The Communal Studies Association’s (CSA) 2021 Distinguished Scholar Award was recently presented to Director and Curator of Special Collections and Archives Christian Goodwillie. The award is described on the CSA website as honoring “those persons who have contributed greatly to the scholarly study of communal societies, both past and present, concentrating on those in the United States.”
The Distinguished Scholar Award is the CSA’s highest honor and is not presented every year — Goodwillie is the just 29th honoree in the award’s 36-year existence. Presentation of his award was during the organization’s annual meeting held earlier this month.
In her presentation of the award, CSA Executive Secretary Kathleen Fernandez said of Goodwillie, “I’ve always been so impressed by his knowledge and enthusiasm. I am so proud to know him and award him this year’s Distinguished Scholar Award.” She noted that she first met Goodwillie in 2002 at the CSA conference held at the Oneida Community Mansion House.
Goodwillie expects his new book, Richard McNemar: Frontier Heretic and Shaker Apostle, to be published by Indiana University Press in 2022.
