Past Events

Fall 2024

Jesus Christ and Other Religions: Problems and Perspectives
September 9, 2024
This lecture welcomed Fr. Bryan Lobo, S.J., a Jesuit from Mumbai, India, to campus, where he will serve for the 2024-2025 academic year as a McFarland Center International Visiting Jesuit Fellow. 

Democratic Futures Forum / What Democracy Means to Us
September 11, 2024
Members of the Democratic Futures Forum and campus partners reflected at this panel on why democracy matters. The participants included Greg Burnep, Political Science; Diana Dukhanova, Russian Studies and Montserrat; Mary Ebbot, Classics; Daniel Klinghard, Political Science and Dean of Education and Academic Experience; Thomas Landy, McFarland Center for Religious, Ethics, and Culture; Katherine Lu Hsu, Classics; and Charles Todd, Dean of Students.

Solvable: How We Healed the Earth, and How We Can Do It Again
September 16, 2024
Dr. Susan Solomon, Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies and Chemistry at MIT, argued that we’ve solved planet-threatening problems before, and we can do it again. She examined the inside stories of past environmental victories to extract the essential elements of what has made change possible and what’s needed now to do it again. Dr. Susan Solomon is internationally recognized as a leader in atmospheric science, particularly for her insights in explaining the cause of the Antarctic ozone “hole.”

The Church as Refuge and Asylum for Migrants?
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
When human life is persecuted and endangered, communities of refuge arise to protect life, even if it is against domestic law to do so. Leo Guardado, Assistant Professor of Theology at Fordham University, examined the tradition of the church as a site of refuge and protection, focusing on the 1980s sanctuary movement in the United States. 

Continuity within Chaos: Caring for Individuals Living Chronically in Shelters and on the Streets
Monday, September 23, 2024
Dr. Jim O’Connell, President and Founder of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (and the 2017 Holy Cross Commencement speaker), shared how he transitioned from the role of Chief Internal Medicine resident at MGH to the country’s first street doctor for those experiencing homelessness. Recounting his forty years of serving Boston’s most vulnerable population, Dr. O’Connell illuminated the history of homelessness and the undue burden of co-occurring disorders among chronically homeless persons. Most importantly, Dr. O’Connell reflected on the many lessons he’s learned while caring for his patients.
Co-sponsored with the Health Professions Advising Preprofessional Program.

Israel/Palestine in World Religions: Whose Promised Land?
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
The struggle over Israel/Palestine is not just another contest by competing nationalisms or an instance of geopolitical competition. It is also about control of sacred territory that involves local Jews, Muslims, and Christians as well as worldwide faith communities, each with their own interests at stake in a tangle of secular and theological claims. S. Ilan Troen is Lopin Professor of Modern History, emeritus at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, Stoll Family Professor in Israel Studies, emeritus at Brandeis University, USA, and founding director of the Israel Studies centers at both institutions. Part of the Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding and a Deitchman Family Lecture on Religion and Modernity.

There’s Something About Mary: Devotion, Pilgrimage & Belonging in Colonial & Post-Colonial India
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Throughout history, the fortunes of political organizations have often been linked to the cosmic patronage of gods and saints. Yet some saintly devotions begin and flourish despite disinterest from the state; such is the case with a Marian figure of devotion in South India, Our Lady of Vailankanni. Neglected by the colonial state(s), she has in the 20th century become for Indian Catholics a figure of devotion and an icon of their belonging as a minority in India. Brent Howitt Otto, S.J. is the McFarland Center’s Global Catholicism Predoctoral Fellow and a historian of modern South Asia.

Democratic Futures Forum / Immigration 101: What's at Stake in 2024? Legal Processes, Competing Perspectives, and Policies in Practice 
Monday, September 30, 2024
One of the thorniest issues that democracies face today is immigration. In the United States, immigration played a significant role in the 2024 presidential election. Experts answered questions about this vital issue.

Every Day Is Earth Day: Understanding the Long-Term Impacts Of April 22, 1970
Monday, October 7, 2024
Daniel Hungerman, Professor of Economics at the University of Notre Dame, considered the history of Earth Day and presented evidence showing how actions on the original Earth Day, April 22, 1970, led to transformed communities years and even decades later. A Phi Beta Kappa Lecture co-sponsored with the Department of Economics & Accounting. 

Colloquium: Politics of Knowledge and Disciplinary Challenges in Ancient Mediterranean Studies
October 24, 2024 - October 26, 2024
This colloquium explored the varied epistemologies and tangible practices across the ancient Mediterranean world, as well as their suppression within ancient political contexts and modern disciplinary practices. The participants, professors in Classics and Biblical Studies, scrutinized assertions of power and expressions of resistance, as well as the hegemonic processes, ancient and modern, of silencing and appropriating those expressions. The colloquium also featured a keynote address by Joy Connolly, a renowned American scholar of classics and the president of the American Council of Learned Societies.

Democratic Futures Forum / News, Fake News, and Democracy: Surviving Today's Media Landscape
Monday, October 28, 2024
The media landscape has shifted radically over the last few decades, shaping what we know about candidates and government. This conversation began with the insight and experience of the panelists and expanded to include the whole audience's perspectives. The panel, moderated by Director of the McFarland Center Thomas M. Landy, included Devin Gouvêa, Assistant Professor of Philosophy; Mark Shelton, Director of Library Services; Andre Isaacs, Associate Professor of Chemistry; David Shettler, Vice President for Information Technology & CIO; and Jeremy Thompson, Vice President for Communications and Marketing.

The Desire for Division: A Political Psychology Framework for the 2024 Election
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
American politics requires candidates to separate “us” from “them,” motivating people to look for differences rather than commonalities. David C. Wilson, dean of the Goldman School at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Professor of Public Policy, argued that polarization across a host of dimensions—including racial, gender, partisan, religious, and ideological groupings—results from what people want from candidates more so that who candidates are. Co-sponsored by Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. 

Sea, Sand, and Rocks: Regarding the Social-Materiality of Time
Thursday, November 14, 2024
Mayra Rivera is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Religion and Latinx Studies at Harvard University. Rivera works at the intersections between the philosophy of religion, literature, and theories of coloniality, race, and gender. Drawing from Caribbean decolonial thought, this lecture proposed that climate change calls for rethinking our conceptions of time. A Deitchman Family Lecture on Religion and Modernity. Co-sponsored by Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. 

Deuteronomy, Trauma, and Politics 
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Moses’ farewell discourses in the book of Deuteronomy present a program for constituting Israel as a ‘nation’ in political terms and, at the same time, as the ‘people of God’. In this talk, Dominik Markl SJ, Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament studies at Innsbruck University, Austria, reflected on how trauma theory can help us understand both the political and religious dimensions of Deuteronomy. Part of the Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

Fall 2023

Close and Apart: Collaboration, Connection, and Community
September 12, 2023
Several collaborators – Matthew Jaskot, composer and Professor of Music, and Susan Elizabeth Sweeney, poet and Professor of English, along with Eric Gregory, author of All My Tomorrows: A Story of Tragedy, Transplant, and Hope, and Grace Gregory – discussed the making of Close and Apart, the song cycle inspired by Eric's memoir. The memoir is based on Eric's experience after his son Chris died from a brain aneurysm, and his organs were donated to strangers in need. 

When Immigration Was Stopped by Eugenics: A Dark Chapter in American History
September 21, 2023
Daniel Okrent, a prize-winning author of six books, talked about how the 1920s movement to stop immigration from Southern and eastern Europe united with the simultaneous development of the false science of eugenics. Part of the Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

Bots in the Kitchen: A Philosophical Take on the Digital Food Transformation
September 22, 2023
Andrea Borghini, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Milan, Italy, unearthed the ethical and theoretical perils and prospects that digital food transformation creates. Co-sponsored with the Department of Philosophy. 

Saving the University from Doom: Ethnic Studies as Ethics; Community as Praxis
September 25, 2023
Lorgia García Peña, professor at the Effron Center for the Study of America and the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University, proposed community and ethnic studies as an antidote to the ethical dilemma we face as a university community, confronting the legacies of colonialism and slavery. Co-sponsored with the Department of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies.

Why Women Won
September 26, 2023
Of the 155 critical moments in women’s rights history from 1905 to 2023, almost half occurred between 1963 and 1973. Claudia Goldin, Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University and 2023 Nobel Prize for Economics winner, explained how the civil rights movement and the somewhat fortuitous nature of the early and key women’s rights legislation were behind the advances. Co-sponsored with the Department of Economics and Accounting.

Rethinking the Ethics of War in the Face of the Invasion of Ukraine
October 19, 2023
This panel featured David O'Brien, Professor Emeritus and Loyola Professor of Roman Catholic Studies at Holy Cross, Andrea Bartoli, a Senior Fellow at the Center for Peacemaking Practice and President of the Sant’Egidio Foundation for Peace and Dialogue, and Laurie Johnston, Associate Professor of Theology at Emmanuel College and co-author of Can War be Just in the 21st Century?. Part of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion & Modernity. 

W. Ralph Eubanks: Vocation of the Writer
October 19, 2023
The latest Vocation of the Writer Lecture featured W. Ralph Eubanks, the author of A Place Like Mississippi. The Vocation of the Writer Lecture is co-sponsored by the Creative Writing Program as part of its Working Writers Series and the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

Wrongful Convictions: Working for Justice in Modern America
October 24, 2023
Christina Swarns, Executive Director of the Innocence Project, and Marvin Anderson, exoneree, talked about the challenges we face to prevent wrongful convictions and how we can create fairer, more compassionate, and equitable systems of justice for everyone. 

A Theology of Migration, The Bodies of Refugees, and the Body of Christ
October 25, 2023
Fr. Daniel Groody, C.S.C., Professor of Theology and Global Affairs and vice president & associate provost for undergraduate education at the University of Notre Dame, visited Holy Cross to speak about migration and refugee issues.

Infinite Canaan: The NewSpace Race in Colonial Context
November 6, 2023
As the era of “NewSpace” takes hold, corporations and private capital are increasingly involved in space science, exploration, and conquest. Mary-Jane Rubenstein, Professor of Religion and Science in Society at Wesleyan University, explained the escalating NewSpace race as a mythological project. 

Spring 2024

The Unlearned Lessons of War: American Citizenship and Global Conflict 
Monday, February 5, 2024
As wars rage around the world, Americans find themselves in a peculiar position—insulated from the consequences of these conflicts, yet citizens of a country regularly employing lethal force around the globe. How do we make sense of ourselves, both as citizens and as human beings, in relation to the current crisis, and how might the arts and humanistic inquiry help us move forward? Author Phil Klay, winner of the National Book Award for his essay collection Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War, discussed these questions with the Holy Cross community. This event was co-sponsored with Peace and Conflict Studies.

Just Peace: Ecology, Economics, and Education in Africa
Thursday, February 15, 2024
In the face of the global environmental crisis, what does peace look like? Drawing on his work in Uganda at Bethany Land Institute, Fr. Emmanuel Katongole, Professor at the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for Internal Peace Studies, explored the connections between peace, ecology, and the notion of human development within the Catholic Social Tradition. A Deitchman Family Lecture on Religion and Modernity.

Catholicism Represented: Catholicism and Democracy from 1789 to the present
Thursday, February 29, 2024
John McGreevy, distinguished historian, Provost at the University of Notre Dame, & author of Catholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis, will explore how transnational political and ecclesial networks between Europe, Africa, and the Americas shaped Catholic attitudes toward democracy in the last two centuries.
A Deitchman Family Lecture on Religion and Modernity.

Contemplation in the Classroom: Adaptations of Ignatian Spirituality and Buddhist Meditation
Thursday, March 14, 2024
Gloria Chien, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Gonzaga University, explained how she integrates Contemplative Pedagogy and the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm in her Asian religious studies courses using insights derived from three years of study at a Chan Buddhist monastery in Taiwan, certification in Cognitively-Based Compassion Training, and the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises. Dr. Chien also lead a contemplation session on Saturday, March 16 at the Joyce Contemplative Center.

The Survivors Among Us: Today and Tomorrow 
Monday, March 18, 2024
There is considerable discussion about what to do now that we are on the verge of having Holocaust survivors disappear from our midst. To Alan Rosen, Kraft-Hiatt Scholar in Residence, this preoccupation with the so-called disappearance of survivors is misguided. This talk examines what might lie behind this questionable focus on the survivors’ disappearance and sets out a different way to think about the survivors among us, highlighting the lessons we continue to glean.

How Did War Become Permanent?
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
In recent years, concepts like permanent war, civil war, and even genocide have become ubiquitous. Nikhil Pal Singh, Professor of Social & Cultural Analysis and History and Chair of the Department of Social & Cultural Analysis at New York University, reflects on the recent history of permanent war, considers how these ideas have morphed into the notion of a permanent civil war "at home," and suggests steps we might take to break from this logic.

Rachel Swarns: The 272
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Rachel Swarns' The 272 follows the harrowing story of the people who were enslaved by the Jesuits and whose families were torn apart in 1838 when they were sold to help support the growth of the Catholic Church in the United States. United by Swarns’ reporting in 2016, their descendants have pressed these institutions to make amends and break new ground in the movement for reparations and reconciliation in America. Following a brief presentation about the book and the relationship of the sale of those enslaved families to the development of Holy Cross, President Vincent D. Rougeau, Board of Trustees Chair Helen W. Boucher, M.D. '86, and Jesuit Provincial Joseph M. O'Keefe, S.J., '76 joined Swarns in a discussion about what this says about Holy Cross's mission and obligations today.
Rachel L. Swarns, associate professor of journalism at New York University, was a New York Times reporter and correspondent for 22 years. Her work on Jesuits and slavery touched off a national conversation about American universities and their ties to this painful period of history. The 272, published by Random House in June, was named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, Time Magazine, and The Washington Post.

Heathen: Religion and Race in American History
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Americans used to believe that much of the world was populated by “heathens.” This talk by Professor Kathryn Gin Lum, Professor and Chair of Religious Studies at Stanford University, asked what that view of the world entailed and showed its continuing repercussions on American ideas about race. This event was co-sponsored with the Department of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. A Deitchman Family Lecture on Religion and Modernity.

Value vs. Values: ESG Investing and the Social Responsibility of Business
Thursday, April 4, 2024
Should corporations be managed to benefit society overall or solely to benefit their shareholders? The modern trend toward “environmental, social, governance” (ESG) investing has breathed new life into one of the oldest debates in corporate law. Ann M. Lipton, Michael M. Fleishman Associate Professor in Business Law and Entrepreneurship and Associate Dean for Faculty Research at Tulane University, will situated ESG investing within the broader field of corporate & securities law and explore the controversies surrounding its use. This lecture was co-sponsored with the Ethics, Society, and the Institution of Business minor.

U.S. première of O Lungo Drom (The Long Road): An Oratorio on the Sinti and Roma by Ralf Yusuf Gawlick
Friday, April 5, 2024
The O Lungo Drom, or “The Long Road” in Romanes, is an oratorio that tracks the history of the Roma and Sinti through the words of Roma/Sinti poets and writers themselves. Ever since their appearance in Europe over a thousand years ago, the Roma have been subject to a brutal social hierarchy, constant discrimination, and persecution, punctuated by infernal periods of enslavement and genocide. This oratorio contained many significant ‘firsts’: it is the first oratorio on a Romani subject, the first that sets multiple texts by Romani authors themselves, and the first to be set to music by a Rom: Ralf Yusuf Gawlick, Professor of Music at Boston College. The ensemble for the première is the Alban Berg Ensemble Wien. They are joined by soprano Clara Meloni, baritone Christoph Filler, and cimbalomist László Rácz. This event was a part of the Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

The Future of the Humanities: A Talk and Conversation
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Heather Cox Richardson, Professor of History at Boston College, delivered the annual Thomas More Lecture in the Humanities. Then, she joined President Vincent D. Rougeau and Provost Elliott Visconsi '95 for a conversation about the future of humanities. Richardson's newsletter Letters from an American chronicles today's political landscape and boasts over 1.3 million subscribers. She has written seven books, most recently New York Times Bestseller Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America. 

Feminist Rage and the Book of Judith
Thursday, April 11, 2024
Judith is a biblical heroine best known for cutting off the head of the general Holofernes, with his own sword and in his own bed – a bold act that has sparked the imagination of readers for millennia. Jennifer L. Koosed, Professor and Chair of Religious Studies at Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania, will examine the multivalent violence wielded against and by Judith, focusing especially on the ways this scene has become a site of female resistance and feminist rage, from Artemisia Gentileschi to #MeToo. 
This lecture is sponsored by the Religious Studies Department and the Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding in memory of Alice Laffey, a long-time professor of Religious Studies at Holy Cross who passed away in 2023.

Thirty Years Beyond the Genocide: Lessons for the Global Church
Thursday, April 18 - Friday, April 19, 2024

April 7, 2024, marks the 30th commemoration of the genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda. In solidarity with Rwandans, this two-day symposium gathered international scholars to unpack the complex role of the Catholic church in the genocide and its aftermath, as well as explore broader implications for the global church today.
This Catholics & Cultures conference was organized by Audrey Seah, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies. 

Conference Keynote: Theology and Ecclesiology from Wounds of the Genocide 
Thursday, April 18, 2024
How does a compromised church rise from the wounds of the genocide? Rev. Marcel Uwineza, SJ, a genocide survivor, considered the historical, social, political, and theological circumstances that led to the genocide and proposed a different way forward. Uwineza is the Principal of Hekima University College in Kenya, a Jesuit School of Theology and Peace Studies.

