John Schmalzbauer
Princeton University, Ph.D., Sociology, 1997.
Princeton University, M.A., Sociology, 1992.
Wheaton College (Illinois), B.A., Political Science, 1990.
Supervisors: Robert Wuthnow, Michèle Lamont , and John F. Wilson
Address: Department of Religious Studies
Missouri State University
901 S. National Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65897
Princeton University, M.A., Sociology, 1992.
Wheaton College (Illinois), B.A., Political Science, 1990.
Supervisors: Robert Wuthnow, Michèle Lamont , and John F. Wilson
Address: Department of Religious Studies
Missouri State University
901 S. National Avenue
Springfield, Missouri 65897
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Books by John Schmalzbauer
...indispensable reading in multiple fields―religious studies, higher education, and intellectual history. Highly recommended.
(Choice)
This study is carefully argued and exhaustively researched. Schmalzbauer and Mahoney make their claims clear, provide ample theoretical grounding (particularly in sociological terms), and assemble an impressive array of evidence.
(Benjamin P. Leavitt Reading Religion)
The Resilience of Religion in American Higher Education is an essential read for individuals working with religion on today’s campus, whether they are administrators, ministers, faculty, or the average person in a faith community who wants to support religious and spiritual exploration by college students.
(Amy J. Rio Convergence Magazine)
This characteristic defines the book as a whole: throughout the volume, the authors’ analysis is comprehensive, measured, and nuanced. Schmalzbauer and Mahoney meticulously explore developments in every type of religion and secularist identity across all the different facets of the university. In the end, the authors make a crushing case for the resiliency of religion in American higher education. Few who read this book will question its current staying power.
(Perry L. Glanzer Journal of Church and State)
Review
For decades, conventional wisdom saw America’s universities as bastions of secularity and agents of secularization. But the authors of this book show that interest in religion has grown robustly on campus, among both faculty members and students. Religion thrives now, both as a subject of study and as a personal quest. College graduates now are more religiously observant than non-attenders, and there has been a major outpouring of religiously focused scholarship and art. This book is a tour de force, a major synthesis of decades of research. It will change the conversation about religion and higher education.
(Joel Carpenter, Professor and Director, Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity, Calvin College)
The Resilience of Religion in American Higher Education demonstrates that during the past thirty years, religion has made a notable comeback on many fronts in American higher education. It is impressively researched, remarkably comprehensive, and admirably balanced.
(George Marsden, author of The Soul of the American University and The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship)
Schmalzbauer and Mahoney combine the very best of history and sociology to analyze the most important facets of religion in higher education. Anyone who cares about the past or the future of American higher education should read this volume.
(Elaine Howard Ecklund, Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences, Rice University)
John Schmalzbauer and Kathleen Mahoney shed necessary light on the resurgence of religion in higher education. Their work beautifully analyzes the recent trends experienced by college and university campuses all across the country and demonstrates the significance of the church and its role in supporting educational endeavors. I highly recommend this book to anyone with a passion for education, leadership, and faith.
(D. Michael Lindsay, President, Gordon College)
-- William (Beau) Weston, The Cresset
"Using religion as an example, Schmalzbauer (Sociology, College of Holy Cross) raises questions fundamental to personal behavior in a complex, secularized society: By what commitments should people live and, if necessary, die? Should those commitments arise out of informed, reasoned, and personal choices or be relatively unthinking responses to others' expectations. Focusing on a sample of evangelical Protestants and Catholics who are academics or professional reporters, the author asks how such persons can function in environments demanding objectivity, ethical neutrality, and toleration for a secular representation of reality.... Here is sociology at its most provocative best. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels and collections."
-- L. Braude, Choice
"It is certainly true that the professions, including the media and academe, are dominated by people hostile to expressions of religious belief. Where did this hostility come from? And is it inevitable? John Schmalzbauer attempts to answer these questions, among others, in People of Faith, a valuable sociological survey. Mr. Schmalzbauer chronicles the way that religion has been an object of derision for journalists since H. L. Mencken's coverage of the Scopes trial in the 1920s and for academics since the mid-20th-century introduction of the fact-value distinction in scientific research. After reviewing the statistical and anecdotal evidence.... Mr. Schmalzbauer argues that the religious perspective is making something of a comeback."
-- Naomi Schaefer, Wall Street Journal
"At the core of this work, Schmalzbauer has shown that religious belief in the professions does not take something away, but has the ability to add a richer description and understanding of human reality. This is an insight that both religious scholars and nonreligious scholars alike can appreciate."
