Vita


John Fea
Associate Professor of American History
Chair of the Department of History
Box 3051
Messiah College
One College Avenue
Grantham, PA 17027
717-766-2511, ext. 2253
  jfea@messiah.edu





BIOGRAPHY
I was born and raised in Morris County, New Jersey (Montville/Boonton area) and completed my Ph.D in American History at the State University of New York at Stony Brook (1999) with a specialization in early American history and American religious history.  Prior to coming to Messiah College I taught American history at Valparaiso University (IN) where I served a two-year postdoctoral appointment with the Lilly Fellows Program in Arts and Humanities.  I joined the History Department at Messiah in the fall of 2002.  My teaching includes the following courses: United States Survey Before 1865, Colonial America, Revolutionary America, The Early American Republic, Civil War America, Teaching History, and Immigrant America.
As a scholar I think and write about American culture broadly defined, the intersection between ideas and everyday life in American history, the relationship between “cosmopolitanism” and “place,” the history of the early mid-Atlantic and New Jersey, and the connections between religion, politics and American culture.  I am also interested in the role of church-related higher education in American society and the relationship between faith and academic life.
My first book,  The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in Early America appeared in 2008 with the University of Pennsylvania Press. (It is now available in paperback). The project focused on the relationship between Presbyterianism and the social world of the Enlightenment through a biographical study of eighteenth-century New Jersey diarist Philip Vickers Fithian. I have co-edited a volume (with Jay Green and Eric Miller) entitled Confessing History: Explorations in Christian Faith and the Historian's Vocation (University of Notre Dame Press, 2010) and in 2011 published a book on the idea of America as a "Christian nation."  Was America Founded as a Christian Nation: A Historical Introduction (Westminster/John Knox Press).
I am currently working on two book projects: "A Presbyterian Rebellion: The American Revolution in the Mid-Atlantic"  and "The Greenwich Tea Burning: History and Memory in an American Town." The former is an attempt to reinterpret the coming of the American Revolution in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania by focusing on Presbyterian political activity. The latter explores the history and memory of a "tea party" that occurred in 1774 in Greenwich, N.J.  I am also at work on a short primer on  historical thinking tentatively titled "The Power to Transform: A  Reflection on the Study of the Past."  It will be published with Baker Academic in early 2013.
SELECT PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
COURSES TAUGHT

  • United States Survey Before 1865
  • Colonial America
  • "The Culture of Consumption in American Life" (Honors Seminar)
  • Age of Jefferson and Jackson
  • Civil War America
  • Religion and the American Founding
  • Social Studies Curriculum and Design
  • Immigrant America
  • Created and Called for Community (Messiah College Freshman Core)
  • United States Survey After 1865
  • Teaching History and Social Studies
  • Early American Republic
  • Religion and American Culture to 1865
  • The Origins of American Pluralism , 1500-1865
  • Age of the American Revolution
  • Western Civilization I (pre-modern)
  • Western Civilization II (modern)
  • Contemporary World Affairs
HONORS, GRANTS, AWARDS
  • "Outstanding Academic Title, 2012," ALA Choice for Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?: A Historical Introduction.
  • Finalist (1 of 3), Lilly Fellows in Arts and Humanities Book Award for Confessing History, Explorations in Christian Faith and the Historian's Vocation, 2011.
  • Messiah College Scholarship Grant, 2011-2012.
  • New Jersey Historical Commission Minigrant, Summer 2011.
  • Montville Township High School Hall of Fame, Inducted October 2010
  • Messiah College Scholarship Grant, 2010
  • Non-Fiction Book of the Year, New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance, 2009 (For The Way of Improvement Leads Home)
  • Honor Book, New Jersey Council for the Humanities, 2009 (For The Way of Improvement Leads Home)
  • Louisville Institute for the Study of American Religion, Summer Stipend, 2009
  • David Library of the American Revolution Research Fellowship,  2008
  • Smith Fellowship, New Jersey Historical Commission, 2007-2008  
  • Messiah College Early Sabbatical, 2007-2008
  • Messiah College Scholarship Grant, 2006
  • Messiah College Scholar Chair, 2005-2007
  • Messiah College Scholarship Grant, 2005
  • Who's Who Among America's College Teachers, 2005, 2007 (Student Nominated)
  • Messiah College Scholarship Grant, 2004
  • Franklin Research Grant, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Summer 2003.
  • Research Grant, The Spencer Foundation, Chicago, Summer 2003.
  • Alfred F. Driscoll Prize, New Jersey Historical Commission.  (Awarded to best dissertation over a two year period related to some aspect of New Jersey history), 2002.
  • Morgan Fellow in the History of the Book, Library Company of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA.  Summer 2001 (Declined)
  • Colonial Society of Pennsylvania Essay Prize, 2001 for “A Rural Enlightenment: Presbyterian Community in   Eighteenth-Century Southern New Jersey.”
