The University of Notre Dame’s Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism has launched an annual competitive award open to students at Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College, and Holy Cross College.
The Cushwa Center Undergraduate Research and Writing Prize will honor outstanding scholarship that engages American Catholicism from a range of academic disciplines. Winning submissions will be published in print and online in the Cushwa Center’s American Catholic Studies Newsletter, with authors receiving a cash award of $750.
“Since 1975, the Cushwa Center has facilitated high-level research among faculty, postdocs, and graduate students; to this community of scholars, we’re now adding undergraduate students,” said Darren Dochuk, the William W. and Anna Jean Cushwa Co-Director of the Cushwa Center. “Considering the rapid transformations of our times—both inside and beyond Catholicism—our youngest scholars certainly need to be heard. This initiative will provide an exciting outlet for students’ ideas and a platform from which they can help shape the church and world for good.”
Senior thesis chapters, capstone projects, creative works, and research and term papers from courses in history, theology, and Catholicism and the Disciplines are especially welcome. Historical, theological, sociological, literary, and other approaches are all encouraged. Suggested topic areas include:
- American Catholic history and culture
- Theology, literature, and the arts
- Lives and legacies of overlooked figures
- Catholic social teaching in North and South American contexts
- Latin American and Caribbean Catholicism
- Missions, colonialism, migration, ethnicity, and race
- Popular devotion, lay movements, and liturgy
- Religious identity, disaffiliation, vocation, priesthood, and consecrated life
The deadline for the first round of applications is May 1, 2026. Additional information and application instructions are available at cushwa.nd.edu/prize.
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