Tuesday, April 17, 2018
3:30 – 5:00 pm
Student Center, Room 313/315

You're Invited to the
College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
WAYS OF KNOWING

About this Event: This is the ninth of an annual lecture series featuring faculty members from different CLASS disciplines who have recently returned from their professional leaves. The series aims to enrich our understanding of the many ways we produce knowledge and creative work in the diverse disciplines of the liberal arts and social sciences.

Exorcising Demons:
Exploring Devils and Alcohol Consumption

Presider:
Gregory Sadlek, Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Presenters:
Stephen C. Taysom and Miyuki Fukushima Tedor

Stephen C. Taysom
Department of Philosophy and Comparative Religion

"Satan Mourns Naked upon the Earth": Situating Mormon Possession and Exorcism Rituals in the American Religious Context, 1830–1977
Since its inception in 1830, an important feature of Mormonism has been its belief in a literal Devil and in the ability of the Devil to possess human beings. Despite the pervasiveness of these beliefs and practices, Mormon possession and exorcism rituals are largely unstudied phenomena. This presentation traces the development of Mormon possession/exorcism beliefs and practices and situates them within their larger historical contexts. It also describes the relationship between Mormon dispossession rituals and the dispossession rituals of Protestant and Catholic groups in American history and presents through a consideration of the impact of broader American cultural trends on the theory and practice of Mormon exorcism from 1830.

Miyuki Fukushima Tedor
Department of Criminology, Anthropology, and Sociology

The Gender Difference in the Association between Early Onset of Drinking and Problem Drinking between the U.S. and Japan
Using comparable nationally representative survey data from the Gender, Alcohol, and Culture: An International Study Project, this study examined gender differences in the association between the early onset of drinking and the development of drinking problems in the U.S. (n=2,598) and Japan (n=1,734). The results of this study suggest that there does not appear to be a cross-national causal relationship between the early onset of drinking and problem drinking because of significant country and gender variations in this association and because there is no association found among Japanese females. As hypothesized, the early onset of drinking predicted problem drinking among males more strongly than among females in both countries.