Bio

Degree

PhD in History

University of Wisconsin-Madison

MA in History

University of Wisconsin-Madison

MA in Education

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

BA in History, American Studies

Brown University

Published Works

• Balik, M. S. (2024). Religion and the State. (pp 9-17). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003299721-3
• Balik, M. S. (2024). "'Userped Athority’: Liberty, Mastery, and Religious Strife in Eighteenth-Century New England Marriages". Massachusetts Historical Review, New Series, vol. 4(2024). .
• Balik, M. S. (2023). Review of Carl R. Loundsbury, ed., The Material World of Eyre Hall: Four Centuries of Chesapeake History (Baltimore: Maryland Center for History and Culture, 2021). Journal of Southern History,
• Balik, M. S. . "Every House a Church and State: Piety, Authority, and the Problem of Family Governance in the Early Republic". (). .
• Balik, M. S. . "True Virtue: Edwardsean Benevolence and the Search for a National Covenant". (). .
• Balik, M. S. (2022). Review of Seeman, Erik R., Speaking with the Dead in Early America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019).. American Historical Review,
• Balik, M. S. (2022). "Delivery and Deliverance: Childbirth as Religious Experience in Eighteenth-Century America". Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture, 91(1), 62-82. https://churchhistory.org/journal/.
• Balik, M. S. (2021). Review of Corrigan, John, Religious Intolerance, America, and the World: A History of Forgetting and Remembering (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020).. Journal of American History,
• Balik, M. S. (2021). Review of Baldwin, Peter C., Angel on a Freight Train: A Story of Faith and Queer Desire in Nineteenth-Century America (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2020).. Journal of the History of Sexuality,
• Balik, M. S. (2021). Review of Koch, Philippa, The Course of God’s Providence: Religion, Health and the Body in Early America (New York: New York University Press, 2021). . Nursing Clio, https://nursingclio.org/2021/07/28/diseases-of-body-and-soul-a-review-of-philippa-kochs-the-course-of-gods-providence/
• Balik, M. S. (2021). Review of Johnson, Noel D. and Mark Koyama, Persecution and Toleration: The Long Road to Religious Freedom (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019). . H-Nationalism, H-Net Reviews., https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=55641
• Balik, M. S. (2020). "Donald Trump’s Disregard for Our Transition Rituals Threatens Our Democracy". Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/11/12/donald-trumps-disregard-our-transition-rituals-threatens-our-democracy/
• Balik, M. S. (2020). Review of Grainger, Bret Malcolm. Church in the Wild: Evangelicals in Antebellum America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2019).. New England Quarterly, https://watermark.silverchair.com/tneq_r_00833.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAAsEwggK9BgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggKuMIICqgIBADCCAqMGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQMUN-r6AmXv_WbEl76AgEQgIICdEOOf9UxRNLgRldYmB9tItiS_ddoySn-1_hHI7uBRC8ZGxFjHJsvFVWhCpje1ES_BO5Y8c-3dtdVOz0K9d0vHNNvVuQ0NBm7kzCQuvYU2_gU7Ch3yrYfKsEc6zNWvOdOkCEnXAEeS8MsD_kZ9AhPskjYHH3JQUOQ2TxUg6CFOZZ51xNZVi8fnfdkdK9P0s1nbx7uoXacL9vJs7E9dC1qJ0qGkzi5oAzRkn8PaA9kejOcgkjdXdWTAk94wW9AwAWSMY0jFwZ4gelDZ4xxAKYJUVZ_9omL0nGflUnyJzsxWO7vI_KebZynwoa8V0h3Q8-2yryilmIZY1MKLx0vTM5mJrH07FVHKOsrklFKJtO60RkkoMgvmKc5MY5jfWPmtsZVwGufnrXD1AhbJ_QxdAdyqiMw9SzT_KcefhUZjWtV_JTmGQSa8E6bSHk7KyZ00QjePHiAsg1934BRutxEGFy8ZOxVszzrHBYTQZEww6bTWFcD6SUOd-awYj68NOw9-8UTE3K18iYbfaGiWO9x3WCyVOaSBRx9q8lY8V5cp4eZlnCvk5wSQt57s3P2fxEdAz0id0nGDBgl2eM6pqPczt6Y6dMpa4pw2MxfQjCDZgBf5dkjRzBoAPeCJYCOEcppDzBDTeeu9aaCoBBfgbGClyn3QBboReJ4s8V2absDNO4kzNQsViVN-OmbvexEAsIn011dioCHX_tMdtEIP6Vmox9rFXPXaiqSI0Oa6RSP5O-MH3GmzcipnUjBVwIQV3INmjUUtB_dQKJNX1F9nC6w46cGChAtg-I5bGZZRG21ca4So4qbVK8NNZJmStLN6rd0IzFt-iWW6Rg
