CHARLES T.

STRAUSS
Assistant Professor of History
Mount St. Marys University
16300 Old Emmitsburg Road
Emmitsburg, MD 21727
301-447-5799

strauss@msmary.edu
www.charleststrauss.com
@charleststrauss

ACADEMIC POSITIONS
Jan 2013 -

Assistant Professor, Department of History

Mount St. Marys University (MD)

2011-2013

Lilly Postdoctoral Fellow, Christ College (interdisciplinary honors college)

Valparaiso University (IN)

2010-2013

Graduate Instructor, First Year Writing and Rhetoric Program

University of Notre Dame (IN)

EDUCATION
2012

Ph.D., History, University of Notre Dame

Summer 2008: Visiting Student: Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de
Mesoamrica, Antigua, Guatemala

2007

M.A., History, University of Notre Dame

2004

M.A., Historical Studies, University of Cape Town

2002

B.A., History, College of the Holy Cross

2000-2001: Visiting Student, Oxford University, Mansfield College

SCHOLARSHIP
Book
Catholic Mission and United States Empire in Central America, 1940s-1990s (in revision)

Journal Articles
Suburbanization, Atomic Power, and Catholic Reform in Cold War Era Pittsburgh,
1950s-1970s (peer reviewed; in revision)

Central American Public Diplomacy: Faith Ryan Whittlesey, the White House Oce of Public
Liaison, and Reagans Catholic Constituency, U.S. Catholic Historian 33, no. 1 (forthcoming
Winter 2015) (peer reviewed)
Lead story, Roman Rooftops and American Catholic Studies: Rome Seminar Addresses
Transnational Approaches to U.S. Catholic Studies, American Catholic Studies Newsletter 41, no.
2 (Fall 2014)
Rev. John Hugo and Suburban Parish Life in Cold War Pittsburgh, Gathered Fragments,
Journal of the Catholic Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania (2014).
God Save the Boer: Irish American Catholics and the South African War, 1899-1902, U.S.
Catholic Historian 26, no. 4 (Fall 2008), 1-26 (peer reviewed)

Edited Volumes
Catholicism, America and the World, 1776 to the Present, Dictionary of American History
Supplement, eds. Edward Blum, Cara Burnidge, Emily Conroy-Krutz, David Kinkela (Scribners)
Global Catholicism and United States Labor in Post-Industrial America in Michael P.
Murphy, ed., Vatican II's Golden Jubilee: Marking 50 years of Continuity, Controversy, and
Conversation (University of Notre Dame)
Working Groups
2013-

Selected Participant, Religion and United States Empire Seminar, Kripke Center
for the Study of Religion and Society, Creighton University

2012-

Baltimore-area Catholic Archives Working Group

2014

Selected Participant, American Catholicism in a World Made Small:

Transnational Approaches to U.S. Catholic History, University of Notre Dame,
June 6-20, 2014

Academic Conferences
Paper Presentation
2015

From Humanae Vitae to Three Mile Island: Catholic Technocrats and American
Culture in the 1970s, Panel Presentation at the General Meeting of the
American Catholic Historical Association Annual Meeting at the American
Historical Association Annual Meeting, New York, NY, January 2-5, 2015

2014

John Hugo and Catholic Parish Life in Cold War Pittsburgh, Panel
Presentation at the General Meeting of the American Catholic Historical

Association Annual Meeting at the American Historical Association Annual

Meeting, Washington, D.C., January 2-5, 2014 - panel organizer
2011

Reawakening A Glory That Is Gone: Anglo-American Catholics Encounter

Latin America in the 1940s and 1950s, Panel Presentation at the Joint Meeting of
the Canadian Catholic Historical Association and the American Catholic
Historical Association, University of Saint Michaels College, Toronto, Ontario,
April 15-16, 2011

2008

From Mission Field to Capitol Hill: U.S. Missionaries in Guatemala and in

Washington, D.C., 1943-1975, Panel Presentation at the General Meeting of the
American Catholic Historical Association at the American Historical
Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., January 3-6, 2008

2007

A Call for Forty Thousand: New Approaches for the Study of U.S. Catholic
Mission, Panel Presentation at the Spring Meeting of the American Catholic
Historical Association, Marquette University, March 29-31, 2007

2005

Irish Americans and the Boer War, 1899-1902, Panel Presentation, Ireland and
Race Conference, New York University, March 4-6, 2005

Chair/Moderator
2013

Lilly Fellows Program Conference on Faith and Academic Freedom in Civic

Virtue, Discussion Leader, University of Scranton, October 18-20, 2013

2013

Conference on In the Lgos of Love: Promise and Predicament of Catholic

Intellectual Life Today, Roundtable Moderator, Conference sponsored by the
Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies and the University of Dayton, Dayton,
OH, September 20-22, 2013

2013

Catholic Missionaries, Chair of Panel at the General Meeting of the American

Catholic Historical Association Annual Meeting at the American Historical
Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, January 3-6, 2013

Roundtable
2015

Graduate Student to Junior Faculty: Connections and Issues, Presidential

Roundtable Presentation at the General Meeting of the American Catholic
Historical Association Annual Meeting at the American Historical Association
Annual Meeting, New York, NY, January 2-5, 2015

2014

Surviving Your First Year of Teaching, Panel Presentation at the American

Historical Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., January 2-5, 2014

2013

Religion and United States Empire, Roundtable Presentation at the North

American Religions Section, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting,
Baltimore, MD, November 23-26, 2013

