Paul Otto
Professor of History
On Sabbatical, Spring 2009
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.
Otto's research has focused upon Dutch-Native American relations in colonial New York. 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. He is currently 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.
His teaching duties include America and the World, Latin America, Southern Africa, the African-American experience, Colonial America, and the Making of the American Republic.
Prior to his sabbatical, Paul Otto served as the chair of the Department of History and Political Science since 2005 and as 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: Wampum and the Shaping of the Early American Frontier”
- “Henry Hudson’s 1609 Voyage: Its Significance for New York History” (commemorating 400th anniversary)
- “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)
