Current Plaudits

Learn more about our faculty

Rachel Goossen

Professor, history

Book reviews

  • "Acts of Conscience: Christian Nonviolence and Modern American Democracy" by Joseph Kip Kosek (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009). Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice (forthcoming).
  • "More Than a Farmer's Wife: Voices of American Farm Women, 1910-1960" by Amy Matteson Lauters (Columbia, Mo.:  University of Missouri Press, 2009). American Studies Journal (forthcoming).
  • "A New Heartland: Women, Modernity and the Agrarian Ideal in America" by Janet Galligani Casey (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). American Studies Journal (forthcoming).
  • "Acts of Consceicne: World War II, Mental Institutions and Religious Objectors" by Steven J. Taylor (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2009). Mennonite Quarterly Review (forthcoming).
  • "Revusing War, Affirming Peace: A History of Civilian Public Service Camp #21 at Cascade Locks" by Jeffrey Kovac (Corvallis, Ore.: Oregon State University Press, 2009). Oregon Historical Quarterly (forthcoming).
  • "The Search for Negotiated Peace: Women Activism and Citizen Diplomacy in World War I" by David S. Patterson (New York: Routledge, 2008). Peace and Change (forthcoming).
  • "Diaspora in the Countryside:  Two Mennonite Communities and Mid-twentieth-century Rural Disjuncture" by Royden Lowen (Urbana, Ill.:  University of Illinois Press, 2006). Nova Religio (forthcoming).
  • "A School on the Prairie: A Centennial History of Hesston College, 1909-2009" by John E. Sharp (Scottsdale, Pa.: Herald Press). Mennonite Weekly Review February 2010.
  • "You Never Gave Me a Name: One Mennonite Woman's Story" by Katie Funk Wiebe (Telford, Pa.: Cascadia Publisying 2009). Mennonite Weekly Review Nov. 20, 2009.
  • "In Harm's Way:  A History of Christian Peacemaker Teams" by Kathleen Kern (Eugene, Ore.:  Cascade Books, 2009).  Mennonite Weekly Review, March 23, 2009.
  • "Mennonite Women in Canada:  A History" by Marlene Epp (Manitoba, Canada:  University of Manitoba Press, 2008). Journal of Mennonite Studies 27 (2009):  273-75.
  • "The Great Starvation Experiment by Todd Tucker " (New York:  Free Press, 2006). Mennonite Weekly Review, Dec. 22, 2008.Seven Steps to End War by Steven Ratzlaff (Bloomington, Ind.:  Xlibris, 2008).  Mennonite Weekly Review, Sept. 11, 2008.

Offices and appointments

  • President-elect, Phi Kappa Phi, Washburn chapter, 2009-2011
  • Coordinator, National History Day, Kansas, District 3
  • Judge, John Horsch Mennonite History Essay Contest

Presentations

  • "New Directions in Civilian Public Service Research," Bethel College Mennonite Church, North Newton, Kan., May 2010
  • Book discussion series panelist, Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, April 2010
  • "When is War Just?" Topeka Center for Peace and Justice International Remedy Series, Topeka, July 2009
  • "When is War Just?" (panelist), Topeka Center for Peace and Justice and Washburn School of Law, July 2009
  • "Contrasting the Current Economic Crisis with the Great Depression," Washburn Student Roundtable, March 2009
  • "Public history in 20th Century America" (panel chairwoman), Conference on Faith and History, Bluffton (Ohio) University, Sept. 2008
  • "The 1950s and 1960s," Tabor Mennonite Church centennial observance, Newton, Kan., August 2008

Kansas Humanities Council participation

  • "Kansans Remember World War II," Friends of Shawnee Town, Shawnee, Kan., May 2010; Doniphan County Historical Society, Wathena, Kan., and Aldersgate Village, Topeka, November 2009; and Glasco (Kan.) Community Foundation and Chanute (Kan.) PUblic Library, September 2009 (Kansas Humanities Scholar, Journey Stories Speakers Bureau, Remembering World War II)
  • "The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton" (discussion leader), Talk about Literature Program, Eureka (Kan.) Public Library, April 2010
  • "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (discussion leader), Talk about Literature Program, Tonganoxie (Kan.) Public Library, December 2009 and Atchison (Kan.) Public Library, March 2010
  • "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" (discussion leader), Talk about Literature Program, Newton (Kan.) Public Library, March 2010 and Lakeview Retirement Center, Lenexa, Kan., September 2009

Community involvement

  • Coordinator, National History Day, Kansas District 3
  • Humanities scholar, Talk about Literature Program, Kansas Humanities Council
  • Kansas humanities scholar,  Journey Stories Speakers Bureau, in conjunction with traveling Smithsonian exhibit "Remembering World War II"