Fillable Printable Current CV Template
Fillable Printable Current CV Template
Current CV Template
Rober t Elder
Assistant Professor of History
Valparaiso University
Department of History
1400 Chapel Drive
Valparaiso, IN 46383
Phone: 219-464-5455 (office)
robert.elder@valpo.edu
Education
2011 Ph.D., history, Emory University
Dissertation: Southern Saints and Sacred Honor: Evangelicalism, Honor,
Community, and the Self in South Carolina and Georgia, 1784-1860
Committee: James L. Roark (adviser), E. Brooks Holifield, Jonathan Prude,
and Bertram Wyatt-Brown (outside reader)
2005 M.A., history, Clemson University
2003 B.A. summa cum laude, history and English, Clemson University
Professiona l
2014-Present Assistant Professor of History, Valparaiso University
2013-2014 Assistant Professor of History, Tabor College
2011-2013 Lilly Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in Humanities and History, Christ
College, Valparaiso University
Distinctions
2012 Dissertation nominated by Emory University his tory department for the 2012
Allan Nevins Prize, o↵ered by the S ociety of American Historians for the
best-written doctoral dissertation on an American subject
2010-2011 Dean’s Teaching Fellowship, Laney Graduate School, Emory University (for
proven excellence and potential in teaching)
2009 Lewis P. Jones Re search Fellow, S outh Caroliniana Library, University of
South Carolina
2009 Competitive Research Award, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Emory
University
2008 Competitive Research Award, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Emory
University
2008 Visiting Research Fellowship, Institute for Southern Studies, University of
South Carolina
2007 Visiting Research Fellowship, Institute for Southern Studies, University of
South Carolina
2005-2010 Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Supplemental Fellowship, Emory Uni-
versity
2005 South Carolina Colonial Dames Award for outstanding graduate student in
American History, Clemson University
Teaching
Teaching Interests
Early America, Modern America, U.S. in the World, American South, American Religious His-
tory, Atlantic Religions, Slavery in America, African-American History, Civil War and Recon-
struction, Gender, Evangelicalism, Early Modern Europe
Selected Courses
Valparaiso University
HIST 220: The American Experience to 1877
HIST 221: The American Experience in the Modern World
HIST 320: Colonial America
HIST 323: Civil War and Reconstruction
HIST 492/CC300: Race and Class in the American South
CC 115: Texts and Contexts II: Inhuman Bondage: S lavery in America (o↵ered in Valparaiso
University Honors College, Spring 2013)
Tabor Col lege
HI160/161: World Civilizations I and II
HI130: American Social History: Race and Religion
HI318: American Religious History
HI400: Historiography
Emory University
HIST 231: Foundations of American Society to 1877
HIST 385: Old Religions in the New World: Transatlantic Religious Movements and American
Identities to 1865
Publications
Book Manuscript
The Sacred Mirror: Evangelicalism, Honor, and Identity in the American South, 1790-1860
(under contract, University of North Carolina P ress)
Peer-Reviewed Articles
“A Twice Sacred Circle: Women, Evangelicalism, and Honor in the Deep South, 1784-1860,”
Journal of Southern History (August 2012)
“Sacred History: The Formation of Civil Religions in the American South and South Africa,”
Safundi (January, 2005)
Book Reviews
Bertram Wyatt-Brown, A Warring Nation: Honor, Race, and Humiliation in America and
Abroad (LSU, 2014) in The Journal of American History (forthcoming)
Timothy L. Wesley, The Politics of Faith During the Civil War (LSU, 2013) in Journal of
Southern Religion (Fall 2013)
William Kau↵man Scarborough, The Allstons of Chicora Wood: Wealth, Honor, and Gentility
in the South Carolina Low Country (LSU, 2011) in Agricultural History (Winter 2013)
Charity R. Carney, Ministers and Masters: Methodism, Manhood, and Honor in the Old South
(LSU, 2011) in Journal of Southern History (February 2013)
Peter Slade, Open Friendship in a Closed Society: Mission Mis s issippi and a Theology of
Friendship (Oxford, 2009) in Journal of American Studies (November 2010)
Anya Jabour, Scarlett’s Si ste rs: Young Women in the Old South (UNC Press, 2007) in Journal
of American Studies (February 2010)
J. William Harris (ed.), The Old South: New Studies of Soc ie ty and Culture (Routledge, 2008)
and The New South: New Histories (Routledge, 2008) in Journal of American Studies (April
2009)
Selected Editorials, Encyclopedia Articles, Reviews etc.
“Remembering Li ncoln,” The Cresset: A Review o f Literature, Arts, a n d Public A↵airs (Lent
2013)
“Are Two Heads B etter Than One? A Contrarian Look at Group Work,” Lilly Fellows Program
Network Communique (vol. 27, 2012)
“Color Blindness,” a review of Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey, The Color of Christ: The
Son of God and the Saga of Race in America (UNC Press, 2012) in Books & Culture (Septem-
ber/October 2012)
“Errand out of the Wilderness,” a review of Matthew Bowman,
The Mormon People: The Making
of an American Faith (Random House, 2012) in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought (Sum-
mer 2012)
“Religion and Violence in the American South,” in New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, vol.
19: Violence, Amy Wood (volume) and Charles Reagan Wilson (series), eds., (UNC Press, 2011)
“A New Perspective on Racial Reconcilation in Mississippi,” a review of Peter Slade, Open
Friendship in a Closed Society: Mission Mississippi and a Theology of Friendship (Oxford Press,
2009) in Books & Culture (October 2010)
“Old Andy Jackson Would Understand John McCain. Do You?” History News Network,Septem-
ber 29, 2008
Presentations
Papers
“‘Leaving His Just Debts Unpaid’: Commerce, Reputation, and Religion i n the Deep South,
1800-1860,” Southern Historical Association, St. Louis, Missouri (November, 2013)
“Honor’s Audience: Evangelicalism, Community, and the Bible in the Old South,” Association of
British Ame rican Nineteenth Century Historians, University of Northumbria, UK, October 2012
“The Prehistory of the ‘Crusading Christian Confederate’: Honor, M anhood, Religion, and the
Civil War,” Invited Presentation at the Symposium on Religion and the Civil War, Institute for
Studies of Religion, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, September 2011
“Dual Membership: Men and Violence in the Moral Communities of Honor and Evangelicalism
in the South, 1800-1860,” American Society of Church History Conference, San Diego, California,
January 2010
“The Local Church as an Alternative Court of Opinion,” Religion Graduate Symposium, Florida
State University, Tallahassee, Florida, February 2009
“The Very Southern Saints: Reconsidering the Distance Between Honor and Evangelicalism in
the Deep South, 1800-1860,” Masculinity and t he American South Symposium, University of
Warwick, UK, June 2008
Panels Organized
“New Perspectives on Two Centuries of Evangelicalism, Honor, and Masculinity in the American
South,” Am erican Society of Church History Conference, San Diego, California, January 2010
“Rethinking Sacred vs. Secular: Religion, Morality and Modernity in the 19th Century South,”
Southern Historical Association, St. Louis, Missouri (November 2013)
Selected University, Department, and Professional Service
Contributor and“Vitae Voice”for Vitae, an online initiative of The Chronicle of Higher Education
Reviewer, The American Promise: A History of the United States, by James L. Roark, et al.,
for Bedford St. Martin’s
Referee, Journal of Southern History, 2011, 2014
Referee, Journal of Southern Religion, 2011
