Announcements

Grove City students deliver papers at Phi Alpha Theta Conference

The History Department proudly recognizes the following Grove City students who delivered papers at the Phi Alpha Theta conference on March 17, 2012 at St. Vincent College, Latrobe, PA:

Rebekah Parsons - "Samuel Adams: Radical Puritan"
Corinne Gressang - "Seminary of Thieves: Tortuga and Port Royal in the 17th Century"
Andrew Smith - "Molded by Conflict, Domestic & Foreign: The Roots of Contemporary Problems in Colombia"
Veronica Bialas - "Trinitarian Medicine: A Look at the Christian Trinity in Renaissance Medical Theory"
Carolyn Augspurger - "Religious Ideology as a Source of Imperial Power for Ancient Empires"

Special congratulations to the following Grovers who won their respective panels:

John Hayward - "'It Is Providence': The Life and Thought of Isaac C. Ketler"

Rick Kriebel - "Onward Christian Marxists: Roman Catholicism in the Sandinista Revolution"

Suzanne El Sanadi - "Operation PASTORIUS: A Nation's Call for Justice"

Max Matherne - "From New Deal Coalition to New Democratic Coalition:
The Democratic Party, the Politics of Identity, and the Shifting Constituency, 1968-1980"

Joshua Lopez - "Kataphraktoi: The Western Experiment in Eastern Arms"

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Dr. Gary Smith interviewed in Christianity Today  

Gary Smith was interviewed in the January 2012 issue on Christianity Today about the faith of American presidents to help provide a context for the 2012 campaign. He analyzes the role religion has played in American public life, the nature of civil religion, the president's religious role in our nation's history, which presidents have been the most personally devout and theologically orthodox, which presidential administrations have been most shaped by the chief executive's religious convictions, and which factors are most important for Christians to consider in deciding which candidates to support. He discusses the faith of numerous presidents, especially that of Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Harry Truman, and Barack Obama. Smith assesses the faith of eleven American presidents in Faith and the Presidency: From George Washington to George W. Bush (Oxford University Press, 2009). He is working on a second volume that will evaluate the faith of eleven different presidents. The interview is also included in a CT e-book titled How to Pick a President. Click HERE.

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Dr. Gary Smith’s book wins award from Christianity Today  

Smith’s book Heaven in the American Imagination (Oxford University Press, 2011) was selected by Christianity Today for an Award of Merit its annual book awards. Smith’s book was recognized in the biography and history category. The editors selected 23 winners in a total of 10 categories from 390 titles submitted by 52 publishers.

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Harp publishes two essays  

The Fall issue of Christian Scholar’s Review includes an essay by Dr. Harp titled “Reconsidering the Liberal Captivity of American Evangelicalism.” Harp argues that some American evangelicals find it difficult to conceive of a species of conservatism that preserves a moral political economy and the notion of a paternalistic state protecting the less fortunate. However, this kind of conservatism characterized the thinking of one key group of evangelicals who emphasized community and opposed excessive individualism. Against laissez-faire individualism, these evangelicals stressed an organic view of the social order, the state as a moral agent, and the importance of mediating institutions such as family and church. Recovering their approach can help make evangelical social thought less indebted to classical liberalism and Enlightenment categories. In addition, Harp’s “The Tyranny of Modern Freedom versus the Freedom of Jesus” was one of the two lead articles for the November/December issue of Touchstone Magazine.

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Dr. Gary Smith publishes two articles  

Gary Smith had two articles published in December: “Jimmy Carter: A Progressive Evangelical Foreign Policy,” Review of Faith and International Affairs 9 (Dec. 2011), 61-70. And “American Presidents and Civil Religion: The Early Presidents,” Derecho y Religion (Right and Religion) 6 (2011), 39-54.

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Hilary Lewis interns at Old Economy Village  

This summer, as the Keystone intern at Old Economy Village, Hilary Lewis, a 2009 GCC graduate, worked closely with curator and acting site administrator Sarah Buffington. Hilary shares her perspective with us as a graduate student of Public History at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She writes: “My major project this summer was to put together an exhibit for the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War. The theme of the exhibit was a celebration of the efforts of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and the Harmony Society’s involvement. This project was new and exciting for me. I was given the opportunity to research, write and mount a complete exhibit. It was no easy task to determine what we should display. We had to figure out what areas we wanted to convey and how best to do it.”

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Grove City students and recent alumni have been accepted to the following graduate school programs for Fall 2011:  

Johnathan Riddle, class of 2010 - M.A. in American History, Baylor University
Elizabeth Mubarek - M.A. program in Public History, Duquesne University
George Klaeren - Ph.D. program in European History, Kansas University
Andrew Kloes, class of 2007 - Ph.D. in European History, University of Edinburgh
Benjamin Wetzel, class of 2009 - Ph.D. in American History, University of Notre Dame
Matthew Koval - Ph.D. program in European History, University of Florida
Ryan McCormick - M.Div. program, Westminster Theological Seminary
Kevin Gallagher - Law School, University of Virginia

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GCC alumni are currently doing graduate degrees
at the following universities:  

Fordham University
New York University
Purdue University
St. Louis University
University of Western Michigan
Columbia University Law School
Duke University Law School
University of Maryland
University of Pennsylvania Law School
University of Tennesee
Baylor University
Catholic University
Duquesne University
Eastern University
George Mason University
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
James Madison University
Reformed Theological Seminary