Sheila Taylor

 

Sheila grew up in Orem, UT. She completed a B.A. in history from Brigham Young University and an M.A. in history from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While she was at the University of Illinois, she realized that what she actually wanted to study was not history but theology, and she moved to South Bend, IN, to give it a try. This turned out to be a very good decision, as she immediately fell in love with the subject. She got an MTS (Master of Theological Studies) from the University of Notre Dame, and finally completed a PhD in systematic theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, in the spring of 2011. She is possibly the first Mormon to get a PhD from the GTU. She is currently on the academic job market, attempting to convince schools that of course they would love to hire someone who is both Mormon and a theologian.

Sheila is the third of seven children. She blogs with her siblings and some good friends at Zelophehad’s Daughters. She has been interested in Mormon feminism at least since high school, where she wrote papers about patriarchal oppression and the LDS church. While she was finishing her PhD, she neglected her dissertation to present at lots of fun Mormon conferences, and is very interested in the development of Mormon Studies as an academic field. She is on the executive board of the Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology, and recently guest-edited an issue of the SMPT journal, Element, devoted to feminist issues. In addition to being a little obsessed with theology, she loves Buffy, Lord of the Rings, cats, and chocolate.