Employment
Associate Professor of History, 2024–present
California State University San Marcos
Assistant Professor of History, 2019–2024
California State University San Marcos
Education
University of Notre Dame, 2015–2019
Ph.D., History
Yale Divinity School, 2008–2011
M.A., Religion
LCC International University, 2004–2008
B.A., Theology
Publications
Book
Disgraced: How Sex Scandals Transformed American Protestantism (Oxford University Press, 2025).
Refereed Journal Articles
“Queer Rumors: Protestant Ministers, Unnatural Deeds, and Church Censure in the Twentieth-Century United States,” Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation 31, no. 1 (2021): 1–32.
“The Itinerant Passions of Protestant Pastors: Ministerial Elopement Scandals in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era Press,” Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 19, no. 1 (2020): 77–95.
“Paths of Duty: Religion, Marriage, and the Press in a Transatlantic Scandal, 1835–1858,” Journal of American Studies 53, no. 3 (2019): 636–662.
Co-authored Refereed Journal Articles
with Rachel Bohlmann, “Networks of Piety and Slavery among Late Eighteenth-Century Rural Maryland Catholics,” Current Research in Digital History 2 (2019).
with Baptiste Barbot, Sascha Hein, Jodi Reich, Philip Thuma, Elena L. Grigorenko, “Identifying Learning Profiles of Children at Risk for Specific Reading Disability,” Developmental Science 19, no. 3 (2016): 402–418.
with Jodi Reich, Sascha Hein, Lesley Hart, Nina Gumkowski, Elena L. Grigorenko, “Associations Between Household Responsibilities and Academic Competencies in the Context of Education Accessibility in Zambia,” Learning and Individual Differences 27 (October 2013): 250–257.
with Elena L. Grigorenko, Aleksandr N. Kornev, Natalia Rakhlin, “Reading-Related Skills, Reading Achievement, and Inattention: A Correlational Study,” Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology 10, no. 2 (November 2011): 140–156.
Invited Essays
“Searching for the Quotidian in TV’s Latest Mormon Moment,” Mormon Studies Review 11 (2024): 54–64.
“Crisis and Faith: Urban Religion in the Twentieth-Century United States,” Journal of Urban History 50, no. 3 (2024): 714–719.
Book Chapters
“Sexuality,” in The Routledge History of Evangelical Christianity in America, eds. Darren Dochuk and Ian Van Dyke (Routledge, 2026).
“Sex and Sexuality,” in The Oxford Handbook of Christian Fundamentalism, eds. Andrew Atherstone and David Ceri Jones (Oxford University Press, 2023).
“The Crimes of Preachers: Religion, Scandal, and the Trouble with Digitized Archives,” in Digitised Newspapers–A New Eldorado for Historians? Tools, Methodology, Epistemology, and the Changing Practices of Writing History in the Context of Historical Newspapers Mass Digitization, eds. Estelle Bunout, Maud Ehrmann, and Frédéric Clavert (De Gruyter, 2022).
Book Reviews
Joseph Plaster, Kids on the Street: Queer Kinship and Religion in San Francisco’s Tenderloin (Duke University Press, 2023) in QTR: A Journal of Trans and Queer Studies in Religion 3, no. 1 (2026): 41–43.
Rodney Hessinger, Smitten: Sex, Gender, and the Contest for Souls in the Second Great Awakening (Cornell University Press, 2022) in History: Reviews of New Books 51, no. 4 (2023): 125–126.
Arlin C. Migliazzo, Mother of Modern Evangelicalism: The Life and Legacy of Henrietta Mears (William B. Eerdmans, 2020) in History: Reviews of New Books 49, no. 2 (2021): 38–39.
Marian E. Lindberg, Scandal on Plum Island: A Commander Becomes the Accused (East End Press, 2020) in The Annals of Iowa 80, no. 1 (Winter 2021): 81–82.
Gillian Frank, Bethany Moreton, and Heather R. White, eds., Devotions and Desires: Histories of Sexuality and Religion in the Twentieth-Century United States (University of North Carolina Press, 2018) in The Journal of the History of Sexuality 29, no. 2 (May 2020): 285–288.
John Wigger, PTL: The Rise and Fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s Evangelical Empire (Oxford University Press, 2017) in Reading Religion (October 26, 2017).
Heath Carter and Laura Porter, eds., Turning Points in the History of American Evangelicalism (Eerdmans, 2017) in American Catholic Studies Newsletter (Fall 2017).
