Contributors in the News

Paul Harvey

A brief note on some of the doings of our contributors here at RiAH.

First, John Fea is busy on a speaking schedule in support of his new book Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?On part of that tour he appeared at the Virginia Festival for the Book, and his panel there is now up on the C-SPAN website (it was shown on C-SPAN 2, that harvest of riches for book geeks everywhere).

Contributor Jon Pahl has been traveling the world, engaging in interfaith dialogues, currently in Jakarta. You can follow his travels at his blog, linked above.

Chris Jones is celebrating surviving his comprehensive exams, not to mention making plans to be a father! Congratulations to Chris. Also on the graduate school front, contributor Heath Carter, whose excellent article about "scabbing ministers and striking saints" in the 1894 railroad strike recently appeared in American Nineteenth Century History, has been awarded the Charlotte Newcombe Dissertation fellowship to support his work next year.

Kelly Baker is tinkering with the title of her soon-to-forthcome book, now entitled Gospel According to the Klan: The KKK's Appeal to Protestant America, out soon with University of Kansas Press. Gerardo Marti's book on worship in multiracial churches (Worship Across the Racial Divide: Notions of Race and the Practice of Religious Music in Multiracial Churches) is slated to come out with Oxford, next spring I believe, and Art Remillard's book about competing visions of civil religion in the post-Civil War South (especially the "Wiregrass" South) will be out with University of Georgia Press around the same time. Meanwhile, Seth Dowland will be decamping from Duke cross country to Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA, where he will be a new assistant professor in the Religious Studies Department (correct me if I got the departmental affiliation wrong, Seth). Seth's book Family Values will be out with U. Penn Press next year we hope, and I hope many of you saw the preview for the book in his Church History article. And Lin Fisher, who's enjoying his year as an NEH Fellow at the Mass. Historical Society, is right at the end stages of finishing his terrific book The Indian Great Awakening, which Oxford will publish a bit down the road.

My co-blogmeister Randall Stephens is gearing up for his Fulbright in Norway next spring, where he will be a "Roving Scholar," while Ed Blum will be spending the year in Germany on a Fulbright as well. Meanwhile, Matt Sutton will use his recently awarded full-year NEH fellowship to work on his much-anticipated text about fundamentalism and politics since the 1930s. It's been a good year for Young Scholars.

As for me, I will be spending next year teaching a wonderfully light 3-4 load, directing 40 some odd senior theses, and writing to the NFL commissioner complaining about how the lockout has cancelled the fantasy football season, which is the only thing that gets me through the fall. As Historiann would say: Awesome!!!.

Oh, and after Glenn Beck's television contract with Fox runs out, he will be joining me as fellow blog-meister here at RiAH. So, please join me in welcoming Glenn to his new, highly-paid gig here at RiAH!! As you can see from the above, he will be joining an illustrious group of contributors.

The rest of ya'll, send your news.

Comments

Randall said…
Congrats all around!

I'm looking forward to reading Beck's measured and reasonable posts.
Matt Sutton said…
Paul--

What about you and Blum's book on Jesus in Red, Black, and White? Coming soon from UNC?

I have been fooling everyone into thinking I was doing post-1930 fundamentalism, but Dochuk and Williams nailed that. I am all over the 1880s-1950s, with a few cheap, quick, derivative chapters to take the story to the present so that I can still go on the Colbert show!

Dear God and little baby Jesus, please bring fantasy football back. Amen.
Christopher said…
Thanks, Paul, and congrats to everyone else--I'm anxious to read the several forthcoming books from contributors here.

And I couldn't be more thrilled about the Beck announcement. He's exactly what we've needed around here.
Paul Harvey said…
Matt: Prothero was just on Colbert again, so you should be too. I didn't realize you were going all the way back to the 1880s!

Hoping for Jesus to appear late next year, maybe fall 2012, but too soon to say for sure about that yet, as we're still working on it. Quite uncharacteristically for my postings on this blog (snark), there will be plenty of self-promotion for that book at the appropriate time.
Kelly J. Baker said…
Yay, for everyone!

And, just a quick note to say, the "The" has been removed from the title (now just Gospel According to the Klan) because it felt too much like the actual Gospel :)

And anyone who knows me knows that I don't talk about the Bible just the Klan's happy-go-lucky vision of it.

