Susan Trollinger

Susan Trollinger is a professor of English at the University of Dayton (Ohio) where, in addition to teaching a yearlong course that brings together the disciplines of history, religious studies, philosophy, and English to study the history of the West in global culture, she also teaches courses on writing, rhetorical theory, visual rhetoric, and the Amish. Trollinger’s expertise on the Amish grows out of fifteen years researching and writing her first book, Selling the Amish: The Tourism of Nostalgia (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012). That book takes a close look at what Amish Country tourism (especially in eastern Ohio) offers its visitors in the form of outdoor environments, interior décor, merchandise, and so forth.

Her most recent work on the Amish grows out of a second book that she coauthored with William Vance Trollinger, Jr., (professor of history and religious studies, University of Dayton). In that book, Righting America at the Creation Museum: Young Earth Creationism and the Culture Wars (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016), the authors offer a close reading of the Creation Museum (Petersburg, Kentucky), a 75,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility dedicated to the argument that a faithful reading of the book of Genesis obliges true Christians to hold to the notion that the universe was created in six twenty-four-hour days six thousand years ago. She and William Vance Trollinger, Jr., are currently working on an article about the growing enthusiasm that many Old Order Amish have for the Creation Museum (many Amish visit the museum each year) and its particular brand of Protestant fundamentalism.

Contact information:
http://www.udayton.edu/directory/artssciences/english/trollinger_susan.php