Nancy Rhoden

Biography

Professor Rhoden is a specialist in early American history and colonial British history of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with particular interests in: the history of the American Revolution; religious and social history; political change and identity during revolutionary era; history of the British Empire and Atlantic World. I became a historian because of my love of the subject matter and independent research. Consequently, my interactive teaching style aims both to communicate the subject, in diverse and rich terms, and to direct student learning, including research, so as to cultivate in students an understanding that history is a creative, exciting process of analysis and discovery. My goal is to introduce students to some of the best work on colonial British America and the early history of the United States. As a guide to their learning, I support undergraduate and graduate students as individuals engaged in their own efforts to formulate thoughtful research questions, select appropriate sources, interpret evidence, and present an effective argument in oral presentations and written essays. I encourage students to be perceptive thinkers and readers, clear and effective writers, and lifelong learners, and I find that students’ questions inspire my own scholarly creativity.

Research Interest

My current work reflects my broad interests in colonial British America and the American Revolution. A long-term monograph project is a history of the Virginia elite during the American Revolution that examines their problems of identity during a democratic revolution. Political culture, religion, and identity are prevalent themes in several other projects as well. I continue to write on the historiography of Atlantic integration and anglicization, and the history of the colonial Church of England. The range of religious liberty in early America and its limits, the persistence of religious intolerance, and how the dynamics of interdenominational relations shaped public opinion and religious policies about religious freedom are also areas of current exploration.