Mary S. Sprunger
Professor · Historian · Adventurer · Foodie · Walker
Mary is a Professor of History at Eastern Mennonite University, has been teaching World, Women’s, and European History since 1992. Her scholarship on Dutch Anabaptists and Mennonites in the 16th and 17th centuries has led to many extended stays in Amsterdam. She has also lived in England and Germany and traveled extensively throughout Europe, as well as in Turkey and Morocco.
In 2018 she co-led an EMU intercultural semester in China and is looking forward to another in India, Fall 2026. Prior to co-leading her first TourMagination tour, she wrote: “History comes alive on site, so I’m really looking forward to connecting story with place. The 500th anniversary gives us a unique opportunity for reflection on a tour like this. In my Mennonite History and Thought course, I love getting students to think about how the past informs the present and how the present informs what we look for in the past. What do we want to take away from the early Anabaptist movements, and what do we do with those things in our history that we would rather forget? Both are important as we confront present realities and look to the future.”
Curious and adventurous by nature, Mary delights in exploring culture through its stories and its food—and in walking through history one step at a time.
