Rate My Professor Brent Purkaple

Dr. Brent Purkaple is a Visiting Professor of History at Grand Valley State University, specializing in the history of science, technology, and medicine. A historian with a particular focus on premodern science, the history of science and religion, and the history of the book, he earned his Ph.D. in 2022 from the University of Oklahoma's Department of the History of Science. His dissertation, titled "Confessionalized Optics: The Society of Jesus and Early Modern Optics," investigates theories of optics and vision among the Jesuit Order, including their engagement with early modern cultures of optical illusion and visual wonder, and how these reframed the relationship between optics and theology. Additional degrees include an M.A. from the University of Oklahoma, an M.A. from Wheaton College, and a B.A. in Greek and Hebrew with a minor in History from Oklahoma Baptist University in 2007.

In his classes at Grand Valley State University, Purkaple emphasizes the importance of recognizing that science, technology, and medicine are stories with a history, pushing students to consider how such recognition influences individual and public perceptions of these areas. He is interested in the utility of the history of science, technology, and medicine for the broader public and has experience applying his professional skills in K-12 education and museum development. As a Ph.D. candidate, he received a Travel Fellowship from the Linda Hall Library in 2018-19 to research Jesuit books on optics, consulting works such as François d’Aguilon’s Opticorum libri sex (1613), Christoph Scheiner’s Oculus (1619 and 1652), Athanasius Kircher’s Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae (1646 and 1671), Gaspar Schott’s Magia universalis (1657), Mario Bettini’s Apiaria universae (1642), and others, with attention to their materiality and usage. Purkaple has published book reviews, including “Science, Religion, and the Historiography of the Galileo Affair: On the Undesirability of Oversimplification” in Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith and a review of A. Mark Smith’s Measuring Shadows: Kepler’s Optics of Invisibility in Early Science and Medicine 22 (2017).