Kathleen Flake is an American historian, writer, and attorney. She was the inaugural Richard Lyman Bushman chair of Mormon studies at the University of Virginia from 2013 until her retirement in 2024.
Education Flake obtained a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University, a master's degree from Catholic University of America, a JD from the University of Utah College of Law, and a PhD from the University of Chicago.
Career Flake was previously a professor of American religious history at the Divinity School and Graduate Department of Religion at Vanderbilt University. While a graduate student, Flake took a summer seminar course for graduate students on Mormon history with Richard L. Bushman.R. Scott Lloyd "New generation of historians presenting a better view of Mormonism to the world, speaker says", Deseret News, June 6, 2015
Flake's research in the area of American religious history focuses on the adaptive strategies of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American religious communities and the effect of pluralism on religious identity. She also studies constructive function of text and ritual in maintaining and adapting the identity and gendered power structures of religious communities. Flake studies the influence of American law on American religion and the theological tensions inherent in the First Amendment religious clauses.
Personal life Flake is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served a mission in Japan. She is a distant relative of former U.S. Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona; they share a great-grandfather, William J. Flake.Caroline Newman, Q&A: RELIGIOUS STUDIES PROFESSOR TO BRING FORMER U.S. SEN. JEFF FLAKE TO GROUNDS, UVA Today (September 10, 2018).
She lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Works Books
Book chapters
Journal articles
Further reading
References
External links Kathleen Flake Official Website University of Virginia Official Profile