Kirsten Fischer

Kirsten Fischer is a Professor in the History Department at the University of Minnesota. She specializes in US social and intellectual history, colonial America, race and gender dynamics, and religious history. Her research explores intersections of race, religion, and resistance in early American societies. She has held visiting professor roles at Sorbonne University (Paris, 2023) and the University of Graz (Austria, 2025), and was a Fulbright scholar at the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (2011–12).

Education:

• PhD in History, Duke University, 1994
• MA in History, Duke University, 1989
• BA (cum laude) in Comparative Literature, Smith College, 1985

Research Interests: Dr. Fischer’s work examines race, religion, and cultural encounters in early America. Her first book Suspect Relations (2002) analyzed racial hierarchies in colonial North Carolina, while her second book American Freethinker (2021) traced religious freedom movements through the lens of Elihu Palmer’s ideas. Her current project explores her family’s history in 20th-century Germany via a hybrid memoir.

Teaching & Awards: A dedicated educator, Fischer received the Horace T. Morse Award (2011) and the Arthur 'Red' Motley Award (2025). She teaches courses on radical environmentalism, history through memoir, and a learning abroad program in Berlin (starting 2026).