Meet the Faculty

Dr. Joel Benson

Phone: 562-1613
E-mail: jbenson@nwmissouri.edu

Dr. Benson on the Humanities (MP3, 1.12MB)

Dr. Joel D. Benson joined the Northwest faculty in 1987 after completing his Ph.D. at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. A native of North Dakota and Ohio, Dr. Benson also received his undergraduate degree from Miami University and his Masters from the University of Cincinnati.

Dr. Benson is the author of several books on Anglo-Dutch relations during the early seventeenth century, with a particular interest in the English cloth trade with the Netherlands. His latest book, Changes and Expansion in the English Cloth Trade in the Seventeenth Century (Edwin Mellen, 2002) examines shows how the Alderman Cockayne project redirected the English wool trade toward newer and lighter fabrics, gradually creating more profitable markets. He has also contributed numerous articles to various books and journals and is the regional director for the National History Day Program in Missouri.

Dr. Benson is also active in the United Methodist Church, serving as a Certified Lay Speaker for the Northwest Missouri district. In all areas, Dr. Benson insists that the challenges of the classroom are the foundation of his greatest academic fulfillment. "My calling is to be a teacher. There is no greater satisfaction than to facilitate and witness the opening of a mind."

Dr. Benson is married and has two children. His wife, Christine, teaches in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Northwest Missouri State University, and their children, Jeremiah and Montanna, keep them both very busy.

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