  • Post-Doctoral Fellow, Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts, Valparaiso University, 2000-2002.
  • Grant-in-Aid, New Jersey Historical Commission, 2000-2001
  • Dissertation Fellow, McNeil Center for Early American Studies (Formerly Philadelphia Center for Early American Studies), University of Pennsylvania, 1998-1999.
  • Participant: American Antiquarian Society Summer Seminar: Readers, Writers, and The Book Trades in Early America, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA, 1998.
  • Hugh Cleland Award for Innovative Teaching, Department of History, SUNY-Stony Brook, 1997-1998.
  • Dissertation Research Grant, New Jersey Historical Commission, 1997-1998.
  • Visiting Dissertation Fellow, Philadelphia Center for Early American Studies, 1997-1998.

SELECT PUBLICATIONS
Books

Select Scholarly Articles
  • "In Search of Unity: American Presbyterians in the Wake of the First Great Awakening," Journal of Presbyterian History (Fall 2008).
  • "The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian's Rural Enlightenment." The Journal of American History (September, 2003), 462-490.
  • "Teaching 'The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian's Rural Enlightenment'," Teaching the JAH (August, 2003).
  • “ ‘The Chosen People of God’: Presbyterians and Jeffersonian Republicanism in the New Jersey Countryside.”  American Nineteenth Century History 2 (Autumn 2001), 1-28.
  • “Ethnicity and Congregational Life in an Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia Hinterland: The Swedish Lutherans of New Jersey.”  Explorations in Early American Culture  68 (December 2001).
  •  “Wheelock’s World: Letters, Communication and Evangelical Community in Great Awakening New England, Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society. Vol. 109:2 (2001).
  • “Samuel Finley Versus Abel Morgan: Revivalism, Ethnicity, and Denominational Identity in Colonial New Jersey,” New Jersey History 117:3-4 (Fall/Winter 1999).
  • “An Analysis of the Treatment of American Fundamentalism in United States History Survey Texts,” The History Teacher (February 1995).
  • “The Town That Billy Sunday Could Not Shut Down: Prohibition and the Sunday 1918 Chicago Crusade,” Illinois Historical Journal 87 (Winter 1994).
  • “Carl McIntire: From Fundamentalist Presbyterian to Presbyterian Fundamentalist,” American Presbyterians: The Journal of Presbyterian History 72 (Winter 1994).

Essays in Edited Collection
  • "John Adams and Religion: A Historiographical Essay," in Blackwell Companion to John Adams ed. David Waldstreicher, Blackwell Publishers, forthcoming.
  • "New Jersey and the American Revolution," in A New History of the Garden State, ed. Maxine Lurie and Richard Veit, Rutgers University Press, 2012.
  • "Benjamin Franklin and Religion," in Blackwell Companion to Benjamin Franklin, ed. David Waldstreicher, Blackwell Publishers, 2011.
  • "Worshipping with 'Christian America': A Historian's Search for a Spiritual Home in Mainstream Evangelicalism," in For the Whole of Creation, ed. James Old and John Steven Paul, Valparaiso University Press, 2010.
  • "Intellectual Hospitality as Historical Method: Moving Beyond the Activist Impulse," in The Activist Impulse: Exploring the Intersection of Anabaptism and Evangelicalism, ed. Jared Burkholder (Cascade Books, forthcoming).
  • "Coming to Terms with Lincoln: Christian Faith and Moral Reflection in the History Classroom," in Confessing History: Explorations in Christian Faith and the Historian's Vocation, ed. John Fea, Jay Green, Eric Miller (University of Notre Dame Press, 2010.
Select Writings for a General Audience
    • “So What Is the Historian's Vocation? Books and Culture, January/February 2012.
    • "Politics and Hypoocrisy on the Campaign Trail, "CBSnews.com, January 18, 2012.
    • “In Search of Christian America” Newsletter of the MacLaurin Institute for Christian Studies, Fall 2011.
    • “Understanding Poor Richard’s Religion,” Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine, Fall 2011.
    • “Cultivating Piety: The Religious World of Joseph Price,” Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine, Summer, 2011.
    • “Does the Way of Improvement Leads Home?: Rooted Cosmopolitanism and the Church-Related College,” The Cresset, Trinity, 2011.
    • “Let’s Save the Teaching American History Grants,” Education Week, March 22, 2011.
    • Does the Way of Improvement Leads Home?: Rooted Cosmopolitanism and the Church-Related College, The Cresset, Trinity, 2011.
    • Cultivating Piety: The Religious World of Joseph Price, Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine, Summer 2011.
    • Let's Save the Teaching American History Grants, Education Weekly, March 22, 2011. 
    • "Tradition and American Political Life," Cato Unbound, January 2011.
    •  "On the Road with William Penn's Holy Experiment," Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine, Spring 2011.
    • "William Penn's Legacy of Religious Freedom," Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine, Winter, 2010-2011.
