Spring Arbor University Department of History/Geography/Politics

09/19/2021

Dr. Edwards hosted another history and politics discussion for this years' constitution day with Dr. Daniel Williams from University of West Georgia. This was a great discussion about Christian Nationalism in America.

05/18/2021

End of the school year meant a cobbled together (hopefully last zoom-version) ultimate SAU history quiz. And the third 2-time winner... We'll miss these excellent seniors.

12/30/2020

Over the past few weeks we've been highlighting some of our grads of the past decade to highlight some of their higher education accomplishments. Today, we want to highlight Andrew Ballitch '10.

Andrew double majored while at SAU in both history and theology. He went from SAU to earn his Ph.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in church history and historical theology in 2017. We want to celebrate the publication of his first book, _The Gloss and the Text: William Perkins on Interpreting Scripture with Scripture_ published in 2020 by Lexham Press. He currently pastors at Westwood Alliance Church in Mansfield, Ohio.

He turned to Perkins as he wrote, "The Puritans are of interest to me as a group of exemplary pastor theologians, something I aspire to be." Andrew has discovered that studying church history allows him to pursue both my love for theology and the history of ideas. He writes, "The latter I trace to my time in the History Department at SAU."

12/22/2020

Over the past weeks we’ve been highlighting some of our recent grads who have taken the step to graduate school. We’d also like to highlight some of our graduates who have completed this process.
Daniel Rubio ’10 graduated from Spring Arbor University in 2010 with a double major in history and philosophy. In 2012 he received his MA from Western Michigan in Philosophy. He then moved on to Rutgers University to study for his Ph.D in Philosophy under the supervision of Dean Zimmerman. He defended his thesis, “Essays in Formal Metaphysics” at the end of 2019. The thesis dealt primarily with systems of mathematical logic designed to aid in the study of time and possibility.
He has since taken a postdoctoral research associate position in the Princeton University Center for Human Values. He writes that, “my current research projects include work on the relationship between God and value, on principles of truth-directed theory choice, and on what we can learn from the paradoxes of transfinite decision theory.”
He reflects kindly on his time at Spring Arbor, writing, “Even though I did not continue formal study of history into graduate school, my time in SAU’s history department was important for developing my writing style and for providing research skills that I still regularly draw on.”

12/16/2020

Julia Mayer is a history student in the MAPSS (MA Program in the Social Sciences) at the University of Chicago. She’s focusing on European history and starting her thesis research which is looking at church/state interactions in Prussia in the first half of the 19th century.

After her first classes, she noted that, “There was definitely a learning curve as I adjusted to the much heavier workload and the fast-paced quarter system in addition to not being in-person. Despite the challenges, I definitely felt prepared for them, and I felt like I was able to get a lot out of my courses.”

She has enjoyed the seminar discussions as her classes dig deep on particular subjects – even ones, like the medieval papacy which were unfamiliar subjects for her. Despite being online, Julia is enjoying the community she’s finding in grad school, “Online classes make it harder to get to know each other since you can’t interact before or after class in the same way, but the history cohort in my program has been meeting up on Zoom one to two times a week. It has been really great to be able to interact with a great group of people who share a passion for history and are experiencing the same challenges that come with doing grad school online.”

Julia spent a year working for AmeriCorps with City Year Detroit before returning to school. The year was well spent both to help focus on what she wanted to pursue and where she should go to graduate school. She wrote, “Even though it can be stressful, grad school has affirmed my love of history. I took a year off before starting grad school and I really missed doing history and now I get to do it at a higher level which is great.”

12/14/2020

With the end of the semester, we'd like to share a couple of alumni highlights. We have some alumni who have wrapped up their first semesters at top flight graduate schools. They are amazing representatives of Spring Arbor at their institutions.

Aaron Pattillo-Lunt is a first year PhD student in American History at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill (UNC) and studying with Dr. Molly Worthen. His research is focused on conservative Protestantism in the United States, media history, and evangelical internationalism.

He writes that, “Starting a PhD program in the midst of COVID has been interesting. The semester has been all online for me, and I am glad that the History Department was quick to let graduate students choose to have their courses online to make sure we all stayed healthy. I’ve been fortunate to have a really great cohort, and we’ve been able to commiserate about the challenges posed by the lack of in-person instruction. The hardest part of this adjustment has been the lack of conversations during class breaks and in the hallways of the department.” To fund his program Aaron has been given a teaching assistant’s fellowship. While he admits that managing time between being a student and being a teacher is a delicate balance, he celebrates that, “TAing has been really rewarding. My students were brilliant and thoughtful, and TAing has affirmed my desire to pursue a career teaching history.”

The experience of being a grad student hasn’t been wholly surprising for Aaron. He came into UNC with an MA (University of Chicago). Whereas his MA was pushing students to complete rapidly, he’s enjoyed knowing that the length of his doctoral work will certainly allow for deeper connections with his colleagues.

Graduate school has only helped his appreciation for history. He writes, “I have long felt that there is a spiritual benefit to careful study, and the pursuit of truth, wherever it be found, has kept drawing me back into the academy despite scary job prospects at the end of the academic tunnel. There’s a lot of wisdom to be found in letting well-researched books and smart people challenge and reform your beliefs.”

10/24/2020

As the public continues to lose faith in institutions of higher education, and with student loan debt continuing to skyrocket, the return on investment of a baccalaureate degree is under more scrutiny that ever.

10/15/2020

Tonight we welcomed back SAU alumni for a discussion of their preparation for and experiences in and after law school. It was a great time!!

09/12/2020

Have you seen HAMILTON?

Please join us for an Evening with Alexander Hamilton!

Tuesday, September 15 from 6 - 7:30 pm

This will be an interactive event, with everyone having a chance to share their thoughts and experiences of the musical Hamilton.

For part of SAU's Constitution Week festivities,
we will also consider the historical value of the production with
Mark Edwards, SAU professor of history, and
Ethan Goodnight, SAU alumni and current graduate student in American Studies at Harvard.

Message this page or Dr. Correll or Dr. Edwards for zoom call in information!

09/07/2020

We've started our fall semester! It's certainly an adjustment adapting to the distancing and technological challenges of college in the Covid age. However, we're so happy to see our students face-to-fa... errr...forehead-to-forehead. We appreciate your prayers and support for a healthy and productive semester. *Snapshot taken before class began*

08/31/2020

Prof. C. was able to finish up his fourth intro to college history video just in time for the new semester to start tomorrow. A special bonus... the video is just over 4 minutes long, so if the 5-7 minute duration was too much of a commitment, you can check this one out.

This video helps students succeed in their intro college history courses by describing some of the main differences between high school and college history c...