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Tucker Adkins

De Vries Instructional Fellow

Biography

I am a native of Knoxville, Tennessee. I am married to Shannon, and we have three kids, Anna, Isaac, and Lucas. When I am not helping chase around our trio of children, I love meeting new people, drinking local coffee, connecting with my parish church, and cheering on the University of Tennessee’s various athletic programs.

Education

  • PhD, American religious history, The Florida State University (dissertation defended with distinction
  • MA, American religious history, The Florida State University
  • BA, History, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Academic Interests

I am a historian of American religion, with a particular focus on religious experience and lay spirituality in the early modern British Atlantic world. My current book project, “New Birth, New World: Space, Sound, and the Body in the Eighteenth-Century Protestant Awakenings,” illustrates how the so-called “Evangelical Revival” prompted the production of an entirely new religious sensorium. Leaning on manuscript research from nearly 100 collections across 42 archives in 3 different countries, this project shows how religious radicalism—including unrestrained shouting, bodily convulsion, and outdoor assemblies—defined awakened Protestantism in England, North America, Scotland, and Wales. My related scholarship has appeared (and is forthcoming) in peer-reviewed outlets such as Fides et Historia, New England Quarterly, Maryland Historical Magazine, and Scottish Church History.

As a post-doc fellow at Calvin, I was able to direct Calvin's Semester in Britain, which took place in Liverpool, England.