News

William S. Cossen is a PhD candidate in history at Penn State and a recipient of the 2013 Cushwa Center research travel grant. He spoke with us about his research in August, while he was visiting the University of Notre Dame Archives.

Read More about Research travel grant recipient William S. Cossen on "the Protestant other"

The Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism in conjunction with Northwestern University invites paper proposals for an international conference on the Lived History of Vatican II to be convened at the University of Notre Dame April 24-27, 2014. We seek scholars and advanced graduate students who will present close-grained local histories of the immediate Council era and its aftermath in a particular diocese or geographic region. Preference will be given to proposals that focus on how the attempt to implement Vatican II interacted with a specific local context to shape the development of a key element of Catholic life such as worship, ecumenical relations, religious or family life, or social activism in a given locale. …

Read More about CFP: Lived History of Vatican II Conference, April 24-27, 2014

A new book by Mary Ellen Konieczny, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame [and former Cushwa Center fellow], examines how religion and family life are intertwined and how local parishes shape that intersection.

Read More about New book explores how Catholic parishes contribute to polarization

Charlotte Hansen, PhD, is a Cushwa Fellow for six weeks this spring. Hansen, an administrator and researcher at the George Bell Institute at the University of Chichester in Sussex (UK), is also an affiliated lecturer with the university’s Department of History…

Read More about Five questions for Cushwa Fellow Charlotte Hansen

Recently the Hesburgh Libraries received a doubly holy gift: a book about saints presented by St. André Bessette, CSC, to a friend more than a century ago. The book, Legende von den lieben Heiligen Gottes…

Read More about Gift to Hesburgh Library has ties to Holy Cross saint

The Cushwa Center is pleased to announce the 2013 research travel grant awards:

Read More about Cushwa Center announces 2013 research travel grant recipients

"Pope Benedict’s announcement should not come as too much of a surprise," said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, associate professor of American Studies and director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism. "He himself said on a on a number of occasions that the pope has the right—and perhaps even the obligation—to resign should he feel unable to carry out the duties of his office."

Read More about Papal resignation: A lesson in "how and when to make a courageous exit"

Catherine Osborne, Ph.D. candidate in theology at Fordham University, joined the Cushwa Center in January as a fellow.

Read More about Five questions for Cushwa Fellow Catherine Osborne

The Cushwa Center is pleased to announce the publication of Catholics in the American Century: Recasting Narratives of U.S. History, edited by R. Scott Appleby and Kathleen Sprows Cummings (Cornell University Press, 2012).

Read More about New book looks at Catholics' place in 20th-century America

The Emerald Isle Classic that drew thousands of Notre Dame fans to Dublin also set the stage for the 2012 Hibernian Lecture, an annual event that showcases a leading scholar of Irish or Irish-American history. This was the first time that the lecture, sponsored by Notre Dame’s Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism and funded by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, was held in Ireland.

Read More about Hibernian Lecture highlights links between Notre Dame and Ireland

I am delighted to inform visitors to our web site that Professor Kathleen Cummings will become director of the Cushwa Center effective this summer.

Read More about Kathleen Sprows Cummings named director of the Cushwa Center