Find our 2022-2023 Year-In-Review Here

Fall 2022

Rev. T. Nishaant, S.J.: The Oppression and Resilience of India's Musahars
September 20, 2022
Rev. T. Nishaant, S.J., an International Visiting Jesuit Fellow at Holy Cross for 2022-2023, describes the culture of India's Musahars, some of the poorest people in the world, and considers how we might remedy the generations-deep injustices done to them.

Building the Political Will & Moral Courage to End Hunger in America
September 26, 2022
Previewing the historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, this forum addresses the problem of hunger, our moral imperative to end it, and ways the Holy Cross community, as individuals and as an institution, can affect change. With Congressman Jim McGovern; Erin McAleer '02, CEO and president of Project Bread; Jean McMurray, executive director of the Worcester County Food Bank; Winton Pitcoff, director of the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative; and Phoebe Wong '26, a FoodCorps service member.

Kate Manne: What Is Misogyny? Concepts, Targets, and Triggers
September 29, 2022
Kate Manne, associate professor at the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University, offers her definition of misogyny, as distinct from sexism, and describes applications including violence by incels, online media harassment, healthcare disparities, and the difficulty women have attaining leadership positions.

Craig Rood: Reimagining Protection from Gun Violence
October 3, 2022
Craig Rood, associate professor of English at Iowa State University, explains both the power and problems with the rhetoric used in the gun violence debate. He discusses the dominant narrative of protection and argues that personal stories about gun suicide and domestic gun violence reimagine human character, guns, and moments of gun violence.

Nobel Peace Laureate Dmitry Muratov
October 6, 2022
Before hundreds of students in a keynote address and a discussion on Defending Democracy with Holy Cross President Vincent Rougeau, Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, a founder and editor-in-chief of the newspaper Novaya Gazeta and winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize (along with Filipino journalist Maria Ressa), describes the breakdown of democratic ideals, diplomacy, and nuclear disarmament in Russia and emphasizes the threat of propaganda and disinformation campaigns worldwide.

Joseph McCartin '81: Confronting the 21st Century Labor Question: Catholic Social Teaching, Work Relations, and the Deepening Crisis of Democracy
October 18, 2022
Labor expert Joseph McCartin ‘81, professor of history and executive director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University, traces the rise and fall of democratic and workers' rights over the 20th century and explains how Catholic social teaching can help point the way forward.

Brian Robinette: Contemplation in an Age of Anger
October 20, 2022
Brian Robinette, associate professor of theology at Boston College, explores the importance of contemplative practice in the midst of widespread social upheaval. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

Amy Gajda: Privacy's Tangled History and Its Tenuous Post-Dobbs Future
October 26, 2022
Amy Gajda, The Class of 1937 Professor of Law at Tulane University Law School, considers the tangled history of privacy and how to define privacy in a world where it is contested. 

Shannen Dee Williams: Confronting America's Real Sister Act: Black Catholic Nuns in United States History
November 10, 2022
Shannen Dee Williams, associate professor of history at Dayton University, shares the little known story of a radical group of Black women and girls who fought against racism, sexism, and exclusion to become and minster as consecrated women of God in the Roman Catholic Church. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

Ido Koch: Home in a Distant Land: Archaeology and the Study of Uprooted Communities in Israel
November 15, 2022
Ido Koch, senior lecturer in archaeology at Tel Aviv University and co-director of the Tel Hadid Expedition, describes forced migrations in the Assyrian Empire in the first millennium BCE, focusing on their experience of those being deported, how they rebuilt their life in a new place, and how archaeologists can find them. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò: Being in the Room Privilege: Elite Capture and Epistemic Deference
November 17, 2022
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, associate professor of philosophy at Georgetown University, discusses problems of elite capture and deference epistemology and proposes constructive epistemology as an approach to organize new rooms that focus on structural, practical change.

Spring 2023

Rev. Selva Rathinam, S.J.: Suffering, Resistance and Freedom: A Postcolonial Subaltern (Dalit) Study of Isaiah 52:13-53:12
February 6, 2023
Rev. Selva Rathinam, S.J., an International Visiting Jesuit Fellow at Holy Cross for 2023, applies concepts of the postcolonial method to interpret the text of the last Servant Song from the point of view of the Dalits, the oppressed people of India’s lowest caste.

Rev. Angus Ritchie: Beyond Activism: Building Broad-based Alliances to Tackle the Climate Crisis
February 9, 2023
Rev. Angus Ritchie, director of the Centre for Theology and Community and a priest in the Anglican Diocese of London, explains the harm of "fake" populism employed by the political right and left and advocates for an "inclusive populism," as embraced by Pope Francis, to address environmental injustice. Cosponsored with the Office of the President.

Sylvester Johnson: Can Robots Feel Pain? Theorizing AI from Ibn Rushd's 'Science of the Soul'
February 13, 2023
Sylvester Johnson, associate vice provost for public interest technology and founding director of the Center for Humanities at Virginia Tech, interprets theoretical claims about the “science of the soul” in the work of 12th century Islamic scholar Ibn Rushd and leverages Rushd’s distinction between sensing and knowing in order to examine contemporary, sensory-driven AI technology. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

Rev. Joachim Zoundi, S.J.: Evil and Sin in African Traditional Religion and Christian Revelation
February 14, 2023
An International Visiting Jesuit Fellow at Holy Cross this semester, Rev. Joachim Zoundi, S.J. explores the problem of sin and evil, their sources and consequences, and how they are addressed by both African Traditional Religions and Christian revelation. 

Lawrence Joseph: Vocation of the Writer Annual Lecture
February 16, 2023
Acclaimed poet and lawyer Lawrence Joseph talks about the vocation of writing, reflecting on personal stories as the grandson of Lebanese and Syrian Catholic immigrants. He reads several of his poems. Part of the Creative Writing Program's Working Writers Series.

Lewis Gordon: What does it mean to decolonize philosophy?
February 17, 2023
Lewis Gordon, professor and head of philosophy at the University of Connecticut-Storrs, explores ways in which philosophy, at least as understood in its Euromodern form, is colonized. Through a reflection from an East African philosopher from 4,000 years ago, he explains that philosophy originated as a liberatory project devoted to knowing as a practice of freedom and love in a courageous relationship with reality. Cosponsored with the Department of Philosophy.

Kristy Nahbhan-Warren: Heartland Catholicism: How Faith and Migration in Rural America are Reshaping Parishes and Communities
February 27, 2023
Kristy Nabhan-Warren, Professor, V.O. and Elizabeth Kahl Figge Chair in Catholic Studies at the University of Iowa, draws on her recent book, "Meatpacking America: How Migration, Work, and Faith Unite and Divide the Heartland" (UNC Press, 2021), to dig below the stereotypes to reveal the grit and grace of a heartland that is a major global hub of migration and food production—and also, it turns out, religion.

Nina Pavcnik: How Globalization Shapes Inequality: Lessons from 40 Years of Trade Liberalizations
March 15, 2023
Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Nina Pavcnik draws on empirical evidence from a wide range of countries to discuss how trade liberalizations implemented since the 1980s shaped inequality within countries. Pavcnik is Niehaus Family Professor in International Studies and professor of economics at Dartmouth College. 

Sylvia Chan-Malik: Race/Religion: Ethnic Studies, Religious Studies, and the Case of Islam
March 16, 2023
Through a focus on Islam and Muslims in the United States, Sylvia Chan-Malik, associate professor in the departments of American and women’s and gender studies at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, explores the intersections, evasions, omissions, and errors that occur in the study of race and religion in ethnic studies and religious studies. 

Fall 2021

First-Year Book Discussion: 'Walking to Listen' with Author Andrew Forsthoefel
September 7, 2021
Andrew Forsthoefel, author of Walking to Listen: 4000 Miles Across America, One Story at a Time, teaches trustworthy listening as a practice in reconciliation, personal transformation, and peace-making.

Never Forget: Congressman Jim McGovern on 9/11 and Twenty Years of War in Afghanistan
September 14, 2021
Worcester’s Congressman James McGovern joins Holy Cross Political Science Professor Ward Thomas to reflect on the legacy of war in Afghanistan, the consequences of withdrawal, and our responsibilities to U.S. service members and the Afghan people.

African, Christian, Feminist and More
September 16, 2021
Teresia Mbari Hinga, associate professor of religious studies at Santa Clara University, is a founding member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, a pan-African association of women who study the role and impact of religion and culture on African women's lives. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity and part of the initiative on Catholics & Cultures.

You Think You Know Catholicism? Peering into the Diversity of the Global Church
September 20, 2021
In this lunchtime talk for Holy Cross students, Thomas M. Landy, director of the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture,introduce the incredible diversity of worship styles and devotions—including Masses, feasts, processions, and pilgrimages—practiced by contemporary Catholics in countries and cultures around the world. Part of International Education Week.

Before Gentrification: Race and Dis/Investment in the Nation’s Capital 
September 27, 2021
Tanya Golash-Boza, professor of sociology and founder of the Racism, Capitalism, and the Law Lab at the University of California-Merced, talks about the structural forces that have created barriers to stable home ownership for Black families in Washington, DC.

Polarizing Disagreements: Philosophical and Psychological Reflections on a Political Conundrum
October 1, 2021
Karsten Stueber, professor of philosophy at Holy Cross, suggests that polarization is best approached from the perspective of moral philosophy and moral psychology, rather than as an epistemic problem. Part of the Colloquia on Philosophy Series.

From Justice to Reconciliation: A Jesuit Response to the Refugee Crisis in the Middle East
October 19, 2021
Former Holy Cross Chaplain Rev. Dan Corrou, S.J., regional director of the Jesuit Refugee Service in the Middle East (Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria), describes humanitarian approaches to the crises and the JRS mission of accompaniment—a model for the work of reconciliation based in the 500-year Ignatian tradition of cura personalis.  Co-sponsored with the Office of Mission.

Refugees, Prisoners of War, and Foster Kids: A Long History of Child Taking
October 27, 2021
Laura Briggs, professor of women, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an expert on U.S. and international child welfare policy, explains how from the Indian Wars to the Cold War to the War on Drugs, the U.S. federal government under both Democratic and Republican administrations has taken children for political ends.

Muslims and the Holocaust
November 2, 2021
Mehnaz M. Afridi, associate professor of religious studies and director of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College, discusses her journey with Judaism as a Muslim, her interviews with Holocaust survivors, antisemitism and Islamophobia, and Islam and memory. Part of the Kraft-Hiatt Program in Jewish-Christian Understanding.

Politics in the Name of Lord Rama in Narendra Modi's India 
November 8, 2021
Kalpana Jain, an award-winning journalist and the religion and ethics editor at The Conversation US, discusses how politics is being reshaped in India and religious sentiments are being mobilized under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

Be Fearless for Me: Courage and the Gospel of the Marginalized
November 9, 2021
Rev. Gregory Boyle, S.J., founder of Homeboy Industries, returns to Holy Cross to talk about joy, hope and the courage of tenderness. Accompanied by “homies,” former gang members now part of his organization, he shares stories from his new book, “The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness,” (Simon & Schuster, 2021).

What Has American Politics Done to the Catholic Church?
November 16, 2021
Holy Cross President Vincent Rougeau leads a discussion with Ross Douthat, a conservative columnist for the New York Times and author of To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism, and Matthew Sitman, associate editor of Commonweal, on the entanglements of politics and religion. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

Priorities for Post-COVID-19 Public Health Research, Education, and Practice
November 17, 2021
Sandro Galea is a physician, epidemiologist, Dean and Robert A Knox Professor of the School of Public Health at Boston University, discusses what we learned during COVID-19 and what implications that has for our scholarship in population health science.

Spring 2022

Revealing the Truth About the World’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Tuesday, February 1, 2022
Chris Mooney, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with the Washington Post and a lecturer at Yale School of the Environment, describes his months-long investigation into the world’s climate-warming emissions, which found that countries are dramatically under-reporting their climate impact—by as much as 13 billion tons of greenhouse gases annually. Co-sponsored with Environmental Studies.

Untidy, Eclectic, and Diverse: Lived Religion in Latin America Today
Wednesday, February 9, 2022
Gustavo Morello, S.J., associate professor of sociology at Boston College, reports on an extensive three-year study of religion as practiced by Latin Americans in their daily lives. His talk is one of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity and part of the initiative on Catholics & Cultures.

How Should We Elect Presidents?
Thursday, February 17, 2022
Nobel Prize Laureate Eric S. Maskin, Adams University Professor and professor of economics and mathematics at Harvard University, considers the ethics of voting systems to replace our flawed plurality rule. Co-sponsored with the Economics Department.

On the Trail of an Antisemitic Myth: Or How Lies Are Turned into "Facts"
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Magda Teter, professor of history and the Shvidler Chair in Judaic Studies at Fordham University, unpacks the enduring power of blood libel, and explains how and why it came to be rooted in Christian imagination, reaching beyond medieval Europe to contemporary America and the Middle East. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

Russia at War: What does it mean?
Friday, February 25, 2022
A panel of Holy Cross professors and Russia experts discuss Russia's attack on Ukraine, why it happened, and where it leaves us now.

Tell Me How I Conquered You: Clues from the Second Century BCE Mediterranean
Monday, February 28, 2022
Dan-el Padilla Peralta, associate professor of classics at Princeton University, examines theories of cultural survival developed through narratives of resistance in the Book of Daniel and other literatures from the eastern and central Mediterranean in the second century BCE. The Thomas More Lecture on the Humanities.

Fragments of Friendship: Spiritual Undercurrents of the Global Catholic Resistance to Fascism
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
Brenna Moore, professor of theology at Fordham University and author of Kindred Spirits (University of Chicago Press, 2021), explores a remarkable network of Catholic historians, theologians, poets, and activists who formed "Spiritual Friendships" as a form of resistance to the rise of fascism in the early to mid-20th century. 

Curing Injustice: The Living Legacy of Dr. Paul Farmer
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
An interdisciplinary discussion with Holy Cross professors Judith Chubb, Tsitsi B Masvawure, Mary Doyle Roche, Susan Rodgers, and Ann Sheehy reflects on the legacy of Dr. Paul Farmer and consider the impact that he's had on students of anthropology, theology, ethics and global health.

Fraternity, Martyrdom and Peace in Burundi: The Forty Servants of God of Buta
Thursday, March 24, 2022
Jodi Mikalachki, associate professor of English at the University of Burundi and a visiting fellow at DePaul University’s Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology, examines how Burundian Catholics understand the significance of 40 Buta seminary students martyred in Burundi's civil war. Part of the McFarland Center's initiative on Catholics & Cultures.

Empathy and Historical Understanding
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
German historian Thomas Kohut, the Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Professor of History at Williams College, draws on examples from 20th-century German and Holocaust history to argue that the deliberate, self-reflective use of empathy is a legitimate and important mode of historical inquiry. Part of the Colloquia of the Department of Philosophy with support from the Rehm Family Fund.

Justice and Care: Reflections around Past and Current Abuse and Safeguarding in the Church
Thursday, March 31, 2022
Rev. Hans Zollner, S.J., founder and president of the The Centre for Child Protection, now the Institute of Anthropology, at the Pontifical Gregorian University, describes responses to the global crisis of abuse by Catholic clergy reported over the last 20 years and what still needs to be done to administer justice, care and mercy. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity, with additional support from the Rehm Family Fund.

How To Read a Biblical Rape Story
Monday, April 4, 2022
Rhiannon Graybill, associate professor of religious studies at Rhodes College, analyzes three biblical rape stories and challenges the idea of consent as a centerpiece in the discussion of sexual violence. Part of the Hebrew Bible Lecture Series, supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

Fishbowl Discussion: Greening Cities from Plan to Practice
April 6, 2022
Using Green Worcester as a springboard for conversation, this discussion looks at the environmental planning process with John Fernández, professor of architecture and director of the Environmental Solutions Initiative at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Karin Valentine Goins, program director at University of Massachusetts Medical School, a public health activist and co-founder of WalkBike Worcester, and John Odell '88, chief sustainability and resilience officer for the City of Worcester. Co-sponsored with the Office of Sustainability.

The Pope’s Rabbi on Meaningful Interfaith Dialogue
April 11, 2022
Argentinian-born Rabbi Abraham Skorka, a longtime friend of Pope Francis, focuses on deepening Catholic-Jewish relationships. Skorka, a biophysicist, was rabbi of the Benei Tikva synagogue for 42 years. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

The Ukraine War and Prospects for Democracy
April 21, 2022
Part of a presidential series on Defending Democracy, this fishbowl discussion features Holy Cross student Viktor Lutsyshen '23, a native of Kherson; Nina S. Barzachka, assistant professor of political science; Roman Zaviyskyy, dean of philosophy and theology at Ukrainian Catholic University, who will be zooming from Lviv; and Markian Dobczansky, a historian of the Soviet Union, Russian-Ukrainian relations and urbanization and associate of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.

Fall 2020

All events were held virtually

First Year Book Club: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
September 10, 2020
This lively discussion of the First Year book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, provided an opportunity to meet new friends in the Class of 2024. Four Holy Cross professors introduce questions raised in the book germane to their fields — medical ethics, biology, public health, critical race and feminist theory.

Party Labels: What do they mean? Do they matter?
September 15, 2020
Two popular Holy Cross professors, Political Science Professor Donald Brand and History Professor Ed O'Donnell, discuss the meanings of party labels and political ideology. What does it mean to be a Republican or Democrat, conservative or progressive? Part of the Holy Cross Elections Forum 2020.

