Jacqueline R deVries

Professor, Director of General Education

Jacqueline deVries specializes in modern European and British history, with a focus on social and cultural history. Since 1994, she has taught courses at Augsburg on the history of Britain and Ireland, Germany, the world wars, and comparative women and gender history. She welcomes the opportunity to work with students on honors and summer research projects. In summer 2013 she will be collaborating with student Heidi Heller on a project titled “The Creation of Gynecological Knowledge in Early 20th century Great Britain.” In Spring 2013, she supervised Hannah Walsh’s independent study on “Comparative Histories of Nationalism.”

Her research focuses on two overlapping areas – the history of feminism and the social history of religion. Her book Women, Gender and Religious Cultures in Britain, 1800-1940 (co-edited with Sue Morgan of Chichester University, UK) was published by Routledge in 2010 and her essays have appeared in a number of journals and collections, including Feminist Studies, History Compass, and Karen Offen, ed. Globalizing Feminisms to 1945 (Routledge, 2010.) She has published reviews in the Journal of British Studies, Victorian Studies, and elsewhere. She is completing a book for Palgrave-Macmillan titled Women, Religion and Social Change, 1795-present and recently launched a new project on Mary Scharlieb (1845-1930), an Anglo-Catholic author of sex education tracts and one of Britain’s first female gynecological surgeons.

Her interest in 20th century Britain and Europe was nurtured by stories of her father’s experience growing up in Nazi-occupied Holland. Eager to introduce students to Europe’s past and present, she has led several study-abroad trips, including “The Aftermath of World War II” (w/ Prof. Bob Cowgill) to Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.  In May 2014, she will lead another study abroad trip to Paris and Berlin titled “The Prelude to World War II.”

She currently serves as Director of General Education at Augsburg. responsible for developing and evaluating the College’s core curriculum. Between 2000 and 2009, she served as chair of the History department, during which time she led efforts to strengthen the teaching of research skills and historical thinking. With a grant from the Minnesota College Coalition, she worked collaboratively with librarians to develop students’ bibliographic skills and created the course “The History Workshop.” Her interest in introductory courses led her to write the Instructor’s Resource Manual for the best-selling western civilization textbook, McKay, Hill, Buckler, et al., A History of Western Society, 10th edition (Bedford / St. Martin’s, 2010), and since 2005, she has worked with high school teacher Brian Poehler to offer a week-long summer seminar for teachers of AP European history.

Raised in the (Dutch) Christian Reformed Church, deVries is now active in the Presbyterian Church (USA.) She is also co-author (with Cheri Register) of Westminster Presbyterian Church’s sesquicentennial history, A Living Faith (2007.) In her non-working hours, deVries is a runner and weight lifter, cook, gardener, traveler, and mom to two daughters.

Education

• B.A. Calvin College
• M.A. University of Illinois-Urbana
• Ph.D. University of Illinois-Urbana

Curriculum Vitae