Biography
Sheree Maxwell Bench holds BA and MA degrees in English from Brigham Young University, where she also minored in Women’s Studies. She teaches courses in Global Women’s Studies, Latter-day Saint Women Writers, and Latter-day Saint Women’s History. She is the co-editor of Discoveries: Two Centuries of Poems by Mormon Women and the 47 volumes of The Diaries of Emmeline B. Wells. She is a founding member of the Mormon Women’s History Initiative Team and has been its co-chair since 2015.
Current Courses
2024
- GWS 222
- GWS 337R
Courses Taught
2023
- GWS 222
2022
- GWS 222
- GWS 337R
2021
- GWS 222
2020
- GWS 332
2010
- WS 222
2009
- HIST 390R
2007
- WS 222
2006
- HIST 390R
2004
- HIST 390R
2003
- WS 222
Research Interests
Professor Bench’s research interests include the diaries, poetry, and essays of 19th-and 20th-century Latter-day Saint women and the rhetorical work in 19th-century LDS women’s writing.
Teaching Philosophy
Professor Bench works to create a classroom space that encourages active discussion and critical thinking. She invites students to work collaboratively with her toward greater understanding of complex topics and provides them opportunities to develop confidence in their ability to make meaningful contributions.
Publications
The Diaries of Emmeline B. Wells. Edited by Cherry Bushman Silver and Sheree Maxwell Bench. Church Historian’s Press, 2020‒2022. https://www.churchhistorianspress.org/emmeline-b-wells?lang=eng
Silver, Cherry B. and Sheree M. Bench, editors. “Emmeline Wells and the Suffrage Movement.” BYU Studies Quarterly, vol. 59, no. 3, 2020, pp. 93‒122.
Bench, Sheree Maxwell. “‘True to My Own Convictions’: A Conversation with Carol Cornwall Madsen.”
Conversations with Mormon Historians. Ed. Alexander L. Baugh and Reid L. Neilson. Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book, 2015. 349‒381.
Howe, Susan Elizabeth and Sheree Maxwell Bench, editors. Discoveries: Two Centuries of Poems by Mormon Women, 2nd ed. Provo, Utah: BYU Studies, 2009.
Bench, Sheree Maxwell. “‘True to My Own Convictions’: A Conversation with Carol Cornwall Madsen.” Mormon Historical Studies, vol. 9, no.1, 2008, pp. 87‒117.
Howe, Susan Elizabeth and Sheree Maxwell Bench, editors. Discoveries: Two Centuries of Poems by Mormon Women. Provo, Utah: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History and Association for Mormon Letters, 2004.
Bench, Sheree Maxwell. “United by Our Sympathies: Nineteenth-Century Mormon Women Read George Eliot.” Inscape vol. 21, no. 2, 2001, pp. 117‒25.
Creative Works
Discoveries: Two Centuries of Poems by Mormon Women (film). Associate producers: Sheree Maxwell Bench and Susan Elizabeth Howe. Script: Howe and Bench. Music: Harriet Petherick Bushman. Director: Tom Lefler. 2004.
Discoveries: Two Centuries of Poems by Mormon Women (stage production). Script: Susan Elizabeth Howe and Sheree Maxwell Bench. Music: Harriet Petherick Bushman. Director: Char Nelson. First performed March 20, 2004, at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
Presentations
“Emmeline B. Wells: A Woman of Destiny.” With Cherry Silver. Latter-day Saint Women Podcast. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, July 27, 2022. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/podcast/cherry-silver-sheree-maxwell-bench-emmeline-b-wells-a-woman-of-destiny-52d9e3f?lang=eng&collectionId=a68911cb996f493080d68b6f8ce5b675
“Emmeline Wells’s Road to Suffrage.” “Going to Work with a Will”: Emmeline B. Wells and the Road to Suffrage.” Church History Museum, Aug. 4, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4kNMaicXIQ&t=516s
“Emmeline B. Wells Diaries Project.” Better Days/BYU Library, November 14, 2018.
“Through the Eyes of Emmeline.” Women’s History Luncheon, Church History Department, March 13, 2018.
“Mormon Women in the Early Twentieth Century.” With Cherry B. Silver. Presentation to the Neal A. Maxwell Institute Summer Fellows. Richard Bushman, director. July 17, 2007, BYU, Provo, Utah.
Professional Citizenship
- Co-chair, Mormon Women’s History Initiative Team, 2015‒present,
- Executive Committee, Mormon Women’s History Initiative Team, 2002‒2015
- Chair, Elect Her: Utah Valley University, 2016‒2020
- History Editor, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, 2016‒2020
- Chair, Article Awards Committee, Mormon History Association, 2015‒2018
- Member, Women’s Success Coordinating Council, Utah Valley University, 2012‒2019
- Chair, Best Article in Mormon Women’s History, Mormon History Association, 2010‒2015
- Member, Gender Studies Curriculum Committee, UVU, 2013‒2014
- Member, Women’s Studies Curriculum Committee, BYU, 2004‒2009
Awards
Latter-day Saint Publishing and Media Association Beacon Award 2021: Emmeline B. Wells Diaries Website
Professional Associations
Mormon History Association