What is the Government's Role in Ensuring the Health of its Citizens?
September 21, 2020
In this forum, Holy Cross professors Melissa Boyle (Economics) and Tsitsi Masvawure (Health Studies) help explain the parties' platforms and actions to provide affordable and accessible healthcare to Americans. Part of the Holy Cross Elections Forum 2020.

Joseph Nye: What is a Moral Foreign Policy?
September 29, 2020
One of the world's leading scholars of international relations, Joseph Nye speaks about his recent book, "Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump" (Oxford University Press, 2020), providing analysis of the role of ethics in U.S. foreign policy after 1945. Nye is University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus and former Dean of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Part of the Holy Cross Elections Forum 2020.

Holy Cross Student Forum with Dr. Anthony Fauci '62
October 6, 2020
Dr. Anthony Fauci '62, the nation's most trusted expert leading the COVID-19 response, addresses students' questions, the trajectory of the pandemic, and the ways we can respond and help. A top-cited scholar, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient and Holy Cross alumnus, Dr. Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health and a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

Justice for All: Filling the Seat on the Supreme Court
October 6, 2020
The passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has prompted controversy and widespread speculation on when and how to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court and the ramifications for decisions on the Affordable Care Act, Roe v. Wade, Voting Rights, and even the 2020 election. Political Science professors Alex Hindman and Greg Burnep discuss recent Senate confirmation hearings, possible scenarios for seating a justice, and what a shift in balance could mean for pending and future cases. Part of the Holy Cross Elections Forum 2020.

Politics of Memory and Commemoration: Columbus Statues and Beyond
October 7, 2020
Morgan Freeman, a doctoral candidate in American Studies at Yale University; Thomas Doughton, senior lecturer in the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at Holy Cross; and facilitated by Sarah Luria, professor of English and Environmental Studies, College of the Holy Cross. First of the 1620/2020 Speaker Series.

Wampanoag Life Before the Pilgrims
October 14, 2020
Linda Coombs, an independent scholar and historian who has served as program director of the Aquinnah Cultural Center on Martha’s Vineyard; Kelly Wisecup, associate professor of English at Northwestern University; and Sarah Klotz, assistant professor of rhetoric and English at Holy Cross as moderator. Part of the 1620/2020 Speaker Series.

Climate Change and the Energy Transition: What’s at Stake this November
October 14, 2020
Jody Freeman, Archibald Cox Professor of Law at Harvard University and founding director of the Harvard Law School Environmental Law and Policy Program, reviews where we are in addressing climate change, where we need to be, and what’s at stake in the November elections. Part of the Holy Cross Elections Forum 2020.

Massasoit’s Meanings: Shifting Histories of Settler-Colonialism
October 21, 2020
Jean O’Brien, Distinguished McKnight University Professor of History at the University of Minnesota; Lisa Blee, associate professor of history at Wake Forest University; and moderated by Sarah Klotz, assistant professor of rhetoric and English at the College of the Holy Cross. Part of the 1620/2020 Speaker Series.

Teaching for Better Humans
October 22, 2020
Sonia Nieto, University of Massachusetts Amherst professor emerita and author of "Affirming Diversity" (Pearson, 2018), and Jesse Hagopian, ethnic studies teacher at Garfield High School in Seattle and co-editor of the book "Teaching for Black Lives" (Rethinking Schools, 2018), highlight specific ways to counter the inequities baked into our school systems and help young people grow into better humans at every level of schooling.

Post-Election Day Political Science Roundtable
November 4, 2020
The Holy Cross Elections Forum caps its Fall 2020 programming with a virtual roundtable discussion featuring members of the Political Science faculty on key takeaways the day after the November 3 election. Moderated by Daniel Klinghard, professor of political science and director of the J.D. Power Center for Liberal Arts in the World.

Film Premiere and Panel Discussion: “Pakachoag: Where the River Bends”
November 7, 2020
The event premiers "Pakachoag," a film that documents historic sites around College Hill, and considers ways to commemorate Pakachoag. Panel discussion with Colin Novick, executive director of the Greater Worcester Land Trust; Fred Freeman, chairperson, Nipmuk Cultural Preservation, Inc.; Rev. Philip Boroughs, S.J., president of the College; Gwenn Miller, associate professor of history at Holy Cross; Thomas Doughton, senior lecturer of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at Holy Cross; Sarah Klotz, assistant professor of rhetoric and English at Holy Cross; Digital Media Services coordinator Ian Kaloyanides (filmmaker); and Madison Chouinard ‘22, an Environmental Studies major; and moderated by Sarah Luria, professor of English/Environmental Studies. Part of the 1620/2020 Speaker Series.

Divided Worlds? Contexts of the New Testament Then and Now
November 6-8, 2020
This virtual conference seeks to bring together scholars from two disciplines that have much in common but that have seldom been in conversation in recent times—New Testament studies and Classics. Sessions examine if and how the New Testament, an ancient collection of texts with its own distinctive set of religious, social, and rhetorical strategies, can serve as a helpful resource in understanding our obligations to take moral stands on issues that are dividing our world with increasing fury. View the schedule.

Lost in the Historical Record: Four Centuries of African American Entrepreneurship, Where Do We Go From Here?
November 12, 2020
Juliet Walker, professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin, is founding director of the its Center of Black Business History, Entrepreneurship, and Technology and author of the first comprehensive book on black business history, "The History of Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, Entrepreneurship" (1998). Attendees also heard from Sienna Ablorh '21, a history/psychology major with a concentration in Africana studies, and Darrell Byers '83, CEO of Interise, an organization that supports established small businesses that are in low-income neighborhoods or minority owned. Co-sponsored with the Ciocca Center.

Spring 2021

Coming to Terms: America on the Brink
January 8, 2021
Efforts to undermine the presidential election and peaceful transfer of power, culminating in the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, have been devastating to witness. To begin to address this national crisis, McFarland Center Director Thomas M. Landy moderated a Zoom community event for Holy Cross faculty, students and staff to talk honestly about what's happened, who's responsible, and where we go from here. Part of the Repairing the Fabric of Our Nation series.

Rebuilding Democracy Think Tank Discussion
January 12, 2021
In small group discussions, Holy Cross faculty strategize about pedagogy and action in our shared work as educators to help each other teach effectively in light of what we see in our country. What does this moment ask of us as faculty members and educators, and how can we engage in sustained conversations on democracy, citizenship and justice over the spring semester and beyond? Part of the Repairing the Fabric of Our Nation series.

Ron Lawson ‘75 on the Homeless Crisis
February 8, 2021
Holy Cross alumnus Ron Lawson ‘75, Chief Operating Officer of Care for the Homeless, talks about the history of homelessness in New York City and the federal, state and city laws and policies that contribute to the problem. He also discusses the impact systemic racism has had on the homeless crisis.

Saving the Planet Cost-Effectively
February 17, 2021
Economist Joseph E. Aldy, Professor of the Practice of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, draws from the theory and practice of carbon pricing and pollution markets to explain how it works around the world and to explore the potential design of U.S. climate change policy.

Campus Fishbowl: COVID-19 and the Ethics of Vaccines
February 22, 2021
Holy Cross professors Rev. William Stempsey, S.J., and Jameliah Shorter-Bourhanou (Philosophy), Geoffrey Findlay (Biology), Denis Kennedy (Political Science), Mary Doyle Roche (Religious Studies) and others participate in a fishbowl discussion moderated by Thomas M. Landy, director of the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

Deaf Catholics Shaping the Church Today
February 24, 2021
Lana Portolano, author of "Be Opened: The Catholic Church and Deaf Culture" (CUA Press, 2020) and professor of English at Towson University, joins College of the Holy Cross Deaf Studies Professor Stephanie Clark, an expert on Deaf culture, and Rev. Joseph Bruce, S.J., archivist with the Deaf Catholic Archives at Holy Cross and the first Deaf Jesuit priest, for a discussion at the intersection of Catholic life and Deaf culture. Thomas M. Landy, director of the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture at Holy Cross, moderates.

The Republican Party’s Factional Future
February 24, 2021
Steven Teles, Professor of Political Science at the Johns Hopkins University, Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center, and co-author of "Never Trump: The Revolt of the Conservative Elites" (Oxford University Press, 2020), assesses how these fissures in the Republican Party will develop in the coming years, and how a more heterogeneous, fractured party will change how American politics works across the board. Part of the Repairing the Fabric of Our Nation series.

Public Health Reporting in a Pandemic of Disinformation
March 1, 2021
Caroline Chen, investigative health reporter for ProPublica, speaks to Holy Cross students, faculty and staff about how she approaches public health reporting in a time of pandemic, when the science and data are fast-paced and changing, the public is seeking answers, and misinformation and disinformation are rampant.

Responsibilities of Social Media Companies in Repairing our Social Divisions
March 4, 2021
Political Science Professor Daniel Klinghard, Director of the J.D. Power Center for Liberal Arts and the World and Co-Director of the Charles Carroll Program, and Amit Taneja, Associate Provost for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, are joined by Richard Freije ’81, who is AVP and Senior Counsel at Sun Life Financial and Adjunct Instructor at Clark University and WPI teaching Cyber Law and Policy, for a discussion on regulating social media moderated by McFarland Center Director Thomas M. Landy. Part of the Repairing the Fabric of Our Nation series.

The Destruction of Images (and Images of Their Destruction)
March 8, 2021
Aaron Tugendhaft, author of Idols of ISIS: From Assyria to the Internet (University of Chicago Press, 2020), explores the power of images and the politics of iconoclasm. From Assyrian palace reliefs to videos of the destruction of images by ISIS, Tugenhaft examines this destruction (and images of it) with regard to religious and cultural pluralities, drawing connections from the ancient past to today. The talk is presented in conjunction with the Cantor Art Gallery and its exhibition, Kevork Mourad: Memory Gates, on view March 4-April 11, 2021.

Damon Hart ‘96 and Dominic Blue ‘98 on Investing in Racial Equity
March 9, 2021
Holy Cross alumni Damon P. Hart ‘96 and Dominic Blue ‘98 join McFarland Center Director Thomas Landy for a discussion of corporate responsibility in dismantling structural racism and the New Commonwealth Racial Equity and Social Justice Fund they helped to form. Hart is executive vice president and chief legal officer of Liberty Mutual Insurance; Blue is head of MassMutual Strategic Distributors.

Conference: The Intelligentsia in Russia: Spiritual and Moral Values
March 13-14, 2021
In preparation of their edited volume, "The Intelligentsia in Russia: Myth, Mission, Metamorphosis," Olga Partan, associate professor of Russian at Holy Cross, and Professor Sibelan Forrester of Swarthmore College virtually convene the book's contributors to present and solicit feedback on their draft work. The volume offers a multidisciplinary approach to addressing spiritual and moral missions of the Russian Intelligentsia, tracing its evolution over time from the 18th century to the post-Soviet era. View the schedule.

America’s Place in the World 
March 16, 2021
A discussion of our standing in the world with distinguished diplomats and policy analysts including Holy Cross alumni retired Ambassador Harry K. Thomas Jr. ‘78, and retired U.S. Air Force Col. Robert Tomlinson Ph.D. '74, associate professor in National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School; along with retired Ambassador Susan Elliot and longtime foreign service officer David Rank. Part of the Repairing the Fabric of Our Nation series.

College Hill on Capitol Hill: Alumni Serving in Congress
March 18, 2021
Three Holy Cross alumni were serving in Congress during the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol and subsequent second impeachment of former President Donald Trump. Hear from Sen. Robert Casey ’82 (D-Pennsylvania), Rep. Peter Welch ’69 (D-Vermont) and Rep. Mark DeSaulnier ’74 (D-California) about the political crisis we're in and how we move our country beyond. Featuring a special welcome by Massachusetts Congressman Jim McGovern. Part of the Repairing the Fabric of Our Nation series.

Can Protest Really Change the Political Order: Learning from Russia, Belarus and Bulgaria
March 24, 2021
Can protest really change the political order? Holy Cross faculty members Cynthia Hooper (History), Erina Megowan (History) and Nina Barzachka (Political Science) will discuss recent, daring protests in Russia, Belarus and Bulgaria to explore how people are trying to "speak truth to power" and how elites are responding. It will also look at the role of U.S. protests in inspiring both those participating in demonstrations and those in the government determined to shut them down.

How Can Catholics Contribute to Public Life? 
March 25, 2021
What does it mean to be a faithful citizen and how can our Catholic faith contribute to a healthy, vibrant polity and society? Meg Griffiths '04, assistant director of programs at Essential Partners, moderates a discussion among Catholic alumni including Mark Kennedy Shriver '86, president of Save the Children Action Network; Broderick Johnson ‘78, former assistant to the president and cabinet secretary under President Barack Obama; Virginia Doherty McGregor '84, treasurer of the Democratic National Committee; and Yarlennys Villaman '14, outreach director for Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. Organized with the College Chaplains. Part of the Repairing the Fabric of Our Nation series.

A Return to Hope and Healing: Seeing our Way Through a Crisis of Our Time
April 7, 2021
Worcester Art Museum Director Emeritus James A. Welu looks back at a landmark exhibition on "Hope and Healing: Painting in Italy in a Time of Plague, 1500-1800," to explore what the work of master artists can teach us about the human condition during a time of crisis similar to our own. Following his illustrated presentation, he is joined by Cantor Art Gallery Director Meredith Fluke and Holy Cross Art History Professor David Karmon for questions and discussion.

Lessons from Around the World in the Aftermath of Crisis
April 8, 2021
Holy Cross faculty share from their comparative scholarship to glean lessons from other countries’ experiences about how to rebuild a damaged, fragmented society. Featuring History Professor Cynthia Hooper and Political Science Professors Judith Chubb, Maria Rodrigues and Aditi Malik. Part of the Repairing the Fabric of Our Nation series. 

What Future Can Conservatives Imagine to Repair Our Political Fabric?
April 12, 2021
A group of Holy Cross students, alumni and faculty discuss the range of conservative ideas and policy goals that they see moving us forward: Mary Clare Amselem '13, a writer and former policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation; Political Science Professor Donald Brand; Peter Flaherty '87, former deputy campaign manager and senior advisor to Mitt Romney; Marisa George '21, co-chair of the College Republicans; and Tim Rice '16, associate editor of the Washington Free Beacon. Part of the Repairing the Fabric of Our Nation series.

Contagion of Hate: Pandemic and the Virus of Racism
April 13, 2021
Kim Yi Dionne, associate professor of political science at the University of California Riverside, and Russell Jeung, professor and chair in the Department of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University and co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, discuss historic examples of "othering" during epidemics and times of crisis, and how the surge of anti-Asian racism during COVID-19 has affected members of the AAPI community.

Fall 2019

Thursday, August 22, 2019
Faculty Book Discussion: The Uninhabitable Earth — Discussion of the First Year summer reading assignment, David Wallace-Wells' "The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming" (Penguin Random House, 2019) covers contents and issues laid out in the book as well as ideas on teaching and engaging students in purposeful discussions.

September 10, 2019
Killer Heat in the United States: Climate Choices and the Future of Dangerously Hot Days — Erika Spanger-Siegfried, a senior analyst in the Climate and Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, reviews data from a recent report on the future of extreme heat in the United States. Co-sponsored with Sociology and Anthropology and Political Science.

September 17, 2019
Climate Change and the Role of the New Generation to Take Ethical Action —  Filmmaker Marcos Negrão shares stories and videos from his new documentary, "Child of Nature," of powerful actions taken by youth around the world. 

September 19, 2019
The Islam Question: Why Religious Freedom is the Answer — Daniel Philpott, professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, draws on his newly published book, “Religious Freedom In Islam: The Fate of a Universal Human Right in the Muslim World Today” (Oxford University Press, 2019). One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

September 23, 2019
"Gay" and "Catholic": Evolving Identities — James Nickoloff, Holy Cross associate professor emeritus of religious studies, explores how the traditional Catholic understanding of the human person is being called into question by science and by the lived experience of real people, especially those whose sexuality is not exclusively heterosexual. Co-sponsored with the Office of College Chaplains.

September 26, 2019
Crowns of Transformation: How Vajrācāryas become Bodhisattvas — John Guy, Florence and Herbert Irving Curator of the Arts of South and Southeast Asia at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, describes the ritual use of Vajrācāryas crowns and the windows that their contemporary use provides into the medieval Indian origins of these key objects of Vajrayana practice. His talk is in conjunction with the Cantor Art Gallery exhibition Dharma and Puṇya: Buddhist Ritual Arts of Nepal. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

October 9, 2019
Stranded Behind Bars: The Failure of Retributive Justice — Erin Kelly, professor of philosophy at Tufts University and author of “The Limits of Blame: Rethinking Punishment and Responsibility” (Harvard University Press, 2018), explains how retributive justice exaggerates the moral meaning of criminal guilt, normalizes excessive punishment, and distracts from shared responsibility for social injustice.

October 21, 2019
Fishbowl Discussion of "The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming" — Led by Holy Cross faculty Kendy Hess, Brake Smith Associate Professor of Social Philosophy and Ethics; Ellis Jones, assistant professor of sociology; Katherine Kiel, professor of economics; Renee LeBlanc '21, co-chair of Eco-Action; and Sara Mitchell, geologist and associate professor of biology. McFarland Center Director Thomas M. Landy moderates. Co-sponsored with Environmental Studies and the Class Deans.