• Balik, M. S. (2020). "Churchgoers, Stay Home -- It's the American Way." Religion Dispatches, April 30, 2020.. Religion Dispatches, https://religiondispatches.org/churchgoers-stay-home-its-the-american-way/
• Balik, M. S. (2020). Review of Thomas, George. The Founders and the Idea of a National University: Constituting the American Mind (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2015).. Journal of American History, https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/106/4/1056/5741535
• Balik, M. S. (2019). "In the Interest of True Religion: Disestablishment in Vermont". (). . https://democracy.missouri.edu/publications/disestablishment-and-religious-dissent-church-state-relations-in-the-new-american-states-1776-1833/
• Balik, M. S. (2018). Review of Kosek, Joseph Kip, ed. American Religion, American Politics: An Anthology (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017). Canadian Journal of History , https://muse.jhu.edu/article/700827
• Balik, M. S. (2018). Review of Hammond, Geordan, and David Ceri Jones, eds. George Whitefield: Life, Context, Legacy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016) . Church History , https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/church-history/article/abs/george-whitefield-life-context-and-legacy-edited-by-geordan-hammond-and-david-ceri-jones-oxford-oxford-university-press-2016-xiii-329-pp-10500-cloth/9326C96CB543E4DB83F03CBB9718E69F
• Balik, M. S. (2018). Review of Moyer, Paul B. The Public Universal Friend: Jemima Wilkinson and Religious Enthusiasm in Revolutionary America (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2015).. Journal of the Early Republic, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/687323/pdf
• Balik, M. S. (2018). Review of Howe, Nicolas. Landscapes of the Secular: Law, Religion, and American Sacred Space (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017). . Journal of Church and State, https://academic.oup.com/jcs/article-abstract/60/1/164/4757456
• Balik, M. S. (2017). Review of Winiarski, Douglas L., Darkness Falls in the Land of Light: Experiencing Religious Awakenings in Eighteenth-Century New England (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017). . Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History , https://muse.jhu.edu/article/678801/summary
• Balik, M. S. (2017). Review of Shefsiek, Kenneth. Set in Stone: Creating and Commemorating a Hudson Valley Culture (Albany: SUNY Press, 2017). . , http://www.choiceconnect.org/webclipping/204425/h2vky99pptht0mphwxa7twwajfrv3wp-l-j08gnkzv5w9i4t75
• Balik, M. S. (2017). "'Dear Christian Friends': Charity Bryant, Sylvia Drake, and the Making of a Spiritual Network". Journal of Social History, 50(Summer 2017), 630-54. .
• Balik, M. S. (2016). Review of Jay, Bethany, and Cynthia Lyerly, eds., Understanding and Teaching American Slavery (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2016).. Teaching History, https://go.gale.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CA474721436&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=07301383&p=AONE&sw=w
• Balik, M. S. (2016). Review of Gin Lum, Kathryn, Damned Nation: Hell in America from the Revolution to Reconstruction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014).. Journal of Southern Religion, jsreligion.org/vol18/
• Balik, M. S. (2016). “Benevolent Societies,” “Case, Isaac,” “Chase, Philander,” “Grimké, Sarah Moore,” “Kirkland, Samuel,” “Lyon, Mary,” and “Savage, Mary". Rowman and LIttlefield, https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442244313/Encyclopedia-of-Christianity-in-the-United-States-5-Volumes
• Balik, M. S. (2016). Review of Richard, Carl J. The Founders and The Bible (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016). Choice, choiceconnect.org/webclipping/199564/9z7ja8zvi0-fg-vfz295ieqj-dq_ognk6hu6dhplformmara3o