Kathleen T. Talvacchia, Michael F. Pettinger, and Mark Larrimore, eds., Queer Christianities: Lived Religion in Transgressive Forms (New York University Press, 2015) in Reading Religion (May 20, 2016).
Academic Presentations
Chair, “Haunting Histories: Ghosts, Spirits, and the Utility and Ethics of Repurposing the Dead,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (January 10, 2027).
Panelist, “A Conversation with Jason Berry: The Abuse Crisis and History,” American Catholic Historical Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (January 9, 2027).
Panelist, “Author-Meets-Respondents Panel: William Stell, Born Again Queer: A History of Evangelical Gay Activism and the Making of Antigay Christianity (Princeton University Press, 2026),” American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (November 23, 2026).
Invited Participant, Seminar on the Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s clerical personnel files at the University of New Mexico, School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, NM (September 21–25, 2026).
Keynote Address, Religion and Sexual Abuse Project Conference, University of California, Riverside (May 30–31, 2025).
Panel Organizer, “The State of Academic Freedom,” Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA (March 30–April 2, 2023).
Roundtable Participant, “The Dust of Digital Archives: The Promises of Digital History and the Realities of Fragmentary Evidence,” Newberry Library Symposium “The Archive: Theory, Form, Practice,” Chicago, IL (May 5–6, 2022).
Paper, “The Trouble with Childhood: Some Methodological Considerations for the Study of Age and Protestant Sex Abuse in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era,” Religion & Sexual Abuse Project Conference, Riverside, CA (March 4–5, 2022).
Invited Participant, Rocky Mountain American Religion Seminar, held virtually due to COVID-19 (July 29, 2021).
Panel Organizer, “Difficult Females: The Women Who Brought Down Powerful Men Before #MeToo,” Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, rescheduled from 2020 due to COVID-19 (April 15–18, 2021).
Roundtable Participant, “Christian Fundamentalist Responses to Sexual Revolutions,” Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, held virtually due to COVID-19 (April 15–18, 2021).
Paper, “‘The Sin of Lewdness’: How the New York Female Benevolent Society Brought down a Fellow Moral Crusader,” Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, rescheduled from 2020 due to COVID-19 (April 15–18, 2021).
Paper, “Sex Talk: How U.S. Fundamentalists Went from Avoiding to Addressing a Touchy Subject,” Society for U.S. Intellectual History Annual Meeting, held virtually due to COVID-19 (March 1, 2021).
Paper, “‘She Is Not Pretty and He Is Forty-Five Years Old’: The Problem of Age in Pastoral Sex Scandals of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, canceled due to COVID-19 (2021).
Paper, “The Crimes of Preachers: Religion, Scandal, and the Trouble with Digitized Archives,” Digitised Newspapers: A New Eldorado for Historians?, held virtually due to COVID-19 (April 22–23, 2020).
Panel Organizer, “Evangelical Loyalties Reconsidered: A Roundtable on Sex, Power, and the Media in the Study of American Evangelicalism,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, New York, NY (January 3–6, 2020).
Paper, “Straightwashing Protestant Sex Scandals: The Tentative Queerness of Billy James Hargis, Jim Bakker, and Ted Haggard,” American Society of Church History, New York, NY (January 3–6, 2020).
Paper, “Queer Rumors: Protestant Pastors, ‘Unnatural’ Deeds, and Church Censure in Early Twentieth-Century United States,” Queer History Conference, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA (June 16–18, 2019).
Paper, “Visualizing Late Eighteenth-Century Maryland Catholic Slaveholding Using R Shiny,” Current Research in Digital History, George Mason University, Arlington, VA (March 9, 2019).
Paper, “Hypocrisy, Piety, and the In-Between: Evangelical Sex Scandals in the Late Twentieth Century,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL (January 3–6, 2019).
Paper, “Mapping Ministerial Elopers: Using GIS and R Shiny to Track Runaway Protestant Pastors, 1870–1914,” GIS Day Lightning Talk, Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship, Hesburgh Library, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN (November 12, 2018).
Panel Organizer, “Romance, Reverends, and Renegades: Scandal as Gilded Age History,” Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Sacramento, CA (April 12–14, 2018).
Paper, “Reverends on the Run: Ministerial Elopement Scandals in the Gilded Age Press,” Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Sacramento, CA (April 12–14, 2018).
Paper, “‘A Pervert Converted’: Religion and Marriage in a Nineteenth-Century Scandal,” Ways of Knowing Conference, Harvard Divinity School, Boston, MA (October 22–24, 2015).