Book Reviews
Robert Hurteau, A Worldwide Heart: The Life of Maryknoll Father John J. Considine, American
Catholic Studies (Summer 2014)

Online Essays
Who Will be Neighbor?: A Report on the Conference In the Lgos of Love, Exiles from
Eden, blog of the Lilly Fellows Program, October 2, 2013
Habemus Papam: Tell Me More!, Religion in American History blog, March 17, 2013

FELLOWSHIPS, HONORS, AND AWARDS

2014

Faculty Research Grant, Mount St. Marys University

2010-2011

Course Development Grant for Rhetoric of the American City: A CommunityBased Learning First Year Composition Course, Center for Social Concerns

2008-2009

Dissertation Year Fellowship, Kellogg Institute for International Studies

2008

Abilene Travel Grant, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library

2008

Zahm Research Travel Grant, Graduate School, University of Notre Dame

2007
Notre

Seed Money Grant, Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of

Dame

2000-2002

Charles A. Dana Scholar, College of the Holy Cross

2001-2002

Fenwick Scholar, College of the Holy Cross - highest academic honor bestowed by
the college

TEACHING
Mount St. Marys University
2014201420132013-

HIST 376: U.S. Cultural History, 1900-1945

HIST 338: History of American Foreign Policy
HIST 385: United States Catholic History
VTAGC 301: America in Global Context since 1898 (formerly AMC 202) university core course
4

20132013-

VTAMC 202: American Experience to 1898 (formerly AMC 201) - university core
course
HIGE 305: Global Encounters / South Africa

University of Notre Dame Online Courses, Satellite Theological Education Program (STEP)
2008-2014
2008-2014

American Catholicism since Vatican II (6-week course)

American Catholic Experience (6-week course)

Valparaiso University
2012
2011-2012
2012
2012

HIST 220: American Experience to 1877

HIST 221: American Experience in the Modern World
CHRIST COLLEGE 115: Texts and Contexts II, in which students conducted a
major investigation of a problem formulated within the seminar on United
States History in the 1980s and composed a twenty-page research paper
CHRIST COLLEGE 300/HIST 392: America in the World, 1960-2010

University of Notre Dame

2011
2010
2009
2005-2007
2009-2011

FIRST YEAR COMPOSITION 13200: Community-Based Learning, Rhetoric of

the American City
FIRST YEAR COMPOSITION 13100: Arguments in Film and Television (Fall
2010)
HIST 30859/AMERICAN STUDIES 30905: Reagans America: The United States
in the 1980s
Teaching Assistant: United States History, 1877 to the present (2x); United States
Foreign Policy, 1945 to the present; American Catholic Experience
Community-Based Learning Coordinator, Center for Social Concerns:
Sophomore College Seminar and First Year Composition Course: facilitated
community-based learning relationships between Notre Dame faculty and
students with the Logan Center, an agency that provides services for individuals
with intellectual disabilities in South Bend, IN

University of Cape Town

2003

Teaching Assistant: Empires and Nations in Modern History

SERVICE
Invited Lectures
2014

Catholic Internationalism and Guatemalas Civil War, 1960-1996, American

Catholic Historical Society, Philadelphia, PA, October 21, 2014

2014

The Historians Craft and Social Contribution, Phi Alpha Theta Induction
Ceremony, Mount St. Marys University, April 14, 2014

2014

John Hugo and Catholic Parish Life in Cold War Pittsburgh, Catholic
Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, PA, April 13, 2014

Professional Service
2014-

Reviewer, U.S. Catholic Historian

2014-

Reviewer, American Catholic Studies

2010-2012

Membership Committee, American Catholic Historical Association, 2010-2012

Mount St. Marys University

2014-

Campus Representative, Lilly Fellows Program

2014-

Veritas Curriculum Committee

2013-

Co-Director, Mount St. Marys University Veritas Core Course, VTGC 301
America in Global Context since 1898

2013-

Curriculum Committees for Mount St. Marys Veritas Core Programs: Global
Encounters and VTAMC 202 American Experience to 1898

2013-

Archives Committee: consultation on University Archives and facilitation of

student interns

2013-

Department of History Facebook and Twitter Co-Administrator, Mount St.

Marys University

2014-2015

Planning Committee, Faculty Reading Group on Gaudium et Spes and its legacy

2013-2014

Facilitator, Faculty Reading Group on The Unintended Reformation by Brad

Gregory

2013

Department of History Faculty Search Committee, Early America Tenure-Track

Position, Mount Saint Marys University

University of Notre Dame

2007-2008

Publications Editor and Graduate Assistant, American Catholic Studies Newsletter,

Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism - paid position

2006-2007

Academic Vice-President and Convener of Vincent P. DeSantis Lecture Series,

Union of Graduate Historians, 2006-2007

Community Service
2014-

Elected Member, Interfaith Center for Peace and Justice, Gettysburg, PA

2014

A Fast and Furious Survey of United States Catholic History from 1492 to the
present, Keynote at 2014 Lenten Retreat, Notre Dame Club of Gettysburg, April
5, 2014

2014

Mandela Moments, remarks at the 2014 Annual Gettysburg Africa Dinner,

March 30, 2014

Media Appearances
2013

How will the world remember Nelson Mandela, WBAL News Radio 1090
(Baltimore), June 27, 2013

LANGUAGE COMPETENCIES
Spanish, reading knowledge
French, reading knowledge
MEMBERSHIPS
American Historical Association
American Academy of Religion
American Catholic Historical Association
American Society for Church History
Society for Historians of American Foreign Policy
Society for U.S. Intellectual Historians