October 23, 2019
Anne Frank, Otto Frank, and the Creation of Memory — A panel discussion featuring Roger Guenveur Smith following his performance of “Otto Frank,” with Thomas Doughton, senior lecturer in CIS; Edward Isser, W. Arthur Garrity, Sr. Professor in Human Nature, Ethics, and Society; and Theresa McBride, professor of history. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

October 28, 2019
Civil Disobedience as a Moral Weapon for Inhuman Times — Pietro Ameglio, one of the most important teachers and practitioners of active nonviolence in Latin America today, is a key organizer in the Mexican Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity that emerged in 2011 in response to the spiraling toll of dead and disappeared in the so-called "war on drugs." Co-sponsored with Peace and Conflict Studies.

November 6, 2019
Wrestling with the Word: Moral Ambiguity in the Hebrew Bible — Andrew Davis, associate professor of Old Testament at Boston College, and Mahri Leonard Fleckman, assistant professor of religious studies at Holy Cross, assert that while reading the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, requires different rules of engagement than the New Testament, it seeks to immerse us in the most difficult issues of human nature, and that its lessons can speak to our world today. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

November 7, 2019
Responding to the Opioid Epidemic — Dr. Andrew Kolodny, co-director of Opioid Policy Research at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and the executive director of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, provides an overview of the current state of the opioid crisis, and the role of prescription opioids, heroin and fentanyl on opioid-related morbidity and mortality.

November 9, 2019
Lunch Discussion with Journalist and Papal Biographer Austen Ivereigh — Pope Francis' foremost biographer, journalist and commentator Austen Ivereigh introduces his just released papal biography, Wounded Shepherd: Pope Francis and His Struggle to Convert the Catholic Church (Henry Holt and Co., 2019), a followup to the critically-acclaimed, The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope (Henry Holt, 2014).

November 11, 2019
Mary in Micronesia: Breadwinner, Protector, and Strong Model for Women — Juliana Flinn, professor of anthropology at the University of Arkansas Little Rock and author of "Mary, the Devil and Taro: Catholicism and Women's Work in a Micronesian Society" (University of Hawaii Press, 2010), describes how gender roles among Pollapese Catholics in Micronesia influence their strong image of Mary. Part of the McFarland Center’s initiative on Catholics & Cultures.

November 13, 2019
Memory as Protest: How and Why We Remember the Holocaust — A leading scholar of Holocaust literature, Alan Rosen, Kraft-Hiatt Scholar in Residence, explores the ethics of commemoration. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

November 14, 2019
Believe in Belief: Looking at Religious Art — Holland Cotter, co-chief art critic of The New York Times, speaks on his approach to viewing and critiquing religious art. In connection with the Cantor Art Gallery exhibition, Dharma and Puṇya: Buddhist Ritual Arts of Nepal. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

December 4, 2019
A New Way of Being Church: The Latin American Roots of Pope Francis Reforms — Rafael Luciani, a leading Latin American theologian and associate professor of the practice at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, discusses Pope Francis's Latin American theological vision. He is author of “Francis and the Theology of the People” (Orbis, 2017), winner of a 2018 Catholic Press Association Book Award.

Spring 2020

January 29, 2020
Hope in Time of Crisis — International Visiting Jesuit Fellow Rev. Peter Dubovsky, S.J., a native of Slovakia, surveys the wars, destruction, deportation and violence in ancient Israel to question: is there a hope when the temple is on fire, when the city lies in ashes, and when the people are massacred? Fr. Dubovsky is professor of the Old Testament exegesis at Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.

February 13, 2020
A Roman Rivalry: Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini on the Strada Pia, 1634-1680 — Ingrid Rowland, University of Notre Dame professor of architecture and history, based in Rome, offers a review of Jesuit architecture in Rome, including the churches San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane and Sant' Andrea al Quirinale, built a few hundred yards apart by great rival architects of the 17th century.

February 13, 2020
Vocation of the Writer: Joshua Wolf Shenk — Joshua Wolf Shenk is author of "Lincoln’s Melancholy," editor of Believer magazine, and director of the Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, a new institute for the study of writing and culture. He writes for The Atlantic and is and advisor for The Moth radio hour. Co-sponsored with the Creative Writing Program.

February 17, 2020
A Green New Deal for Climate Safety and Social Justice — Thea Riofrancos, assistant professor of political science at Providence College, is coauthor of  “A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal“ (Verso 2019). In this talk, she outlines the environmental and social justice goals of the Green New Deal and suggests why it responds better to the challenges of climate change than other current and prior administrations' policies.

February 19, 2020
A Church Renewed: Sex, Capitalism, and the Making of Modern Catholicism — Drawing on his recent book, “Catholic Modern” (Harvard University Press, 2018), James Chappel, Hunt Family Assistant Professor of History at Duke University, describes the transformation of the Catholic Church in the 20th century. In 1900, the Church stood squarely against everything we might call "modern": democracy, women's rights, and so on. By 2000, this had almost entirely changed. How did this happen, and why? The answer involves sex, economic depression, fascism, Communism, and war. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

Emerging Scholars: Ethics in Practice series — This series spotlights five emerging scholars, from around the country, whose research addresses issues of ethics, particularly as they apply to historically marginalized communities. Listed below are the details of each presentation.

Fall 2018

Wednesday, September 5, 2018
IVJF Lunch Discussion — Lived Catholicism: An Indian Experience — Rev. Lawrence Fernandes, S.J., International Visiting Jesuit Fellow, draws on field-based study in Karnataka, India exploring the religious practices shaped by multi-religious culture and traditions of India and exhibits features that are practical, need-based and sensory. 

175th Anniversary Event
Monday, September 17, 2018
The Holy Cross: Symbol of Victory and Sign of Salvation — Robin Jensen, Endowed Professor and the Patrick O'Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, explores some of the reasons for the late emergence of the cross and crucifix, discusses the earliest examples, and finally shows how the image of the Holy Cross has historically had a wide range of meanings, including a sign of Christ’s Second Coming, a symbol of divine love, and the primordial tree of life. Jensen is author of “The Cross: History, Art, and Controversy” (Harvard University Press, 2017). One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

Tuesday, September 18, 2018
IVJF Lunch Discussion — Vatican Media: the Voice of the Good News in the Contemporary Multicultural World — Rev. Leszek Gęsiak, S.J., an International Visiting Jesuit Fellow from the South Poland Province, shows how the Vatican media, which are the voice of the Holy Father, try to spread the message of the Gospel across multicultural, multireligious, and multilingual currents.

Thursday, September 20, 2018
Contemporary Global Antisemitism as the Rejection of the Other: Implications for Human Rights and Democratic Principles — Charles Asher Small, an expert scholar of antisemitism, is founding director of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), and senior research scholar at the Moshe Dayan Centre for Middle East and African Studies, Tel Aviv University. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

Wednesday, October 3, 2018
Film Screening: 'Forgetting Vietnam,' and Conversation with the Writer/Director — Trinh T. Minh-ha is a Vietnam-born composer, artist and author of some of the most profound works of essay filmmaking and literary theory of our age. Forgetting Vietnam explores the involvement of the USA in Vietnam, past and present, and the role of memory in cultural and religious dynamics. Co-sponsored with Asian Studies and Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies.

Monday, October 15, 2018
Is China the New Roman Empire? Christian Growth in China and Global Implications — Fenggang Yang, professor of sociology and director of the Center on Religion and Chinese Society at Purdue University, talks about the social and cultural factors for the Christian growth, why Protestantism grows faster than Catholicism, and the changing church-state relationship. He is author of “Atlas of Religion in China” (Brill, 2018). One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity, and part of the McFarland Center's initiative on Catholics & Cultures.

Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Digital Disinformation: The Tools and Technologies Used to Spread Fake News and the Regulations that Can Treat It — Dipayan Ghosh, a fellow at New America and the Shorenstein Center at the Harvard Kennedy School, was a technology and economic adviser to the Obama White House, and until recently, worked on privacy policy issues at Facebook. In this talk, he illustrates exactly how disinformation campaigns are happening over social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube; how they challenge the American political process; and what public policies can be enforced to regulate against these harms in the future.

Thursday, October 25, 2018
Accounting for History: Race, Slavery, and Institutional Memory — A panel discussion featuring Deborah Gray White, Board of Governors Distinguished Professor of History at Rutgers University, and Robert Patterson, associate professor and chair of African American Studies at Georgetown University, focuses on how institutions of higher learning reckon with their difficult histories, in particular in relation to enslavement and justice. Co-sponsored with Peace and Conflict Studies, History and Africana Studies.

Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Holocaust Witness: Back to Basics — Alan Rosen, Kraft-Hiatt Scholar in Residence, will consider what one needs to know about the Holocaust, as well as about those who were caught up in it and have borne witness to it. He will also briefly reflect on some of the implications of witness to the evil of the Holocaust: religious, moral, pedagogic, and personal. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Betting on Sports: The Ethics and Economics of Legalized Sports Gambling — Rev. Richard McGowan, S.J., associate professor of economics at Boston College and treasurer of the Jesuits' Maryland Province, and Victor Matheson, professor of economics at Holy Cross, offer differing perspectives on how legalized gambling might affect sports, including college-level athletics, and individual and social well-being.

Thursday, November 15, 2018
Dolphins, Flourishing, and the Challenge of Interspecies Ethics — Thomas White ‘69, author of "In Defense of Dolphins: The New Moral Frontier” (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007), scientific advisor to the Wild Dolphin Project, and a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, explores the conditions dolphins need in order to "flourish," the indefensibility of cetacean captivity, anthropocentrism, and weaknesses in the ways that scientists and philosophers typically approach ethical issues related to non-humans.

Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Finding the Essence of Christianity in Racial America — Willie Jennings, associate professor of systematic theology and Africana studies at Yale Divinity School, examines a crisis in the practice of Christianity and suggests how we might articulate the essence of Christianity for this moment. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

Faculty Working Group: Sites of Conflict: Gender and Political Violence — Beginning in Fall 2018, the McFarland Center sponsored a faculty working group titled "Sites of Conflict: Gender and Political Violence," facilitated by Profs. Susan Amatangelo, Karen Turner, and Stephanie Yuhl. Faculty in any discipline and rank are invited to join a series of meetings centered around common readings and discussions, a possible retreat, and a workshop/conference open to the public in 2019 or 2020.

Spring 2019

Thursday, January 31, 2019
The Rise and Fall of the Fact — Jill Lepore, the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and author of "These Truths: A History of the United States" (W.W. Norton & Company, 2018), focus on the origins of our epistemological crisis. The Thomas More Lecture on the Humanities.

Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Meeting Our Responsibility to Refugees at the Global, National and Local Levels — Denis McDonough, former White House chief of staff for the Obama administration, talks about refugees and related structural and legal issues.

Monday, February 11, 2019
Vocation of the Writer: Laura van den Berg — Laura van den Berg is author of the novels “The Third Hotel” and “Find M” and the story collections “What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us” and “The Isle of Youth.” Co-sponsored with Creative Writing.

Wednesday, February 20, 2019
The Holocaust on the Local Level: Coexistence and Genocide in one Galician Town — Omer Bartov, the John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History at Brown University and author of “Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz” (Simon & Schuster, 2018), explains how ethnic cleansing begins in seeming peace, slowly and often unnoticed, the culmination of pent-up slights and grudges and indignities. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

Tuesday, February 26, 2019
The Christian Invention of Human Dignity — Samuel Moyn, professor of law and history at Yale University, argues that human dignity has to be linked to the invention of Christian democracy. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Of Ancient Deities and Modern Gods: Making sense of the promises and pathologies of religion and faith in Africa — Drawing on his most recent book, “Religion and Faith in Africa: Confessions of an Animist” (Orbis, 2018), Rev.  Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, S.J., president of the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar, offers a critical assessment of contemporary African religious experience and the tension between ancient and modern religious traditions. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Child Sexual Abuse: Breaking the Cycle — Maeve Lewis, executive director of One in Four Ireland, discusses the impact of child sexual abuse across the lifespan. She outlines a systemic attachment-based approach to psychotherapy with adult survivors and their families, and with sex offenders, situating the work within an Irish societal context.

Thursday, March 28, 2019
Church of Migrants and Migrant Church: Theology of the Church in the Age of Migration — Peter Phan is the inaugural holder of the Ignacio Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought at Georgetown University. He is editor, with Elaine Padilla, of “Christianities in Migration: The Global Perspective,” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).

Monday, April 1, 2019
A New Curve in the Well-Known Color Line: Race, Respectability, and the Multi-Racial South — Derek Chang, associate professor of history at Cornell University, provides an overview of Asians in the Jim Crow South to illuminate the ways in which racial systems of power are linked to questions of class, cultural, and religious difference. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures for Religion and Modernity. Co-sponsored with Asian Studies and Peace and Conflict Studies.

Tuesday, April 2-Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Readings from the Roots: Bible Translation and Its Impact — This two-day conference highlights a new, historically-sensitive translation of the Revised Common Lectionary intended to reduce the potential for anti-Judaism by enriching Christianity through its roots in Judaism. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

Tuesday, April 9, 2019
More than Specks of Dust: Being Human in a Vast, Evolving Universe — In an informal lunchtime talk for the Holy Cross community, astrophysicist Jeff Hester, professor emeritus at Arizona State University, offers an insider’s narrative of the story of the universe — from its origins in the Big Bang through to the evolution of minds capable of pondering their place in the cosmos.

Tuesday, April 9, 2019
Is Theistic Belief Rational in a Scientific Age? —William Lane Craig, research professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology and professor of philosophy at Houston Baptist University, and Jeff Hester, professor emeritus in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, participate in a moderated dialogue on theism, atheism and science. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

Thursday, April 11, 2019
The Ethics of Affirmative Action Policies in Higher Education — Glenn Loury, Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences and professor of economics at Brown University, is a prominent social critic and public intellectual, writing mainly on the themes of racial inequality and social policy.

Fall 2017

September 11, 2017
A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America — Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute and author of "The Color of Law," explains how residential segregation was created by racially explicit and unconstitutional government policy in the mid-20th century.

September 13, 2017
Finding the Self: Charles Taylor's Theory of Subjectivity — International Jesuit Visiting Scholar Rev. Janez Percic, S.J. explores the definition of "self" in Charles Taylor's approach to subjectivity.

Monday, October 2, 2017
Our Lady of the Slaves: Marian Devotion in Cuba, Race and Revolution — Jalane Schmidt, associate professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia and author of “Cachita’s Streets: The Virgin of Charity, Race, and Revolution in Cuba” (Duke University Press, 2015) explores how devotion to Cachita, the Virgin of Charity, has been central to how many Cubans of various racial and religious identities have navigated the Revolutionary to contemporary eras. This lecture is part of the McFarland Center's initiative on Catholics & Cultures.

October 3, 2017
Lunch Discussion: Public History and Activism in the Age of the Alt-Right — Jalane Schmidt, associate professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia, reflects on her involvement in alt-right resistance in Charlottesville.

October 4, 2017
Dare We Hope for Common Ground? — Julie Hanlon Rubio, professor of Christian ethics at St. Louis University and author of “Hope for Common Ground” (Georgetown University Press, 2016), looks to Catholic social teaching and moral theology for direction in seeking common ground on controversial topics. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

October 16, 2017
When should we edit nature? Moral questions raised by gene drive research — Kevin Esvelt, assistant professor of M.I.T. Media Lab, explains the technology he developed to alter the DNA of wild populations with the potential to save millions of lives and advocates for the practice of open and responsive science in determining how and when to use it.

October 17, 2017
'Blown on by God's Breath': The Riddle of Thoreau’s Religion — Holy Cross alumnus Richard Higgins ’74, author of “Thoreau and the Language of Trees” (University of California Press, 2017), discusses Henry David Thoreau’s much misunderstood religiosity and his perception of the divine in nature.

October 19-21, 2017
Rethinking the Afropolitan: The Ethics of Black Atlantic Masculinities on Display — This three-day conference examines the intersections of  gender, race, and visual culture, in the Atlantic, spanning Africa, the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe from the 16th century to the present. Learn more»

October 23, 2017
Book Launch: Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Jesuits — Rev. Thomas Worcester, S.J., general editor, and Rev. James Corkery, S.J. and Alison Fleming, associate editors, share some of the interesting items and visual richness that can be found in the pages this new volume spanning the Jesuits’ 500-year history. Co-sponsored with the College Committee on Mission and Identity. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

October 24, 2017
Beyond the Abortion Wars: Finding A Way Forward in a Time of Polarization — Charles Camosy is associate professor of theology at Fordham University and author of "Beyond the Abortion Wars: A Way Forward for a New Generation" (Eerdmans Publishing, 2015). One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

November 1, 2017
Out of the Depths: Jewish Religious Life and Practice During and After the Holocaust — Alan Rosen, Kraft-Hiatt scholar-in-residence, explores the complex and difficult process for religious Jews to make sense of the world during the Holocaust, and to find meaning in its aftermath.

November 6, 2017
Anti-Semitism on the Internet — Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, a former Google data scientist and author of "Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are" (HarperCollins, 2017), will share what Big Data from hate sites can teach us about contemporary anti-Semitism in the United States. This lecture is supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

November 15-17, 2017
Religion, Protest, and Social Upheaval — This conference brings together a diverse group of scholars across national and religious divides to examine the impact of religion on various social and political movements. Co-sponsored with Religious Studies. Learn more»

December 1, 2017
A Radical Solution to the Race Problem — Quayshawn Spencer, assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, focuses on the biological meaning applied to race when used by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget in reporting jobs, college loans, mortgages, etc., to defend his metametaphysical position of radical racial pluralism. Co-sponsored with the Department of Philosophy.