Paper, “‘An Uncertain Priest’ and His Wife: Anti-Catholicism and Coverture in a Nineteenth-Century Scandal,” Heidelberg Conference, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN (September 28–29, 2015).
Paper, “‘There Should Be No Discrimination’: Race and Religion in Midcentury St. Louis,” Graduate History Association Conference, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO (October 10–11, 2014).
Paper, “‘Love Cannot Find Them’: Disappearing Ministers and Sensational Scandals in Late Nineteenth-Century America,” Religion and Sexual Revolutions Conference, John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO (May 9, 2014).
Paper, “From Psychopathy to Asylum: Homosexuality and Immigration, 1975–1990,” Queertopia Conference, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (May 2–4, 2014).
Paper, “‘With All Deliberate Speed’: Progressives, Conservatives, and School Desegregation in Midcentury St. Louis,” Midwest Regional Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Ohio Northern University, Ada, OH (April 4–6, 2014).
Digital & Public History
Scholarly Contributions
The Palace of Thundering Gods (contributor).
The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. Textbook (contributor).
Catholic Enslavers in the Early Republic (co-creator with Rachel Bohlmann).
Mapping Ministerial Elopements in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (creator).
The American Converts Database (contributor).
Women and Social Movements in the U.S. (contributor).
Online Publications
“How to Monetize Your Sex Scandal: A Guide for Disgraced Pastors,” The Revealer (August 5, 2025).
“‘The Lord Told Me It’s Flat None of Your Business’: Jimmy Swaggart’s Scandalous Legacy,” Religion Dispatches (July 2, 2025).
with Kelsy Burke, Joanna Wuest, and Andrew Flores, “Republicans are Mostly United in Their Views on LGBTQ+ Rights. Democrats are Not.,” LGBTQ Nation (October 20, 2024).
with Andrew Flores, Kelsy Burke, and Joanna Wuest, “LGBTQ Rights vs. Religious Liberty Cases: Public Opinion and the Law,” PRRI Spotlight (September 19, 2024).
“Review: Coming Out Republican, A History of the Gay Right,” Religion in United States History (May 6, 2024).
with Andrew Flores, Kelsy Burke, and Joanna Wuest, “LGBT Adults Remain Hopeful for the Future of LGBT People in the US,” 3Streams (April 30, 2024).
“Mainline Protestant Clergy’s Support for LGBTQ+ Rights Has Grown,” PRRI Spotlight (December 21, 2023).
with Andrew Flores, Kelsy Burke, and Tyler Lefevor, “Comparing Views of LGBT Adults to Those of the General Public,” PRRI Spotlight (September 15, 2023).
with Kelsy Burke, Andrew Flores, and Tyler Lefevor, “LGBTQ+ Americans Are More Religious Than Our Supreme Court Battles Let on,” Religion News Service (July 7, 2023).
“Perceptions of Anti-Transgender Discrimination Amid the Deluge of Anti-Transgender Legislation,” PRRI Spotlight (March 3, 2023).
“Bad Preachers’ Wives,” Religion & Politics (January 10, 2023).
“The Diminishing Importance of Personal Morality in Politics, 2011–2020,” PRRI Spotlight (November 21, 2022).
“A History of Sex Abuse in the Protestant Imagination,” The Revealer (March 2, 2020).
“Jennifer Knapp and Me: Coming out While Evangelical,” Religion Dispatches (June 23, 2017).
“Unholy Sundays,” Luther Seminary Center for Stewardship Leaders (September 2, 2016).
“‘Jesus, Don’t Let Me Die Before I’ve Had Sex’: A New Documentary,” Religion in American History (April 16, 2016).
Media Mentions
Daniel Silliman, “Died: Jimmy Swaggart, TV Minister Caught in Scandal,” Christianity Today (July 1, 2025).
Paul Sisson, “San Diego Nazarene Pastor Fired for Same-sex Marriage Stance,” San Diego Union-Tribune (August 18, 2023).
Audrey Clare Farley, “The Post-Trump Crack-Up of the Evangelical Community,” The New Republic (March 16, 2021).
Kate Shellnutt, “Jerry Falwell Jr. Finally Resigns from Liberty Amid Sex Scandal,” Christianity Today (August 25, 2020).
Public Engagement
Podcast Guest, “Protestant Sex Scandals in America,” The Revealer (2025).
