Introducing Rhinehart Postdoctoral Fellow, Joshua Rodda
Dr. Joshua Rodda is the 2018–2019 Rhinehart Postdoctoral Fellow in British History. He will spend the academic year at Appalachian State University conducting research in the Rhinehart Collection in Special Collections about the history of Tudor and Stuart England through literature and theology. He is interested in the fictional religious dialogue in England in the early 17th century and how ordinary people interacted with religious writing and ideas. The Rhinehart Collection includes original printed copies of several of the dialogues in which he is interested, along with texts that contain background information for the project. Specifically, he is examining a 1630 copy of Ambrose Fisher’s The Defence of the Liturgie of the Church of England, and a 1673 edition of William Laud’s A Relation of a Conference.
Dr. Rodda grew up in the United Kingdom, in the city of Lincoln. He received his undergraduate, masters, and PhD degree in history from the University of Nottingham. He is particularly interested in the 16th and 17th century and is passionate about writing and teaching. His first book Public Religious Disputation in England, 1558–1626 was published in 2014.
In his research, he is especially fascinated by the Catholic and Protestant divide after the English Reformation and the interactions of people of different religions in this time period. He hopes to use his research with the Rhinehart Collection to complete a draft of his second book entitled Dialogue and the Early Stuart Church, 1603–1650.
You can reach Joshua Rodda by email roddajm@appstate.edu or stop by his office in Belk Library and Information Commons, Room 434.
