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Amish Research

Professor Kraybill's research on Amish culture involves several different projects.

1. “Amish Identity and Diversity: Transformations in 20^th Century America” is a major three-year project that is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, collaborative research division. Kraybill is the senior project investigator along with co-investigators Steven M. Nolt (Goshen College, IN) and Karen Johnson-Weiner (SUNY Potsdam, NY). For more information on the project, see the NEH project overview [pdf].

2. “From the Buggy to the Byte: How the Amish Tame Technology” is the working title of a research project on the Amish understanding of technology. National in scope, this project explores different ways in which Amish communities cope with technology by rejecting, accepting, adapting, and inventing new forms. Face-to-face interviews are the primary source of data. The project is tracing and analyzing how technological restraints vary across different social sites in Amish society from mobile construction crews to schools. How do Amish communities determine which technological advances to accept and which to reject? What is the underlying cultural logic to the different patterns of technological usage? What is the process of decision making that shapes Amish responses to technology? These are some of the questions that the project addresses. The results will be summarized in an academic book.

3. “Harvesting the Amish Vote: Presidential Election 2004” is a study of Amish involvement in the Bush/Kerry election in 2004. Some Amish became energized and mobilized to vote in unprecedented numbers in eastern Pennsylvania, a swing state. Professor Kraybill and Kyle Kopko are preparing an essay based on data they obtained on Amish registration and voting patterns in Lancaster County, Pa., in the 2004 election.