Rachel Cope

Rachel Cope is an associate professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. She received a PhD in American History (with an emphasis in women’s history and religious history) from Syracuse University. Rachel has published several articles on American women’s spirituality and conversion in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, which have appeared in various edited volumes and journals, including Journal of Religious History, Journal of Spirituality, Lifewriting Annual: Biographical and Autobiographical Studies, Religion in the Age of Enlightenment, New York History, and Magistra: A Journal of Women’s Spirituality in History. She also co-edited several volumes, including: The Writings of Elizabeth Webb: A Quaker Missionary in America, 1697–1726 (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2019); Mormon Women’s History: Beyond Biography (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2017); Family Life in England and America, 1690–1820 (Routledge, 2015), a four-volume collection of manuscript records documenting the lives of early American and British families. Rachel has been the recipient of numerous research grants and fellowships, including a Princeton University Library Research Grant and a short-term research fellowship from the Oxford Centre of Methodism and Church History, both of which have supported her research on spiritual friendships. She is an assistant editor of Wesley and Methodist Studies, the lead series editor of the Mormon Studies Series through Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, and one of the founding editors of the Transcribing Early American Manuscript Sermons project. Rachel is also deeply committed to raising awareness of and funding for obstetric fistula victims throughout the developing world, and serves as the faculty mentor for the Women’s Health Association.

Courses Taught: Foundations of the Restoration, Doctrine and Covenants, American Christianity, Church History, Latter-day Saints Women’s History

Areas of Expertise: Women’s History, Religious History in Antebellum America

Research Interests: women’s religious experiences, conversion, revivalism, lived religion, spiritual friendships, print culture, women’s health, and connections between faith and history