Internationally recognized for his scholarship on Anabaptist groups, Donald B. Kraybill is the author or editor of many books and dozens of professional articles. His books include the highly acclaimed Amish Grace (2007, with Steven Nolt and David Weaver-Zercher), The Amish (2013, with Karen Johnson-Weiner and Steve Nolt), Renegade Amish: Beard Cutting, Hate Crimes, and the Trial of the Bergholz Barbers (2014), and What the Amish Teach Us (2021).
Kraybill’s books have been translated into eleven different languages. His research has been featured in various media in the United States and many foreign countries, and he has served as a consultant for various projects related to Amish and other Anabaptist groups. The National Endowment for the Humanities and numerous private foundations have supported his research projects.
A professor of sociology since 1971, Kraybill directed the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies from 1989 to 1996. He was provost of Messiah College (Pa.) from 1996 to 2002, and then returned to Elizabethtown College in 2003, where he taught and served as senior fellow at the Young Center until his retirement in 2016.