Dr. Christopher Bishop

Dr. Christopher Bishop is a graduate of Erskine College (B.A., History, 2002), Western Carolina University (M.A., American History, 2010), and Auburn University (Ph.D., American History, 2018). A native of South Carolina, he came to JSU in 2019 after teaching courses in World History, American History, and Western Civilization at Auburn University, Auburn University at Montgomery, and Jefferson State Community College in Birmingham. 

Dr. Bishop is a historian of American religion with a special emphasis on the U. S. South. He is currently revising his book manuscript entitled, Methodism, the Middle Class, and the Making of the New South, 1866-1894, which examines the ways in which religion influenced the New South project and how prominent laymen from the business, legal, and professional world successfully modernized the Southern Methodist Church along the lines of the American mainstream. 

Dr. Bishop has published a number of works for scholarly and general audiences. These include “New Deal Communities: Table Rock State Park, Pickens County, and the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression” for an edited anthology available from the University of South Carolina Press and a history of Methodist church architecture recently published by the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church. In addition, Dr. Bishop has contributed several op-eds to media outlets, including one which recently appeared in the History News Network. 

Dr. Bishop currently teaches both halves of the American History survey at JSU.