Duane Stoltzfus

• Two recently published journal articles reflect his current research interest in conscientious objectors and citizenship, the subject of a book manuscript. In 2021, Peace & Change: A Journal of Peace Research published “When an American Pacifist Became an Alien in Her Own Homeland (and Had to Be Ready to Kill to Reclaim Her Citizenship).” In 2019,  The Mennonite Quarterly Review published “‘Nurse Without a Country’: When a Mennonite Who Refused to Bear Arms Prevailed in Her Bid for Citizenship.” The subjects of both articles were young women and conscientious objectors who found their petitions for citizenship blocked when they refused to promise to bear arms in defense of the nation. The guiding case was Schwimmer v. the United States, in which the Supreme Court denied citizenship to Rosika Schwimmer in 1929. It took the Supreme Court two decades to open a clear pathway  to citizenship for conscientious objectors.    
• In December 2013, Johns Hopkins University Press released his book on Hutterite conscientious objectors during World War I. The narrative follows the experiences of three brothers (Joseph, Michael, and David Hofer) and a brother-in-law (Jacob Wipf), who were sentenced to 20 years of hard labor and served time both at Alcatraz and at Fort Leavenworth. Two of the brothers died at Leavenworth. A series of book presentations and signings accompanied the release, beginning with First Friday in Goshen at Better World Books in December. He has made more than a dozen presentations on the book; they are listed below. In 2017, he joined a Hutterite storyteller, Dora Maendel, in presenting a keynote presentation at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City; presentations followed in 2018 at Messiah College and Elizabethtown College. He presented the story at Schmeckfest in Freeman, S.D., in March 2022. For more information, see the Johns Hopkins University Press catalog.
• Launched Goshen Write on Sports camp in July 2013. Served as director of the Goshen camp for the first five years. This is a two-week camp for middle-school students that teaches writing skills by tapping into their love for sports. After a pause because of Covid, the camp returned to action in the summer of 2024, under the local leadership of Robina Sommers, an assistant professor in the Education Department. The camp was developed in partnership with Goshen Community Schools. Byron Yake founded Write on Sports in New Jersey in 2005.
• Edited a book, The Goshen College Guide to Studying and Serving Abroad: Essays on Intercultural Learning, that draws on the experiences and expertise of faculty and students who have participated in Study-Service Term. The book was published by Pinchpenny Press in April 2017.

“Love of Country Distilled to a Question: When Pacifism Became a Litmus Test for Citizenship,” C. Henry Smith Peace Lecture, Bluffton University and Goshen College, March 2023.

Presentations on Standing in Chains at the Schmeckfest in Freeman, South Dakota (March 2022); at Bluffton University (April 2019), Elizabethtown College (June 2018), Messiah College (February 2018), the National World War I Museum (October 2017), Kauffman Museum in Kansas (October 2017), the Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies at Tabor College (May 2017), the Saskatchewan Hutterian Educators Association (October 2015),  Wisconsin Workshop, international symposium sponsored by the Department of German and Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, University of Wisconsin at Madison (October 2015), Elizabethtown College (February 2014), Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society (May 2014), Hutterite colonies in Manitoba (May 2014), and McNally Robinson Booksellers in Winnipeg (May 2014).

Interview source for “The Mennonite National Anthem” episode of Revisionist History with Malcolm Gladwell, October 2022.

“I Conscientiously Object,” a segment featuring an account of the Hutterites who were imprisoned at Alcatraz during World War I, interview with Ed Ayers, BackStory with the American History Guys, December 2016.

“Standing in Chains at Alcatraz: When Hutterites Were Called to War,” chapel presentations at Lancaster Mennonite School and Christopher Dock Mennonite High School, September 2012.

“Changing Standards for Offensive Language: Gate Widens at The New Yorker,” Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Chicago, August 2012.

“Standing in Chains at Alcatraz: When Hutterites Were Called to War,” C. Henry Smith Peace Lecture, Bluffton University, February 2012; Goshen College, March 2012.

Communication and Society

A study of the field of mass communication and its role in contemporary society. A version of the course developed for the Core is called “Digital Age.” The course includes an overview of the history and development of the mass media, with an emphasis on major changes since 2000.

