John Schmalzbauer
Associate Professor of Religious Studies
PhD Sociology, Princeton University. 1997
MA Sociology, Princeton University. 1992.
BA Political Science, Wheaton College. 1990
Email: jschmalzbauer@missouristate.edu
My teaching and research focus on the role of Protestantism in American society. I am especially interested in the role of religion in popular culture, Protestant evangelicalism, American Catholicism, and the place of religion in American higher education. In recent years, my courses have focused on religion in the Ozarks. I feel strongly that if Missouri State University does not take responsibility for telling the story of the Ozarks, nobody will.
My book People of Faith: Religious Conviction in American Journalism and Higher Education (Cornell University Press) explores the role of religion in the careers of 40 prominent journalists and academics, including Cokie Roberts, Fred Barnes, Peter Steinfels, Mark Noll, and George Marsden. I am currently co-investigator on the National Study of Campus Ministries, together with Betty DeBerg of the University of Northern Iowa. We are studying campus ministers in six denominations and two parachurch groups. I am also writing a book with Kathleen Mahoney of the Humanitas Foundation on the comeback of religion on campus.
I live in Nixa, Missouri with my spouse Susan and two sons. I came to Missouri State University after six enjoyable years at the College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit and Catholic liberal arts college. I am a graduate of Wheaton College in Illinois where I first got interested in the study of American evangelicals. A native of Minnesota, I am glad to be living in an area that is both like and unlike where I grew up.