Adapted from an announcement by the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church
J. Michael Utzinger has received the 2014 Nelson R. Burr Prize from the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church. Utzinger is Elliott Professor of Religion at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. The prize honors his essay “The Tragedy of Prince Edward: The Religious Turn and the Destabilization of One Parish’s Resistance to Integration, 1963-1965.”
The selection committee said the article was deeply researched in primary sources, well written, cognizant of pertinent scholarly work and presented a nuanced interpretation that placed local events in a larger scholarly context.
Utzinger carries a PhD in religious studies from the University of Virginia (2000), an MDiv from Yale University (1993) and a BA in theology from Valparaiso University (1990). He was a Lilly Fellow for the Arts and Humanities for 1999-2000. At Hampden-Sydney he has received the 2010 Cabell Award for Excellence in Teaching and been named the William W. Elliot Associate Professor of Religion in 2011.
Utzinger serves as moderator of the Southeastern Colloquium on American Religious Studies and is a contributing editor for the weblog Religion in American History. He is the secretary of the society but had no involvement in determining the award.
The Burr prize honors the renowned scholar whose two-volume A Critical Bibliography of Religion in America (Princeton, 1961) and other works constitute landmarks in the field of religious historiography. Each year a committee selects the author of the most outstanding article in the society’s journal, Anglican and Episcopal History, as the recipient. The award also honors that which best exemplifies excellence and innovative scholarship in the field of Anglican and Episcopal history.
