And They Hallowed It: Sabbath-Keeping at California Universities (1880-1930)

Presenter Information

Michel S. Lee, The University of Texas at AustinFollow

Presenter Status

Doctoral Student, Department of Religious Studies

Presentation Type

Oral Presentation

Session

History

Location

Buller Hall Room 108

Start Date

5-5-2016 2:50 PM

End Date

5-5-2016 3:10 PM

Presentation Abstract

This paper explores the history of Sunday- and Saturday-Sabbath regulation at private colleges and religious training centers in California between 1880 and 1930. Drawing on student handbooks, catalogues, and other textual sources, this paper explores the ways in which administrators and students talked about, regulated, and promoted days of rest and worship in the early days of these institutions. More broadly, it seeks to decenter narratives about Sunday and Sabbath that have focused on legal transformations, looking rather to the American West and the social and cultural changes precipitated at institutions of higher learning.

Biographical Sketch

Michel Lee is a doctoral student in Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where she is in training as a historian of religion in the Americas. Her current project explores the social and cultural history of the Sabbath in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century United States. Her other research interests include the history of higher education in the United States, the American West, and Asian-American history. Michel holds a MA in History from Stanford University and a BA in History and East Asian Studies from Stanford University.