Book Talk, “Disgraced: How Sex Scandals Transformed American Protestantism,” in conversation with Jim Mitulski, LGBTQ Religious Archives Network (May 22, 2025).
Podcast Guest, “Disgraced: How Sex Scandals Transformed American Protestantism With Dr. Suzanna Krivulskaya,” Kingdom Roots (2025).
Webinar Panelist, “Politics of Gender, Pronouns, and Public Education,” Public Religion Research Institute (2023).
Podcast Guest, “Interview with Religion and Sexuality Expert Suzanna Krivulskaya,” Friendly Atheist Podcast (2023).
Podcast Guest, “Protestant Sex Scandals,” The Classical Ideas Podcast (2021).
Podcast Guest, “Ministerial Sex Scandal,” Ten Minute History (2019).
Awards
Virginia Ramey Mollenkott Award, 2019–2020
LGBTQ Religious Archives Network
Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award, 2017
University of Notre Dame
Grants & Fellowships
National Fellow, 2025–
Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, Indiana University Indianapolis
Young Scholars in American Religion Program, 2023–2025
Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, Indiana University Indianapolis
PRRI Fellowship in Religion and LGBTQ+ Rights, 2022–2024
Public Religion Research Institute
Sacred Writes Public Scholarship, 2020–2021
Northeastern University
Sarah Pettit Doctoral Fellowship in LGBT Studies, 2019
Yale University
Current Research in Digital History Conference Travel Grant, 2019
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, George Mason University
American Historical Association Council Annual Meeting Travel Grant, 2019
American Historical Association
Mellon Foundation Fellowship, 2018
Newberry Library
Organization of American Historians Conference Travel Award for Ph.D. Students, 2018
Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
Graduate Student Union Conference Presentation Grant, 2018
University of Notre Dame
Linda and Richard Kerber Fund for Research in the Iowa Women’s Archives, 2017
University of Iowa
Professionalization Fund Award, 2017
Department of History, University of Notre Dame
Writing Workshop Fellowship, 2016
Collegeville Institute
Professionalization Fund Award, 2015
Department of History, University of Notre Dame
R. W. Davis Travel Grant, 2015
Department of History, Washington University in St. Louis
Evan Frankel Fellowship, 2013–2014
Department of History, Washington University in St. Louis
HRC Summer Institute for Religious and Theological Study, 2013
Vanderbilt University
Alice K. and William F. Burger Scholarship, 2008–2011
Yale Divinity School
DeFehr Foundation Scholarship, 2004–2008
LCC International University
Teaching Experience
Undergraduate Courses
Historical Methods and Writing
Religion in the United States
United States History, 1500–1877
U.S. LGBTQ+ History
Women in the United States
Graduate Courses
Advanced Seminar in United States History
History and Applied Media Technology
History Teaching Practicum
Service
California State University San Marcos
Online History Program Coordinator (2024–present)
Lower-Division Training Program Coordinator (2024–2025)
Representative, CSUSM Academic Senate (2022–2023; 2024–2025)
Faculty Development Committee, College of Humanities, Arts, Behavioral & Social Sciences (2023–2024)
Budget Committee, College of Humanities, Arts, Behavioral & Social Sciences (2021–2023; chair, 2022–2023)
Student Academic Success Task Force (2020–2021)
Faculty Mentoring Program (2019–present)
Historical Profession
Advisory Board, LGBTQ Religious Archives Network (2021–2024)
Committee on Academic Freedom, Organization of American Historians (2020–2023; co-chair, 2021–2023)
Mentor, Holstein Dissertation Fellowship, University of California, Riverside (2020–2021)
Selection Committee, Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research (2019)
Editorial Board, Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (2019–2023)
Hesburgh Libraries Graduate Student Advisory Panel, University of Notre Dame (2018–2019)
Department of History Professionalization Fund Committee, University of Notre Dame (2016–2017)
Search Committee Representative, John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, Washington University in St. Louis (2015)
Graduate History Association Conference, Washington University in St. Louis (co-chair, 2014)
Manuscript Reviews
Journal Article Manuscripts
American Religion
Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture
Fides et Historia
Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
Modern American History
QTR: A Journal of Trans and Queer Studies in Religion
Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation
Teaching History: A Journal of Methods
Monographs
Oxford University Press
Rowman & Littlefield
University of California Press
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
Professional Affiliations
American Academy of Religion
American Historical Association
LGBTQ+ History Association
Organization of American Historians
Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era