Spring 2018

February 12, 2018
Race, Poverty, and the Criminal Justice System: Lessons Learned From Wrongful Conviction Cases — Tricia Bushnell, director of the Midwest Innocence Project, discusses the known causes of wrongful convictions, policies and solutions to prevent the conviction of the innocent, and our social obligation to change the system and prevent future injustice. Co-sponsored with Peace and Conflict Studies.

February 15, 2018
Writing Africa Today: On the Intersection Between Truth, Justice and Reality in Contested Spaces — Prize-winning Zimbabwean author Petina Gappah focuses on her forthcoming book on the companions of explorer David Livingstone who carried his body for nine months so he could be buried in his homeland. Co-sponsored with Africana Studies.

February 22, 2018
Gish Jen: Vocation of the Writer — Gish Jen’s nonfiction title, “The Girl at the Baggage Claim: Explaining the East-West Culture Gap” (Knopf, 2017), is a provocative and important study of the different ideas Easterners and Westerners have about the self and society and what this means for current debates in art, education, geopolitics, and business. Co-sponsored with Creative Writing.

February 26, 2018
Pentecostal and Catholic Charismatic Movements in Africa: The Search for Human and Cosmic Flourishing — Stan Chu Ilo, research professor for the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology at DePaul University, offers a comparative analysis of Pentecostal and Catholic Charismatic movements in Africa, paying particular attention to cultural knowledge, artifacts, and symbols as they manifest in the actual faith of the people, with some narratives and examples from Nigeria, Kenya, Benin, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Part of the McFarland Center’s initiative on Catholics & Cultures.

March 16, 2018
CONFERENCE — Between the Sacred and the Profane: Love and Desire in Premodern China — This one-day conference explores the intersection of religion, literature, and the arts through examination of various circumstances by which the discourse of love and desire is represented, transmitted, transformed, and re-contextualized in traditional China. Held in conjunction with the Worcester Art Museum exhibition, “Dangerous Liaisons Revisited: Art and Music Inspired by the Chinese Tang Court.” Co-sponsored with Asian Studies. Learn more»

March 20, 2018
Nothing About Us Without Us: The State of Incarceration for Women — Andrea James, founder and executive director of the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, and founder of Families for Justice as Healing, argues for the abolition of prisons. Co-sponsored by Sister to Sister and part of Unity Week at Holy Cross.

March 23, 2018
Empathy and Morality in Psychopaths — Heidi Maibom, professor of philosophy at the University of Cincinnati, focuses on issues in contemporary philosophy of mind, psychology, and cognitive science. Co-sponsored with the Department of Philosophy.

April 11-12, 2018
CONFERENCE — Francis the Pilgrim: From Personal Devotion to Papal Diplomacy — This conference considers Francis’ own devotional life, as demonstrated through his pilgrimages and the symbols he chooses to surround himself with, as a starting point to interpret the papacy of Francis in its goals, objectives and outcomes. Speakers include journalists and theologians Austen Ivereigh, Inés San Martín, Rev. Thomas Reese, S.J., and Elise Harris. Learn more»

April 16, 2018
All Too Human: Labor and Dehumanization in the Robotic Imaginary — Jennifer Rhee, assistant professor of new media at Virginia Commonwealth University, explores how the human is defined in robotic visions and technological relations. Co-sponsored by Sociology & Anthropology and Montserrat.

April 16, 2018
The Story of Hebrew — Lewis Glinert, professor of Hebrew Studies at Dartmouth and author of “The Story of Hebrew” (Princeton University Press, 2017), discusses the extraordinary hold that Hebrew has had on Jews and non-Jews alike across two millennia. Part of JCC Author Series and supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish Christian Understanding.

April 19, 2018
Jews, Intersectionality and Contemporary Anti-Semitism — Katya Gibel Mevorach, professor of anthropology and American studies at Grinnell College, offers historical and global context for contemporary anti-Semitism, exploring various forms of Jewish and intersectional identity. Part of the Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding, her lecture is supported by a grant from the Academic Engagement Network.

April 20, 2018
Tradition and Inquiry in Tibetan Buddhism: An Examination of Tibetan Debate Practices — Georges Dreyfus, Jackson Professor of Religion at Williams College, Tibetan Monk and “Geshe,” explains Tibetan monks' unique and animated tradition of debate as a practice to develop inquiry skills. Co-sponsored with the Department of Philosophy.

April 23, 2018
My Flannery O’Connor Problem, and Yours: Being a Catholic Novelist in 2018 — Randy Boyagoda, a Catholic writer and professor of English at the University of Toronto, discusses the challenges of trying to write religiously serious fiction today and reads a preview from his forthcoming novel, "Original Prin." One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

Fall 2016

September 12, 2016
Christianophobia: A Neglected Genocide in the Church's Biblical Heartlands? — Rupert Shortt, religion editor and writer for The Times Literary Supplement talks about cases of oppression and genocide against Christians in the Middle East and beyond. Co-Sponsored with the W. Arthur Garrity Sr. Professorship in Human Nature, Ethics and Society and the Department of Economics and Accounting.

September 13, 2016
Introducing the Journal of Global Catholicism — This reception debuts a new twice-yearly e-journal, edited by Religious Studies Professor Mathew Schmalz, part of the McFarland Center's Catholics & Cultures initiative. The event celebrates the premier issue, previews future issues, and offers an update on Catholics & Cultures.

September 14, 2016
Kinship with Migrants in the Year of Mercy — Kristin Heyer, professor of theological ethics at Boston College and author of "Kinship Across Borders: A Christian Ethic of Immigration" (Georgetown University Press, 2012), suggests reframing the immigration debate from one based on fears about threats to our security, economy and culture to one focused on human rights, worker rights and family ethics. Her talk is one of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

September 15, 2016
Faculty Scholarship Lunch: Yeats, Joyce, Beckett...and Who?: New Work on Modern and Contemporary Irish Literature — Paige Reynolds, professor of English, discusses her collection “Modernist Afterlives in Irish Literature and Culture” (Anthem, 2016).

September 19, 2016
How Catholicism Changed: From Official Approval of Slavery to Prohibiting It — Bernadette Brooten, American religious scholar and Kraft-Hiatt Professor of Christian Studies at Brandeis University, traces the Church's changing position on slavery, from references in the New Testament and early canon law that fully tolerate slavery to the current teachings which prohibit it.  Co-sponsored by the Class of 1956 Chair in New Testament Studies.

September 29, 2016
You Can't Say That: Teaching Controversy in the Age of Trump — Jonathan Zimmerman, professor of the history of education at the University of Pennsylvania, traces the history of teaching controversial topics in public schools and the restrictions placed on teachers' First Amendment rights. Co-sponsored with the Education Department.

October 5, 2016
Faculty Scholarship Lunch: The Dodo: Lessons from an Icon of Extinction — Leon Claessens, associate professor of biology, discusses his work on the dodo, the giant flightless pigeon-relative that once lived on the island of Mauritius.

October 18, 2016
Supply and Demand in the U.S. Firearms Industry: A Data-Based Exploration — Jurgen Brauer, professor of economics at Augusta University, shares his own statistics on gun violence, the new and used domestic and foreign supply of firearms in the country, and the demand, adjusted for changes to state laws and background checks. He also shows correlations between talk of gun legislation and a rise in gun sales.  Co-sponsored with the W. Arthur Garrity Sr. Professorship in Human Nature, Ethics and Society and the Department of Economics and Accounting.

October 18, 2016
Raise the Roof: Film Screening and Panel Discussion — This film documents artists Rick and Laura Brown of Handshouse Studio as they reconstruct the elaborate roof and painted ceiling of an 18th-century synagogue that was destroyed by Nazis in Poland. Co-sponsored with Visual Arts and the Cantor Art Gallery and supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

October 19, 2016
Expressive Individualism, the Cult of the Artist as Genius, and Milton’s Lucifer — Patrick Madigan, S.J., editor of the Heythrop Journal, offers an 'intellectual genealogy' for the currently fashionable term of ‘expressive individualism', tracing it back to its historical antecedents and suggests that expressive individualism as an ethic for our time might be a toxic model.

October 20, 2016
Classics, the Culture Wars, and Beyond — Eric Adler, associate professor of classics at the University of Maryland, traces the role of the classics in higher education from early America through the post-bellum era including the culture wars. He considers what is lost when a culture no longer believes in the perfection of the human being as education's goal, preferring a skills-based approach to knowledge. Co-sponsored with the Department of Classics.

October 26, 2016
An Ottoman Tableau of Faith: A Lecture-Demonstration — The DÜNYA ensemble presents a historical tableau of different religious musical practices in Islam, Christianity and Judaism, especially centered in Ottoman Istanbul. Co-sponsored with Arts Transcending Borders. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

November 1, 2016
Faculty Scholarship Lunch: Making Sense of Mark’s Silent Ending: Reading a Gospel as Traumatic Haunting — Tat-siong Benny Liew, Class of 1956 Professor in New Testament Studies, discusses how psychoanalytic theory may mediate between Marxist and postcolonial understandings to inform a different reading of Mark’s Gospel.

November 1, 2016
Fishbowl Discussion: Making Marijuana Legal — Explore the science, ethics and outcomes at stake in legalizing recreational marijuana in Massachusetts. Featured participants are: Daniel Bitran, professor of psychology; Gregory DiGirolamo, associate professor of psychology; Paul Irish, associate dean of students and director of student conduct and community standards; and students Pooja Patnaik '17 and Michael Andre '17.

November 9, 2016
After the Holocaust the Bells Still Ring — A child survivor the Holocaust, Joseph A. Polak, rabbi emeritus of Hillel House at Boston University and chief justice of the Rabbinical Court of Massachusetts, shares from his memoir "After the Holocaust the Bells Still Ring," winner of a 2015 National Jewish Book Award. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

November 14, 2016
In Pursuit of Global Religious Freedom — United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom David Saperstein talks about the United States' role in advising and negotiating with governments to protect religious minorities and in defending those groups from governments and terror groups that discrimate, persecute and commit genocide against them. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

November 16, 2016
A Latinx Political Ethics for the Hopelessness of Our Community — Miguel De La Torre, professor of social ethics and Latino/a studies at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado, argues that to show solidarity with the Latinx community, we must adopt a political ethics that embraces hopelessness, and he explores why such a move is more salvific for the oppressed than Eurocentric Christian thought. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity, this event is co-sponsored with Latin American and Latino Studies and Peace and Conflicts Studies.

November 17, 2016
Film Screening: Trails of Hope and Terror —Miguel De La Torre’s documentary explores the historical and economic reasons for the current immigration crisis, and how politicians have used this issue to garner votes.

November 29, 2016
American Jesuits and the World: How an Embattled Religious Order Made Modern Catholicism Global — John T. McGreevy, I.A. O'Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts and Letters and professor of history at the University of Notre Dame, speaks about his newest book, which tracks Jesuits who left Europe for America and places the Jesuits at the center of the worldwide clash between Catholics and liberal nationalists. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

November 30, 2016
Finding Pope Francis on Mount St. James — Mark K. Shriver ’86, president of Save the Children Action Network in Washington, D.C., talks about his latest book, “Pilgrimage: My Search for the Real Pope Francis” (Random House, 2016) in which he retraces Pope Francis’ personal journey in Argentina, and in the process revitalizing his own faith and renewing his commitment to the Church.

Spring 2017

February 2, 2017
Farmworker Justice Discussions with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers — In classroom and public sessions, Oscar Otzoy of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Yaissy Solis of the Student/Farmworker Alliance spoke with students, faculty and staff about their worker-based human rights organizations and efforts to protect farmworker rights.

February 2, 2017
Forgotten by the Food Movement? — Margaret Gray, associate professor of political science at Adelphi University and author of "Labor and the Locavore" (University of California Press, 2013), focused on low-wage, non-citizen workers in the agro-food industry and their civic, cultural, and economic opportunities.

February 6, 2017
Lessons from the Field: Kinship as an Intervention — Rev. Gregory Boyle, S.J., founder and executive director of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles and author of "Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion" (Free Press, 2010), along with homies Ruben Ruiz and David Vasquez, shared stories about gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry.

February 14, 2017
Faculty Scholarship Lunch: Returning to the Roots of Mathematics — John Little, professor of mathematics, considers if the history of mathematics should try to "explain" ancient mathematics using the concepts of the present? Or should it try to understand the mathematics of the past on its own terms?

February 14, 2017
God: Idea and Experience — Rev. George Karuvelil, S.J., International Visiting Jesuit Fellow for the Spring 2017 semester, focused on a universally available kind of experience known as “nature mysticism” to show how the theistic understanding of God can be rejuvenated.

February 16, 2017
Understanding the Islamic State — Daniel Byman, professor in the Security Studies Program in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and a senior fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, investigated the roots of ISIS, the geopolitical implications of terrorism in the Middle East, and the consequences of various policy options. Co-sponsored with CIS/Peace and Conflict Studies.

February 21, 2017
St. John Paul II on the Free and Virtuous Society: Democracy, the Market, and Culture — Papal scholar and Catholic theologian George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, highlighted teachings of Pope John Paul II that connected culture, economics and politics. Co-sponsored by the Department of Political Science’s Charles Carroll Program and the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

February 23, 2017
Vocation of the Writer — Ander Monson, author of six books of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, most recently "Letter to a Future Lover" (Graywolf, 2015), discussed what it means to be a writer and a reader. Co-sponsored with the Creative Writing program.

March 1, 2017
What is College For? — Andrew Delbanco, Alexander Hamilton Professor of American Studies at Columbia University and author of "College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be" (Princeton University Press, 2012), spoke about liberal education — its past, present and future. The Thomas More Lecture on the Humanities.

March 2, 2017
The Word According to Rihanna: The Bible after The Book — Timothy Beal, the Florence Harkness Professor of Religion at Case Western Reserve University, explored how our present media revolution is changing the ways we interact with and think about Bibles, the Bible, and the biblical. Co-sponsored with the Dean’s Office.

March 15, 2017
Faculty Scholarship Lunch: Troubling Visions of the Past: The Visual Culture of Slavery in the Dominican Republic — Rosa Carrasquillo, an associate professor of history who teaches in Latin American and Latino Studies, introduces research on the visual culture of slavery in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, by analyzing three historical sites and how they inform what Dominicans know, shape and believe about slavery.

March 21, 2017
Theatre as a Form of Resistance to Oppression and Genocide — Joshua Sobol, a prolific and award-winning playwright, director and author, explored the role of theatre in ghettos and camps during World War II. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

March 23, 2017
The Crusades and Crusaders: History and Historiography — Kevin Madigan ’82, Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard Divinity School, offered a historical perspective on what the Crusades were and reflected on the historiography of the Crusades from the late 19th century onward. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

March 24-25, 2017
Conference: Globalization of Science in the Middle East and North Africa, 18th-20th Centuries — This conference brought together scholars to explore important issues related to the history of science in the Middle East and North Africa region during the 18th-20th centuries — a critical period of change and modernization when Middle Easterners were concerned about rising power of European states and societies and the relative weakness of Islamic ones. Carla Nappi, Canada Research Chair in Early Modern Studies and associate professor of history at the University of British Columbia, give the keynote address, “Look at the Fish: Decomposing Global Histories of Science.” Supported by the Rehm Family Fund.

March 27, 2017
Bhutanese Refugees: Navigating Exile, Encampment, and Resettlement — Kamryn Warren, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of Connecticut and a Fulbright Fellow, investigated the end of the refugee cycle and the transitions that occur when a forced migratory crisis is deemed to be over. Co-sponsored with Religious Studies.

April 3, 2017
Does the Bible Really Say That? Reading Religiously in Bible-Thumping, Bible-Tweeting Culture — Danna Nolan Fewell, the John Fletcher Hurst Professor of Hebrew Bible at Drew University, offered a virtual cross-cultural trip into the ancient city of Sodom (Genesis 19) to provide the testing ground for how the Bible might contribute to contemporary social and political discourse. Co-sponsored with the Dean's Office.

April 5, 2017
Time Capsules in the Rubble: The Secret Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto — Samuel Kassow, the Charles H. Northam Professor of History at Trinity College and author of "Who Will Write Our History?" (Indiana University Press, 2007), shared the story of Emanuel Ringelblum and his secret Oyneg Shabes organization who studied and documented Jewish life in Nazi-occupied Warsaw and buried the archive for posterity. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

April 6, 2017
The Gift of Modernity — Cyril O’Regan, the Huisking Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, spoke to the ambiguity of modernity from a Catholic theological and philosophical point of view. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

April 11, 2017
Calling Ourselves Crusaders: What’s in a Name? — Faculty panelists drew from their respective fields to help us think about questions of identity, meaning, memory, belonging, and history wrapped up in the use of the Holy Cross moniker, Crusaders. Panelists were Rev. John Baldovin, S.J., ’69, professor of historical & liturgical theology at Boston College School of Theology & Ministry, and Holy Cross professors Vickie Langohr (political science), Mathew Schmalz (religious studies), Mark Freeman (psychology), Kendy Hess (philosophy), and Sahar Bazzaz (history).

April 19, 2017
Faculty Scholarship Lunch: Open Scholarship: Ethical and Practical Considerations — Neel Smith, associate professor of classics, discusses how digital information technology changes our scholarship: not only the kinds of questions we can explore, but how we conduct our work in relation to the narrow circle of our peers and to society more broadly. This has important implications for disciplines like archaeology, where the consensus on the ethical obligations of working with cultural property  unambiguously requires open scholarship.