-- Elaine Howard Ecklund, Cornell University, Sociology of Religion
"Sociologist John Schmalzbauer investigates the role played by religious faith in two of the most secular and objectivity-obsessed professions: journalism and social sciences.... He concludes that despite a constant tension, both groups have made significant contributions to American society and have introduced a religious perspective into their professions without sacrificing their credibility."
, Virginia Quarterly Review
"This work reports the findings of Schmalzbauer's interviews with forty journalists and social science academics. The interviewees represented the Roman Catholic and evangelical Protestant faith traditions. They are also very public figures whose voices have incorporated their various faith traditions into their work places and public space. This research emerges from the author's interest in the role of religion in the public space as well as his interest in examining his on-going struggle 'to make sense of the role of Christian faith and the academic profession?' (p. xv).... This work adds to the field of sociology of religion as well as the broad field of religious studies. This piece is also helpful to those involved in the field of religious education which attempts to assist with lifelong interpretive processes. Historians of higher education will find interesting how educational institutions assist in developing inquiring minds."
-- Nelson T. Strobert, Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary, History of Education Quarterly
Review
"People of Faith is an innovative account of the incorporation of religious sensibilities in professional life. John Schmalzbauer smartly weaves together multiple secondary sources, engaging interviews, and profiles of leading Catholic and evangelical journalists and social scientists."
-- Scott Appleby, Director, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, University of Notre Dame
"John Schmalzbauer has brought to light important and generally neglected information. People of Faith has much to offer those fascinated with the ways in which academics and journalists write and think."
-- Alan Wolfe, Boston College
"Journalism and the social sciences are among the most resolutely secular of the modern American professions, but John Schmalzbauer shows that in each of these fields, Catholics and evangelicals have produced excellent work that is profoundly influenced by their religious commitments. This book challenges the standard assumption, held by secular and religious critics alike, that the only options for people of faith working in these professions are accommodation or resistance. Schmalzbauer shows that these Christian believers have brought their convictions into their professions in ways that can enrich American intellectual life and public affairs discourse."
-- Joel Carpenter, Calvin College
Papers by John Schmalzbauer
...indispensable reading in multiple fields―religious studies, higher education, and intellectual history. Highly recommended.
(Choice)
This study is carefully argued and exhaustively researched. Schmalzbauer and Mahoney make their claims clear, provide ample theoretical grounding (particularly in sociological terms), and assemble an impressive array of evidence.
(Benjamin P. Leavitt Reading Religion)
The Resilience of Religion in American Higher Education is an essential read for individuals working with religion on today’s campus, whether they are administrators, ministers, faculty, or the average person in a faith community who wants to support religious and spiritual exploration by college students.
(Amy J. Rio Convergence Magazine)
This characteristic defines the book as a whole: throughout the volume, the authors’ analysis is comprehensive, measured, and nuanced. Schmalzbauer and Mahoney meticulously explore developments in every type of religion and secularist identity across all the different facets of the university. In the end, the authors make a crushing case for the resiliency of religion in American higher education. Few who read this book will question its current staying power.
(Perry L. Glanzer Journal of Church and State)
Review
For decades, conventional wisdom saw America’s universities as bastions of secularity and agents of secularization. But the authors of this book show that interest in religion has grown robustly on campus, among both faculty members and students. Religion thrives now, both as a subject of study and as a personal quest. College graduates now are more religiously observant than non-attenders, and there has been a major outpouring of religiously focused scholarship and art. This book is a tour de force, a major synthesis of decades of research. It will change the conversation about religion and higher education.
(Joel Carpenter, Professor and Director, Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity, Calvin College)
The Resilience of Religion in American Higher Education demonstrates that during the past thirty years, religion has made a notable comeback on many fronts in American higher education. It is impressively researched, remarkably comprehensive, and admirably balanced.
(George Marsden, author of The Soul of the American University and The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship)
Schmalzbauer and Mahoney combine the very best of history and sociology to analyze the most important facets of religion in higher education. Anyone who cares about the past or the future of American higher education should read this volume.
(Elaine Howard Ecklund, Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences, Rice University)
John Schmalzbauer and Kathleen Mahoney shed necessary light on the resurgence of religion in higher education. Their work beautifully analyzes the recent trends experienced by college and university campuses all across the country and demonstrates the significance of the church and its role in supporting educational endeavors. I highly recommend this book to anyone with a passion for education, leadership, and faith.
