Alyssa Gerhardt Craven

Dr. Craven is currently teaching at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor as an adjunct professor in the History and Political Science Department.

Advisor

Dr. Andrea Turpin

Research Interests

My current research examines the religious discourse that surrounded agricultural occupations, starting with Puritan New England and continuing throughout the eighteenth century. I am particularly interested in the theology of work and its broader implications for gender, Native American relations, and its impact on land settlement. My dissertation, “The Soil and the Soul: Religion and Agriculture in Colonial New England, 1650-1800” will examine these themes across ministerial literature in the colonies. My other research interests include evangelicalism, women and gender history, and public history.

Education

• B.S. in History, Illinois College, 2012

Awards/Fellowships

• Teaching Fellowship at the Baylor Central Libraries Special Collections
• Graduate School Fellowship

Publications

• Book Review: The First American Evangelical: A Short Life of Cotton Mather, by Rick Kennedy, The Historian. [forthcoming]
• Book Review: Sacred Violence in Early America, by Susan Juster, Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft. [forthcoming]
• Book Review: Decoding Roger Williams: The Lost Essay of Rhode Island’s Founding Father, by Linford D. Fisher, J. Stanley Lemons and Lucas Mason-Brown, Journal of Southern Religion. Volume 17.