    • "Memo to Tea Partiers: The Founders Were Elitists." Op-ed, AOL News, October 6, 2010.
    • "Barack Obama Was Right to Defend the Constitution," Op-ed, Sunday Harrisburg Patriot News, September 12, 2010.
    • "How Glenn Beck Distorts the Christian Teachings That Inspired the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.," Op-ed, New York Daily News, August 31, 2010.
    • “Those Who Will Not Learn from History,” (Texas Social Studies Controversy), Sojourners (April 10, 2010)
    • “State is Erasing History,” Philadelphia Inquirer, op-ed, March 5, 2010
    • “Don't Taint the teaching of History in Texas, Op-ed, Sunday Houston Chronicle, July 26, 2009.
    • "Obama's Pick of Rick Warren," Philadelphia Inquirer, December 23, 2008.  Excerpted in Dec. 26, 2008 issue of USA Today.
    • "The Forgotten Virtue of Gratitude," Inside Higher Education, November 26. 2008
    • "The Religion of Sarah Palin," op-ed in the Austin Statesman-American, September 9, 2008
    • "Candidates Duck Issue on Faith's Influence," Harrisburg Patriot-News, August 19, 2008
    • "A Sheep in Sheep's Clothing," (The Faith of John McCain) SOMA: A Review of Religion and Culture, Aug. 22, 2008
    • "Thirty Years of Light and Glory: The Perils of Providential History,"  Touchstone, July/Aug 2008
    • The Limits of Cosmopolitanism in Early America, History News Network, May 26, 2008"
    • Colonial America: The State of the Field," AP Central Website (forthcoming)
    • "The Politics of Compassion," The Bridge (Summer 2008)
    • "Presbyterians in Love," Common-Place (Jan. 2008)
    • ."Are Christian Conservatives "Christian" or "Conservative," Op-ed piece in the Sunday Harrisburg Patriot-News, December 9, 2007.  Extended version, History News Network.
    • "Praise the Lord and Pass the Caffeine, " Soma: A Review of Religion and Culture October 2007
    • "Those that Misuse the Past are Bound to Misunderstand It," Op-ed piece syndicated to over 300 newspapers through History News Service, Sept. 18, 2007.  
    • "Historic Differences Make Jersey Shore More Than a Brand Name," Op-ed piece, Asbury Park Press (NJ), July 12, 2007.
    • "Democrats Revive Our Civic-Religious Traditions," Op-Ed piece syndicated to over 300 newspapers through History News Service, June 9, 2007.
    • "A Modest Proposal for Saving American Democracy," (American Idol) The Cynic (June 2007).  Also appeared in the Carlisle Sentinel.
    • "Embracing the Pope--Selectively," Op-ed piece syndicated to over 300 newspapers through History News Service, April 19, 2005.  
    • "Thoughts on a Seussentenial, the New Pantagruel (Fall 2004)“
    • Democratic Party Can Find Help on “Values” Issues in Pro-Life Wing,” Op-ed piece in the Harrisburg Sunday Patriot-News published November 28, 2004.  (Reprinted on Democrats for Life Website).
    • “New Jersey’s Pleasure-Way Turns Fifty (Garden State Parkway),” New Jersey Heritage (Fall 2006).
    • Radio Commentary, "Reflections on a Seussentenial,"  Talking History (December 2004).
    • "Coming to Terms With Lincoln,"   The Cresset (Advent 2004).
    • "Reflections on a Seussentenial."  Op-ed piece syndicated to over 300 newspapers through History News Service (February 18, 2004). 
    • "The Shore Again is a Playground for the Rich."  Op-ed piece, Morristown (NJ) Daily Record, February 22, 2004. 
    • "Research as Relationship," Common-Place, (October 2003).
    • “Confessions of a ‘Pile-man’: Work and the Scholarly Task of the Christian Historian,” Lilly Fellows network Communiqué (Spring 2001), 5-7
 
Blogs and Web
Encyclopedia and Dictionary Entries:
 Over forty entries in:

Select Book Reviews and Notes: 
  • Review of David Reynolds, Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Making of America in Christian Century (October 2011)
  • Review of Scott Rohrer, Wandering Souls: Protestant Migrations in America, 1630-1865 in Journal of American History (2011).
  • Review of Liam Riordan,Many Identities, One Nation: The Revolution and its Legacy in the Mid-Atlantic, New Jersey History 124 (2009).
  • Review of Tim Stafford, Shaking the System: What I Learned from the Great American Reform Movements, Prism (January 2008).
  • Review of Stephen Stein, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Jonathan Edwards, The History Teacher (Nov. 2007)
  • Review of Brendan McConville, The Kings Three Faces: The Rise and Fall of Royal America, History News Service (August 2007)
  • Review of Barbara Mitnick, New Jersey and the American Revolution, H-Net Reviews (2006).  Republished in Social Science Docket 7 (Summer-Fall 2007).