(D. Michael Lindsay, President, Gordon College)
-- William (Beau) Weston, The Cresset
"Using religion as an example, Schmalzbauer (Sociology, College of Holy Cross) raises questions fundamental to personal behavior in a complex, secularized society: By what commitments should people live and, if necessary, die? Should those commitments arise out of informed, reasoned, and personal choices or be relatively unthinking responses to others' expectations. Focusing on a sample of evangelical Protestants and Catholics who are academics or professional reporters, the author asks how such persons can function in environments demanding objectivity, ethical neutrality, and toleration for a secular representation of reality.... Here is sociology at its most provocative best. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels and collections."
-- L. Braude, Choice
"It is certainly true that the professions, including the media and academe, are dominated by people hostile to expressions of religious belief. Where did this hostility come from? And is it inevitable? John Schmalzbauer attempts to answer these questions, among others, in People of Faith, a valuable sociological survey. Mr. Schmalzbauer chronicles the way that religion has been an object of derision for journalists since H. L. Mencken's coverage of the Scopes trial in the 1920s and for academics since the mid-20th-century introduction of the fact-value distinction in scientific research. After reviewing the statistical and anecdotal evidence.... Mr. Schmalzbauer argues that the religious perspective is making something of a comeback."
-- Naomi Schaefer, Wall Street Journal
"At the core of this work, Schmalzbauer has shown that religious belief in the professions does not take something away, but has the ability to add a richer description and understanding of human reality. This is an insight that both religious scholars and nonreligious scholars alike can appreciate."
-- Elaine Howard Ecklund, Cornell University, Sociology of Religion
"Sociologist John Schmalzbauer investigates the role played by religious faith in two of the most secular and objectivity-obsessed professions: journalism and social sciences.... He concludes that despite a constant tension, both groups have made significant contributions to American society and have introduced a religious perspective into their professions without sacrificing their credibility."
, Virginia Quarterly Review
"This work reports the findings of Schmalzbauer's interviews with forty journalists and social science academics. The interviewees represented the Roman Catholic and evangelical Protestant faith traditions. They are also very public figures whose voices have incorporated their various faith traditions into their work places and public space. This research emerges from the author's interest in the role of religion in the public space as well as his interest in examining his on-going struggle 'to make sense of the role of Christian faith and the academic profession?' (p. xv).... This work adds to the field of sociology of religion as well as the broad field of religious studies. This piece is also helpful to those involved in the field of religious education which attempts to assist with lifelong interpretive processes. Historians of higher education will find interesting how educational institutions assist in developing inquiring minds."
-- Nelson T. Strobert, Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary, History of Education Quarterly
Review
"People of Faith is an innovative account of the incorporation of religious sensibilities in professional life. John Schmalzbauer smartly weaves together multiple secondary sources, engaging interviews, and profiles of leading Catholic and evangelical journalists and social scientists."
-- Scott Appleby, Director, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, University of Notre Dame
"John Schmalzbauer has brought to light important and generally neglected information. People of Faith has much to offer those fascinated with the ways in which academics and journalists write and think."
-- Alan Wolfe, Boston College
"Journalism and the social sciences are among the most resolutely secular of the modern American professions, but John Schmalzbauer shows that in each of these fields, Catholics and evangelicals have produced excellent work that is profoundly influenced by their religious commitments. This book challenges the standard assumption, held by secular and religious critics alike, that the only options for people of faith working in these professions are accommodation or resistance. Schmalzbauer shows that these Christian believers have brought their convictions into their professions in ways that can enrich American intellectual life and public affairs discourse."
-- Joel Carpenter, Calvin College
The Reformed Journal bridged the ethno-religious subculture of Dutch-Calvinist America and the wider academy, and it served as an incubator for several household names in Christian scholarship.
More than an exercise in classification, Apostles of Reason turns intellectual history into page-turning drama, highlighting the flesh-and-blood personalities behind academic debates. Drawing on extensive archival research, it lets both the protagonists and antagonists speak. Focusing on the cracks in the evangelical kaleidoscope, Worthen describes the battles between center and periphery, mainstream and fringe. The result is the most exciting history of evangelical intellectual life to appear in decades.
AMERICAN HIGHER EDUCATION SINCE WORLD WAR II: A HISTORY
Roger L. Geiger
(Princeton University Press, 2019)
Continuing his 2015 book The History of American Higher Education: Learning and Culture from the Founding to World War II, Roger L. Geiger’s new volume details the postwar transformation of American higher education. By exploring the impact of developments such as the GI Bill, the social upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s, desegregation and coeducation, and social and political developments throughout the 1970s and 2000s, this book also will help readers better understand the many complex issues facing colleges and universities today. It draws on empirical data and social science studies and concludes with a discussion of current trends focused on college participation and affordability, differential economic returns to higher education, the uncertain state of undergraduate learning, the persistence of culture wars, and the scientific prominence of American universities. Geiger is Distinguished Professor of Higher Education Emeritus at Pennsylvania State University.
