Dr. Long's professional interests focus on Christianity in the Americas, particularly in the United States and in Latin America, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She finds questions of interpretation and historical memory fascinating. Why do people or communities remember some events and not others? How is historical memory shaped and transmitted?

Partly because of that interest, she enjoys searching for examples of "material culture" characteristic of American Protestants during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries — postcards, photographs, plaques, needlepoint — at flea markets and antiques fairs. She also cares about good writing and likes being able to encourage students in her classes to see both writing and historical research as deeply Christian activities.

As History chairperson, Dr. Long works with the rest of the department faculty to provide high quality education in history as a foundational liberal arts discipline informed by the Christian faith.

• American Society of Church History
• Conference on Faith and History
• American Historical Association

Dr. Long is currently writing a book on American missionaries and their work among the Waorani people in Ecuador during the second half of the twentieth century. The book explores the domestic impact of the American missionary impulse and the historical signifcance of the contemporary missionary/ indigenous encounter in Latin America.

Her other research work has focused on the history of nineteenth-century revivals and on the history of photography and missions.

• Long, Kathryn. "More than Meets the Eye: History and 'The End of the Spear,' a review essay, Books & Culture (May/June, 2006): 16-18.
• Long, Kathryn. "Martyrs to the Spear," with Carolyn Nystrom, Christian History and Biography (January 2006): 43, 44.
• Long, Kathryn. "The Meanings of Faith among the Waorani in the Ecuadorian Amazon: A Preliminary History," paper presented at the 2005 Pruit Memorial Symposium, "Global Christianity: Challenging Modernity and the West," Baylor University, November 10-12, 2005.
• Long, Kathryn. "Cameras 'Never Lie': The Role of Photography in Telling the Story of American Evangelical Missions," Church History: Studies in Christianity & Culture (2003): 820-851.
• Long, Kathryn. "In the Modern World, but Not of It: The 'Auca Martyrs,' Evangelicalism, and Postwar American Culture." In The Foreign Missionary Enterprise at Home: Explorations in North American Cultural History , edited by Daniel H. Bays and Grant Wacker. Tuscalossa: The University of Alabama Press, 2003.
• Long, Kathryn. "Elliot, P. James and Elisabeth Howard," in Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals, edited by Timothy Larsen. Downers Grove Il : Inter-Varsity Press, 2003.
• Long, Kathryn. "'Turning . . . Piety into Hard Cash:' The Marketing of Nineteenth-Century Revivalism." In God and Mammon: Protestants, Money, and the Market, 1790-1860 , edited by Mark A. Noll. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Long, Kathryn. "Consecrated Respectability: Phoebe Palmer and the Refinement of American Methodism." In Methodism and the Shaping of American Culture , edited by Nathan O. Hatch and John H. Wigger. Nashville : Kingswood Books, 2001.
• Long, Kathryn. The Revival of 1857-58: Interpreting an American Religious Awakening . New York : Oxford University Press, 1998.
• Long, Kathryn. "From 'Shadow History' to Front-page News: Missionaries, the Media and the 'Auca Martyrs,'" paper presented, American Society of Church History, January, 1998.
• Respondent, panel discussion, "History and the Idea of Christian Scholarship," Conference on Faith and History Biennial Fall Meeting, Huntington College , Huntington , Indiana , October 10-12, 2002.
• Long, Kathryn. "In the World but not of it: Revival, Missions, and Cultural Engagement," (three-lecture series) Lectures in Church History, Canadian Theological Seminary, Regina, Saskatchewan, October 13, 14, 2000.
• Long, Kathryn. "The Two Sides of the Revival of 1857-1858 in the Context of Nineteenth-century American Culture," paper presented as part of a panel discussion at the 150th Anniversary of the Fulton Street Noon Prayer Meeting, New York City, September 22, 2007.
• "The Making of Evangelical Missionary Martyrs in the Twentieth Century," paper presented to the Midwest Fellowship of Mission Studies, October 28, 2006.
• "Missionaries in the Mainstream Media: Patronage and Publicity," paper presented as part of a panel on "Evangelicals and Public Life in Post-World-War II America," American Society of Church History, January 5, 2007.