CARA LEA BURNIDGE

Department of Philosophy and World Religions

University of Northern Iowa
cara.burnidge@uni.edu

APPOINTMENTS
2014-present Assistant Professor of Religion, Department of Philosophy and World Religions,
University of Northern Iowa

2013-2014 Teaching Faculty I, Department of Religion, Florida State University

2012-2014 Lecturer, Department of Visual Arts, Humanities, & Theatre, Florida Agricultural
and Mechanical University

2011-2014 Assistant to the Editors, Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture

EDUCATION
2013 Ph.D., Religion, Florida State University
2009 M.A., Religion, Florida State University
2006 B.A., History, Washburn University

SCHOLARSHIP
Monograph
A Peaceful Conquest: Woodrow Wilson, Religion, and New World Order (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2016)

Edited Volume
Associate Editor, America in the World, 1898-1945, in America in the World, 1776 to the Present,
Dictionary of American History Supplement, eds. Edward Blum, Cara Burnidge, Emily Conroy-
Krutz, David Kinkela (Farmington Hills, MI: Charles Scribners Sons, 2016).

Peer Reviewed Articles and Essays

The Leviathan and the Levant: Surveying Religion and Self-Determination in the King-Crane
Commission of 1919 [in progress]

Religion, Equality, and Justice in Woodrow Wilsons New World Order, Soundings [invited
submission for special World War I and Just War issue]

U.S. Foreign Policy and American Religious Liberalism, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of
Religion in America, ed. John Corrigan (New York: Oxford University Press). (submitted)

Religious Influences on U.S. Foreign Policy, in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American

History, ed. Jon Butler (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), DOI:
10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.266.

The Business of Church and State: Social Christianity in Woodrow Wilsons White House,
Forum: Religion in American Public Life: Presidential Expressions of Christianity, Church
History: Studies in Christianity and Culture 82, no. 3 (September 2013): 659-666.
Following in His Steps: Kansas, the Kingdom of God, and Charles M. Sheldon's Homiletic
Novels Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture 11, no. 1 (Spring 2012),
http://www.americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/spring_2012/burnidge.htm.

Encyclopedia Articles
Religion and Foreign Policy, Encyclopedia of Religion and Politics in America, ed. Philip
DiMare (Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2016), 314-316.

Woodrow Wilson, Encyclopedia of Religion and Politics in America, ed. Philip DiMare
(Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2016), 762-763.

Ecumenicalism, Encyclopedia of Global Religions, eds. Mark Juergensmeyer and Wade Clark
Roof (Los Angeles: SAGE, 2011), I:328-330.

Hindu Nationalism, Encyclopedia of Global Religions, eds. Mark Juergensmeyer and Wade
Clark Roof (Los Angeles: SAGE, 2011), I:517-518.

Islamic Reform, Encyclopedia of Global Religions, eds. Mark Juergensmeyer and Wade
Clark Roof (Los Angeles: SAGE, 2011), I:591-594.

Protestant Liberalism, Encyclopedia of Religion in America, eds. Charles Lippy and

Peter Williams (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2010), III:1782-90.

FELLOWSHIPS, HONORS, AND AWARDS

2017 University of Northern Iowa, Summer Short Term (4-week) Research Fellowship

2016-2018 Young Scholars of American Religion, The Center for the Study of Religion &
American Culture, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis

2016 Above and Beyond Teaching Award nominee, Northern Iowa Student Government

2015 University of Northern Iowa, Summer Short Term (4-week) Research Fellowship

2014 Fellow, Wilsonianism and the Legacies of the First World War Summer Institute,
Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations

2013-2015 Fellow, Religion and US Empire Seminar, Kripke Center for the Study of Religion
and Society, Creighton University

2012 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award Finalist, Florida State University

2011 White House Historical Association Research Grant

2010 Endowed Graduate Fellowship, Florida State University Foundation

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2008-2013 KONIAG Academic Scholar, KONIAG Education Foundation

2008-2009 Alfred M. Landon Historical Research Grant, Kansas State Historical Society

2007-2013 Graduate Assistantship, Department of Religion, Florida State University

ACADEMIC PRESENTATIONS
2017 Wilson and World War I: New Perspectives Society for Historians of American
Foreign Relations, Annual Meeting

