Rate My Professor David Zwart

David Zwart is Assistant Chair and Associate Professor of History at Grand Valley State University. He earned a Ph.D. in History from Western Michigan University in 2012, an M.A. in History from California State University, Fresno in 2004, and a B.A. in History and Education from Dordt College in 1999. His fields encompass social studies education, migration history, Dutch-American history, 20th-century U.S. history, and immigration. Zwart's research examines the intersection of religion, ethnicity, and commemoration, particularly how Dutch Americans in the twentieth century constructed an ethno-religious identity through commemorations of institutions and enclaves. He also investigates pre-service teacher preparation in history and social studies education, focusing on historical thinking.

In his role at Grand Valley State University, Zwart teaches courses including Social Studies Strategies, Social Studies Capstone, American History, and Field Supervision. He serves as a liaison to the CLAS Center for Experiential Learning and contributes to initiatives like the Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Educators Team (PCKET). His key publications include “It’s Just Different: Identifying Features of Disciplinary Literacy Unique to World History,” co-authored with Tamara Shreiner in The History Teacher 53, no. 3 (May 2020); “Teaching the Past: History Education among Dutch Americans” in Dutch Reformed Education: Immigrant Legacies in North America (2020); “Telling Heartland Histories: Rural Iowa Protestant Congregations in the Mid-Twentieth Century” in The Annals of Iowa 77, no. 4 (Fall 2018); “For the Next Generation: Commemorating the Immigration Experience in the United States and Canada” in Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Econonmische Geschiedenis 7, no. 2 (2010); and “Constructing the Homeland: Dutch Americans and the Netherlands Information Bureau during the 1940s” in Michigan Historical Review 33, no. 3 (Fall 2007). Zwart received the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Scholarship.