Alyssa Gerhardt Craven

Office Hours

M/W/F 10:00-11:00, 1:00-2:00pm and by appointment.

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.