• Balik, M. S. (2016). Review of Richard, Mark Paul, Not a Catholic Nation: The Ku Klux Klan Confronts New England in the 1920s (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2015). Choice,
• Balik, M. S. (2016). Review of Francis Bremer, "Lay Empowerment and the Development of Puritanism" (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).. Journal of American History, www.journalofamericanhistory.org/
• Balik, M. S. (2015). Review of Sam Haselby, "The Origins of American Religious Nationalism" (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).. Choice, http://choiceconnect.org/webclipping/191920/-seo4tkrqimg3wd-arkow_s5kcnycqma9qp101gn0suzcxydd0
• Balik, M. S. (2015). Review of Katherine Grandjean, "American Passage: The Communications Frontier in Early New England" (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014).. Choice, http://choiceconnect.org/webclipping/189597/c3cwe9zrpfawy_vkq7zy3ej_233u4wr6muqqre87k8q08_hl78
• Balik, M. S. (2014). Review of Mary Babson Fuhrer, A Crisis of Community: The Trials and Transformations of a New England Town (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014).. Journal of American History, http://www.journalofamericanhistory.org/ br_12-069_Balik_Shelby-1.pdf
• Balik, M. S. (2014). Rally the Scattered Believers: Northern New England's Religious Geography. (). Indiana University Press. https://iupress.org/9780253012104/rally-the-scattered-believers/
• Balik, M. S. (2013). "'Persecuted in the Bowels of a Free Republic': Samuel Ely and the Agrarian Theology of Justice, 1768-1797". Massachusetts Historical Review, 159-122. .
• Balik, M. S. (2012). Review of Paul C. Gutjahr, Charles Hodge: Guardian of American Orthodoxy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).. History: Reviews of New Books (Routledge), https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03612759.2012.669304
• Balik, M. S. (2010). "'Scattered as Christians Are in This Part of Our Country': Layfolk's Reading, Writing, and Religious Community in New England's Northern Frontier, 1780-1830". New England Quarterly, 8307-40. .
• Balik, M. S. (2010). "Religion". Facts on File,
• Balik, M. S. (2008). "Equal Right and Equal Privilege: Separating Church and State in Vermont". Journal of Church and State, 503-48. .

Research Interests

I am particularly interested in how early Americans experienced religion, not so much through institutions and formal worship, but in the course of their everyday lives. My first book explores the religious geography (that is, the changing spatial and spiritual layout of churchgoers, clergy, and churches) in Northern New England, and how a shifting religious landscape gave way to new kinds of spiritual communities and identities. I am currently at work on two book projects: a monograph that will examine household religion in eighteenth-century America, and a documentary eition (co-edited with Dr. Joyce Goodfriend of the University of Denver) of records of the first Moravian church of New York City during the colonial and revolutionary eras.

Teaching Interests

Understanding history is more important now than ever. Your history classes can help you make sense of the word of politics, international conflict, and social strife. It can help you decode fake news (and fake history, for that matter), and it can help you think and write in a more sophisticated manner. All of these skills will not only make you more employable, but they will help you navigate an often confusing world.

My teaching interests lie in all eras of early American history, along with American slavery, religious history, and social studies teaching preparations. In all of these courses, I hope to help students to develop their skills as historians, writers, and critical consumers of media.

Office Hours

Tuesday - [12:30 to 3:00]

Thursday - [12:30 to 3:00]
or by appointment

Additional Information

www.shelbymbalik.com/