Bruce L. Kinzer earned his BA from Eastern Michigan University in 1969, his MA from the University of Michigan in 1970, and his PhD from the University of Toronto in 1975. After working as a post-doctoral fellow for four years, he taught British history at McMaster University, before moving on the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where he moved through the ranks and served a four-year term as chair of the department of history. In the spring of 1996, he held a visiting fellowship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford University. He joined the faculty at Kenyon in 2000 as chair of the history department, remaining in that position through June 2004.

Areas of Expertise

Modern British history and the British empire

Education

1975 — Doctor of Philosophy from Univ Toronto

1970 — Master of Arts from Univ Michigan Ann Arbor

1969 — Bachelor of Arts from Eastern Michigan University

Courses Recently Taught

From its beginnings as a state, Britain has been constituted from an amalgamation of different peoples and identities. This course traces the history of Britain from its reconstitution under the Tudor dynasty to its present incarnation as the United Kingdom. We follow a series of important, yet seemingly contradictory, questions: How did a state controlled by powerful monarchs generate a strong and lasting parliamentary government? How did centuries of religious conflict and persecution produce a legacy of tolerance? How did the development of liberalism spur both mass enfranchisement and education, at the same time as it endorsed colonial conquest and fostered deep-seated inequities in the modern state? Throughout, we pay particular attention to the ways in which race, class and gender figured into the lived experience of Britons – questioning the ever-shifting boundaries of ‘Britishness’ itself. This counts toward the modern and Europe requirement for the major. No prerequisite. Offered every year.