April 20, 2017
What Does Jesus Have to Do with Wall Street? — Joerg Rieger, Cal Turner Chancellor’s Chair in Wesleyan Studies and Distinguished Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt University, considered how the structures of dominant economies influence religion and what contributions religion might make in turn.

April 21-22, 2017
Tolstoy and Spirituality — This conference examined Leo Tolstoy's works of fiction and nonfiction to assess the viability and fruitfulness of his approach to Christianity. Speakers included acclaimed Russian writer Mikhail Shishkin, author of "Maidenhair" and "The Light and the Dark"; cultural historian Rosamund Bartlett, author of the biography "Tolstoy: A Russian Life" and translator of Tolstoy’s "Anna Karenina"; and Liza Knapp, professor of Slavic languages at Columbia University and author of "Anna Karenina and Others: Tolstoy’s Labyrinth of Plots." Supported by the Rehm Family Fund.

April 21, 2017
Concert: Beethoven’s Kreutzer and Tchaikovsky’s In Memory of a Great Artist — Victor Santiago Asuncion, piano; Markus Placci, violin; and Jan Müller-Szeraws, cello performed works of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky in connection with the Tolstoy and Spirituality conference.

April 24, 2017
Why Luck Matters More than You Might Think — Robert Frank, the Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management and professor of economics at Cornell University and author of "Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy" (Princeton University Press, 2016), argues that luck — in addition to hard work and talent — plays a significant role in achieving individual success.

Fall 2015

September 17, 2015
Faculty Scholarship Lunch — Economic Aspects of Violent Conflict — Professor Chuck Anderton, Department of Economics and Accounting, offers a synopsis of his research journeys over 30 years across a variety of topics related to economic aspects of conflict risk and conflict prevention, including his most recent work on genocides and mass killings.

September 17, 2015
The Ethics of Openness: Scholarly Legitimacy and Control in the Digital Age —  The landscape of academic publishing is changing rapidly, and the power of the traditional "gatekeepers" of scholarly legitimacy (e.g., university presses and academic journals) is being eroded. This faculty discussion explored the changing landscape and practical and ethical implications for scholars and the future scholarship.

September 18, 2015
One-Day Workshop: Is the Internet a Realm of Creativity and Freedom or Corporatization and Control? — The Internet has opened a seemingly free space where people can create, collaborate and share. But in doing so, it also has transformed our ideas of individualism, privacy, commercialism, ownership. This daylong workshop included a presentation by Yochai Benkler of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Harvard Law School, a participatory session with ATB artists-in-residence Troika Ranch, and open conversations on legal and political implications of a free Internet and how the Internet enhances and impinges on creativity and the arts. Co-sponsored by the Charles Carroll Program and the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

September 21, 2015
Pope Francis on the Globalization of Environmental Responsibility: Perspectives from Holy Cross Faculty — Loren Cass, associate professor of political science, moderates a faculty discussion of the Pope’s Encyclical, Laudato Si, featuring panelists Matthew Eggemeier, assistant professor of religious studies; Daina Harvey, assistant professor of sociology; Kathy Kiel, professor and chair of economics; Kelly Wolfe-Bellin, director of the biology laboratories; and Rev. Thomas Worcester, S.J., professor of history. Co-sponsored with Environmental Studies.

September 24, 2015
Against Empathy — Paul Bloom, Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Cognitive Science Program at Yale University, draws upon his research into psychopathy, criminal behavior, charitable giving, infant cognition, cognitive neuroscience and Buddhist meditation practices to argue that empathy is a poor moral guide and we are better off without it. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

September 28, 2015
Abolition of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Building a Secure and Sustainable World — Paul Walker ’68, the International Director of Environmental Security and Sustainability for Green Cross International, addresses the build-up of weapons of mass destruction —nuclear, chemical, and biological — and the decades of national and international efforts to abolish these horrifying weapons.

September 29, 2015
Fleshy Passages: How Feminist Biblical Studies Can Contribute to Rethinking Health and Illness — Denise Buell, professor of religion at Williams College, draws from recent studies in microbiology and early Christian texts to offer contemporary ways of thinking about health and environmental responsibility. Co-sponsored with the Class of 1956 Chair in New Testament Studies.

October 5, 2015
Miraculous Images and Votive Offerings in Mexico — Frank Graziano, John D. MacArthur Professor of Hispanic Studies at Connecticut College, explores how certain statues and paintings — the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Lord of Chalma, the Virgin of San Juan de los Lagos — are said to power to perform miracles. The focus is on the nature of miracles and of votive offerings made in gratitude and compensation. Part of Catholics & Cultures and one of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

October 21, 2015
Faculty Scholarship Lunch — Math and Music: The Greatest Hits — Gareth Roberts, associate professor of mathematics, uses a “music first” approach to reveal hidden connections between mathematics and music to his students, and in the process, encourages a greater appreciation and desire for mathematical thinking.

October 26, 2015
Jesuit Kaddish: Encounters between Jesuits and Jews and Why These Might Matter to Us — Rev. James Bernauer, S.J., professor of philosophy and director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College, offers an overview of how Jesuits became a leader in dialogue with Jews and will focus on encounters in the 20th century, with special attention on the historical context of the Holocaust. Co-sponsored with the Mission and Identity Committee. 

October 27, 2015
Holy Salsa/Salsa Santa — The bilingual theater troupe at Holy Cross performs in Spanish and English an original short play written by Rosa Carrasquillo, associate professor of history, about the life of Ismael Rivera, beloved Afro-Puerto Rican singer. A discussion features Ivelisse Rivera, sister of Ismael and director of the Fundación Ismael Rivera; Carrasquillo; Ellen Lokos, visiting associate professor of Spanish, and Helen Freear-Papio, director of the Foreign Language Assistants Program, who co-directed the play; and the actors. Co-sponsored with History, Spanish, Latin American and Latino Studies, and Africana Studies.

October 28, 2015
Comics as Documentary: Words, Images, and War — Hillary Chute, associate professor of English at the University of Chicago, discusses why drawing can be an ethical practice of creating images of witness to war, with a focus in particular on the Japanese Hiroshima survivor cartoonist Keiji Nakazawa, and the American Jewish cartoonist Art Spiegelman, son of Holocaust survivors. Her talk is the inaugural Thomas More Lecture on the Humanities.

November 9, 2015
Faculty Scholarship Lunch — Dr. Algorithm or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Digital Age — Associate Professor of Music Chris Arrell discusses how acoustics and computer science inform his creative process.

November 10, 2015
Dilemmas of Educational Justice — Meira Levinson, professor of education at Harvard Graduate School of Education and author of "No Citizen Left Behind" (Harvard University Press, 2012), combines philosophical analysis and school-based case studies to illuminate the complex dimensions of evaluating, achieving, and teaching justice in schools. Her talk is part of the Charles Carroll speaker series and co-sponsored with the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

November 12, 2015
Cultures of Capital Enhancement: Who is the Neoliberal Subject and What Does It Know of Democracy? — Wendy Brown, Class of 1936 First Professor of Political Science at the University of California Berkeley, explores neoliberal reason and its influence on democratic practice and imagination. Brown is author of "Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism's Stealth Revolution" (Zone Books, 2015). Co-sponsored with CIS.

November 18, 2015
Bringing Equal Opportunity for Children to an Unequal Society — Mary Jo Bane, Thornton Bradshaw Professor of Public Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School, looks at what governments, the private sector, civil society and churches should do to make sure that all children can grow up to lead productive and fulfilling lives. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

Spring 2016

February 2, 2016
Meaningful Inter-religious Dialogue — Rev. Thomas Kuriacose, S.J., International Visiting Jesuit Fellow teaching South Asian Theology, gives a lunchtime talk on interreligious dialogue, especially in the context of terrorism or religious fanaticism.

February 4, 2016
Does Religion Promote Violence? — William Cavanaugh, director of Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology and a professor of Catholic Studies at DePaul University, talks on the myth that religion is more prone to violence than secular orders. He is author of "The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict" (Oxford University Press, 2009). One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

February 9, 2016
Equity, Schools, and The American Dream: What the Data Tell Us about the Future of Equity-Oriented Policy — Douglas Gagnon, a research associate at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy, draws from his own research and others’ to examine the state of equal opportunity in our nation’s schools and describe what we might expect from equity-oriented education policy in the near future. Co-sponsored with the Education Department.

February 10, 2016
Jesus: Bad Jew or Good Jew? — Adele Reinhartz, professor in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa, Canada, lectures on how Jesus’s Jewishness has been construed in 19th-21st century scholarship, and how the Gospels of Matthew and John themselves attempt to answer that question. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

February 25, 2016
Choosing Love: Bearing the Weight of the Other — Cultural critic David Kyuman Kim, associate professor of religious studies and of American studies at Connecticut College, examines the status of love in politics, public life, religion and the arts, and draws examples from the work of American playwright Tony Kushner and photographer and essayist Susan Sontag. His current book project is titled "The Public Life of Love."

February 29, 2016
What Really Matters about the Globalization of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal? — Marc Loustau, Catholics & Cultures fellow at Holy Cross, presents his ethnographic fieldwork with Charismatic Renewal participants at the Csíksomlyó Roman Catholic shrine in the Transylvania region of Romania, to highlight the existential context of Charismatic rituals and storytelling.

February 29, 2016
Patriarchy and Gender: Understanding the Spiraling Incidences of Sexual Violence on Women in India — Shaji George Kochuthara, associate professor of theology at Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram, Bangalore, India, talks about culture, sexual violence and gender justice in India. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity. 

March 2, 2016
Equity, Schools, and Testing: What National Achievement Scores Do and Don't Tell Us — Educational historian Ethan Hutt, assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership at the University of Maryland, explores the origins and implications of talking about educational achievement — and educational equity — in national terms, and by relying on standardized test scores. Co-sponsored with the Education Department.

March 15, 2016
Dorothy Day: A Saint for Today — Robert Ellsberg, editor in chief and publisher of Orbis Books, discusses the life and legacy of Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement and cited as one of four “great Americans” by Pope Francis during his address to Congress. George Horton '67, Catholic Charities Director of Social and Community Development for the Archdiocese of New York, is working on Day's case for canonization and talks about the process under way. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

March 16, 2016
Gender and Genocidal Violence — Elisa von Joeden-Forgey, assistant professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Stockton University, speaks on gender-related violence in genocide and broader global conflicts. She is completing a book on gender and the prevention of genocide. Co-sponsored with the Garrity Professorship and the Department of Economics and Accounting.

March 30, 2016
My Brother’s Keeper: Closing the Opportunity Gap for Young Men of Color — College of the Holy Cross alumnus Broderick Johnson '78 speaks on his roles working in the White House: as assistant to President Barack Obama, as Cabinet secretary, and as chair of the My Brother's Keeper Task Force, which works to improve outcomes for boys and young men of color in this country. A panel of students — Greyson Ford ’16, Jewel Duberry-Douglas ’18, Lance Madden ’18, Isaiah Baker ’16, and Marcellis Perkins ’19 — poses questions ranging from educational policy and STEM initiatives to police-community relations and criminal justice reform.

March 31, 2016
Profiting from climate change? Ethics of investing in the age of climate crisis — This fishbowl discussion explores the practical and ethical choices facing colleges and universities that invest in fossil fuel industries. Featuring Matthew Eggemeier, associate professor of religious studies; Kendy Hess, Brake-Smith Associate Professor in Social Philosophy and Ethics; Tim Jarry '00, chief investment officer; Marie Therese Kane '18; Victor Matheson, professor of economics; and Mary Kate Silk '16. Moderated by Thomas M. Landy, director of the McFarland Center. Sponsored by Pax Christi and the McFarland Center.

April 6, 2016
Catholicism and Science in the Modern Era: A New Rapprochement — Vatican astronomer David Brown, S.J. talks about the Vatican Observatory and his roles there as well as current research and trends in astronomy. He then considers the larger questions of the universe and how scientific work fits in with Catholic belief. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

April 8, 2016
Building a Better World: A More Human Economy — Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International, speaks of the escalating problem of global income inequality and advocates for policies and bold ideas that will put employee wages, access to health care and environmental sustainability ahead of corporate profits.

April 9-10, 2016
Conference: The Future of Scholarship on the Quran —This two-day workshop explores the relationship of traditional Islamic scholarship to Western academic study, considering matters such as who should interpret the Quran, what standards for scholarship should be set, and how scholarship can inform public conversation on the Quran. Ingrid Mattson, London and Windsor Community Chair in Islamic Studies at Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario, gives the keynote address.

April 11, 2016
Philosophy and Theology or Philosophy vs. Theology: Lessons from Jewish Thought — Alan Mittleman, the Aaron Rabinowitz and Simon H. Rifkind Professor of Jewish Philosophy at The Jewish Theological Seminary, argues for an affirmation of a philosophically articulated Judaism, which nevertheless respects the particularity and thickness of Jewish tradition. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

April 14, 2016
The Politics of Mercy: Ambassadors of Reconciliation in Post-Genocide Rwanda — Jay Carney, assistant professor of theology and director of African Studies at Creighton University, draws upon the situation in Rwanda to explore how the Pope's call for a "year of mercy" happens within very difficult political contexts. Part of the McFarland Center's initiative on Catholics & Cultures.

April 15, 2016
Transcending the Humanities-Sciences Border: New Approaches to the Study of Religion and Ethics — Edward (Ted) Slingerland III, professor of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia and fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, draws upon the case example of early Chinese thought to demonstrate how a “consilient” approach to the study of religion and ethics can help us make progress on problems that have long concerned us. Co-sponsored with Philosophy, Asian Studies and History.

April 21, 2016
Six Days Before the Passover: A Concert of Byzantine Chant for Passion Week — The vocal ensemble Psaltikon performs newly transcribed music from medieval manuscripts, well-known Greek Orthodox chants and traditional folk music commemorating Lazarus Saturday, Holy Friday and springtime. Psaltikon Director Spyridon Antonopoulos gives a pre-concert lecture on the oral and written traditions of Byzantine chant, the sacred music of the Eastern Orthodox liturgical rite.

April 26, 2016
The Laboratory Lives of Humans and Animals: Anthropological Reflections on Morality in Science — Lesley A. Sharp, the Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Anthropology at Barnard College and Senior Research Scientist in Sociomedical Sciences in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, talks on the morality of animal care in laboratory science, and how we can be more ethical in using animals as experimental subjects. Co-sponsored with the Department of Sociology and Anthropology.

Fall 2014

September 11, 2014
Embodied vs. bodily existence? Arguments in favor of a dualistic understanding of human persons —  Heinrich Watzka, S.J., professor of philosophy at Sankt Georgen Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, served as an International Visiting Jesuit Fellow at Holy Cross. Co-sponsored with the Department of Philosophy.

September 16, 2014
Trigger Warnings in the Classroom — Moderated by Matthew Koss, professor of physics and director of the Center for Teaching, this fishbowl-style discussion explored the ethics of trigger warnings in college syllabi and classrooms. Co-sponsored with the Center for Teaching. 

September 18, 2014
Faculty Scholarship Lunch — Decomposing mathematical objects — Cristina Ballantine, professor of mathematics and computer science, has focused much of her work on breaking down mathematical objects into their basic building blocks.

September 18, 2014
Hallowed Pain: Representing the Slave Blandina and Jesus’s Brother James as Martyrs — Karen L. King, the Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinty School, uses stories of two martyrs to explore questions about justice and the nature of God, the self and norms, and how to deal with the isolation that pain and suffering bring. Co-sponsored with the Class of 1956 Chair in New Testament Studies and Women's and Gender Studies.

September 22, 2014
Genocide Awareness Lecture — James Waller, Cohen Endowed Chair of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State College is author of “Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing” (Oxford University Press, 2002). Jointly sponsored by the W. Arthur Garrity Sr. Professorship; the McFarland Center; the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies; and the Economics Department.

September 25, 2014
“Most Wonderfully Deceitful to the Eye”: The Art and History of Neapolitan Presepe — Rachel Delphia, the Alan G. and Jane A. Lehman Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the Carnegie Museum of Art, speaks in conjunction with the Cantor Art Gallery exhibit, “The Italian Nativity - IL PRESEPE: Cultural Landscapes of the Soul.”

September 25, 2014
50 Years of the War on Poverty: What it meant for the elderly — Kathleen McGarry, professor and chair or economics at UCLA and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, discusses the role of various social insurance programs in the dramatic decline of poverty among the elderly over the last 50 years. Co-sponsored with Phi Beta Kappa, the Department of Economics and the Dean’s Office.

September 30, 2014
Magic, Religion and Theology in Africa: Some Questions and a Few Answers — Stephen Buckland, S.J., an International Visiting Jesuit Fellow, leads a lunchtime discussion exploring how people define and understand magic and religion in Africa and other places. Fr. Buckland recently completed his term as Provincial Superior in Zimbabwe.

October 2, 2014
Millennials, Parents, and Grandparents: Are families still passing on their faith? — Vern Bengtson, faculty research associate with the Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging at the University of Southern California, will talk about his 2013 book, “Families and Faith: Generations and the Transmissions of Religion.” One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion & Modernity.

October 6, 2014
Understanding American Jews: demographically complicated, religiously diverse, stronger than ever, and still at risk — Rabbi Eric Yoffie is a writer, lecturer, and internationally known religious leader. A Worcester native, he is president emeritus of the Union for Reform Judaism. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding and co-sponsored with the Worcester JCC, the Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts and Temple Emanuel Sinai.

