Christopher Allison (Dominican University) shares that the McGreal Center for Dominican Historical Studies at Dominican University is happy to announce the second volume of the History of the Order of Preachers in the United States (OPUS) project: Preaching with Their Lives: Dominicans on Mission in the United States after 1850, published in November 2020 by Fordham University Press. As a part of Fordham’s Catholic Practice in North America series, the book is an essential addition to the scholarship of American religious history, the history of Catholicism in America, and the unique legacy of the Order of Preachers in the United States. The book will be of interest to libraries, members of the Dominican family and other religious women and men, universities, and scholars who focus on these areas; the book will surely inspire future scholarship on Dominican history in the United States.
Michael Breidenbach (Ave Maria University) published Our Dear-Bought Liberty: Catholics and Religious Toleration in Early America (Harvard University Press, 2021) and was appointed chair of the History Department at Ave Maria University.
Katie Bugyis (University of Notre Dame) shares that her first book, The Care of Nuns: The Ministries of Benedictine Women in England during the Central Middle Ages (Oxford University Press, 2019), was awarded the American Society of Church History’s 2020 Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize for outstanding scholarship in the history of Christianity by a first-time author.
Kevin Burke (University of Georgia) has published the chapter “Tracking Catholic School Funding from K-12 Through Higher Education” in Conservative Philanthropies and Organizations Shaping U.S. Educational Policy and Practice, edited by Kathleen deMarrais, Brigette A. Herron, and Janie Copple (Myers Education Press, 2020).
J. J. Carney (Creighton University) shares news of the publication of his new book, For God and my Country: Catholic Leadership in Modern Uganda (Cascade Books, 2020), one of the latest additions in Cascade’s Studies in World Catholicism series. The book examines the theological visions and public impact of seven different Catholic leaders in postcolonial Uganda. Drawing on years of oral history research, it advances scholarship on Uganda’s largest church and engages issues in social ethics, theology, Church history, leadership studies, and African studies.
Valentina Ciciliot (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice) has published “From the United States to the World, Passing through Rome: Reflections on the Catholic Charismatic Movement,” in PentecoStudies vol. 19, no. 2 (2020) (pp. 127–151).
Rev. James T. Connelly, C.S.C., has published his latest book, The History of the Congregation of Holy Cross. It was published in December 2020 by Notre Dame Press.
Alexandria Griffin (New College of Florida) defended her dissertation, “The Life and Afterlives of Patrick Francis Healy, S.J.,” in April 2020.
Rev. Stephen M. Koeth, C.S.C., has been awarded Columbia University’s Bancroft Dissertation Award for his doctoral dissertation, “The Suburban Church: Catholic Parishes and Politics in Metropolitan New York, 1945–1985.” A postdoctoral fellow at the Cushwa Center since summer 2020, Father Koeth defended his dissertation in May 2020.
Thomas Kselman has published “Marian Piety and the Cold War in the United States” in Cold War Mary: Ideologies, Politics, Marian Devotional Culture, edited by Peter Jan Margry (Leuven University Press, 2020).
Patrick Lacroix’s first monograph, John F. Kennedy and the Politics of Faith, was published by the University Press of Kansas in January 2021.
Carmen M. Mangion (Birkbeck, University of London) has published “Local and Global: Women Religious, Catholic Internationalism and Social Justice,” in Internationalists in European History: Rethinking the Twentieth Century, edited by David Brydan and Jessica Reinisch (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021).
Bronwen McShea (Institute on Religion and Public Life; Augustine Institute Graduate School), a recipient of one of the Cushwa Center’s inaugural Mother Theresa Guerin Research Travel Grants in 2018 for her project on Marie de Vignerot, duchesse d’Aiguillon (1604–1674), has sold her book manuscript on the subject to Pegasus Books. The book, tentatively titled Peer of Princes, will tell the story of Cardinal Richelieu’s forgotten niece and protégé, a major figure in 17th-century French Catholic history. It will draw upon research in Paris and Valence in southeastern France that McShea was able to complete thanks to this grant program dedicated to scholarship on historic Catholic women whose legacies deserve to be better known.
Herbie Miller (Philadelphia Presbyterian Church) announces that on November 16, 2020, he assumed the role of senior pastor/head of staff at Philadelphia Presbyterian Church (PCUSA). A congregation just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, Philadelphia celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2020.