  • Review of Jeffry Morrison, John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic, H-Net Reviews (2006)
  • Review of Gabrielle Lanier, The Delaware Valley in the Early Republic:Architecture, Landscape, and Regional Identity in The Journal of the Early Republic (2005)
  • Review of Gretchen Buggeln, Temples of Grace: The Material Transformation of Connecticut’s Churches, 1790-1840 in William and Mary Quarterly (2004)
  • Review of Mark A. Noll, The Rise of Evangelicalism: The Age of Edwards, Whitefield, and the Wesleys in Fides et Historia (2004).
  • Review of Patrick Griffin, The People With No Name: Ireland's Ulster Scots, America's Scots Irish, and the Creation of a British Atlantic World, 1689-1764 in The Journal of Presbyterian History (Summer 2003)
  • Review of Frank Greenagel, The New Jersey Churchscape: Encountering Eighteenth-and Nineteenth-Century Churches on www.njchurchscape.com  (Web Site).
  • Review of Allen Guelzo, Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President in The Cresset (Pentecost 2002)
  • Review of Mark S. Schantz, Piety and Providence: Class Dimensions of Religious Experience in Antebellum Rhode Island in The Journal of the Early Republic 21 (Summer 2001).
  • Booknote Review of Alison Games, Migration and the Origins of the English Atlantic World in Religious Studies Review (forthcoming)
  • Booknote Review of David Jaffee, People of the Wachusett: Greater New England in History and Memory, 1630-1860 in Religious Studies Review (forthcoming).
  • Review of John Wigger, Taking Heaven By Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America in The Southern Historian 21 (Spring 2000)
  • Review of Michael Batinski, Jonathan Belcher: Colonial Governor in New Jersey History 115 (Fall/Winter, 1997).
  • Review of Bryan LeBeau, Jonathan Dickinson and the Formation of Early American Presbyterianism in Fides et Historia (Summer/Fall 2000)
  • Booknote Review of Susan Juster, Disorderly Women: Sexual Politics and Evangelicalism in Revolutionary New England in Religious Studies Review (July 1997).
  • Booknote Review of Timothy D. Hall, Contested Boundaries: Itinerancy and the Reshaping of the Colonial American Religious World in Religious Studies Review 23 (July 1997).

SELECT PRESENTATIONS
    • Book Talks and Lectures on Was America Founded as a Christian Nation: A Historical Introduction:  Bethany Village (Mechanicsburg, PA); Messiah College (Grantham, PA); David Library of the American Revolution (Washington Crossing, PA); Mary Ball Washington Museum (Lancaster, VA); Fraunces Tavern Museum (New York, NY); Colonial Williamsburg (Williamsburg, VA); Richmond American Revolutionary Roundtable (Richmond, VA); Harrisburg Daughters of the  American Revolution (Camp Hill, PA); Sons of the American Revolution (Somers Point, NJ); Chadds Ford Historical Society (Chadds Ford, PA); Virginia Festival of the Book (Charlottesville, VA); Ephrata Cloister (Ephrata, PA); Borders Books (Warrenton, PA); Aaron’s Books (Lititz, PA); Historic Christ Church (Weems, VA); Colonial Williamsburg (Williamsburg, VA); Northern New Jersey Revolutionary War Roundtable (Morristown, NJ); Bent Cover Books (Phoenix, AZ); Border Books (Mesa, AZ); All Saints Episcopalian Church (Phoenix, AZ); East Valley Bible Church (Gilbert, AZ); Borders Books (Flat Iron, CO); St. Peter’s United Methodist Church (Ocean City, NJ); Philadelphia Revolutionary War Roundtable (Ambler, PA); West Shore Evangelical Free Church (Mechanicsburg, PA), WORD-FM (Pittsburgh, PA); Jubilee Conference (Pittsburgh, PA); Paul Edwards Radio Program (WLQV, Detroit); Roland Lettner Program (KFUO, St. Louis); Brian Patrick Program (KNOP, Cincinnati); Doylestown Bookshop (Doylestown, PA); Bob Price Show (WCIK, Bath, NY); The Source with Paul Anderson (Syndicated); AM Ocala Live (Ocala, FL); Morning Show with Bill Meyer (KMED, Medford, OR); Coral Ridge Radio Show, (WAFG, Ft. Lauderdale); Stacy Harp Show (Active Christian Media, syndicated); Religion Tuesday (WDIS, Norfolk, VA); Bob Jones Show (KCTA, Corpus Christi, TX); Bob Dutko Show (WMUZ, Detroit); John McColloch Show (WJR, Detroit); Point of View Talk Show (USA Radio Network); Ken Pittman Show (WBSM, Fairhaven, MA); James Lee Show (KMTH, Portales, NM); Ringside Politics (WGSO, New Orleans); Al Kresta in the Afternoon (Ava Maria Radio—syndicated); Tron Simpson Show (KCMD, Colorado Springs); Nick Reed Show (KSGF, Springfield, MO); First Covenant Church (Minneapolis, MN); City Life Church (St. Paul, MN); Kernstown United Methodist Church (Kernstown, VA); Harrisburg Rotary Club (Harrisburg, PA); Culture Shocks Radio with Barry Lynn (syndicated); Viewpoint Radio (syndicated); Barnes & Noble (Camp Hill, PA); Barnes & Noble (Wilkes-Barre, PA); Willow Grove Presbyterian Church (Scotch Plains, NJ); Encounter Radio (KSIV, St. Louis); Inside Look with Greg Wheatley (Moody Radio, syndicated); The Matter at Hand Show (WGRC, Lewisburg, PA); Live from Seattle (KGNW, Seattle); Research in Religion Podcast (Baylor University); Janet Mefford Show (syndicated); Fairfax Presbyterian Church (Fairfax, VA); Mount Gretna Chautauqua (Mt. Gretna, PA); North Jersey Civil War Roundtable (Morristown, NJ); Derry Presbyterian Church (Hershey, PA); Assembly of God TV (Springfield, MO via Skype); WFMU Public Radio (New York, NY); St. Peter's United Methodist Church (Ocean City, NJ); Trinity Lutheran Church (Lancaster, PA); United Church of Christ of Berks County, PA Ministers Conference.