October 20, 2014
Faculty Scholarship Lunch — Henry George and the Crisis of Inequality in America's First Gilded Age — Edward O’Donnell, associate professor of history, shares his research on Henry George, a self-taught political economist during America’s Gilded Age.

October 23, 2014
How Do People Become Catholic? Formation, Incorporation, and the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults — David Yamane, associate professor of sociology at Wake Forest University, is author of “Becoming Catholic: Finding Rome in the American Religious Landscape.” One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion & Modernity.

October 28, 2014
Unconscious Racial Bias and the Challenge of Solidarity: Catholic Social Teaching Post Trayvon Martin (and Michael Brown and ...) — Rev. Bryan Massingale, professor of theological ethics at Marquette University, is author of "Racial Justice and the Catholic Church" (Orbis, 2010). One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

October 30, 2014
Coloring Outside the Color-Line: Community Muralism and Racial Justice — Maureen O'Connell, chair and associate professor of religion at LaSalle University, is the author of  “If These Walls Could Talk: Community Muralism and the Beauty of Justice” (Liturgical Press, 2012). Co-sponsored with Montserrat’s Divine Cluster and Arts Transcending Borders.

November 3, 2014
To Capture the Fire: The Life and Works of Elie Wiesel — Alan Rosen, a renowned scholar of Holocaust literature, gives a lecture on Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, under whom Rosen studied. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

November 10, 2014
Adjudicating Sexual Assault on Campus — This fishbowl-style discussion focuses on the national debate over the pros and cons of whether college campuses, as opposed to law enforcement authorities, are the best venue for adjudicating sexual assault cases. Participants include: Associate Dean of Students Paul Irish, Stephenie Chaudoir, assistant professor of psychology; Elizabeth Inman '15; and a representative from the District Attorney's office. Co-sponsored with Women's and Gender Studies.

November 12, 2014
Stigmata on the Hudson: the Strange Tale of Sister Thorn — Paula Kane ’80, Marous Chair of Catholic Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, leads a discussion on themes in her new book "Sister Thorn and Catholic Mysticism in Modern America" (University of North Carolina Press, 2013). Co-sponsored with the The Alexander F. Carson Lecture Series.

November 13, 2014
Eloquence for Everyone: The Past, Present and Future of Eloquentia Perfecta in Jesuit Higher Education — Cinthia Gannett, associate professor of English at Fairfield University, is co-editing a book on “Traditions of Eloquence: The Jesuits and Rhetorical Studies.” Holy Cross professors Patricia Bizzell, English, and Rev. Thomas Worcester, S.J., history offer responses to the talk.

November 14-15, 2014
Moral Sentimentalism and the Foundations of Morality — This two day conference explores the renewed philosophical interest in moral sentimentalism, which favors emotions and desires as the basis for morality versus rational thought processes.

November 19, 2014
Faculty Scholarship Lunch — Revisioning Talmud Study: When a Religious Treasure Hit the Secular University — Alan Avery-Peck, professor of religious studies and Kraft-Hiatt Professor of Judaic Studies, discusses the arc of his scholarly career, focusing on the emergence and development of the still relatively new field of the university study of Judaism. 

Spring 2015

February 4, 2015
Catholics & Cultures: Launch of a Global Online Resource — This preview event and reception celebrates the official launch of the Catholics & Cultures website with viewing stations, Catholics & Cultures scholars, and refreshments. Thomas M. Landy, director of the McFarland Center, College President Rev. Philip L. Boroughs, S.J. and Vice President and Dean Margaret N. Freije offer brief remarks. 

February 4, 2015
The Camino Experience: Making the Way — 2014 Artist-in-Residence Cristina Pato returns to present a work-in-progress inspired by the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage and her Galician roots. Making the Way brings together the College Choir (dir. David Harris), Theatre Department faculty and students, and the Cantor Art Gallery in a spiritual journey guided by the stories of local pilgrims who have walked the Camino. Presented by Arts Transcending Borders and co-sponsored with Catholics & Cultures, an initiative of the McFarland Center, and the Cantor Art Gallery.

February 24, 2015
The Pope and Mussolini — David Kertzer talks about his recent book, “The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe” (Random House, 2014). He is the Paul Dupee University Professor of Social Science at Brown University, where he is also professor of anthropology and Italian studies. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding. Co-sponsored with the Worcester JCC.

February 25, 2015
FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP LUNCH 'Forget me not:' narrative marginalization in the making of Alzheimer's patients — Renee Beard, associate professor of sociology, draws on a sociological lens to explore what Alzheimer's means to seniors who are currently being diagnosed with the condition in American memory clinics.

February 25, 2015
Oh God — The Israeli Stage, a Boston-based theatre troupe dedicated to producing the works of Israeli playwrights for college audiences, reprises their American premiere of Anat Gov’s play about a psychotherapist and single mother to an autistic child who gets a visit from a new, desperate patient: God. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish Christian-Understanding.

March 10, 2015
Faculty Workshop: Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process — Choreographer, dancer and educator Liz Lerman returns to Holy Cross to lead a faculty workshop on her Critical Response Process (CRP), a widely recognized method that nurtures the development of work-in-progress through a multi-step, group feedback system. Co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching, the McFarland Center, and Arts Transcending Borders.

March 16, 2015
FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP LUNCH — Poverty, Environmental Degradation, and Catholic Theology — Matthew Eggemeier, assistant professor of religious studies, discusses theological responses to the dual crises of global poverty and environmental degradation by drawing on the sacramental and prophetic resources of the Catholic tradition.

March 16, 2015
Adelante: Film Screening and Director’s Talk — Just outside of Philadelphia, Mexican newcomers are revitalizing a dying Irish-Catholic parish. Director and producer Noam Osband talks following the screening. Co-sponsored by Catholic Studies, Latin American and Latino Studies, and Catholics & Cultures.

March 19, 2015
Caesar or God? The Source of Authentic Power according to Mt 22:15-22 — Luc Bonaventure Ayité Amoussou, S.J., International Visiting Jesuit Scholar for the Spring 2015 semester, examines a popular proverb used to support the separation of Church and State and consider whether it's an apt defense of the modern dichotomy between politics and religion. Originally from Benin and the West Africa Province, Fr. Amoussou is founder and coordinator of Rays of Hope, a center for helping disadvantaged students in Benin. 

March 23, 2015
Christian Theology and the Crisis of Capitalism — Kwok Pui Lan, the William F. Cole Professor of Christian Theology and Spirituality at Episcopal Divinity School, joins Mary Hobgood, associate professor of social ethics, and Peter Fritz, assistant professor of theology, for a panel discussion on the contemporary crisis of capitalism, which has been shaped by the economic collapse of 2008 and the Occupy movement of 2011. 

March 25, 2015
From the Civil War to Ferguson: The Role of the Black Church as a Training Ground for Activism — Karsonya Wise Whitehead, assistant professor of communication and African & African American studies at Loyola University Maryland, explores the role of the black church in the context of American history, the recent events in Ferguson and New York, and the African American experience.

April 8, 2015
Teaching at the Jezreel Valley Art Center in Israel, where Jewish, Christian and Muslim Youth are Making Music Together — Acclaimed harpsichordist Marina Minkin shares her experiences teaching at the Jezreel Valley Art Center in Israel, where both students and teachers represent the cultural and ethnic mosaic of the region, including Jews and Arabs, Christians and Muslims, religious and secular. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

April 15, 2015
Père Marie-Benoît and Jewish Rescue — Historian and author Susan Zuccotti discusses her recent biography of the French Capuchin priest, “Père Marie-Benoît and Jewish Rescue: How a French Priest Together with Jewish Friends Saved Thousands during the Holocaust” (Indiana University Press, 2013). Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

April 20, 2015
The Roman Triumph in its Urban Context: Building Memories and Identities in Republican Rome — Maggie Popkin, assistant professor of Roman art at Case Western Reserve University, explores the triumph, an elaborate procession celebrating Rome’s military victories, and the ways it connected monuments, urban space, ritual, and Roman identities.

April 23, 2015
Consumerism, the Culture of Indifference, and the Work of Solidarity — Vincent Miller, Gudorf Chair in Catholic Theology and Culture at the University of Dayton, gives a talk on how the full consequences of our consumption are hidden from us, and how we might change these shallow economic relationships to relationships of responsibility and solidarity. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

April 24, 2015
Reading Heidegger after the Black Notebooks: Methodological Considerations on Philosophy, History, and Politics — Peter Gordon, the Amabel B. James Professor of History, Harvard College Professor, and faculty affiliate in the Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures and the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University, discusses the conflicted legacy of German philosopher Martin Heidegger. Heidegger was one of the most influential thinkers of the modern era — and a convinced Nazi.

Fall 2013

September 11, 2013
The Status of Our Civil Rights: A Campus Fishbowl Discussion —  McFarland Center Director Thomas M. Landy moderates a discussion with Holy Cross students, faculty and staff to consider the importance of these current civil rights cases in assessing American attitudes on diversity and inclusiveness. Co-sponsored with the Diversity Leadership Team, Office of Multicultural Education, and Human Resources.

September 12, 2013
Cost-benefit Analysis of Oil Drilling in the Niger Delta: An Ethical Approach — Julia Finomo, an environmentalist and a lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria, addresses the environmental degradation caused by an increase of oil spills and gas flares since the discovery of oil in Nigeria in 1956.

September 17, 2013
What Are Some of the Things Being Said About the Resurrection Today? — Rev. James Corkery, S.J., International Visiting Jesuit Scholar at Holy Cross, leads a discussion on one of his current projects, contemporary approaches to the resurrection.

September 19, 2013
Edward Snowden: Whistleblower? Traitor? A Campus Fishbowl Discussion — McFarland Center Director Thomas M. Landy moderates a discussion with Holy Cross students, faculty and staff on the moral status of Edward Snowden.

October 2, 2013
Synthetic Biology and Redesigning Life: Hopes and Challenges — Jim Collins '87,  a founder of the emerging field of synthetic biology, and William F. Warren Distinguished Professor, University Professor, and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University, speaks as  part of the yearlong series on "The Practice of Science in a World of Competing Values."

October 9, 2013
The Price of Truth in Honduras: Human Rights Since the Coup — Rev. Ismael Moreno Coto, S.J., popularly known as "Padre Melo," speaks of the human rights abuses occuring in Honduras, and especially within the world of journalism, and within campesino and indigenous communities.

October 21, 2013
Pictures of Meat — International Visiting Kraft-Hiatt Fellow, Dror Burstein, shares his current work highlighting paintings in which the death of the animals depicted may be seen as an outrage - and therefore observing the picture is outrageous, too - as well as paintings in which the possibility of co-existence and even harmony between man and animal is imaginable.

October 22, 2013
The Changing Face of Biomedical Research, Challenges and Opportunities — Neuroscientist Richard Murphy ‘66, retired president and CEO of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and former interim president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, talks about how the process of doing science has changed and the increasing challenges to secure government funding for research and meet political expectations for results. Part of a yearlong series on "The Practice of Science in a World of Competing Values."

October 23, 2013
Our Lady of the Good Death: Afro-Catholicism in the Brazilian National Imagination — Stephen Selka, associate professor in American studies and in religious studies at Indiana University, talks about the Sisterhood of Our Lady of the Good Death (Boa Morte) in Bahia, Brazil, and their week-long Feast of the Assumption. The festival is fascinating blend of Catholicism and Condomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion. Part of Catholics and Cultures, an initiative to better understand the religious lives and practices of Catholics around the world.

October 24, 2013
Jewish Music and Musicians from 17th-Century Italy to 21st-Century America: The Sounds of Faith, Perseverance and Optimism — Mark Kroll, professor emeritus at Boston University and harpsichordist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, traces, in words and music, the rise, fall, and rebirth of the Jewish performers and composers such as Salomone Rossi, Felix Mendelssohn, Arnold Schoenberg, Leonard Bernstein and others. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

October 29, 2013
Shared Responsibility: Re-imagining the Future of Governance in the Church — Mary McAleese is the popular former president of Ireland, serving two terms from 1997 to 2011, and author of "Quo Vadis? Collegiality in the Code of Canon Law" (Columba Press, 2013). She brings her experience in civil law and governance and her study of canon (church) law to a discussion of how authority might be more effectively shared in the church for the sake of realizing the vision of Vatican II. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

October 30, 2013
The Internship Generation: Working their way up, or getting suckered into working for free? — This campus fishbowl discussion will look at the ethics and economics of unpaid internships. McFarland Center Director Thomas M. Landy moderates a discussion with Holy Cross students, faculty and staff.

November 7, 2013
Jesus and Judaism: The Connection Matters — Amy-Jill Levine, University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University, explains how understanding Jesus in his Jewish context brings new meaning to his parables, his politics, and his piety, and it offers as well a new path for Jewish-Christian relations. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

November 13, 2013
The Quest for Health: Hunting for drugs in large pharmas and tiny biotechs — Mark Murcko, one of the founders of Vertex Pharmaceuticals and co-inventor of a number of marketed drugs and clinical candidates, focuses on the practice of science in different corporate settings, from big pharmaceutical companies to startups, and how they affect decisions about the kind of science that can be pursued. Part of a yearlong series on "The Practice of Science in a World of Competing Values."

November 14, 2013
Why it is (almost) impossible to write a novel in Israel these days — Hebrew literature scholar and author Dror Burstein, who is International Visiting Kraft-Hiatt Fellow at Holy Cross this fall, reads and discusses his latest book "Netanya," which weaves reminiscence, fiction and amateur science into a meditation on both a personal and cosmic scale. Part of the Creative Writing Series and co-sponsored with the Worcester JCC.

Spring 2014

January 30, 2014
The Scientist's Role — Philip Kitcher, John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, discusses how the sciences have come to play a major part in shaping national and global policy and the ethical issues that have surfaced as a result. Part of a series on "The Practice of Science in a World of Competing Values."

February 19, 2014
“Do I Look Illegal?” Race, Immigration, and U.S. Political Culture — Matthew Frye Jacobson, the William Robertson Coe Professor of American Studies & History and professor of African American studies at Yale University, speaks as part of the series "Race and National Imaginaries in the Americas," co-sponsored with Latin American and Latino Studies, and the Carson Lecture Series.

February 27, 2014
Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them — Joshua Greene, the John and Ruth Hazel Associate Professor of the Social Sciences and director of the Moral Cognition Lab at Harvard University, discusses themes in his recent book, “Moral Tribes”  (Penguin Press, 2013). Co-sponsored with Montserrat , and the departments of Psychology and Philosophy.

March 11, 2014
Dacia Maraini's "Chiara di Assisi: In Praise of Disobedience" —Celebrated Italian writer Dacia Maraini talks about her latest book on Saint Claire (Santa Chiara). Co-sponsored with Italian and Montserrat (Global Society).

March 12, 2014
Anti-Haitian Exclusionism in the Dominican Republic: A Biopolitical Turn? — Sam Martinez, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Connecticut, speaks on the recent court ruling in the Dominican Republic that denies citizenship to residents of Haitian descent. Part of the series "Race and National Imaginaries in the Americas," co-sponsored with Latin American and Latino Studies and the Carson Lecture Series.

March 13, 2014
"Our Catastrophe is Here at Hand": The Jesuit Suppression — Robert Maryks, visiting scholar at the Jesuit Institute at Boston College and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Jesuit Studies, speaks about the causes and history of the 18th-century expulsion of the Society of Jesus.

March 20, 2014
Food that Divides, Food that Unites: Meals in Jewish and Christian Tradition — Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus, professor and chair of religion and coordinator of Jewish Studies at Wheaton College, talks about religious rituals involving food that are intended to create synaesthetic, or multi-sensory, experiences. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

March 27, 2014
American Poverty and a Moral Underground — Lisa Dodson, a research professor in sociology at Boston College and author of "The Moral Underground: How Ordinary People Subvert an Unfair Economy" (The New Press, 2011), speaks about the conflicts that many Americans are experiencing in the context of deepening poverty and inequality. 

March 28-29, 2014
Celebrating Philosophy: A Dialogue on the Nature of Morality, Reality, and Knowledge — In this two-day undergraduate conference, distinguished student presenters from a broad range of colleges and universities come together to  discuss Divinity & Morality; the Rationality of Religious Belief; Mind, Perception & Knowledge; Art, Morality & The Social Sphere; Forgiveness and Repentance; Philosophy & The Arts; and finally, Vernunft! Owen Flanagan, the James B. Duke Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Neurobiology at Duke University, offered the keynote address on "Varieties of Moral Possibilities." Co-sponsored by the McFarland Center, the Office of the Dean, and the Department of Philosophy. 

March 31, 2014
Feminism, Theology, and the Bible: The Scholarship of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and Why It Matters — Holy Cross faculty and students participated in a lunch discussion of Schüssler Fiorenza’s work. Co-sponsored with Class of 1956 Chair in New Testament Studies, Women's and Gender Studies, and the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies. 

CANCELED: April 2, 2014
Notes on a Moral Masculinity: Rethinking Relationships between Homophobia, Heterosexism and Sexual Violence — Sociologist CJ Pascoe is assistant professor at the University of Oregon and author of "Dude You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School" (University of California Press, 2007). Co-sponsored with the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Committee on Sexual Assault Facts and Education (SAFER).

April 3-4, 2014
Adam Smith: Moral Philosopher and Economic Theorist — Keynote speakers for this two-day conference are Charles Griswold, Jr., a prominent Smith scholar and professor of philosophy at Boston University, and Ryan Patrick Hanley, associate professor of political science at Marquette University. Part of the Charles Carroll Program, this event is co-sponsored with the Department of Political Science and the McFarland Center. 

