,” documentary film won third place in the short film/documentary film category at the Utah LDS film festival, March 2021

Moral Education endowed professorship, Brigham Young University (2019-2021)

Eadington Research Fellowship, University of Nevada- Las Vegas, 2021

Senior Associate, Pembroke College, Oxford 2021

Best book award for Kalaupapa: The Mormon Experience in an Exiled Community (Provo: UT, BYU Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2017). (The 2018 Harvey B. and Susan Easton Black Outstanding Publication Award (Gospel Scholarship for LDS Audiences, Church History and Doctrine)

Summer Oxford research fellow to the Oxford Harris Manchester College for the Trinity trimesters for 2017 and 2018

Areas of Expertise

Latter-day Saint history from 1844 to the present, with emphasis on the global history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.