ABOUT MICHAEL GOODE

I am an associate professor of early American and Atlantic World history at Utah Valley University specializing in religion and political culture, Native American history, slavery and abolition, and peace history. 

I research and write about how early modern peoples thought about and negotiated violence, colonialism, and warfare — and what this tells us about our present-day engagement with these vexing problems. My current book project examines the role of peace as a language and practice of “right ordering” in colonial Pennsylvania and the mid-Atlantic frontier. My research and teaching competencies are in Anglo-America and the early modern British Atlantic, but my academic interests are broad and reflect my commitment to doing spatially, chronologically, and conceptually inclusive work.

My interest in history began when I was an undergraduate at Goshen College in Indiana, where my coursework in history, business, and economics emphasized peace and justice-related themes. I obtained my PhD in the Department of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2012. My graduate training in the Encounters Program (with an emphasis on Atlantic World history) informs my research and teaching about colonial America. Corey Capers was my advisor and mentor. 

I was a fellow at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania in 2010-11 academic year, and I have also held fellowships at the Library Company of Philadelphia and the American Philosophical Society. 

In recent years, I have made contributions to several public history projects. I have advised on the Digital Paxton and Ghost River exhibits for the Library Company of Philadelphia and assisted with the preparation of primary source materials for History Making Productions, a film and media company that created a series of historical documentaries on colonial Philadelphia.

I live in Salt Lake City, but I spent most of my adult life in Chicago, my hometown. Before graduate school I worked as a broker’s assistant at the Chicago Board of Trade. I also have experience in conflict resolution and peacebuilding, including working for a mediation center in Chicago.