Also, why was I not consulted on the Beck decision?
Paul Harvey said…
Kelly: title corrected. As for the Beck decision, I was keeping it a secret because he's planning on having you on the show soon, but I wanted to let him break that news to you. It'll be like the William Cronon effect -- once the Wisconsin Republicans started harassing him, his older books like Nature's Metropolis suddenly shot up the top 100 on amazon sales. I think the same could happen to "Gospel According to the Klan."
Kelly J. Baker said…
Perfect, I approve of the Paul Harvey/Glenn Beck strategy. Carry on, our faithful leader!
Chris Beneke said…
Randall going to Norway is good news? Seems like bad news to me. And I bet the Norwegians feel the same way.
esclark said…
Paul Harvey in comment 4 - "Hoping for Jesus to appear late next year." This taken out of context is (to quote the illustrious Charlie Sheen) "winning."

Congrats to all!
Paul Harvey said…
esclark -- "out of context" is precisely what I was aiming for. At any rate, we're striving to make Jesus appear before next year is out.

Chris -- any truth to the rumour that you have introduced a bill to the Mass. legislature to reinstate the late and lamented Religious Establishment of the state?
I'm so glad Glenn Beck will join me (and Heath Carter) with his expertise and great interest in the threat of Christian Socialists within our churches!

Professor Sutton--I really like the "will it play on Colbert?" strategy for conceptualizing research topics. I can't say this doesn't cross my mind at least once a day.

[Also, don't forget Gerardo Marti's summer seminar at Calvin, "Congregations and Social Change." Bloggers Philip Sintiere and I are both planning on attending what seems like an intense and awesome class.]

Maybe we can get Glenn to guest post on April 1?
Randall said…
Norwegians have already set up an Anti-Stephens Facebook page.
Seth Dowland said…
Congrats, all! I'll be in the Dept. of Religion at PLU, which I suppose is different than Religious Studies, though I'm never sure quite how. If Jesus tarries, I'm hoping my book Family Values comes out in 2012, as well (Univ. Pennsylvania Press).

Already looking forward to the Sutton/Glenn Beck exchanges to come...
Chris Beneke said…
Randall--next spring will be a very dark time here. Not unlike Norway in the winter and early spring (btw--I already "Liked" that page).

Paul--Yes, and I've added a provision for government-funded religious history blogs, which every other sort of blog will be obliged to support.
Chris Beneke said…
p.s. The blog of the Historical Society will continue to rely upon private donations delivered in small, unmarked bills to Randall's department address. You can Like it here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Historical-Society/55845404253
Historiann said…
Actually, Paul, that should just be: Awesome!!!

I'm really sorry to hear about that teaching load, man. Bend my ear about it the next time you're north of Denver. Consider it a standing invitation.
Paul Harvey said…
Historiann: Yes, that's right on the exact wording, I changed the post accordingly. It came to mind immediately when I thought of how to describe my feelings about next year's teaching gig.

Hope soon to accept that kind invitation; in the interim, going to decamp to the Monaco in Denver this weekend to suck martinis, watch basketball, and pretend that next school year will never happen.
Anonymous said…
Paul, what about mentioning how I went all Jimmer on those guys at the beach when we were playing 21? That was far more satisfying than any book I've read or written.
Paul Harvey said…
Yep, Ed, you definitely destroyed me and the two ex-cons that we played "21" with at the beach basketball courts. Blum has a very Dirk Nowitzki-like turn-around J that is quite awe-inspiring to behold.
Christopher said…
Dirk Nowitzki? Jimmer? Subtle mocking of Glenn Beck? On a blog about Am. Religious History? My brain just exploded from all of my favorite things in life colliding.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said…
Beck? You really will let anyone write for this blog.
Paul Harvey said…
Todd (and all): Incredible news! Beck has agreed to go ahead and be a contributor starting tomorrow, rather than waiting until Fox cans his TV show. Look for his first post tomorrow! It's sure to be a thoughtful analysis.
Kelly J. Baker said…
Also, congrats to Mike Altman for successfully defending his dissertation proposal!

And I am eagerly awaiting tomorrow's post from our newest contributor...
melanie said…
Seth- As a PLU alumna, I congratulate you on your new job! Please let us know when you figure out what a 'Lute' is.
Thanks, Kelly!

I too look forward to the wisdom and rational realism Mr. Beck will bring to this blog. We sure could use it.

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