2017 New Directions in American Religion and Internationalism: A Roundtable,

American Society of Church History, Winter Meeting

2016 Woodrow Wilson, Religion, and the New World Order, World War I Symposium,
Florida State University

2016 The Digital Futures of Religious Studies, Wildcard Session, American Academy of
Religion, Annual Meeting

2016 Turning the World Upside Down: The Social Gospel as Global Christian Order,
Rethinking the Social Gospel(s), American Society of Church History, Winter
Meeting

2015 Regulating Religions of the World at the End of Empire: Or the Value of Religion
in Early Twentieth Century Diplomacy, The Security of the State and the
Regulation of Religion, Religion, Colonialism, and Postcolonialism Group,
American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting

2015 Conceptualizing American Empire: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches,

Religion and U.S. Empire Seminar, American Academy of Religion, Annual
Meeting

2014 Religion as Right: U.S.-Japanese Constructions of Religion and Secular in

International Law, Religion, Law, and Culture Group, American Academy of
Religion, Annual Meeting

2014 Religion and U.S. Foreign Relations: A Roundtable on the State of the Study
Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Annual Meeting

2014 By the Hand of God Who Led Us: The Senates Crusade Against the League of
Nations, Beyond the Culture Wars: Recasting Religion and Politics in 20th
Century America, John C. Danforth Center on Religion & Politics, Washington
University, St. Louis

2014 The Product and Purpose of Gods Mind: Debating Religious Rhetoric in the

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 Covenant of the League of Nations, Placing Faith in American Global Policy,
American Society of Church History Winter Meeting

2014 Forever a Bone of Contention: Debating Christian Notions of Peace during

World War I, Panel: Americas Wars: Revealing Divisions and Transforming
Beliefs, American Society of Church History Winter Meeting

2013 Love is a Battlefield: Negotiating Muslim-American Femininity, Arts, Literature

and Religion Section, American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting

2013 The Materiality of a Hyphen: Muslim-American Women in Popular Culture,

Resistance, Liberation, and Female Power in American Culture, AAR- SE/
SECSOR, Annual Meeting

2013 Negotiating Gods Peace: The League of Nations and the Protestant
Establishment, Panel: The Christian Origins of the American Century, American
Historical Association, Annual Meeting [panel organizer]

2013 Religion and Woodrow Wilsons White House, Presidents at Prayer, American
Society of Church History Winter Meeting

2012 Champions of Mankind: Woodrow Wilson, World War I, and the Protestant
Establishment, Secularism and Protestant Identity in the early 20th century,
American Society of Church History Winter Meeting

2011 Memories of Progress, Memories of Racial (In)Equality: The Religious-

Historical Narrative of Charles M. Sheldons The Redemption of Freetown,
Religion, Culture, and the Arts Section, AAR-SE/SECSOR, Annual
Meeting

2010 Muhammad was a Punk rocker: The Taqwacores and Muslim-American

Identity Politics, Religion and Politics Section, American Academy of
Religion, Annual Meeting

2009 Freedom, Conquest, & Redemption: Kansas as the Nations Spiritual Tuning
Fork, Religion in the American West Seminar, American Academy of
Religion, Annual Meeting

2008 In His Steps: Nineteenth-Century Kansans Shaping Their Identity Around

Charles M. Sheldons Social Gospel Novel, Florida State University
Graduate Student Symposium

2007 Allowed to Speak, Difficult to Ignore: Methodist Women Shape the Temperance
Movement, Western Social Science Association, Annual Meeting

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2006 Culture Walk Workshop co-facilitator, Zayed Universitys Women As Global
Leaders, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Invited Public Lectures

2017 In Formation: What Beyonce Can Teach Us About Race, Gender, and Religion in
America, Explorers of Religion, University of Northern Iowa

2016 Islamophobia: A History of American Attitudes toward Islam, Washburn

University History Department, Topeka, KS

2016 Exporting American Democracy: The Great War of American Civil Religion,
Civil Religion Symposium, Washburn University History Department, Topeka, KS

2016 Black Lives Matter and the History of Race and Religion in American Politics, a
guest lecture in By Whose Authority: The Humanities as a Guide to College and
Life, a Humanities Seminar at Hawkeye Community College

2016 Women of Faith in America, Women of Faith Lecture Series, Explorers of

Religion Student Group, University of Northern Iowa

2016 The Bible, the Church, and the Ballot Box: How Religion Shaped Elizabeth Cady
Stanton's Fight for Women's Suffrage, Womens History Month Lecture, Phi Alpha
Theta, Department of History, University of Northern Iowa

