Alyssa Gerhardt Craven

Advisor: Andrea Turpin

Education

B.S. in History, Illinois College (Jacksonville, IL), 2012

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 settement. 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.

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.