    • Book Talks and Lectures on The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Bethany Village (Mechanicsburg, PA); Salem County Historical Society (Salem, NJ); Joseph T. Simpson Library (Mechanicsburg, PA); Borders Books and Music (Camp Hill, PA), The Sam Greenfield Show (WVNJ—New York); Central Delmarva Revolutionary Roundtable (Dover, DE), Montville Township High School (Montville, NJ), Elizabethtown Public Library (Elizabethtown, PA); The Bruce Edwards Radio Program (WLQV—Detroit); Messiah College (Grantham, PA); McNeil Center for Early American Studies (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA);Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh, PA); South Jersey Chapter of Sons of the American Revolution (West Deptford, NJ); American Revolution Round Table of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA); First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City (Ocean City, NJ); “Transitions with Bruce Wadzeck” (NJN Public Radio, Trenton, NJ); Friends of the Murray Library (Grantham, PA); LaPlata Public Library (LaPlata, MD); Historical Society of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA); Northumberland County Historical Society (Heathsville, VA); Mary Ball Washington Museum (Kilmarnock, VA); Northumberland County Library (Rappahannock, VA); Greenwich Tea Burning Commemoration (Greenwich, NJ); Cumberland County Historical Society (Greenwich, NJ); Fraunces Tavern Museum (New York, NY); Ridgefield Public Library (Ridgefield, NJ); Indian Valley Public Library (Telford, PA); Historical Society of Somerset Hills (Basking Ridge, NJ); Washington County Free Library (Hagerstown, MD); Richmond American Revolutionary Round Table (Richmond, VA); Bayshore Discovery Institute (Dividing Creek, NJ); New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance (Rutgers University—New Brunswick); The Hermitage (Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ); Society of the Cincinatti (Washington D.C.); Colonial Williamsburg (Williamsburg, VA); Montville Township Historical Society (Montville,NJ), Cape May County Public Library (Cape May Courthouse, NJ); Mayflower Descendants of New Jersey (Riverton, NJ); Harrisburg Area Daughter of the American Revolution (Harrisburg, PA). 
    •  "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation," LeRoy Martin Distinguished Lecture, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, October 9, 2012.
    • "America's Biblical Heritage," Plenary address, "The Bible and the Public Square Conference," Duke University, September 9-10, 2012.
    • Roundtable Discussion, "The Perils and Promise of History in a Digital Age," Annual Meeting of The Historical Society, Columbia, SC, June 1, 2012.
    • Book Discussion of Was America Founded as a Christian Nation, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism Seminar in Religion, University of Notre Dame, April 14, 2012.
    • Public Lecture: "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation," Monmouth College, Monmouth, IL, March 29, 2012.
    • Public Lectures on "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation" and "History and a Civil Society," Center for Vision and Values, Grove City College, Grove City, PA, January 31, 2012.
    • Public Lecture: "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation: A Historical Introduction," Jefferson Lecture on Religious Freedom, University of Mary Washington, January 26, 2012.
    • Commentator, "Religious Networks, Alliance, and Friendship in the Early Modern World," Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, January, 2012.
    • Public Lecture: "William Penn and American Pluralism," Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission Religion Lecture Series, Camp Hill, PA, November 17, 2011.
    • “The Founding Fathers and the ‘Separation of Church and State’,” David Library of the American Revolution, November 3, 2011
    • “The History of Evangelical Engagement in the Public Square,” Keynote Address, Catholics and Evangelicals for the Common Good Conference, Georgetown University, September 30, 2011.
    • “The Religious Beliefs of the Founding Fathers,” Fort Ticonderoga American Revolution Seminar, Ticonderoga, NY, September 23-24, 2011.
