Paul Otto
Professor of History
Chair, Dept. of History, Politics, and International Studies
Director Liberal Arts Critical Issues Program
(GE Senior Capstone)
Box 6105
503-554-2676
potto@georgefox.edu
Paul Otto came to George Fox University in 2002 after teaching at Calvin College and Dordt College. He earned a BA at Dordt College, an MA at Western Washington University, and a PhD at Indiana University where he specialized in early America and Native American history. In 1993-1994, he was a Fulbright scholar in the Netherlands. Recognized for his wampum scholarship, the university awarded him a faculty achievement award in 2010.
Otto's research has focused upon Dutch-Munsee relations in colonial New York and more generally upon European-Native American relations. His first book, The Dutch-Munsee Encounter in America: The Struggle for Sovereignty in the Hudson Valley, is published by Berghahn Press. In 1998, he received the Hendricks Award for his work on Dutch-Indian interactions. In recognition for his work on New Netherland, he has been made a fellow of the New Netherland Institute and the Holland Society of New York.
Growing out of his original research on the early American frontier, Otto has also begun work on a new project focusing upon the use and development of wampum in the colonial northeast in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Spring of 2009 he was on sabbatical giving his attention to this project. In support of this research he has received a Andrew Mellon Fellowship at the Henry E. Huntington Library (San Marino, California) and an Earhart Research Grant. In 2010, he was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend.
Paul presented Beads of Power: A Short History of Wampum at the university's Fall Faculty Lecture on October 5, 2010.
His teaching duties include the American history survey, Latin America, Southern Africa, Colonial America, and the Making of the American Republic.
Paul Otto has been serving as the chair of the Department of History and Political Science since 2005 and is expanding to include International Studies Fall 2012. He will also serve as the Director of the Liberal Arts Critical Issues Program, which is the General Education Senior Capstone, effective Fall 2012. Paul is the advisor for the local chapter (Alpha-Eta-Omega) of Phi Alpha Theta, the History Honor Society. Additionally, Otto serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Early American History and on the board of trustees for Providence Christian College in Ontario, California.
Paul Otto is available to lecture on topics related to his research and teaching expertise. In particular, he is prepared to speak on the following topics:
- “Beads of Power: A Short History of Wampum”
- “Manhattan Island for Sale: The Meaning of Dutch-Munsee Indian Land Exchanges"
- “Wilden and Calvinisten: Native Americans, Dutch Attitudes, and Christian Missions in New Netherland”
- “Going Native: White Indians Take Hollywood Films Captive” (lecture and slide presentation)