Thirteenth Triennial CHWR: Lives and Archives
University of Notre Dame · June 22–25, 2025
The committee for the Conference on the History of Women Religious (CHWR) invites proposals for papers and panels that address the conference theme, “Lives and Archives,” from scholars in the fields of history, theology, sociology, literature, anthropology, gender studies, visual and creative arts, material culture, religious studies, and communications.
The CHWR was founded in 1988 to assist historians in discovering the historical record of vowed Catholic women and to integrate their stories into larger narratives. Today scholars continue to research and write about these women’s lives, including their commitment to justice, human dignity, care for creation, health care, education, and contemplation. We invite scholars, archivists, and researchers to consider the lives and/or archives of women religious. How can women religious, the archivists who preserve their records, and the researchers who study their lives continue to collaborate as bearers of this vital memory? How should the voices of women religious be recorded and archived? What approaches do scholars take when writing histories of women religious? How can congregations prepare for the future of their archival records? What are the opportunities and challenges when writing biographies of women religious? What gaps still exist in the recorded history of the lives and work of women religious? Papers are invited that consider these and other areas of interest related to the broad theme of “lives and archives” of women religious.
Program
The conference will begin with a keynote address on the evening of Sunday, June 22, and conclude by noon on Wednesday, June 25. The program will include a work-in-progress film screening, opportunities to visit Notre Dame’s Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, and an awards banquet. All panel sessions will take place at the Notre Dame Conference Center (McKenna Hall) at the University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, Indiana, USA).
Keynote address
Katharine Massam will deliver the conference’s keynote, “Rewilding Authority: Catholic Women Religious in Synodal Times.” Massam is widely recognized for innovative scholarship at the intersection of theology and the lived experience of religion. She is the author of A Bridge Between: Spanish Benedictine Missionary Women in Australia (ANU Press, 2020; shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Award 2021), and The Promise and the Blessing: Presentation Sisters in Victoria Since Vatican II (John Garrett, 2024), among landmark publications spanning education, ecumenism, monasticism, and religious understandings of work, informed by feminist and post-colonial perspectives. She has held teaching and research roles at the Australian National University and the University of Adelaide, before moving to the University of Divinity in Melbourne where she is currently Chair of the Academic Board.
Film screening and special display: Corita Kent
Filmmakers Jillian Schultz and Leah Thompson will present a work-in-progress screening of You Should Never Blink, a feature-length documentary presenting the life of longtime sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, pop artist, and educator Corita Kent (1918–1986), who harnessed creativity, activism, and spirituality to become an American icon in the 1960s. Already in the 1950s, Sister Corita’s religious serigraphs had been widely acclaimed and nationally distributed in Catholic print media. In recent years, scholars have begun to incorporate Corita’s life and work more fully into art history as well as the history of American religion. You Should Never Blink promises to retell her story for new generations and a broader public—bringing together interviews of her students, former sisters, scholars, and living artists with archival footage, animated sequences, and newly digitized photographs by Corita. Supported by a Production Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the film is in mid-production and slated for completion in late 2025.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.
Conference guests will also have several opportunities to visit Notre Dame’s Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, newly opened in December 2023, where screenprints by Corita Kent from the museum’s collection will be on special display.
Proposal submissions
The CHWR committee invites individual paper proposals as well as group proposals for multi-paper panels. Standard paper presentations are allotted 15–20 minutes each in the conference’s 90-minute panel sessions. Panel proposals should include three or four papers.
The committee also again welcomes proposals for “1,000 Words in a Picture” papers. These short presentations of up to 1,000 words analyze a single image (such as a picture, an artifact, or a document) relevant to the themes of the conference. These papers are presented in special sessions consisting of up to six 10-minute presentations, each followed by 5 minutes for questions.
Proposals for individual papers and “1,000 Words in a Picture” papers should include a one-page abstract (title and 250-word description) and a one-page curriculum vitae. Proposals for multiple-paper panels should include a one-page abstract for each paper and a one-page curriculum vitae for each author.
Funds are available to assist graduate students, early career scholars, and contingent faculty in attending. When submitting your proposal, please indicate that you would like to be considered for such support. Proposals should be submitted by August 15, 2024, using the appropriate form:
“1,000 Words in a Picture” paper
Proposal responses will be issued by October 1, 2024. Invited presenters will be asked to confirm their attendance by November 1, 2024. The conference will take place in-person at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana. Details about registration, travel, and lodging will be posted in early 2025 at cushwa.nd.edu/chwr2025.
Award nominations
The CHWR administers three awards recognizing contributions to the field, presented during the conference: a Distinguished Book Award, Distinguished Scholar Award, and Lifetime Achievement Award. Nominations may be submitted between now and February 1, 2025.
Learn more and submit a nomination
The conference committee
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- Christopher Allison, Dominican University
- Deirdre Raftery, University College Dublin
- Molly Gower, Saint Mary’s College
- Jacqueline Willy Romero, Lanier Technical College
- Annie Killian, O.P., Ohio Dominican University
Please email or call the Cushwa Center (cushwa@nd.edu; 574-631-5441) with any questions.
Image: Sister Corita Kent stands before her work at Immaculate Heart College, Los Angeles, 1957. © 2024 Corita Art Center, corita.org, licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
This conference is cosponsored by the Center for the Study of Spirituality at Saint Mary’s College.
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