    • Constitutional Day Lecturer, Grace College, Winona Lake, IN, September 20, 2011.
    • Chair and Comment, “Home Missions, Anti-Missions, and the Political Culture of the Early Republic,” Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of the Early American Republic, Philadelphia, July 14-17, 2011.
    • “Colonial Presbyterianism in the Shenandoah Valley,” Opequon Presbyterian Church, Winchester, VA, April 9, 2011.
    • "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation," MacLaurin Institute Public Lecture, University of Minnesota, March 31, 2011
    • "A Presbyterian Rebellion: The American Revolution in the Mid-Atlantic," University of Minnesota Early American History Workshop, March 30, 2011
    • "The Moral Responsibility of the Historian and the Case for Christian America," Public Lecture, Wheaton College, Center for Applied Christian Ethics, March 28, 2011. 
    • “Does the Way of Improvement Lead Home?: Cosmopolitan Rootedness and the Church-Related Academy” Plenary Lecture, Lilly Fellows in Arts and Humanities Reunion Conference, Valparaiso University, October 14, 2010
    • “Interview on Pennsylvania Budget Cuts to History,” WITF Smart Talk, Harrisburg, PA.
    • “The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers and the Rural Enlightenment,” Presidential Scholars Lecture, Seton Hall University, March 15, 2010.
    • Junior Historian's Forum, "The Coming of the American Revolution," Huntsville, Alabama Schools for the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History, October 2009
    • Junior Historian's Forum, "Women and Children in Colonial America," Milwaukee Public Schools for the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History, Marquette University, October, 2009
    • "Presbyterians and the American Revolution," Fort Ticonderoga Seminar on the American Revolution, September 2009.
    • Lectures on Christianity and American History (2-day seminar), Faith Evangelical Free Church, Fort Collins, CO, July 2009.
    • “Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?” Pathways Institute Seminar, Messiah Village, Mechanicsburg, PA, November, 2008
    • “Junior Historian's Forum, "The United States Constitution," Minneapolis Public Schools for the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History, November 2008.
    • Panel Member,“Reflections on the State of Early American Studies,” Biennial Meeting of the Conference of Faith and History, Bluffton, OH, September 2008“
    • A Short History of Religion and Politics,” Bethany Village Venture Series Lecture, Mechanicsburg, PA, October 2, 2008
    • .“Presbyterians in Love: Dating and Courtship During the American Revolution.”  Public lecture at Mechanicsburg Museum Association, Mechanicsburg, PA August 20, 2008.
    •  “Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?,” Public lecture at Upper St. Clair Public Library, Upper St. Clair, PA, June 12, 2008 
    • Discussion Panel on “The Way of Improvement Leads Home,” McNeil Center for Early American Studies, May 29, 2008.
    • "Roots and Wings: Philip Vickers Fithian and Greenwich Presbyterianism," Public lecture at the 300th anniversary celebration of the Greenwich Presbyterian Church, Greenwich, NJ, October 28, 2007.
    • "Good Living, Good Neighborhood, and Cordial Friendship: William Penn's Vision for Philadelphia," Public Lecture at the John Jay Institute for Faith, Law, and Society," Colorado Springs, October 18, 2007.
    • “Worshipping with ‘Christian America’: A Historian's Search for a Spiritual Home in Mainstream Evangelicalism”  Presented at the Lilly Fellows in Arts and Humanities Reunion Conference, Indianapolis, June 10. 2007.
    • "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?"  Public Lecture, David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, Pa., April 19, 2007.
    • "Remembering the Greenwich Tea Party:  History and Memory in a South Jersey Community,"  First Annual New Jersey Forum, Trenton, November 2006.
    • " 'An Ambition for Great and Noble Things: Philip Vickers Fithian's Rise from South Jersey Farmer to Citizen of the World, "Extreme Makeovers: History of Self Fashion in the Mid-Atlantic," Conference sponsored by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, October 2006.
    • "The Rise of American Individualism."  Staley Lecture, The Stony Brook School, Stony Brook, New York, April 2006.
    • Pennsylvania Commonwealth Speaker, 2005-2007, "Was American Founded as a Christian Nation?"
    • "Remembering Poor Richard: Some Thoughts on the 300th Anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's Birth," Public Lecture, Bethany Village Venture Series, Mechanicsburg, PA
    • Plenary Speaker: "The Vocation of the Historian."  2nd Biennial Undergraduate Research Conference of the Conference on Faith and History, October 2004, Hope College, Holland, MI.
    • "Coming to Terms With Lincoln: Christian Faith and Moral Reflection in the History Classroom."  Presented at the Faith in the Academy Conference, September 2004, Messiah College, Grantham, PA..
    • Session Chair and Commentator, "Ethnic Choices and Conflicts in Eighteenth-Century Mid-Atlantic Society and Culture." Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Historical Association, Harrisburg, PA, October 2003.
    • Plenary Speaker, Lilly Fellows Program Northeast Regional Undergraduate Conference on Vocation, Holy Cross College, Worcester, MA, September 12-14, 2003.