Rev. Bill Miscamble, C.S.C. (University of Notre Dame) shares that St. Augustine’s Press has published Telling Stories that Matter: Memoirs and Essays by Rev. Marvin R. O’Connell, C.S.C. (edited by William G. Schmitt). O’Connell, who died in 2016, served as a long-time professor and chair of the Department of History at the University of Notre Dame and was the author of Edward Sorin (Notre Dame Press, 2001). The volume includes an introduction by Father Miscamble and an afterword by David Solomon (Notre Dame emeritus).
Michael J. Pfeifer (John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the CUNY Graduate Center) has published The Making of American Catholicism: Regional Culture and the Catholic Experience (NYU Press, 2021). Researched with the support of a Cushwa Center Research Travel Grant, the book argues for the centrality of region in shaping American Catholic history. The Making of American Catholicism explores the histories of Latinx, African American, and European-descended Catholics in locales such as Los Angeles, New Orleans, Iowa, Wisconsin, and New York City.
Todd Ream (Taylor University) has published Hesburgh of Notre Dame: The Church’s Public Intellectual (Paulist Press, 2021), researched and written with the support of a Theodore M. Hesburgh Research Travel Grant from the Cushwa Center. Between 2015 and 2020, a total of 12 Hesburgh Grants were made to scholars visiting the University of Notre Dame Archives to study material pertaining to the life and work of Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. (1917–2015), a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross who served as president of the University of Notre Dame from 1952 to 1987.
Kyle Roberts (American Philosophical Society) serves on the executive board of the American Catholic Historical Association (ACHA) and shares that in fall 2020, the ACHA’s social media threads have drawn attention to important collections in Catholic archives as part of the #HiddenCatholicCollections series organized by Roberts. The series asked archivists and librarians to nominate collections in their holdings they think have high historic value but might not receive as much scholarly attention as they should. Over 14 weeks, these collections revealed the history of Catholic contributions to activism, community-building, devotions, education, healthcare, lived experience, and ministry. Now they are collected at achahistory.org/hidden-catholic-collections. The ACHA hopes this page will be a valuable resource for scholars, students, archivists, and history enthusiasts. A second series launched in January 2021. Want to nominate a collection to be highlighted? Email Kyle at kyleroberts6@gmail.com.
Sarah Shortall (University of Notre Dame) shares news of the recent publication of a volume of essays co-edited by Shortall and Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins. Christianity and Human Rights Reconsidered (Cambridge University Press, 2020) explores the role that Christians played in the development of human rights discourse in the 20th century. It includes essays on Europe, America, China, Africa, and Latin America.
David Stowe (Michigan State University) published his first novel, Learning from Loons, which draws from his research on American evangelicals of the Jesus Movement.
Chris Temple, a full-time employee in the Registrar’s Office at the University of Notre Dame, pursued doctoral studies in the University’s Department of History as a part-time student for roughly a decade. For his dissertation, he investigated the institutional history of Notre Dame’s growth as a research university. In October 2020, he successfully defended his dissertation, titled “Fostering Elite Science at an American Catholic University: The Rise of a Research Culture at the University of Notre Dame, 1842–1967.” His dissertation committee consisted of Christopher Hamlin, Father Bill Miscamble, James Turner, and Thomas Stapleford.
Kathleen Washy (Catholic Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania) shares news of the recent publication of The Catholic Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania: Its Origins, Establishment, Decline, and Resurrection (2020) by John C. Bates.
Judith Weisenfeld (Princeton University), Anthea Butler (University of Pennsylvania), and Lerone Martin (Washington University in St. Louis) have received a $1 million grant from the Henry Luce Foundation for “The Crossroads Project: Black Religious Histories, Communities and Cultures,” to be based at Princeton’s Center for the Study of Religion. Learn more at csr.princeton.edu/featured/luce-grant-crossroads.
Maria Williams has published a chapter, “Church, Religion and Morality,” in A Cultural History of Education in the Age of Empire (Bloomsbury, 2020). Edited by Heather Ellis and covering the period 1800–1920, this is the fifth volume of the new six-volume Bloomsbury Cultural History of Education series.
These announcements appear in the spring 2021 issue of the American Catholic Studies Newsletter.