Dr. Andrew Thomas came to Salem in 2007. He was born in Oregon, but raised in the Rocky Mountains of Utah. When Dr. Thomas was a graduate student, he taught first-year German and a few history courses at Purdue University. The students and the historical ambiance of the college attracted Dr. Thomas to Salem College. He took a visiting professor position in European history, which eventually turned into a regular position. Besides teaching upper division courses in European history, he also teaches the world history survey courses.
In addition to teaching, Dr. Thomas serves as a faculty adviser for the History Honor Society (Phi Alpha Theta). When Dr. Thomas is not at Salem, he spends a lot of time with his family. His wife, Sarah Ann, is from Utah as well. Together they have three children. His family enjoys traveling, camping, cross-country skiing, back packing, sailing, and bird watching.
Advice to prospective history students: “I have never regretted choosing history; I am living my passion and my dream. If history is your passion, pursue it!”
Research Interests
Late medieval piety, Renaissance Humanism, Protestant and Catholic Reformations, Baroque Absolutism, and the early Enlightenment with a particular emphasis on Central Europe.
Book:
A House Divided: Wittelsbach Confessional Court Cultures in the Holy Roman Empire, c. 1550-1650. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
Book Chapter:
[coauthor Charles Ingrao]. “Piety and Power: The Empresses-Consort of the High Baroque.” In Queenship in Europe 1660-1815: The Role of the Consort, ed. Clarissa Campbell Orr, 107-130. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Articles:
“Wittelsbachs, Habsburgs, and Hohenzollerns: Gender, Kinship, and Confession in the Funeral Literature for Susanna of Bavaria.” Austrian History Yearbook 48 (2017): 131-144.
“Francis Daniel Pastorius and the Northern Protestant Transatlantic World.” Acta Comeniana: International Review of Comenius Studies and Early Modern Intellectual History 28 (2014): 95-126.
[coauthor Charles Ingrao]. “Piety and Patronage: The Empresses-Consort of the High Baroque.” German History 20 (2002): 20-43.
Favorite Books
Harvard Classics
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s Nathan the Wise
Favorite Movies
Awakenings
Enchanted April
Favorite Quotation
“Carpe Diem!”