Feature Writing

Students explore different genres of feature writing, including an op-ed piece; a personality profile; a human-interest story; a critical review of a book, restaurant, movie or other subject; and a news feature. All pieces are developed over multiple drafts and submitted for publication.

Media Law and Ethics

The course provides an introduction to the U.S. legal system and issues like access to information, conflicts of interest, deception, fairness, libel, obscenity, plagiarism and privacy. The course is also devoted to models of ethical decision-making as they are applied to mass media issues, with special attention given to Christian perspectives.

Communication Research

This course serves as an introduction to theory building and research methodology of mass communication. In providing an overview of communication research, attention will be paid to both quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Reporting for the Public Good

This course envisions the broader Goshen community as an extended classroom, replete with interesting and important stories to tell. In reporting off campus, students will produce stories that can be shared with a diverse audience through multiple channels.

Writing for Media

We focus on the time-honored journalistic enterprise: gathering the facts and telling the story. Assignments include breaking news, sports, blog posts, personal radio essay, political reports, features.

Review of Fighting Words: The Bold American Journalists Who Brought the World Home Between the Wars, in The Journal of American History, June 2021.

“When an American Pacifist Became an Alien in Her Own Homeland (and Had to Be Ready to Kill to Reclaim Her Citizenship),” Peace & Change: A Journal of Peace Research, March 2021.

” ‘Nurse Without a Country’: When a Mennonite Who Refused to Bear Arms Prevailed in Her Bid for Citizenship,” The Mennonite Quarterly Review, July 2019.

An introductory essay for a book,  Forever God Is Faithful: The Story of Camp Deerpark (Masthof Press, 2019), which commemorates the 50th anniversary of the camp, situated in Westbrookville, about 75 miles north of New York City. Camp Deerpark is owned by the Mennonite churches in the city.

Chapter in Bearing Witness: Stories of Martyrdom and Costly Discipleship (Plough Publishing, 2016). The chapter is based on an article published in Plough Quarterly, “The Martyrs of Alcatraz,” in Summer 2014.

Pacifists in Chains: The Persecution of Hutterites during the Great War documents the disturbing history of four pacifists imprisoned for their refusal to serve during World War I. The book was featured in the fall 2013 catalog of the Johns Hopkins University Press and was released in December. The book was reviewed in Hutt-Write Voice (May 2014); The Mennonite (May 2014); Sojourners (May 2014); Mennonite World Review (March 17, 2014); Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage (January 2014); Lancaster Newspapers (Dec. 15, 2013); and Englewood Review of Books (Oct. 25, 2013).

“Armed With Prayer in an Alcatraz Dungeon: The Wartime Experiences of Four Hutterite C.O.’s in Their Own Words,” The Mennonite Quarterly Review, April 2011.

“Collaboration and Conscience,” Media Ethics, Spring 2011.

“Partial Pre-Publication Review Gaining Favor at Newspapers,” Newspaper Research Journal, Fall 2006.

Freedom from Advertising: E.W. Scripps’s Chicago Experiment (A volume in The History of Communication series, edited by Robert W. McChesney and John C. Nerone, University of Illinois Press, 2007).

2022-23 C. Henry Smith Peace Lectureship, “Love of Country Distilled to a Question: When Pacifism Became a Litmus Test for Citizenship”

2011-12 C. Henry Smith Peace Lectureship, “Armed Only with Prayer During the Great War: A Story of Hutterite Brothers in the Dungeons of Alcatraz”

2005  Top Three Faculty Paper, Newspaper Division, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication

2002  Dissertation Prize, American Journalism Historians Association, Honorable Mention

1993  Livingston Awards finalist (for top journalists in the nation under age 34)

• Peru (2007-2008)
• Peru (2014-2015)

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2000-present

Professor of Communication
Goshen College

2021-present

Director of Adult and Graduate Programs

Goshen College

2000-2024

Faculty adviser for The Goshen College Record 

Goshen College

2004-2022

Copy editor of The Mennonite Quarterly Review

Goshen College

2016-2019

Director of the Core general education program

Goshen College

1997-2000

Staff editor 

The New York Times