Rate My Professor Wendy Deichmann

Wendy J. Deichmann serves as President Emerita, Professor of History and Theology in the Philip William and Susan Otterbein Chair for Evangelical United Brethren and Methodist Studies, Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs and Academic Dean, and Director of the Center for Evangelical United Brethren Heritage at United Theological Seminary. She earned a BS from the State University of New York at Geneseo in 1981, an MDiv from Colgate Rochester Divinity School in 1984, and a PhD in church history from Drew University in 1991, where she studied under historian Russell E. Richey. Deichmann joined United Theological Seminary in 2000 as director of an extension program in Buffalo, New York. She advanced to the role of professor and served as president of the seminary from 2007 to 2015, providing experienced leadership in higher education within the United Methodist tradition.

Her teaching and research interests include the history of Christianity, American religious history, women in the history of Christianity, historical theology, and Wesleyan/United Methodist studies, with particular attention to the history of Christian missions and the social gospel movement. Deichmann is the author of numerous articles on these topics. She co-edited the book Gender and the Social Gospel with Carolyn DeSwarte Gifford, published by the University of Illinois Press in 2003, and co-edited Heirs of Pietism in World Christianity: The 19th to the 21st Centuries—A Conference Held at United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio, June 1-3, 2022 with Scott T. Kisker, published by First Fruits Press in 2024. As director of the Center for Evangelical United Brethren Heritage, she organizes scholarly conferences such as the Heirs of Pietism in World Christianity series. Deichmann holds memberships in the American Society of Church History, the American Academy of Religion, and serves as clergy in the Upper New York Conference of The United Methodist Church.