Rebecca Koerselman

In 1883, Mary Mallon immigrated to New York City. Alone. At the age of 14, Mary left her home in Cookstown, Ireland and journeyed to NYC, where she lived with her aunt and uncle. Mary left no record of this…

Lisa was one of our favorite babysitters. Her family lived in our neighborhood and Lisa included us in the neighborhood goings-on. We loved that about her, especially as we got older and recognized the generosity required to include dorky little…

Toshiko Sasaki worked as a clerk at the East Asia Tin Works factory. She made breakfast for her family, cleaned up, then proceeded to her forty-five minute commute to work. Toshiko took charge of the personnel records in the factory…

A few weeks ago, I gave an overview of the ways that Christians wrestled with reforming American society.  What is the best way to change behavior and what is the role of the state in encouraging or enforcing that behavior?…

Whether or not we are willing to admit it, we are all reformers in some way. Most of us spend a great deal of time and energy fixing problems and attempting to make our lives better in some way. Many…

Historian and international relations theorist E.H. Carr famously defined history this way: “My first answer, therefore, to the question, What is History?, is that it is a continuous process of interaction between the historian and his (or her) facts, an…

One of my favorite sounds in the world is the deep laughter of children. A few nights ago, while reading a bedtime story, my two-year-old was clutching her stuffed narwhal, and the tusk somehow managed poke into my nose. My…

I regularly meet with prospective college students and always end up asking the same question. “Out of curiosity, how do you decide where to attend college? How do you make your decision?” I have since learned that I do not…

In twentieth century America, hospitality began to regain some cultural footing. Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin founded the Catholic Worker movement in the 1930s and offered soup kitchens, communitarian farms, and voluntary poverty as a way of expressing Christian hospitality.…

Hospitality has a rich history, though the practice of hospitality by God’s people was supposed to differ from the dominant cultural norms of the day. For example, the Quar’an sees generosity as an ethical imperative; Hindus are to treat the…