THE RESILIENCE OF RELIGION IN AMERICAN HIGHER EDUCATION
John Schmalzbauer and Kathleen A. Mahoney
(Baylor University Press, 2018)
This book challenges the dominant narrative that religion has been deemed irrelevant on college campuses and that American higher education has been secularized. Exploring three areas—academic scholarship, church-related higher education, and student life—John Schmalzbauer and Kathleen A. Mahoney document an openness to religion in collegiate communities. The book highlights several campus trends: expanding interest in the study of religion across the disciplines; increasing acknowledgement of the intellectual relevance of religious commitments; and deepening commitment among church- related colleges to their founding traditions, even as they embrace religious pluralism. The volume also chronicles the diversification of student religious life, revealing the breadth and inclusiveness of campus spirituality. Schmalzbauer is Blanche Gorman Strong Chair in Protestant Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at Missouri State University; Mahoney is a senior staff member at the GHR Foundation.
BECOMING HISPANIC-SERVING INSTITUTIONS: OPPORTUNITIES FOR COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
Gina Ann Garcia
(Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019)
This book explores how higher education institutions are serving Latinx students, through both traditional and innovative approaches. Gina Ann Garcia, assistant professor of higher education at the University of Pittsburgh, draws on empirical data collected over two years at three pseudonymous four-year Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) in Chicago, Illinois, that embrace their HSI status (which requires enrollment of at least 25 percent Latinx students) differently. She then adopts a counternarrative approach to highlight the ways HSIs are reframing what it means to serve Latinx college students and explores how those institutions handle the tensions that emerge from confronting traditional standards and measures of success for postsecondary institutions. The book emphasizes that HSIs are undervalued and serve an important role in the higher education landscape.
COURSE-BASED UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH: EDUCATIONAL EQUITY AND HIGH IMPACT PRACTICE
Nancy H. Hensel, Ed.
(Stylus Publishing LLC, 2018)
Instead of promoting undergraduate research as a high-impact practice reserved for students in the later stages of their college careers, this book shows how to engage students in authentic research experiences in their first two years, thus making the experience available to a much greater number of students (see also Intergenerational Connections, page 34). The book considers the appropriate expectations for research in the first two years; how to design course-based research for these students; how to mentor a class rather than individual students; how students can disseminate the results of their research, and more. Designed for faculty members at two- and four-year colleges, the strategies and methods described can be adapted in a wide-range of disciplines. Editor Nancy H. Hensel is former president of the New American Colleges & Universities and former executive officer of the Council on Undergraduate Research. Contributors hail from a wide range of institutions, including from CIC members California Lutheran University; St. Edward’s University (TX); University of New Haven (CT); and Valparaiso University (IN).
CONTESTED ISSUES IN TROUBLED TIMES: STUDENT AFFAIRS DIALOGUES ON EQUITY, CIVILITY, AND SAFETY
Edited by Peter M. Magolda, Marcia B. Baxter Magolda, and Rozana Carducci
(Stylus Publishing LLC, 2019)
A companion volume to Contested Issues in Student Affairs: Diverse Perspectives and Respectful Dialogue (2011), this new book explores how campuses can create an equitable climate conducive to learning in a complex and dynamic environment characterized by escalating intolerance, incivility, and discrimination. The 54 contributors explore multiple approaches to address contentious issues, articulate persuasive arguments grounded in professional judgment, listen attentively to others for points of connection as well as divergence, and draw upon new ways of thinking to foster safe and inclusive campuses. The book concludes by encouraging student affairs educators to critically examine routine practices that can perpetuate inequity. The late Peter M. Magolda was professor emeritus in the Department of Educational Leadership at Miami University; Marcia B. Baxter Magolda is Distinguished Professor Emerita, Miami University; and Rozana Carducci is the graduate director of the Master of Arts in Higher Education Program at Elon University.
