Biography
I live with my wife in a 23 unit co-housing community near downtown Grand Rapids. I am a member of Fuller Avenue CRC. I am also on the Board of the Belknap Lookout Neighborhood Association and participate in lots of neighborhood activities. I love to travel to Latin America and elsewhere. I'm also fond of kayaking, hiking, and art gallery surfing. Designing educational games is a semi-professional hobby.
Education
B.A., History, Westmont College
M.A., 19th Century U.S. History, University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill
Ph.D., 20th Century U.S. History and Modern Latin American History, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Academic Interests
My research interests include U.S.-Latin American relations, 1910 Mexican Revolution, and Protestantism in Latin America. I have published articles dealing with Protestants and radical nationalists in Mexico and the CRC in the Cuban Revolution. I also translated books include Bearing the Marks of Jesus: A History of the Christian Reformed Denomination in Cuba; Like Leaven in the Dough: Protestant Social Thought in Latin America (1920-1950); and New People: Methodists in Mexico from 1873 to 1930. And I continue to have a reading/teaching interest in the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction and the history of race relations.
Since retirement in 2015, I have been teaching in Calvin's CALL program and the Aquinas program. I also enjoy reading many of the books I didn't have time for when I was employed full time and write reviews for publication.
Read , the history department's blog.