In October 2005, Young Center was awarded a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a three-year collaborative research project entitled "Amish Diversity and Identity: Transformations in 20th Century America." In addition to Kraybill as senior investigator, the investigative team includes Steven Nolt, Professor of History at Goshen College in Indiana, and Karen Johnson-Weiner, Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York at Potsdam. A national panel of seven scholars will advise the research team throughout the project.

The NEH grant will enable the researchers to investigate the Amish experience at the national level, giving attention to geographic expansion, the growth of diversity, changing conceptions of identity and evolving patterns of interaction with the larger society. The team will also explore how the Amish have contributed to shaping the identity of a nation that made exceptions in the areas of education, Social Security, and child labor for a religious minority living on its cultural margins.

Before returning to Elizabethtown College, Kraybill served as provost and professor of Sociology and Anabaptist studies at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania.

Kraybill is the author or editor of more than 18 books and dozens of professional articles. His books have been translated into six different languages and his research on Anabaptist groups has been featured in magazines, newspapers, and on radio and television programs across the United States and in many foreign countries.

Kraybill writes almost exclusively on the Anabaptists faiths. In addition to academic books ... largely published by Johns Hopkins University Press ... he also writes popular books sold in gift shops to tourists, interested in learning more about the plain sects. He is one of two experts ... the other being Dr. D. Holmes Morton ... frequently quoted by reporters to give background to news stories involving the Amish.