    • Invited panelist, "Piety, Politics, and Public Houses: Churches, Taverns, and Revolutions in New Jersey."  Conference held in conjunction with the opening of a museum exhibit by the same name, sponsored by the New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, March 2003.
    • Session Chair and Panel Moderator, “Treading on Sacred Ground: Professional Historians and the Writing of Contemporary Religious History.”  Biennial Meeting of the Conference on Faith and History, Huntington, IN, October, 2002.
    • Session Chair and Commentator, “Ideology and Religion in the Age of the American Revolution.”  Biennial Student Research Conference of the Conference on Faith and History, Huntington, IN, October, 2002.
    • Respondent, Catholic Studies Seminar, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism.  Responded to Jason Duncan’s paper “The Great Chain of National Union: Catholics and the Republican Triumph in the Early Republic,” Notre Dame University, Notre Dame, IN, March 2002.
    • “Churches, Revivalism, and the Ubiquitarian Nature of Protestantism in Early New Jersey.” Organized panel entitled “Constructing Communities: Church Building and American Religion, 1780-1820, Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Washington, D.C., April 2000.
    • “Beyond Denominationalism: Religious Frontiers in Early America.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Church History, San Francisco, January, 2002.
    • “Swedish Lutheranism and Protestant Diversity in the 18th-Century Delaware Valley.” Presented at the First Annual New Sweden Conference, American Swedish Historical Museum, Philadelphia, PA, November 2001.
    •  “The Making of an Orthodox Quaker: Reading and Religious Practice in the Philadelphia Hinterland, 1800-1815.”  Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Historical Association, Johnstown, PA, October, 2001.
    • “Cultivating Seeds: Quaker Faith and Agricultural Practice in the Early American Republic.” Organized panel entitled “Not By Bread Alone: Lived Religion in the Early Republic,” Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of the Early American Republic, Baltimore, MD, July 2001.
    •  “Caught in a Civil War: A Swedish Lutheran Clergyman and the American Revolution in the Delaware Valley.” Presented at the conference entitled “History at the Grassroots: Local History and its Audiences,” Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL, October 2000.
    •  “Presbyterian Sociability and the Moral Improvement of the Delaware Valley Countryside, 1765-1775.”  Paper presented at the 2000 Deerfield/Wellesley Symposium on American Culture: The Pursuit of Refinement in America,” Historic Deerfield, Deerfield, Massachusetts, November 2000.
    • “The ‘Ubiquitarians’ of West Jersey: Rural Protestantism and the Problem of Denominational Order in the Early Delaware Valley. Organized panel entitled “Religious Pluralism in the Early Mid-Atlantic,” proposed for the Winter Meeting of American Society of Church History, Chicago, January 2000.
    • “A Rural Enlightenment: Presbyterian Community in Eighteenth-Century Southern New Jersey,” presented at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies Seminar, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, November 1999.
    • Session Chair: “Communicating Across the Cultural Divide.”  Panel presented at Speaking in Signs: Cultures of Communication in the Early Modern Americas, Graduate Student Conference, McNeil Center for Early American Studies, University of Pennsylvania, September 1999.
    • “Cultivating Seeds: Agriculture and the Religious World of a Quaker Yeoman in the Early Republic,” presented at the Works in Progress Brown Bag Seminar, McNeil Center for Early American Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, November 1998.”
    • “The Rural Enlightenment of Philip Vickers Fithian” presented at the 4th Annual Conference of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Worcester, MA, June 1998.
    •  “Rethinking a Classic Source of Plantation Virginia: A Note on Morals, Sociability, and Reading in the Writings of Philip Vickers Fithian,” presented at the Shenandoah Valley Regional Studies Seminar, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, March 1998.
    • “Wheelock’s World: Communication, Community, and Evangelical Revival in Eighteenth Century New England,” Organized panel entitled “Letter Writing in Early America.”  Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Indianapolis, April 1998.
    • “ ’Sober, Uniform in Manner, and Every Way So Religious’: Presbyterian Community in Rural Southern New Jersey, 1740-1800.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Historical Association Philadelphia, November 1997.
    • “Samuel Finley Versus Abel Morgan: Revivalism, Ethnicity, and an Eighteenth Century Disputation on Baptism in Cape May, New Jersey, 1743.  Organized panel entitled “Ethnicity and Religious Community in Early America,” presented at the Winter Meeting of the American Society of Church History New York, January, 1997.
    • “Communication, Community and Evangelical Revival: Eleazar Wheelock’s Great Awakening of Letters.”  Presented at the Annual Conference of the Society for the History of Reading, Authorship, and Publishing, Worcester, MA, July 1996.
