Shelby Balik

Shelby M. Balik, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of History at Metropolitan State University of Denver where she teaches courses in early American history, American religious history, American slavery and social studies education. She is a former high school social studies teacher and still works with pre-service teachers and remains engaged in issues that affect public education. Her areas of expertise include American slavery, historical memory and American political Philosophy.

Balik has published in the “Journal of Church and State,” the “New England Quarterly,” the “Massachusetts Historical Review,” and the “Journal of Social History.”  Her book, “Rally the Scattered Believers: Northern New England’s Religious Geography” (Indiana, 2014), won the 2014 Phi Alpha Theta Best First Book Award, and she is currently researching a book on the politics and practice of household religion in eighteenth-century North America.

Balik earned her Ph.D. and master’s in early American history and religion from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006. In addition, she also has a master’s in education from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1994.