Salem College Promotes Andrew Thomas to Professor of History

University of Michigan Published his Second Book in October 2022

The Salem Academy and College Board of Trustees unanimously voted on May 4 to promote Andrew L. Thomas, Ph.D. to Professor of History at Salem College. Thomas came to Salem in 2007 following a ten-month stay as a doctoral research fellow at the Leibniz-Institute for European History in Mainz, Germany.

Prior to his promotion, Thomas was an Associate Professor of History at Salem. He teaches upper-division courses in European history from ancient Greece to the present. Thomas also teaches world history survey courses and courses that are cross listed with the health humanities major.

Thomas’ review found him to be an outstanding professor—both rigorous and inspiring. In particular, it was noted that Thomas is an internationally recognized scholar whose work on Early Modern European history opens the understanding of the ways that ethnic and religious diversity were experienced by scholars, ministers and regular people.

“Andrew Thomas is a highly valued and productive member of the Salem College faculty who has been recognized by his peers for his stellar work in the classroom and through his scholarship,” Salem Academy and College President Summer J. McGee, Ph.D., CPH said. “We are proud to count him as one of our colleagues.”

“Andrew is the perfect professor for a liberal arts college—wise, thoughtful and dedicated to helping students grow as human beings, not just as future employees,” said Gary Daynes, Salem College Interim Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs and Interim Dean of the College.

Thomas’s research interests include late medieval piety, Renaissance humanism, Protestant and Catholic Reformations, Christian-Jewish-Muslim relations, Baroque absolutism, and the early Enlightenment with a particular emphasis on Central Europe. He also has a secondary interest in the early modern transatlantic world.

In October 2022, the University of Michigan Press published Thomas’s second book, The Apocalypse in Reformation Nuremberg: Jews and Turks in Andreas Osiander’s World. This book concentrates on the worldview of the Lutheran preacher and theologian Andreas Osiander (1498–1552). Osiander played a critical role in spreading the Lutheran Reformation in 16th-century Nuremberg.

Thomas is beginning a new book project, tentatively titled “The Northern Renaissance in Vienna: Imperialism and Orientalism in the Writings of Johannes Cuspinianus.” It focuses on Johannes Cuspinianus (1473–1529), a Renaissance humanist trained in medicine, who exemplified the connections between medicine and the liberal arts during the Renaissance.

Thomas received an MA and a Ph.D. from Purdue University and a BA from the University of Utah.