2016 Skepticism & American Religion, Darwin Week, UNI Freethinkers & Inquirers

2015 Confronting Islamophobia, UNI Refugee & Immigrant Support and

Empowerment (R.I.S.E.), University of Northern Iowa

2015 Islam in Iowa: An American Story, Department of Philosophy and World

Religions Lecture Series, University of Northern Iowa

2015 Religion & Public Schools: What Aspiring Teachers Need to Know, Public
Education & Society, College of Education, University of Northern Iowa

2014 Does a Presidents Faith Shape Policy?: Woodrow Wilson as a Case Study for
Today, cosponsored by the Department of Philosophy and World Religions and the
Department of History, University of Northern Iowa

Book Reviews
Suzanne Geisser. God and Sea Power: The Influence of Religion on Alfred Thayer Mahan.
Annapolis, Md: Naval Institute Press, 2015. Naval War College Review (In Progress).

Luca Castagna. A Bridge Across the Ocean: The United States and the Holy See Between the
Two World Wars. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America, 2014. Church History:

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Studies in Christianity and Culture (In Progress).

Steven Green. Inventing a Christian America: The Myth of the Religious Founding. New York:
Oxford, 2015. The Journal of Religion (In Progress).

Rebecca Alpert. Religion and Sports: An Introduction and Case Studies. New York: Columbia,
2015. The Journal of Religion (In Progress).

Priscilla Pope-Levison. Building the Old Time Religion: Women Evangelists in the Progressive
Era. New York: New York University Press, 2014. Church History: Studies in Christianity and
Culture (In Progress).

Aaron Belkin. Bring Me Men: Military Masculinity and the Benign Faade of American Empire,
1898-2001, Journal of American Culture 37, no. 2 (June 2014): 218-219.

Timothy Miller, Spiritual and Visionary Communities: Out to Save the World, Novo Religio 17,
no. 4 (May 2014): 119-120.

Richard Landes, ed., The Paranoid Apocalypse: A Hundred-Year Retrospective on the Protocols
of the Elders of Zion, Nova Religio 16, no. 4 (2013): 141-142,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2013.16.4.141.

Lila Corwin Berman, Speaking of Jews: Rabbis, Intellectuals, and the Creation of an American
Public Identity, Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies 4, no. 1 (2013): 117-119,
http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/imwjournal/vol4/iss1/7.

James A. Forbes, Jr., Whose Gospel?: A Concise Guide to Progressive Protestantism, Journal of
Religion and Popular Culture 24, no. 3 (2012): 469-470.

Susan K. Harris, Gods Arbiters: Americans and the Philippines, 1898-1902, Past Tense 1, no. 1
(2012): 136-138.

Cynthia Davis, Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Biography. Society for Historians of the Gilded Age
and Progressive Era, H-SHGAPE, H-Net Reviews, http://www.h-
net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=33118, (2012).

Randall Balmer, The Making of Evangelicalism. Symposia 3 (2011),

http://symposia.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/symposia/article/view/14425/11468.

Nathaniel Deutsch, Inventing Americas Worst Family: Eugenics, Islam, and the Fall and Rise
of the Tribe of Islam, Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies 2.1 (2010): 111-113.

TEACHING
Courses Taught
University of Northern Iowa

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Fall 2017 US and Global Islam (Honors Seminar)
Fall 2016 Senior Seminar (Service-Learning Course)
Spring 2016 Great Living Traditions: Christianity
Fall 2015 Religion and Politics
Spring 2015 Religion in America
2014-present Religions of the World

Florida State University

2013-2014 Introduction to World Religions
2011 Islam in the Modern World
2009-2011 Religion in U.S. History
2008-2009 Introduction to World Religions

Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University

2012-2014 Introduction to Religion

Tallahassee Community College

2010-2011 United States History I: to 1865

Pedagogical Training and Development

Spring 2017 Evaluating Online Teaching Webinar

Spring 2017 Strengthening Resiliency in the First-Year Only Classroom

Fall 2016 Fall Faculty Workshop: Culturally Inclusive Classrooms In All Our Disciplines, For
All Our Students

Summer 2016 NCBI Diversity Inclusion Workshop

Summer 2016 Service Learning Institute

Spring 2016 Mental Health On Campus: What You Need to Know

Fall 2015 Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Reading Group: Creating
Self-Regulated Learners: Strategies to Strengthen Students Self-Awareness and
Learning Skills

