Carl J. Strikwerda, Ph.D.

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Carl J. Strikwerda, Ph.D., was named president‐elect of Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, on Jan. 11, 2011. He assumed leadership of the private, co‐educational institution on Aug. 1, 2011.

Strikwerda was formerly dean of the faculty of arts and sciences at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va. In this role, he directed 378 faculty, 21 departments and 14 interdisciplinary programs that serve 5,600 students, including 500 graduate students in seven doctoral and 11 master’s degree programs. During his seven years at William & Mary, Strikwerda oversaw the construction of science buildings, created a student faculty research initiative, and helped to win grants from the Freeman, Gates, Hewlett and Mellon foundations, as well as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a number of federal agencies. In addition to his administrative responsibilities, he regularly taught a course on global history and advised international relations majors.

Strikwerda is a specialist in modern European history and the history of globalization. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Calvin College and holds a master’s degree in history from the University of Chicago and a doctorate in history from the University of Michigan. He taught at the State University of New York at Purchase and the University of California at Riverside before becoming a faculty member of the University of Kansas’ Department of History in 1987. At the University of Kansas, he was promoted to full professor and named associate dean of liberal arts and sciences in 1998. During his tenure at the institution, he helped create the European studies program and a peace and conflict studies minor; he led study‐abroad programs to Europe; and he won a Kemper Fellowship for excellence in teaching. In addition, Strikwerda helped to develop an indigenous nations studies program and forged strong ties with Haskell Indian Nations University, the nation’s largest Native American college. He left the University of Kansas in 2004 to accept the position of Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the College of William & Mary.

Throughout his career, Strikwerda has promoted international studies by leading study‐abroad programs to Europe, working on a joint degree program with St. Andrew’s University in Scotland and expanding the teaching of Arabic and Chinese. In addition, he was active in the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences (CCAS), the professional association of arts and sciences deans. He served as CCAS treasurer and as a member of its board of directors; he oversaw the organization’s national headquarters, which is located at William & Mary; and he offered numerous presentations for CCAS at workshops and conferences. Strikwerda has taught more than 30 different courses on such topics as World War I, Hitler and Nazi Germany, the history of war and peace, the Holocaust, and globalization in history. He served as the historical consultant to the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, Mo. In addition, Strikwerda has given numerous talks to business groups, schools and religious organizations on World War I, European history and globalization.

Strikwerda has published three books and a number of articles on international history. The books include “Consumers Against Capitalism? Consumer Cooperation in Europe, North America, and Japan, 1840‐1990” (1999), a collection of essays co‐edited with Ellen Furlough; “A House Divided: Catholics, Socialists, and Flemish Nationalists in Nineteenth Century Belgium” (1997); and “The Politics of Immigrant Workers: Labor Activism and Migration in the World Economy, 1830 to the Present” (1998), a volume co‐edited with Camille Guerin‐Gonzales. He currently is working on a book, tentatively titled “The World at the Crossroads: The Great War and the Re‐Making of Modern History.”

His graduate study was supported by fellowships from the Belgian American Educational Foundation and a Charlotte Newcombe Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. He has received post‐doctoral grants and fellowships from the American Philosophical Society, the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Strikwerda is married to Gail Bossenga, formerly an associate professor of history at William & Mary. Bossenga is an appointed scholar‐in‐residence at Elizabethtown College.