Joanna Brooks
{{Short description|American author and professor}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Joanna Brooks
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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1971|09|29|mf=yes}}
| birth_place = Los Angeles, California
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| occupation = Author, professor, scholar
| nationality = American
| alma_mater = Brigham Young University (BA)
University of California, Los Angeles (PhD)
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| genre =
| subject = Religious studies
Transatlantic literature
African American literature
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| website = {{URL|http://joannabrooks.org}}
}}
Joanna Brooks (born September 29, 1971){{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3IgvCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA227|title=Mormon Feminism: Essential Writings|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016|isbn=978-0-19-024803-1|editor1=Joanna Brooks|page=227|access-date=2015-08-19|editor2=Rachel Hunt Steenblik|editor3=Hannah Wheelwright}} is an American author and scholar of American literature.{{cite web |access-date=2012-02-13 |url=http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/05/crossing-the-plains-and-kicking-up-dirt-a-new-mormon-pioneer/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120718214431/http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/05/crossing-the-plains-and-kicking-up-dirt-a-new-mormon-pioneer/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 18, 2012 |title=Crossing the plains and kicking up dirt, a new Mormon pioneer |work=CNN |author=Ravitz, Jessica |date=February 5, 2012}} Brooks is currently the Associate Vice President of Faculty Advancement and Student Success at San Diego State University (SDSU).{{cite news | author=Lauren Markoe | title=Joanna Brooks returns to previous position following unexpected removal last year | date=July 18, 2018 | work=Daily Aztec | url=https://thedailyaztec.com/89970/news/joanna-brooks-returns-to-previous-position-following-her-unexpected-removal/ | access-date=2018-07-18}}{{Cite web |title=Joanna Brooks, Associate Vice President {{!}} Provost {{!}} SDSU |url=https://provost.sdsu.edu/academic-affairs/associate-vice-presidents/brooks-joanna |access-date=2025-01-06 |website=provost.sdsu.edu |language=en}} Before working in academic administration at SDSU, she was a professor of English and Comparative Literature.{{Cite web |title=Joanna Brooks |url=https://literature.sdsu.edu/people/brooks |access-date=2025-01-06 |website=literature.sdsu.edu |language=en}} She is a frequent media commentator on faith in American life, particularly in relation to her own Mormonism.{{cite news | author=Lauren Markoe | title=10 minutes with ... Joanna Brooks | date=February 1, 2012 | newspaper=Washington Post | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/10-minutes-with--joanna-brooks/2012/02/01/gIQAdcGRiQ_story.html | access-date=2015-08-19}}{{cite web | author=Susan Leem | title=Joanna Brooks on the Need for Politicians to Find Their Moral Bearings | work=On Being | url=http://www.onbeing.org/blog/joanna-brooks-need-politicians-find-their-moral-bearings/4844 | access-date=2015-08-19}}{{cite news | author=Guy Raz | title='Ask Mormon Girl' Discusses Mitt Romney's Candidacy | date=December 2, 2011 | work=All Things Considered | publisher=National Public Radio | url=https://www.npr.org/2011/12/02/143063003/ask-mormon-girl-discusses-mitt-romneys-candidacy | access-date=2015-08-19}} Politico named her one of 2011's "50 politicos to watch" for her Twitter feed, @askmormongirl.{{cite web |access-date=2012-02-13 |url=http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/59944_Page4.html |title=50 politicos to watch: Top tweeters |work=Politico.com |date=July 28, 2011}}
Mormonism
Brooks writes extensively about Mormonism and Mormon feminism and is often quoted in the media related to issues regarding the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Huffington Post writes, "Brooks specializes in explaining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to non-Mormons, and in presenting a different way to be Mormon to those steeped in its orthodoxy."{{cite web |access-date=2012-02-13 |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/01/joanna-brooks-mormonism_n_1248153.html |title=Joanna Brooks Discusses Mormonism, American Politics |work=Huffington Post |author=Markoe, Lauren |date=February 1, 2012}} She wrote a question-and-answer blog from 2010 to 2014{{cite web | author=Joanna Brooks | title=Welcome to the world of Ask Mormon Girl | date=April 21, 2015 | work=Ask Mormon Girl | url=https://askmormongirl.wordpress.com/2015/04/21/welcome-to-the-world-of-ask-mormon-girl-2/ | access-date=2015-08-19}} called "Ask Mormon Girl" with the tagline "unorthodox answers from an imperfect source". She also wrote as a senior correspondent for Religion Dispatches from 2011 to 2014, frequently addressing Mormon issues.{{cite news | author=Daniel Burke | title=Mormon church lashes back at magazine over portrayal of prophet and profits | newspaper=Washington Post | date=July 13, 2012 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/mormon-church-lashes-back-at-magazine-over-portrayal-of-prophet-and-profits/2012/07/13/gJQAMmsbiW_story.html | access-date=2015-08-19}}{{cite web | author=Joanna Brooks | title=Media | work=joannabrooks.org | url=http://joannabrooks.org/media/ | access-date=2015-08-19}} In early 2012, she self-published a memoir called The Book of Mormon Girl: Stories from an American Faith, which was later picked up by Simon & Schuster and published by them in August 2012.{{cite book