 Teacher's Workshops
  • Gilder-Lehrman Institute Workshop on Religion and the American Founding, Archdiocese of New York Schools, Brooklyn, NY, November 30, 2011
  • Gilder-Lehrman Institute Workshop on Religion and the American Founding, Archdiocese of New York Schools, Brooklyn, NY, November 17, 2011
  • Gilder-Lehrman Institute/Teaching American History Workshop on the Enlightenment in America, Savannah Public Schools, Savannah, GA, November 10, 2011.
  • Gilder-Lehrman Institute/Teaching American History Workshop on Religion and the Enlightenment, San Bernardino County Schools, San Bernardino, CA, October 6-7, 2012.
  • Gilder-Lehrman Institute/Teaching American History Workshop on Colonial America, Palm Beach County School District, Boca Raton, FL, November 6, 2010
  • Gilder-Lehrman Institute Workshop on the Founding Era, Moore, Oklahoma, January 17, 2011.
  • Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History/Teaching American History Workshop on American Colonization, Savannah Public Schools, Savannah, Georgia, November 18, 2010.
  • Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History/Teaching American History Workshop on Revolutionary America, Guilford County, North Carolina Schools, New York, NY, July 12, 2010
  • Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History workshop on the American Founding, Raleigh, North Carolina Schools, Raleigh, NC,  August, 3-4, 2010
  • Messiah College Center for Public Humanities Workshop on Abraham Lincoln and American Nationalism, Grantham, PA, February 2009
  • “Women and Children in Colonial America, ” Gilder-Lehrman Institute for American History Teachers Workshop Leader, Milwaukee, WI, October 2009
  • “The Coming of the American Revolution ” Gilder-Lehrman Institute for American History Teachers Workshop Leader, Monroe, LA, October 2009
  • "Colonial America," Gilder-Lehrman Institute for American History Teachers Workshop Leader, Hattiesburg, MS, June 2009.
  • “The Constitution ,” Gilder-Lehrman Institute for American History Teachers Workshop Leader, Brooklyn Historical Society, May 2009
  • “Abraham Lincoln and American Nationalism,” Facilitator for Messiah College Center for Public Humanities “Teachers as Scholars” Seminar, Grantham, PA, March 2009
  • “Early National America," Gilder-Lehrman Institute for American History Teacher's Workshop, Palm Beach County Schools, Boca Raton, FL, December 9-10, 2008.
  • “The Constitution," Gilder-Lehrman Institute for American History Teacher's Workshop and Junior Historians Forum, Milwaukee Public Schools, Minneapolis, MN, November 5-7, 2008
  • “Colonial America,” Gilder-Lehrman Institute for American History Teachers Workshop Leader, Bledsoe County Public Schools, Pikesville, TN, July 15-17, 2008.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY and SERVICE
  • Consultant on 2011 "Religion" Theme, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2010-2011
  • Director and Founder, Greenwich Tea Burning Project, 2009-
  • Executive Board Member, Lilly Fellows Program in the Arts and Humanities, 2011-2015.
  • Executive Board, Lilly Fellows Program in Arts and Humanities, 2011-2015
  • Juror, Alfred Driscoll Prize, New Jersey Historical Commission, 2010.
  • Editorial Board, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 2011-
  • External Reviewer, Northwestern College (MN) History Department (April 2009).
  • Historian and Workshop Leader, Gilder-Lehrman Institute for American History, 2008-
  • Program Committee, New Jersey Forum, 2010.
  • Board Member, Conference on Faith and History, 2004-2007
  • Editorial Board, New Jersey History (Journal)
  • Editorial Board, Fides et Historia (Journal)
  • Messiah College General Education Committee, 2008-
  • Messiah College Freshman CORE Steering Committee, 2008-
  • Campus Representative for Messiah College to the Lilly Fellows Program in the Arts and Humanities, 2002, 2005
  • Campus Representative for Messiah College to the Rhodes Consultation on the Future of the Church-Related College, 2002-2004.
  • Program Co-Chair, Biennial Meeting of the Conference on Faith and History, Hope College, Fall 2004.
  • Messiah College Library Committee, 2003-2005
  • Messiah College Teacher Education Committee, 2003-
  • Article Referee: New Jersey History, The Journal of American History, Christian Scholars Review, Fides et Historia, William and Mary Quarterly, Journal of the Early Republic, Journal of Law and Religion.
  • Manuscript Reviewer: Bedford/'St. Martin, Oxford University Press, Routledge Press, Pickering and Chatto, Thomas-Wadsworth; Penn State University Press.
  • Faculty Advisor, Messiah College History Club, 2003-2007
  • Website Manager, Department of History, Messiah College, 2002-2010
  • Faculty Consultant, Advanced Placement United States History Examination, Educational Testing Service, 2001-2007
  • Program Committee, ‘Speaking in Signs’: Communication and Culture in Early America, graduate student conference, McNeil Center for Early American Studies, November 1999.
  • Planning Committee, Biennial Meeting of the Conference on Faith and History, Huntington College, Fall, 2002.
  • Planning Committee, Biennial Student Research Conference, Conference of Faith and History, Huntington College, Fall 2002
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