Melinda S. Zook | |
---|---|
Born | 1960 (age 63–64) |
Occupations | |
Academic background | |
Education | B.A. in English Literature M.A. in Modern Europe Ph.D. in Early Modern Europe and England |
Alma mater | George Washington University Georgetown University |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Purdue University |
Melinda S. Zook is a historian,academic,and author. She is the Director of Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts within the College of Liberal Arts and the Germaine Seelye Oesterle Professor of History in the Department of History at Purdue University.
Zook's research spans the history of political thought,religion,and women in early modern Britain,with published articles covering topics such as radical politics,martyrdom,political poetry,women,religion,and teaching. She has authored two books titled Radical Whigs &Conspiratorial Politics in Late Stuart England and Protestantism,Politics,and Women in Britain,1660-1714,the latter of which was awarded the Best Book on Gender for 2013 by the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women. [1] She is also the co-editor of Revolutionary Currents:Nation Building in the Transatlantic World,Challenging Orthodoxies:The Social and Cultural World of Early Modern Women,and Generations of Women Historians:Within and Beyond the Academy. [2] In addition,she has received awards from Purdue University including the Mortar Board Society Helen B. Schleman Gold Medallion Award in 2019 and the Charles B. Murphy Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2022. [3]
Zook attained her Bachelor of Arts degree from George Washington University in 1983,with a major in English Literature. This was followed by a Master of Arts degree focusing on Modern Europe from George Washington University in 1985. Later,she received her Ph.D. degree from Georgetown University in 1993,specializing in Early Modern Europe and England. [4]
Zook began her career at Purdue University as an assistant professor of history in 1993. She then became an associate professor in 1999 and was appointed to full-rank position of Professor of History in 2013. [5] She has been holding an appointment as a Germaine Seelye Oesterle Professor of History in the Department of History at Purdue University since 2022. [6]
Zook served as the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of History at Purdue University from 2001 to 2004 and as the President of the Midwest Conference on British Studies from 2005 to 2007. [7]
Along with seven liberal arts faculty members,Zook developed the Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts program. The program opens with a gateway sequence,Transformative Texts,for first-year Purdue students,taught by full-time faculty. [8] [9] In her article titled "Gen Z Is Ready to Talk. Are Professors Ready to Listen?",she discussed the model for general education,which employs small,general-education courses centered around "transformative texts" to actively engage students in debates,workshops,and projects. It emphasizes faculty mentorship and student support,acknowledging challenges,particularly those intensified by COVID-19. [10] Steven Mintz,an American historian,remarked,"Their Cornerstone certificate program offers first-year students an experience somewhat analogous to that provided by Honors Colleges." [11] Students also learn that the "boundaries of race,gender,and cultural difference can be crossed by exercising the sympathetic imagination." In this respect,writes Sarah Bray,"The Cornerstone classroom is a rehearsal space for democracy." [12]
Cornerstone is recognized by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as a national model for revitalizing interest in the humanities and fostering lifelong learning through its approach to general education. [13] In 2020,the NEH and the Teagle Foundation partnered to enhance college general education through the Cornerstone program,announcing $7 million for the replication initiative named "Cornerstone:Learning for Living". [14] Expanding to other campuses,the program enhances liberal arts for STEM-focused students,with $1.625 million in grants awarded to 21 institutions in 2021 as part of this effort. [15] [16] [17]
This work has been covered by media outlets such as The Washington Post , [18] [19] The New York Times , [20] The Chronicle of Higher Education , [21] Town and Country , [22] LearningWell Magazine, [23] and Inside Philanthropy. [14]
Zook's research areas encompass early modern European history,with a focus on Tudor-Stuart England,political thought,culture,and women and gender studies.
Zook has authored books including Radical Whigs and Conspiratorial Politics in Late Stuart England which focused on England's political landscape during the 1670s-1680s,examining a network of radical conspirators seeking a Protestant monarchy succession. She emphasized the grassroots origins of liberalism,tracing its development in London's social hubs and arguing for its defense on the streets amid adversity. William E. Burns in his review of this book said,"Certainly this volume is evidence of how rich their efforts have been." [24] Her book,Protestantism,Politics and Women in Britain,was awarded Best Book on Gender for 2013 by the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women. It examined the role of women in late seventeenth and early eighteenth-century British politics,highlighting their effort to protecting the Protestant faith both domestically and internationally. Susan Wiseman,upon reviewing this book,remarked that "This study is an important contribution to the thinking on Protestant women in the period 1660–1714." [25]
Zook co-edited Generations of Women Historians:Within and Beyond the Academy with Hilda L. Smith,among other works. This book,a collection of essays,explored the historical journey of early women historians,revealing how societal and intellectual factors shaped their lives and careers. It highlighted their contributions over four centuries and the distinct challenges they encountered in academia compared to men. In Challenging Orthodoxies,co-edited with Sigrun Haude,she explored diverse perspectives on early modern women's experiences,challenging conventional narratives across various realms. Emma Major in her review for Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts stated,"This excellent collection of essays in honor of Hilda L. Smith is full of surprises and scholarly delights." [26]
Co-edited with Michael Morrison,Zook's book Revolutionary Currents analyzed the global crosscurrents of revolutionary ideologies and highlighted the impact of transatlantic interactions on shaping modern revolutions. Doina Pasca Harsanyi from Central Michigan University noted,"This volume will be a valuable contribution to any discussion of the dynamic interplay between the ramifications of historical attempts at nation-building and the current march towards globalization." [27]
Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette,Indiana,and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money to establish a college of science,technology,and agriculture;the first classes were held on September 16,1874.
