Jonathan Andelson

Jonathan Andelson was born and raised in Chicago. He earned a B.A. from Grinnell in 1970 and a doctorate in anthropology at the University of Michigan in 1974, and he began teaching at Grinnell in the 1974-75 academic year. His main interests are intentional communities, religion, agriculture, the Meskwaki Nation, and human-environment interactions. His principal field research, on the Amana Colonies of Iowa, has resulted in numerous publications, the most recent being "'The Community' and 'the World: Place-making and Re-making in Amana," published in Communal Societies 41:1 & 2 (2021). He is past president and board member of the Communal Studies Association and former book review editor of the journal Communal Societies. In 2026 he was awarded the Communal Studies Association’s Distinguished Scholar Award. Jon retired at the end of the 2024-25 academic year after 50 years of teaching.

In 1999 Jon co-founded the college’s interdisciplinary Center for Prairie Studies and served as its director until 2022. The Prairie Studies position led to more contact with faculty across the college and with a variety of community groups in and around Grinnell. Jon was centrally involved in two major projects of the Center for Prairie Studies. He served as founding publisher of the Center's online journal, Rootstalk: A Prairie Journal of Culture, Science, and the Arts (rootstalk.grinnell.edu), which was created through the efforts of a class ("Digital Journal Publishing") that Jon co-taught. Jon also served for 25 years as supervisor of the Grinnell College Garden. In 2000, Jon co-founded the Grinnell Area Local Foods Alliance (GALFA) that promotes the use of locally produced food by individuals and institutions in Grinnell.

In retirement, Jon has expanded his involvement in community projects. He is currently co-president of Poweshiek CARES (Community Action to Restore Environmental Stewardship), a grassroots organization dedicated to promoting sustainable agriculture and in particular seeking a moratorium on Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in Iowa. He is also a board member of The Iowa Kitchen, a grants-and-donation funded project founded by retired restauranteur Kamal Hammouda that prepares free meals once a week for families in need. Most recently, Jon has helped to develop exhibits for the new Grinnell Historical Museum, especially “Our Meskwaki Neighbors” (with tribal historian Johnathan Buffalo) and “A History of Farming in Poweshiek County.” In 2026, Jon was invited to join the museum’s board of directors.

Jon and his wife, Karin Stein '82, have three daughters, two of whom are graduates of Grinnell and the third of Macalester. They live eight miles from Grinnell at Rock Creek Lake in Jasper County, where he enjoys canoeing, kayaking, birding, and lazy nature walks.