Gretchen Buggeln

Gretchen Buggeln holds the Phyllis and Richard Duesenberg Chair of Christianity and the Arts in Christ College, the Honors College of Valparaiso University.  From 1994-2004 she served as associate professor in the Winterthur Program for Early American Culture and as director of the Winterthur Museum’s residential research fellowship program.  She holds a B.A. in history from Dartmouth College, an M.A. in Early American Culture from the University of Delaware, and a Ph. D. in American studies from Yale University.  Buggeln is the author of the award-winning Temples of Grace: The Material Transformation of Connecticut’s Churches, 1790-1840 as well as numerous book chapters and articles on religious architecture and artifacts, museums, and American religious history.  Her current book project, Churches for Today: Modernism and Suburban Expansion in Post WWII America, is an exploration of 1950s and 60s modern-style churches in the Midwest—their architecture, their architects, and their congregations.