News

In September, the Cushwa Center sponsored a lecture and discussion commemorating a landmark document for Catholic university life.

Read More about Land O’Lakes and its legacy: A lecture and panel on Catholic higher education

Catherine Osborne explores the history and significance of a survey of more than 130,000 women religious conducted in 1967. The survey dataset has recently been made available open access through Notre Dame.

Read More about The Sisters' Survey: Preservation and access for a new generation

Dugan received a 2017 Research Travel Grant to study young missionaries and their impact on Catholicism in America.

Read More about Millennial Catholic missionaries: A conversation with Katherine Dugan

McEvoy received travel grant funds to study Father Hesburgh’s work on immigration and refugee issues.

Read More about Gráinne McEvoy on Catholic social thought, U.S. immigration policy, and Father Hesburgh

Huey received a 2017 Research Travel Grant to study the devotional practices of German American Catholic women.

Read More about Midwestern Catholic mothers at mid-century: A conversation with Ann Huey

González, a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, received a 2017 Research Travel Grant from the Cushwa Center.

Read More about Sergio González on Latino immigration, religion, and community in Milwaukee, 1920–1990

Benjamin Wetzel reviews John B. Boles’ Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty (Basic, 2017).

Read More about Thomas Jefferson, slavery, and religion: Rethinking an American icon

Patrick J. Hayes revisits June’s three-day conference, North Atlantic Catholic Communities in Rome, 1622–1939.

Read More about Trans-Atlantic pipeline: Roman connections and the search for global Catholicism

Ridgely received a 2017 Research Travel Grant for her project on the generational effects of desegregation in the Diocese of Raleigh.

Read More about Susan Ridgely on desegregation in the Diocese of Raleigh, 1953–present

Chamberlain received a 2016 Research Travel Grant to study American Catholics’ interest in contemporary “religious icons” the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Desmond Tutu, and Elie Wiesel.

Read More about Global religious icons in the American cultural imagination: A conversation with Julie Chamberlain

Davis received funding for research for her book in progress, American Converts: Religion and Identity Since World War II. She recently visited the Notre Dame Archives to consult materials on Clare Boothe Luce, Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton.

Read More about Meet Research Travel Grant recipient Rebecca L. Davis

Peter Cajka and Benjamin Wetzel will join the Cushwa Center for research appointments beginning in July.

Read More about Cushwa announces postdocs for 2017–2018

We recently sat down with Research Travel Grant recipient Stephen Koeth, C.S.C., about his dissertation research on the postwar suburbanization of American Catholics. Stephen, a Holy Cross priest, is a doctoral candidate in history at Columbia University. His writing has appeared in The Journal of Church and State and U.S. Catholic Historian.

Read More about Five questions on Catholics and suburbanization with Stephen Koeth

Eladio Bobadilla is a Ph.D. candidate in U.S. history at Duke University. His dissertation is entitled “‘One People Without Borders’: The Chicano Roots of the Immigrants Rights Movement, 1954–1994,” and explores how Mexican Americans, long ambivalent and even opposed to undocumented immigration, came to see themselves and the undocumented as “one people.” He was awarded a 2016 Theodore M. Hesburgh Travel Grant to consult Father Hesburgh’s papers related to his work on the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy.

Read More about Five questions with Eladio Bobadilla on immigration and Catholic history

The Cushwa Center is pleased to announce the recipients of its annual grants and awards. Across the center's four programs, a record 25 scholars have accepted funding offers for a variety of research projects. Funds will support travel to Notre Dame's University Archives as well as to research sites in Charlotte, Philadelphia, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Rome, Italy.

Read More about Cushwa Center announces funding for 25 researchers in 2017

On February 10, the Cushwa Center and Play Like a Champion Today welcomed historian Timothy Neary to Notre Dame for a lecture on Bishop Bernard Sheil’s founding of the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO). After his presentation, a panel explored Bishop Sheil’s relevance for the mission of Catholic sports programs today. More than 30 youth sports leaders from 20 cities traveled to South Bend to participate.

Read More about Video: Timothy Neary and panelists discuss Bishop Sheil’s vision for Catholic youth sports

Maureen Wangard, who recently received her Ph.D. in higher education administration, took an unusual and timely direction in the interdisciplinary research for which she received the Cushwa Center’s support in summer 2016. Her Research Travel Grant, named for Notre Dame President Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., allowed her to visit Notre Dame and explore the University Archives for 1960s documents relevant to Rev. Paul Reinert, S.J. This long-time president of Saint Louis University, who collaborated frequently with Father Hesburgh, joined with him in key initiatives to shape the future of governance for Catholic universities, Wangard says. She studied Father Reinert’s legacy of leadership in her dissertation research and now is expanding and refocusing her work as a biography of the Jesuit. Her book is intended for publication in 2018, when Saint Louis University will celebrate its bicentennial year.…

Read More about Visiting researcher studies collaboration of Father Hesburgh and SLU president Paul Reinert, S.J.

Thomas P. Lynch Thomas P. Lynch, a poet and funeral director with roots in Ireland and Michigan, combined reflections on life and death with tributes to two recently deceased Irish poets when he spoke at Notre Dame on September 9, 2016. The occasion was the Cushwa Center’s annual Hibernian Lecture, focused this year on the work of Seamus Heaney and Dennis O’Driscoll, both of whom Lynch considered from his perspective as an Irish-American writer who deals professionally with death and dying. He honored the two masters of multiple genres, who died in 2013 and 2012, respectively, by recalling their inspiration for his own writing.…

Read More about From Ireland and Michigan, an Irish-American Poet Echoes Insights of Heaney and O’Driscoll

Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of Notre Dame’s Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, begins her term on Jan. 6 as president of the American Catholic Historical Association for 2017. Cummings, an associate professor of American studies and history, rose to the leadership position during the association’s annual conference in Denver.…

Read More about Cushwa Center Director Cummings to Lead Catholic Historian Group