Stephen Gurgel is a 2011 graduate from Martin Luther College: Bachelor of Science in Education and a 2012 graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: Master of Arts in History.  His 2012 thesis, a War to End All Germans, Wisconsin Synod Lutherans and the First World War, offers a detailed account and analysis of the social and political forces that persecuted the German Lutherans of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod during WWI.

You can read the thesis here

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• About the Host
  • Benjamin Phelps is a 2014 graduate from Martin Luther College with a Bachelor of Arts with a German emphasis. From there went on to graduate from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in 2018.
    Ben loves all things history and enjoys traveling. A descendant of over a dozen Lutheran pastors, Ben has an interest in his family roots, especially 19th-century Lutheranism, and has written several papers and journal articles on the topic. His 2018 thesis on Wyneken won the John Harrison Ness award and the Abdel Ross Wentz prize. He is also the recipient of two awards of commendation from the Concordia Historical Institute.
    Ben is currently a doctoral student in historical theology through Concordia Seminary's reduced residency program in St. Louis.