Most recently, the unsuccessful campaign of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for the presidency brought renewed attention to the prevalence of negative attitudes toward Mormonism held by many Americans, but the faith has also been increasingly depicted, often critically, on stage and screen, ranging from Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "Angels in America" to the HBO series "Big Love" and last year's PBS documentary "The Mormons."

But scholars say there are more complex factors than the religion's recent visibility behind the rise of Mormon studies, including demographic shifts that have seen Mormons increasingly dispersed beyond the inland West, and academic changes that have included an expansion of interest among religion and theology departments in broadening their offerings.

"There's a lot of interest in new religions, and Mormonism isn't exactly new, but it isn't really old either," said Richard L. Bushman, a prominent scholar of Mormonism and a professor of history emeritus at Columbia University. Bushman is scheduled to become the new Mormon studies chair this fall at Claremont.

"The study of religion in America is going away from the mainline Protestant establishment, to try to reconstruct a religious tradition that's much more variegated and filled with dissent, and Mormonism gets caught up in that new range of interests," he said.

Mormonism has at times been a difficult field to study, particularly for Mormon scholars, because the church has excommunicated scholars — in 1993 and 2000 — who expressed opinions the church viewed as dissent, particularly on women's issues. And the church has at times been criticized for overly restrictive policies governing access to its archives.

And Bushman said that persuading Mormon philanthropists to contribute to Mormon studies professorships at non-Mormon universities has been a challenge, in part because some potential donors fear the possibility that some of the scholarship they fund might be critical of their church.

But church officials, who have become considerably more aggressive about seeking to explain their faith since the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, say they welcome the academic research.

"We're certainly pleased with the level of interest — we know there will be some lumps we'll have to take along the way, but that's part of the process," said Elder W. Rolfe Kerr, the commissioner of church education who formerly served as the higher education commissioner in Utah. The church has a public affairs officer who is charged with assisting academics, and Elder Kerr said the church is committed to cooperating with researchers.

"We want to remove the shroud of mystery or exclusiveness or restraint," he said. "We have shown a good deal more openness, and I think that's all for the good."