Young Single Adult Mormon Women in Tennessee:

Abstract

This thesis examines the lives of young single adult Mormon women living in Nashville, Tennessee. Through an ethnography of the Nashville YSA Branch, a congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I argue that my interlocutors are part of what I call the Mormon diaspora. Additionally, I find that the LDS Church provides a set of standards to be followed by its members in the interest of the future of the Church. Drawing from six months of fieldwork and five oral history interviews conducted with members of the Nashville YSA Branch, I compose a brief ethnography of a subgroup of contemporary Mormonism (i.e., YSA Mormon women) that is often ignored by scholars.