THE PRIVILEGED POOR: HOW ELITE COLLEGES ARE FAILING DISADVANTAGED STUDENTS
Anthony Abraham Jack
(Harvard University Press, 2019)
Emphasizing that access is not the same as inclusion, The Privileged Poor explains how and why disadvantaged students struggle at elite colleges and what institutions can do differently so these students can thrive. Drawing on interviews with dozens of undergraduates at one of America’s most famous colleges (“Renowned University”) and on his own experiences as one of the privileged poor, Anthony Abraham Jack describes the lives poor students bring with them and shows how powerfully background affects their chances of success. The book documents how university policies and cultures can exacerbate preexisting inequalities and challenges college officials and policymakers to serve the next generation of students better. Anthony Abraham Jack is a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows, an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and the Shutzer Assistant Professor at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
THE COLLEGE DROPOUT SCANDAL
David Kirp
(Oxford University Press, 2019)
This book looks at solutions to a critical problem in higher education—the high number of incoming first-year students at U.S. colleges and universities who drop out before graduating (40 percent), often leaving them with debt and reduced job prospects. Weaving together on-the-ground reporting, conversations with faculty members and students, and recent research findings, David L. Kirp highlights what colleges are doing well and poorly. The book suggests simple actions to raise the graduation rate, such as texting incoming students about important dates, scheduling early- intervention meetings with struggling students, and revamping the curriculum. One key finding is that the more students believe that they belong at the college, the better they do academically. David L. Kirp is an emeritus professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley; a New York Times contributor; a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and a member of the National Academy of Education.
Compiled by Ruth Hammond
FEBRUARY 17, 2019
Selected New Books on Higher Education 1 Academic Freedom, edited by Jennifer Lackey (Oxford University Press; 215 pages; $39.95 hardcover, $26.99 e-book). Brings together philosophers of diverse backgrounds, who weigh in on concerns about academic freedom, including online outcries over research, microaggressions, and hate speech.
The Craft of University Teaching, by Peter Lindsay (University of Toronto Press; 178 pages; $29.95 hardcover or e-book). Explores the relationship between pedagogy and morality, and suggests how teachers can preserve the intrinsic value of their craft by motivating students and leading them to learn.
Debunking the Myth of Job Fit in Higher Education and Student Affairs, edited by Brian J. Reece and others (ACPA, College Student Educators International, and Stylus Publishing; 248 pages; $95 hardcover, $35 paperback, $27.99 e-book). Examines how the concept of “job fit” for student-affairs professionals may serve to exclude applicants of diverse backgrounds.
The Geography of Scientific Collaboration, by Agnieszka Olechnicka, Adam Ploszaj, and Dorota Celińska-Janowicz (Routledge; 226 pages; $160 hardcover, $54.95 e-book). Analyzes the spatial patterns of scientific collaboration, with examples from China, the European Union, and the United States.
Land-Grant Colleges and Popular Revolt: The Origins of the Morrill Act and the Reform of Higher Education, by Nathan M. Sorber (Cornell University Press; 242 pages; $49.95 hardcover, $24.99 e-book). Explains how class and economic interests have influenced the development of land-grant colleges since the 1860s, as the inherent tensions between agricultural communities and the rising industrial economy played out.
Land-Grant Universities for the Future: Higher Education for the Public Good, by Stephen M. Gavazzi and E. Gordon Gee (Johns Hopkins University Press; 202 pages; $34.95 hardcover or e-book). Draws on interviews with 27 college chiefs to describe the threats land-grant universities face, and how they can fulfill their missions.
Media U: How the Need to Win Audiences Has Shaped Higher Education, by Mark Garrett Cooper and John Marx (Columbia University Press; 341 pages; $90 hardcover, $30 paperback, $29.99 e-book). Describes research universities as media institutions that work to create and transform audiences through knowledge.
Potential on the Periphery: College Access From the Ground Up, by Omari Scott Simmons (Rutgers University Press; 196 pages; $99.95 hardcover, $29.95 paperback or e-book). Describes the obstacles to college access and success, using the experiences of students in two states who received help from a nonprofit organization co-founded by the author.
Reporting Qualitative Research in Psychology: How to Meet APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards, by Heidi M. Levitt (American Psychological Association; 173 pages; $22.49 paperback for APA members, 29.99 for nonmembers). Describes the critical elements of qualitative studies that must be reported in journals, and how writers can tailor their reporting style to align with their methodology and goals.
The Resilience of Religion in American Higher Education, by John Schmalzbauer and Kathleen A. Mahoney (Baylor University Press; 283 pages; $49.95 hardcover). Documents how religion affects academic scholarship, church-affiliated colleges, and student life.
Two Cheers for Higher Education: Why American Universities Are Stronger Than Ever — and How to Meet the Challenges They Face, by Steven Brint (Princeton University Press; 492 pages; $35 hardcover, $19.25 e-book). Argues that the expansion of colleges’ roles to encompass social inclusion and the advancement of economic development through technological innovation has created a new dynamic in higher education.