Andrea L. Turpin
Associate Professor & Graduate Program Director of History, Affiliated Faculty in Women’s and Gender Studies & Resident Scholar at Institute for Studies of Religion
On Research Leave Spring 2023 and Fall 2023
Areas of Specialization
U.S. Women and Gender, U.S. Religious and Intellectual History, History of U.S. Higher Education, 19th- and 20th-Century U.S.
Education
Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
M.A., Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
A.B., Princeton University
Academic Interests & Research Narrative
I am interested in the historical connections between gender ideals, religious beliefs and practices, and educational theory and practice. My first book, A New Moral Vision: Gender, Religion, and the Changing Purposes of American Higher Education, 1837-1917, examines how the entrance of women into U.S. colleges and universities shaped changing ideas about the religious and moral purposes of higher education during the era of the rise of the modern college and university. My current book project positions educated women and their organizational cultures as key players in the narrative of the Protestant fundamentalist-modernist controversy of the early twentieth century, which served as a precursor to the contemporary culture wars.
Why I Chose Baylor
I love all aspects of being a historian—teaching undergraduate students, teaching graduate students, researching, academic writing, and public scholarship. At Baylor, I can do all of these things, and I can do them with my whole self: I love being able to think through and speak about how I integrate my Christian faith with my work. I also love working both with students who share my faith and with students who come from different perspectives to help them think through how to integrate their own faith or ethical commitments with their work.
Selected Publications
Book
A New Moral Vision: Gender, Religion, and the Changing Purposes of American Higher Education, 1837-1917 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2016)
- Winner, Linda Eisenmann Prize, History of Education Society
- Winner, Lilly Fellows Program Biennial Book Award
- Winner, Guittard Book Award for Historical Scholarship, Baylor University
Book Chapters
“The Industrial Age: 1865-1945,” Cambridge Companion to American Protestantism, eds. Jennifer Woodruff Tait & Daniel Vickers, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2022), 49-67.
Articles
“The History of Religion in American Higher Education,” Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research 35, ed. Laura Perna (Springer, 2020): 49–109 [Comprehensive Historiography]
“The Chief End of Man at Princeton: The Rise of Gendered Moral Formation in American Higher Education,” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 15 (October 2016): 446–468
Memories of Mary: Interpretations of the Founder in the Secularization Process of Mount Holyoke Seminary and College, 1837-1937, Perspectives on the History of Higher Education 28 (2011): 33-61
Ideological Origins of the Women's College: Religion, Class and Curriculum in the Educational Visions of Catharine Beecher and Mary Lyon, History of Education Quarterly 50 (May 2010): 133-158
Selected Activities
Awards
- Linda Eisenmann Prize (Biennial), History of Education Society (2018)
- Lilly Fellows Program Biennial Book Award (2017)
- Guittard Book Award for Historical Scholarship, Baylor University (2016)
Grants
- Sabbatical Grant for Researchers, Louisville Institute, Calendar Year 2023
- Florence Bell Scholarship Award, Drew University Methodist Archives, 2021–2022
- Lynn E. May Study Grant, Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, 2020–2021
- Travel Grant, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, 2015-2016
Fellowships
- Research Fellowship, Presbyterian Historical Society, 2017–2018
Regular Course Offerings
Undergraduate:
- HIS 4377 | History of the American Woman to 1865
- HIS 4378 | History of the American Woman since 1865
Graduate:
- HIS 5360 | Women, Gender, and Sex in American Religious History
- HIS 5369 | The Historian’s Craft
- HIS 5390 | Archival Research & Grant Writing
Other Courses Taught
Undergraduate:
- HIS 1300 | U.S in Global Perspective: Science, Technology, & Medicine
- HIS 2366 | History of the United States since 1877
- HIS 2390 | Women’s and Gender History
- HIS 4340 | Special Topics: U.S. Utopian Ideas and Communities
- HIS 4371 | United States 1877-1920 (Gilded Age and Progressive Era)
Work with Students
- Regularly accepting M.A. and Ph.D. students
- Will occasionally direct undergraduate theses
Follow Dr. Turpin on:
Twitter: @AndreaLTurpin
Monthly Blogger at The Anxious Bench on Patheos