|url = http://books.simonandschuster.com/Book-of-Mormon-Girl/Joanna-Brooks/9781451699685/
|title = The Book of Mormon Girl: A Memoir of an American Faith
|date = August 7, 2012 |access-date = August 18, 2012
|publisher = Simon & Schuster
|isbn = 9781451699685
}} Brooks was noted as one of "13 Religious Women to Watch in 2012".{{cite web |access-date=2012-03-14 |url=http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/03/faith_iwd.html|title=13 Religious Women to Watch in 2012 |work=Center for American Progress |author1=Woodiwiss, Catherine |author2=Farnellon, Emily |date=March 7, 2012}}
Brooks sits on the board of directors for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.{{cite web | title=Staff and Boards | work=dialoguejournal.com | publisher=Dialogue Foundation | url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/contact-us/staff/ | access-date=2015-08-19}} Brooks is described as a feminist and liberal Mormon, in contrast to the predominantly conservative culture of Mormonism.{{cite news | author=Randy Dotinga | title=The Liberal, Feminist, Gay-Friendly Mormon | date=August 19, 2011 | work=Voice of San Diego | url=http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/all-narratives/q-and-a/the-liberal-feminist-gay-friendly-mormon/ | access-date=2015-08-19}} In 2017 Brooks was among and ten co-authors publishing "Shoulder to the Wheel: Resources to Help Latter-day Saints Face Racism"{{cite web|url=http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2017/08/17/commentary-putting-our-shoulders-to-the-wheel-to-end-racism-and-white-supremacy-in-mormonismbr/|title=Commentary: Putting our shoulders to the wheel to end racism and white supremacy in Mormonism|publisher=Salt Lake Tribune|date = August 17, 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://shouldertothewheel.org/resources/|title=Resources – Shoulder to the Wheel|website=shouldertothewheel.org|author = Danielle Dubrasky, Aimee Evans Hickman, Rebecca de Schweinitz, Joanna Brooks, Emily Clyde Curtis, Cynthia Bailey Lee, Benjamin Park, Emily Jensen, Miguel Barker-Valdez, & Rachel Mabey-Whipple}}
Personal life
Brooks is married to David Kamper and has two daughters. She holds a bacherlor's degree from Brigham Young University and a PhD from UCLA. She is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Works
- "Face Zion Forward": First Writers of the Black Atlantic, 1785–1798 (Editor, with John Saillant). Northeastern, 2002. {{ISBN|978-1-55553-539-1}}
- American Lazarus: Religion and the Rise of African-American and Native American Literatures (Author). Oxford, 2003. {{ISBN|978-0-19-533291-9}}. Winner of the Modern Language Association William Sanders Scarborough Award.
- The Collected Writings of Samson Occom, Mohegan: Literature and Leadership in Eighteenth-Century America (Editor). Oxford, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-19-517083-2}}
- Transatlantic Feminisms in the Age of Revolutions (Editor, with Lisa L. Moore and Caroline Wigginton). Oxford, 2012. {{ISBN|978-0-19-974349-0}}
- The Book of Mormon Girl: Stories from an American Faith (Author). Free Press, 2012. {{ISBN|978-1-451-69968-5}}. Winner of the Association for Mormon Letters memoir award.
- Why We Left: Untold Stories and Songs of America's First Immigrants (Author). Minnesota, 2013. {{ISBN|978-0-8166-8125-9}}
- Mormon Feminism: Essential Writings (Co-Editor). Oxford, 2015. {{ISBN|978-0-19-024803-1}}
- Saving Alex: When I Was Fifteen I Told My Mormon Parents I Was Gay, and That's When My Nightmare Began. (By Alex Cooper, with Brooks). HarperOne, 2016. {{ISBN|9780062374608}}
- Decolonizing Mormonism: Approaching a Postcolonial Zion (Editor, with Gina Colvin). University of Utah Press, 2018. {{ISBN|978-1607816089|1607816091}}
- Mormonism and white supremacy: American religion and the problem of racial innocence. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. {{ISBN|978-0-19-008176-8}}.
References
{{reflist|2}}
External links
- [http://joannabrooks.org/ Official website]
- [http://askmormongirl.com/ Ask Mormon Girl blog]
- [http://literature.sdsu.edu/people/bios/brooks.html San Diego State University faculty profile]
- [https://provost.sdsu.edu/academic-affairs/associate-vice-presidents/brooks-joanna San Diego State University administrator profile]
- [http://religiondispatches.org/author/Joanna-Brooks/ Articles at Religion Dispatches]
- [http://mormonscholarstestify.org/702/joanna-brooks Profile at Mormon Scholars Testify]
- [http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv93673 Joanna Brooks papers at the University of Utah library]
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Category:American Latter Day Saint writers
Category:Brigham Young University alumni
Category:San Diego State University faculty
Category:Latter Day Saints from California
Category:American women non-fiction writers
Category:American academics of English literature