Melinda Zook
Please join me in congratulating Melinda Zook on her appointment as the Germaine Seelye Oesterle Chair in History.
A Purdue faculty member since 1993, Melinda has established herself as a scholar and advocate for general education. She is a specialist in the history of Tudor and Stuart England, political thought, and religion and women in early modern Europe. She has published articles on radical politics, martyrdom, women and religion, and teaching. She is the author of “Radical Whigs and Conspiratorial Politics in late Stuart England” (Penn State Press) and “Protestantism, Politics, and Women in Britain, 1660-1714” (Palgrave).
Melinda is the founding director of the Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts, a 15-credit certificate program designed to provide all students with the opportunity to broaden their understanding of the world and themselves while strengthening the skills to read closely, write clearly, speak with confidence, and engage with differing viewpoints and perspectives through general education courses. Cornerstone is the model for a national replication initiative to revitalize the role of the humanities in general education. The initiative is a collaboration between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Teagle Foundation. She was honored as a Purdue University Faculty Scholar in 2018 and received the Helen B. Schleman Gold Medallion Award from the Purdue Mortar Board Society in 2019.
The Purdue Board of Trustees ratified her appointment as the Germaine Seelye Oesterle Chair in History during their Feb. 4 meeting.
Congratulations, Professor Zook!
David A. Reingold
Justin S. Morrill Dean
College of Liberal Arts