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Institute for Advancing American Values

Through dialogue, research and education, the Institute inspires us to talk and listen to each other respectfully about the issues and values that have shaped America and Americans from all walks of life.

Encouraging conversation

Dialogue between multiple viewpoints spurs engagement, understanding and human connection.

Imagining the Institute

In this video, learn from Boise State President Marlene Tromp and Institute Director Andrew Finstuen about their goals and the vision they have for the new Institute for Advancing American Values. Closed captions and a video transcript are available.

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  • Andrew Finstuen portrait

    Dr. Andrew Finstuen

    Founding Director

    Andrew Finstuen is the Dean of the Honors College and Senior Advisor to the President for Strategic Planning and Academic Initiatives at Boise State University. Finstuen teaches courses in modern American history, the history of American Christianity, and the history of genocide and mass killing.

    His first book, “Original Sin and Everyday Protestants: The Theology of Reinhold Niebuhr, Billy Graham, and Paul Tillich in an Age of Anxiety,” won the 2010 American Society of Church History’s Brewer Prize. He co-directed the “The Worlds of Billy Graham” project, which produced “Billy Graham: American Pilgrim,” an edited volume with Oxford University Press (2017). Also in 2017, he co-produced, and in association with Journey Films and Maryland Public Television, a documentary film titled An American Conscience: The Reinhold Niebuhr Story. Finstuen recently authored an essay for The Oxford Handbook of Reinhold Niebuhr.

    Andrew Finstuen is the Dean of the Honors College and Senior Advisor to the President for Strategic Planning and Academic Initiatives at Boise State University. Finstuen teaches courses in modern American history, the history of American Christianity, and the history of genocide and mass killing.

    His first book, “Original Sin and Everyday Protestants: The Theology of Reinhold Niebuhr, Billy Graham, and Paul Tillich in an Age of Anxiety,” won the 2010 American Society of Church History’s Brewer Prize. He co-directed the “The Worlds of Billy Graham” project, which produced “Billy Graham: American Pilgrim,” an edited volume with Oxford University Press (2017). Also in 2017, he co-produced, and in association with Journey Films and Maryland Public Television, a documentary film titled An American Conscience: The Reinhold Niebuhr Story. Finstuen recently authored an essay for The Oxford Handbook of Reinhold Niebuhr.