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Dr. Karen Spierling
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Karen Spierling joined the Denison faculty in 2010. She teaches courses on early modern European topics, including the Renaissance and Reformation, the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment, riots and revolutions, the era of the great “witch hunts,” and European travelers in their increasingly global contexts. In her teaching, Dr. Spierling is especially interested in the transformation of religious ideas as they were put into practice, the development of discussions about authority and individual rights, and the complicated dynamics of European expansion and intercultural global exchanges in the early modern period.
Dr. Spierling’s research interests focus on the history of the Reformation, in particular the interplay among religious, social, and political concerns in the development and spread of Reformed (Calvinist) Protestantism. Her first book, Infant Baptism in Reformation Geneva: The Shaping of a Community, 1536–1564 (Ashgate, 2005; paperback--Westminster John Knox, 2009) examined the ways that negotiations among reformers, civic leaders, and church members influenced the Reformed practice of baptism, a fundamental ritual in any Christian society. Her current work focuses on the perpetuation of Protestant-Catholic relations in sixteenth-century Geneva, which was reputed to be the most strictly reformed city in Europe, and on the daily workings of such a “Reformed” society. Her recent publications include: “Putting ‘God’s Honor First’: Truth, Lies, and Servants in Reformation Geneva,”Church History and Religious Culture 92 (2012); “Reformation Understandings of Women, Marriage, and Family,” in David M. Whitford, ed., The T&T Clark Companion to Reformation Theology (London: T&T Clark, 2012); “Putting Order to Disorder: Illegitimate Children, Their Parents and the Consistory in Reformation Geneva,” in Raymond A. Mentzer and Françoise Moreil, eds, Dire l’interdit: the vocabulary of censure and exclusion in the early modern Reformed tradition (Leiden: Brill,
Dr. Spierling’s research interests focus on the history of the Reformation, in particular the interplay among religious, social, and political concerns in the development and spread of Reformed (Calvinist) Protestantism. Her first book, Infant Baptism in Reformation Geneva: The Shaping of a Community, 1536–1564 (Ashgate, 2005; paperback--Westminster John Knox, 2009) examined the ways that negotiations among reformers, civic leaders, and church members influenced the Reformed practice of baptism, a fundamental ritual in any Christian society. Her current work focuses on the perpetuation of Protestant-Catholic relations in sixteenth-century Geneva, which was reputed to be the most strictly reformed city in Europe, and on the daily workings of such a “Reformed” society. Her recent publications include: “Putting ‘God’s Honor First’: Truth, Lies, and Servants in Reformation Geneva,”Church History and Religious Culture 92 (2012); “Reformation Understandings of Women, Marriage, and Family,” in David M. Whitford, ed., The T&T Clark Companion to Reformation Theology (London: T&T Clark, 2012); “Putting Order to Disorder: Illegitimate Children, Their Parents and the Consistory in Reformation Geneva,” in Raymond A. Mentzer and Françoise Moreil, eds, Dire l’interdit: the vocabulary of censure and exclusion in the early modern Reformed tradition (Leiden: Brill,
2010); and Defining Community in Early Modern Europe, co-edited with Michael Halvorson (Ashgate, 2008).
Dr. Spierling received her B.A. in Renaissance Studies from Yale University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to coming to Denison, Dr. Spierling was an Associate Professor of History at the University of Louisville and a Visiting Associate Professor at The Ohio State University.