Fall 2015 Fall Faculty Workshop: Improving Students Critical Thinking SkillsStrategies
for the Classroom Facilitator

Spring 2015 All Paws on Deck: An Interactive Introduction to the CAT Classroom

Spring 2015 SMART Board Session

Fall 2014 Advisor Center Workshop

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PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Academic Conferences
2017 [Comment] Race, Gender, Class, and US Empire in the Production of Religion,
American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting

2017 [Comment] Faith and Foreign Affairs: Religion, Non-State Actors, and Twentieth
Century US Foreign Relations Panel, Society for Historians of American Foreign
Relations, Annual Meeting

2016 [Moderator] The World Seeger Made: Religious Beliefs, Accommodations,

Exemptions, and Free Consciences since 1965, Law, Religion, and Culture Group,
American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting

2016 [Comment] Religion, Civil Rights, and Civic Activism, Religion in

America Section, AAR-SE/SECSOR

Academic Societies
2016-present Steering Committee, Religion & U.S. Empire Seminar, AAR

2015-2017 Secretary, Society for U.S. Intellectual History

2013-2014 Co-chair, Society for U.S. Intellectual History Annual Conference

2011-2016 Religion, Culture, and the Arts Section Co-Chair, AAR-SE/SECSOR

Print Scholarship
2016-present Reviewer, Religions
2015-present Reviewer, Journal of Church and State
2014-present Reviewer, Routledge
2013-present Reviewer, Roman & Littlefield
2012-present Reviewer, Memphis Theological Journal
2012-present Reviewer, The Middle Ground Journal

Digital Scholarship
2014-present Editor, Religion in American History, http://usreligion.blogspot.com
2014-present Editor, Religion in the American West Blog, http://relamwest.blogspot.com
2012-present Contributor, Religion in American History blog
2011-present Contributor, Religion in the American West blog
2009-2010 News Editor, Religion Compass, Wiley-Blackwell Publishers

UNIVERSITY SERVICE
University of Northern Iowa
2017 First-Year Only, Liberal Arts Core Faculty
2017 Panelist, Teaching Politics in the Classroom: Teaching in Challenging Times,

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 Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
2016-present Faculty Advisor, Muslim Student Association
2016-present Diversity Advisory Committee, CHAS Representative
2016-2017 Fall Faculty Workshop Committee
2016 Philosophy of Law Search Committee Member
2016-present Faculty Mentor, Professors As Pals Program, Department of Residence
2016-present Faculty Advisor, Feminist Action League
2016-present Department of Philosophy and World Religions Website Team
2015-present Department of Philosophy and World Religions Recruitment Committee
2015 Move Crew
2015 Alumni Day Committee
2014 Department of Philosophy and World Religions Outreach Committee
2014 Department of Philosophy and World Religions Student Guide Committee
2014-present Religion Curriculum Committee Member
2014 Applied Ethics and Humanities Instructor Search Committee Member

Florida State University

2014 Liberal Arts & Sciences Curriculum Review Faculty Consultant
2011 Werkmeister Humanities Reading Room Docent, Florida State University
2010 Co-Coordinator, Florida State University AAR Reception
2009 Moderator, Sights on Gender-Blindness: A Roundtable Discussion on
Incorporating Gender into Scholarship, Religion Department Graduate Student
Symposium
2007-2009 Director, Religion Department Graduate Student Symposium

University of Kansas
2007 Co-Creator, Service Learning Matchmakers: Pairing Faculty and Community
Partners
2007 Service-Learning Matchmakers: Innovative Strategies for Connecting University
Faculty to Community Agencies (Team presentation), Developing Citizens
through Leadership and Civic Engagement: Fifth Annual Multi-State Campus
Compact Conference
2007 Fulfilling Whose Mission? Determining Faculty, Student, and Community Wants
and Needs for Service Learning (Team presentation), Texas Campus Compacts
National Conference on Civic Engagement

COMMUNITY SERVICE
2016-present Ethnic Minorities of Burma Advocacy & Resource Center
2013-present Mentor, Koniag Education Foundation
2009-2011 Peer-to-Peer Mentor, Koniag Education Foundation
2006-2007 AmeriCorps*VISTA, Center for Service Learning

LANGUAGE COMPETENCIES
French, Reading Knowledge
German, Reading Knowledge

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MEMBERSHIPS
American Academy of Religion
American Historical Association
American Society of Church History
Organization of American Historians
Society for Historians of American Foreign Policy
Society for U.S. Intellectual Historians

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