Biography
Though retired, I still research and write about Dutch immigration to the United States, especially the streams of people who settled in Northern New Jersey and Minnesota. I follow the Minnesota Twins faithfully and occasionally work on both my stamp collection (Central Europe and the British Empire) and my model railroad.
Education
- B.A., History, Calvin College
- M.A., European History, University of Kentucky
- M.A., U.S. History, University of Delaware
- Ph.D., major field: 19th century U.S. social history, minor field: 19th century Western European social history, University of Delaware
Academic Interests
Bob Schoone-Jongen, who taught high school history for 27 years before coming to Calvin, was the advisor for secondary education in history and social studies. He co-directed the 2012 NEH Summer Institute for Teachers, “American Frontiers in Global Perspective.”
There are three historical themes that Professor Schoone-Jongen finds fascinating: human migration patterns, the definitions people give themselves and place upon others, and the manner in which events are interpreted both at the moment and after the fact. The specific historical contexts upon which he concentrates are immigration to the United States through 1920, the American presidency, and the impact of religion on everyday lives.
Dr. Schoone-Jongen continues study, write, and teach. He is scheduled to teach a CALL class at Calvin, “Big Business, Big Money, Big Power: Industrialization and the United States (1850-1930)” and an class at Aquinas College, “The 1619 Project and the Search for Historical Truth”. He has been lecturing on the topic, “First Class, Second Class, Steerage: Three Voyages from Rotterdam to Hoboken and Beyond” to gatherings of the Netherland American Foundation in Washington DC and the Edgerton, Minnesota Public Library. He is scheduled to give the lecture in Pella, Iowa in October 2022. His article “Abraham Vermeulen: Over the River’s Undertaker” about the early years of Paterson, New Jersey’s Dutch immigrant community appeared in Origins during 2021.
Read on Historical Horizons, the history department blog.