The Whigs were a political party in the Parliaments of England,Scotland,Ireland,Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Between the 1680s and the 1850s,the Whigs contested power with their rivals,the Tories. The Whigs became the Liberal Party when it merged with the Peelites and Radicals in the 1850s. Many Whigs left the Liberal Party in 1886 over the issue of Irish Home Rule to form the Liberal Unionist Party,which merged into the Conservative Party in 1912.
Nonconformists were Protestant Christians who did not "conform" to the governance and usages of the state church in England,and in Wales until 1914,the Church of England.
George Macaulay Trevelyan was a British historian and academic. He was a Fellow of Trinity College,Cambridge,from 1898 to 1903. He then spent more than twenty years as a full-time author. He returned to the University of Cambridge and was Regius Professor of History from 1927 to 1943. He served as Master of Trinity College from 1940 to 1951. In retirement,he was Chancellor of Durham University.
Samuel Johnson (1649–1703) was an English clergyman and political writer,sometimes called "the Whig Johnson" to distinguish him from the author and lexicographer of the same name,who was a Tory in politics and lived after him. He is one of the best known pamphlet writers who developed Whig resistance theory.
Whiggism or Whiggery is a political philosophy that grew out of the Parliamentarian faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1639–1651). The Whigs advocated the supremacy of Parliament,and opposed granting freedom of religion,civil rights,or voting rights to anyone who worshipped outside of the Established Churches of the realm. The Whigs ultimately conceded strictly limited religious toleration for Protestant dissenters,while continuing the religious persecution of Catholics and staunchly opposing a "Papist" on the English throne,especially James II or his descendants. It is associated with early conservative liberalism.
Hugh Speke was an English writer and agitator.
The University of Virginia College of Arts &Sciences is the largest of the University of Virginia's ten schools. Consisting of both a graduate and an undergraduate program,the College comprises the liberal arts and humanities section of the University.
Judith R. Shapiro is a former President of Barnard College,a liberal arts college for women at Columbia University;as President of Barnard,she was also an academic dean within the university. She was also a professor of anthropology at Barnard. Shapiro became Barnard's 6th president in 1994 after a teaching career at Bryn Mawr College where she was chair of the Department of Anthropology. After serving as Acting Dean of the Undergraduate College in 1985-6,she was Provost,the chief academic officer,from 1986 until 1994. Debora L. Spar was appointed to replace Shapiro,effective July 1,2008.
Renu Khator is the eighth chancellor of the University of Houston System and the thirteenth president of the University of Houston. In 2008,she became the first female chancellor in the state of Texas and the first Indian immigrant to lead a comprehensive research university in the U.S.
The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) is the largest of the eleven colleges at The University of Iowa,founded in 1900. In 2007-2008,there was a total of 16,417 undergraduates enrolled in CLAS,81% of all undergraduates at the university,and about 2,400 graduate students. The largest undergraduate majors are:Psychology,English,Biology,Communication Studies,Interdepartmental Studies,Political Science,School of Art and Art History,History,International Studies,and Journalism. The College is housed in Schaeffer Hall,part of the historic Pentacrest on the university's Iowa City campus.
Eugenio F. Biagini is an Italian historian,specialising in democracy and liberalism in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Britain,Ireland and Italy,and is currently Professor in Modern British and European History at the University of Cambridge. He is best known for his work in free trade economics and ideology,the Italian risorgimento,Irish national identity,and the religious dimension of popular radicalism in the nineteenth century.
The terms liberal Anglo-Catholicism,liberal Anglo-Catholic or simply liberal Catholic,refer to people,beliefs and practices within Anglicanism that affirm liberal Christian perspectives while maintaining the traditions culturally associated with Anglo-Catholicism.
Henry Danvers was an English religious and political radical from Leicestershire. He sided with Parliament in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms,serving on the Committee for Staffordshire from 1647 to 1652 and as Governor of Stafford from 1650 to 1652,during which time he became a General Baptist. He also contributed to the constitutional manifesto known as An Agreement of the People and was nominated as MP for Leicestershire in the short-lived Barebone's Parliament of 1653. Following the 1660 Stuart Restoration,he was associated with numerous plots to overthrow the regime and died in Utrecht in 1687.
Charles W. Ingrao is an historian and public intellectual focused on early modern Central Europe and the contemporary Balkans. Born and raised in New York City,he attended Richmond Hill High School. He received his BA from Wesleyan in 1969 and his PhD from Brown in 1974,studying under Norman Rich and William F. Church. He is a professor of history at Purdue University and has held visiting positions around the world. In 2001,he founded and still directs “The Scholars' Initiative." This project seeks to use the work of scholars to undermine nationalist interpretations of the recent past that have made peace in the Balkans difficult. As of 2011,the project had brought together over 300 scholars from 30 nations,including all of the states of the former Yugoslavia.
Patrice Buzzanell is a distinguished professor and former department chair for the Department of Communication at the University of South Florida and at the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue University. Buzzanell focuses on organizational communication from a feminist viewpoint. A majority of the research Dr. Buzzanell has completed is geared towards how everyday interactions,identities,and social structures can be affected by the intersections of gender. She researches how these dynamics can impact overall practices,decisions,and results in the workplace,and more specifically,in the STEM fieldwork environments.
Paul R. Greenough is professor emeritus at the University of Iowa. He is a specialist in the history of modern India,and environmental and global health history. He was also chair of the Global Health Studies Program. He is the recipient of the Hancher-Finkbine Medallion.
David A. Reingold is an American sociologist and higher education administrator. He is the Senior Vice President for Policy Planning and the Justin S. Morrill Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue University on the West Lafayette campus where he is a professor of sociology.
Joseph P. Ward is an American historian and author who is currently dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Utah State University.
Mary Speke was an English nonconformist patron and political activist. She lived in Somerset in a non-conformist family. She was credited with changing her husband's political opinions and the Bishop of Bath and Wells reported her to the Secretary of State as "the most dangerous woman in the West".