April 7, 2014
"the strong critical view": Catholic Practice, Modern Fiction, and the Irish Woman Writer — Paige Reynolds, professor of English at the College of the Holy Cross, examines how Irish women writers represent the practice of prayer. Part of the initiative Catholics & Cultures and one of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity. 

April 8, 2014
Prophetic Rhetoric in the Public Square — M. Cathleen Kaveny, Endowed Professor of Law and Theology at Boston College, analyzes both effective and divisive forms of prophetic speech and suggests ways to identify and manage the tension between truth and civility. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures for Religion and Modernity.

April 10, 2014
The Apocalypse of John: Its World of Vision and Our Own?  — Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, the Krister Stendahl Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, discusses the Book of Revelation’s world of vision and ask whether it proclaims God’s word as a word of liberating justice or as a word of vengeance and destruction. Co-sponsored with the Class of 1956 Chair in New Testament Studies. 

April 10, 2014
Vocation of the Writer — American novelist and essayist Siri Hustvedt is the author of internationally bestselling novels “What I Loved” and “The Summer Without Men” and most recently, “The Blazing World.” Co-sponsored with the Creative Writing Series. 

April 15, 2014
Affirmative Action for Latinos — Jorge J. E. Gracia is Samuel P. Capen Chair and SUNY Distinguished Professor in the departments of Philosophy and Comparative Literature at SUNY Buffalo. Part of the series "Race and National Imaginaries in the Americas," co-sponsored with Latin American and Latino Studies, and the Carson Lecture Series. 

Summer 2012

June 9 - September 9, 2012
ART EXHIBITION: Diluvial - Cristi Rinklin, associate professor of drawing and painting at the College of the Holy Cross, has created an immersive, site-specific installation for the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, N.H. The McFarland Center has provided support for this project.

Fall 2012

September 11, 2012
From Culture of Fragmentation to Culture of Communion - Rev. A. Maria Arul Raja, S.J., International Visiting Jesuit Scholar at Holy Cross, uses the experience of India's exclusion of Dalit peoples to look at ways of building communities that break down discriminatory hierarchies.

September 17, 2012
The Supreme Court and Affirmative Action - Randall Kennedy, the Michael R. Klein Professor of Law at Harvard University, talk about Fisher v. University of Texas, Austin, the affirmative action case coming before the Supreme Court in October.

September 24, 2012
A World Cut in Two: Global Justice and the Traffic in Humans for Organs - Nancy Scheper-Hughes is Chancellor's Professor, Medical Anthropology at University of California Berkeley. She is co-founder and director of Organs Watch, a program that researches human organ trafficking around the world.

September 27, 2012
James X - Gerard Mannix Flynn, an Irish writer, playwright, actor and politician, performs his one-man play, a semi-autobiographical account of a man waiting to give testimony to a tribunal investigating the sexual and physical abuse of children within the Catholic Church and State institutions.

October 1, 2012
Affirmative Action and Diversity at Holy Cross - As a follow-up to Prof. Kennedy's talk, the McFarland Center sponsors a fishbowl-style discussion to consider how the ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas could change life at Holy Cross, and what competing notions of justice affect how we think about the case.

October 3, 2012
Living in China's Highly Politicized Church Today - Rev. Paul Mariani, S.J., assistant professor of history at Santa Clara University, talks about religious policy and conflict in the People's Republic of China since 1950 and how Catholics in China understand their faith today. Part of the Catholics and Cultures initiative, understanding the religious lives and practices of Catholics around the world, and the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

October 4, 2012
Annual Vocation of the Writer Reading and Discussion - Poet and essayist Christopher Merrill is author of "Things of the Hidden God," an account of his pilgrimages to Mount Athos. He has held the William H. Jenks Chair in Contemporary Letters at the College of the Holy Cross, and now directs the International Writing Program at The University of Iowa. Sponsored with the Creative Writing Program.

October 16, 2012
Catholicism, Citizenship and Conscience: What Does It Mean to Be a Faith-filled Voter in our Polarized Society? - Bishop Robert W. McElroy is auxiliary bishop of San Francisco and the author of "Morality and American Foreign Policy" (Princeton, 1992). One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

October 17, 2012
Faculty/Administration Fishbowl on Need-Blind Admissions - A fishbowl-style discussion of affordability issues the College faces in the coming years, and particularly the sustainability of its need-blind admissions policy. The faculty in the fishbowl are Melissa Boyle, associate professor of economics; Diane Bukatko, professor and chair of psychology; Dave Damiano, professor of mathematics and computer science; and Paige Reynolds, associate professor of English. Participating administrators are Timothy Austin, vice president of academic affairs and dean of the College; Mike Lochhead, vice president for administration and finance; and Frank Vellaccio, senior vice president. Thomas Landy, director of the McFarland Center, moderates.

October 23, 2012
Contemporary artist Alexis Rockman will talk about his work, which explores the ways in which human activity has had an impact on the natural world - such as global warming and bioengineering - through dynamic large-scale paintings.

November 1, 2012
A Good Man and A Great Man - Mark K. Shriver '86 shares stories of his father, Sargent Shriver, founder of the Peace Corps and architect of President Johnson's War on Poverty, from his 2012 memoir, "A Good Man." Anthony Kuzniewski, S.J., professor of history at Holy Cross, offers a historical account of Sargent Shriver's legacy.

November 5, 2012
Passivity of bystanders in genocide and mass killing and generating active bystandership - Ervin Staub is professor of psychology emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and founding director of its Ph.D. concentration in the Psychology of Peace and Violence. This event is sponsored by the Department of Psychology with support from the McFarland Center's Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

November 7, 2012
Coming to Terms with the Past: How Our Understanding of the Christian Past Shapes Our Future - Kenneth Parker, associate professor of historical theology at Saint Louis University, discusses how competing accounts of historical narrative are used to define the church today. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

November 13, 2012
American Grace: How Religion Divides Us and Unites Us - Robert Putnam, the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, is co-author of "American Grace," which uses data from two of the most comprehensive national surveys on religion and civic engagement ever conducted to discern the role of religion in public life. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

November 15, 2012
Domestic Workers: How a Female Dominated Labor Sector Organized to Win International Labor Rights - Rebeca Pabon, a union organizer for domestic workers in FNV Bondgenoten in the Netherlands, has worked closely with union members to coordinate the campaign for domestic workers' rights nationally.

Spring 2013

January 24, 2013
Ethics in Business Symposium - Bruce Weinstein, author of the recent book "Ethical Intelligence: Five Principles for Untangling Your Toughest Problems at Work and Beyond" leads this symposium to kick off Holy Cross' participation in the Intercollegiate Business Ethics Case Competition. Co-sponsored by the James N. and Eva Barrett Endowment for Ethics Programming, Ciocca Office of Entrepreneurial Studies, the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, and the Economics and Accounting Department.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013
The Vatican and the Nuns - Sr. Jane Morrissey, of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Springfield, who is co-founder and executive director of Homework House, Inc. and Sr. Donna Markham, of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, who is vice president of behavioral health services at Catholic Health Partners in Cincinnati and former president of the Leadership Conference of the Women Religious, participate in this discussion moderated by Virginia Ryan, visiting assistant professor of religious studies.

February 12, 2013
The Burial of the Dead in the Modern Novel - Pericles Lewis, professor of English and comparative literature at Yale University and inaugural president of Yale-NUS in Singapore, is the author of "Religious Experience and the Modernist Novel" (Cambridge University Press, 2010).

February 18, 2013
Natural Law, God, and Human Dignity - Robert P. George is the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and founder and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

February 19, 2013
After Sandy Hook: How do we prevent similar forms of violence? - A fishbowl-style campus discussion featuring Amy Wolfson, professor of psychology and associate dean for faculty scholarship; Alison Smith Mangiero, political science instructor; Lawrence E. Cahoone, professor of philosophy; Miles Cahill, professor of economics and associate health professions adviser; Robert T. Jones, associate director of multicultural education; Marian Blawie '16; and Chris Tota '13. Thomas M. Landy, director of the McFarland Center, moderates.

February 21, 2013
Women After the Arab Spring Revolution: Rights and Religion - Dalia Mogahed is executive director of and senior analyst for the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and coauthor of "Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think." (Gallup Press, 2008)

February 26, 2013
Rape as a Weapon of War - Kelly Askin, senior legal officer for International Justice in the Open Society Justice Initiative, is author of War Crimes Against Women: Prosecution in International War Crimes.

March 13, 2013
U.S. Use of Drones: Moral, Legal, or Effective? - Panel discussion featuring David Cole, professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center; Avery Plaw, associate professor of political science at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth; and Gregory Johnsen, Near East Studies Scholar at Princeton University. Co-sponsored with Peace and Conflict Studies.

March 14, 2013
From Tolerance to Celebration: Confessions of a Jewish Bridge Builder - Rabbi Abie Ingber is executive director of the Center for Interfaith Community Engagement at Xavier University. Sponsored by the Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

March 18, 2013
God and Evolution - Martin Nowak is professor of biology and of mathematics and director of the program for evolutionary dynamics at Harvard University. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

March 21, 2013
Israel's Security in a Changing Middle East - Yaakov Katz is the military reporter and defense analyst for The Jerusalem Post and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. Sponsored by the Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

April 4, 2013
Journeys of Transformation: Isthmus Zapotec beliefs and practices surrounding death - Anya Peterson Royce, Chancellor's Professor of Anthropology and Comparative Literature at Indiana University, is author of "Becoming an Ancestor: The Isthmus Zapotec Way of Death" (SUNY Press, 2011). Part of Catholics and Cultures: Understanding the religious lives and practices of Catholics around the world.

April 15, 2013
Condoms on a Jesuit Campus: Free speech, sexual health and Catholic ethics - A fishbowl-style discussion featuring Ethan Jacques '15; Ken Jordan '13; Virginia Ryan, visiting assistant professor in religious studies; Martha Sullivan, director of health services; Caroline Voldstad '13; and Derek Zuckerman, associate dean for student life.

April 17, 2013
Climate Responsibility and New Cultures of Consumption - Juliet Schor, professor of sociology at Boston College, is author of Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth. Co-sponsored by Sociology and Anthropology, the McFarland Center, and Montserrat.

April 18, 2013
The Problem of Evil: Can Faith Be Rational in the Face of the Horrific Evils of this World? - Robert Audi, the John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy at University of Notre Dame, is author of "Rationality and Religious Commitment."

April 29, 2013
Thomas More Lecture on Faith, Work and Civic Life - James O'Connor '58, former chairman and chief executive officer of Commonwealth Edison Company, is a founder and co-chairman of the Big Shoulders Fund, which supports Catholic education in inner-city Chicago.

Fall 2011

August 18-19, 2011
Faculty seminar on Desiderius Erasmus - Readings and discussions of major works by Erasmus, including his pivotal "In Praise of Folly." Organized by EnglshProfessor Lee Oser and sponsored by the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

September 8, 2011
Thomas More Lecture on Faith, Work and Civic Life - María Eugenia Ferré Rangel '89, president of El Nuevo Dia, Puerto Rico's largest daily newspaper
 
September 22, 2011
Memory, Politics and Forgiveness: A Gandhian Perspective - Rev. George Pattery S.J., an International Visiting Jesuit Scholar for the Fall 2011 semester at Holy Cross

October 5, 2011
Modern Day Slavery across International Borders - E. Benjamin Skinner, author of A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery and a fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University
 
October 17, 2011
Stuck: Why Israel is in so much trouble and how it can dig out - Nir Eisikovits teaches legal and political philosophy at Suffolk University, where he co-founded and directs the Graduate Program in Ethics and Public Policy. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding and co-sponsored with Peace and Conflict Studies.

October 18, 2011
The Resurgence of Religion in Global Politics - Monica Duffy Toft, associate professor of public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and co-author of God's Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics
 
October 27, 2011
Poor Economics: Rethinking anti-poverty policy - Esther Duflo, the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at MIT and author of Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty

November 8, 2011
Ignatius Loyola and Why It's Not Quite Enough to Do What Jesus Would Do - Philip Endean, S.J., teaches theology at Campion Hall, Oxford University, and is author of Karl Rahner and Ignatian Spirituality

November 9, 2011
Ten Years of War in Afghanistan: The Costs, Consequences and a Way Out - U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Matthew Hoh, a former Foreign Service officer and former Marine Corps captain

November 14, 2011
Literature and the Feeling of Aliveness - Lisa Ruddick, associate professor of English at the University of Chicago 

November 15, 2011
Are We All Hindus Now? - Rev. Francis Britto, S.J., an International Visiting Jesuit Scholar
 
November 16, 2011
Augustine and the Jews: A Christian Defense of Jews and Judaism — Author Paula Fredriksen is William Goodwin Aurelio Chair Emerita of the Appreciation of Scripture at Boston University. Presented with the Worcester JCC and supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

December 9, 2011
The Contours of Catholic Life and Practice Today: Challenges and opportunities in the study of global Catholicism - A colloquium introducing the McFarland's Center global initiative on Catholics and Cultures, featuring talks by Rowena Robinson, professor at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay; Rev. Thomas Casey, S.J., dean of the faculty of missiology at the Gregorian University; and Robert Orsi, professor of religion and the Grace Craddock Nagle Chair in Catholic Studies at Northwestern University.

Spring 2012

February 2, 2012
Catholic Social Teaching, Bioethics and Justice - Lisa Cahill, the J. Donald Monan Professor of Theology at Boston College and author of Bioethics and the Common Good and Theological Bioethics: Participation, Justice, and Change. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

February 17, 2012
Dirt: Erosion of Civilizations - David Montgomery, professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington. Co-sponsored with CISS.

February 28, 2012
"The Words, Too, Will Nourish": Poetry and Resistance - Alan Rosen, a scholar of Holocaust literature who teaches at Yad Vashem. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

March 14, 2012
On the Ethics of Borders: Insights and Media Interventions by Migrant Justice Movements - Tamara Vukov, visiting research professor and a postdoctoral scholar at the Center for Mobilities Research and Policy in the Department of Culture and Communication at Drexel University.

March 15, 2012
Annual Vocation of the Writer Lecture - Scott Russell Sanders, author of 20 books of fiction and nonfiction, including, most recently, A Private History of Awe, A Conservationist Manifesto, and Earth Works: Selected Essays. Co-sponsored by the Creative Writing Program and the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

March 19, 2012
Atheism from the Enlightenment to Freud - Wesley Wildman, professor of theology and ethics at Boston University, where he directs the doctoral program in religion and science. Co-sponsored by the Divine Cluster of Montserrat and the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

March 20, 2012
Thomas More Lecture on Faith, Work and Civic Life - Donna Winn '76, a Holy Cross trustee, and president and CEO of OFI Private Investments, Inc., a subsidiary of OppenheimerFunds, Inc. until her retirement last year.

March 21, 2012
Sudan, South Sudan, and Darfur: What is it all about and why should we care? - Gabriel Bol Deng, founder and executive director of HOPE for Ariang Foundation and one of Sudan's "Lost Boys" who escaped the Sudanese Civil War in 1987. Co-sponsored by the McFarland Center.

March 22-23, 2012
The Other America Then and Now - Marking the 50th anniversary of the breakthrough analysis on poverty in the United States by Michael Harrington '47. Speakers included Harrington's biographer Maurice Isserman, Harvard sociologist William Julius Wilson, and many others.

April 3, 2012
Democratic Regression and Soft-Authoritarianism in Post-Civil War Sri Lanka - Neil DeVotta, associate professor of political science at Wake Forest University and author of the forthcoming book, From Civil War to Soft Authoritarianism: Ethnonationalism and Democratic Regression in Sri Lanka. Co-sponsored with Asian Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, Montserrat and the Department of History.

April 12, 2012
Can Industrial Food be Ethical? A Historical Perspective - Gabriella Petrick '89, associate professor of nutrition, food studies, and history at George Mason University and author of the forthcoming book, Industrializing Taste: Food Processing and the Transformation of the American Diet, 1900-1965.

April 19, 2012
Along the Boundary of Faiths: Christianity and Islam on the 10th parallel - Journalist and poet Eliza Griswold, author of The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

April 24, 2012
An Oral History of a Holocaust and Schindler's List Survivor - Rena Ferber Finder shares how her family was forced into a ghetto in Kracow, her father and grandparents were taken away, and she survived three weeks in Auschwitz before being ultimately saved by German Industrialist Oskar Schindler.

April 25, 2012
Jewish Life in Nazi Germany - Marion Kaplan, Skirball Professor of Modern Jewish History at New York University and author of Dominican Haven: The Jewish Refugee Settlement in Sosua, 1940-1945. Sponsored by the Derrick Lecture Fund of the Department of History, with additional support from Peace and Conflict Studies, Philosophy, and the McFarland Center.

Fall 2010

September 13, 2010
Two Cardinals: John Henry Newman, Henry Edward Manning and the Victorian Church - Rev. Jeffrey von Arx, president of Fairfield University.

September 27, 2010
Past the Tipping Point: The global fight for a stable climate - Bill McKibben, one of the nation's leading environmentalists and author of The End of Nature and most recently Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. Part of the series In Our Lifetimes: Environmental Change and Stewardship.

September 30, 2010
Saints and Mandarins: Science, religion and Jesuits in late imperial China - Florence Hsia, associate professor in the Department of the History of Science at University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Sojourners in a Strange Land: Jesuits and Their Scientific Missions in Late Imperial China. Respondent: Janine Shertzer, physics professor at Holy Cross. Presidential Colloquium on Jesuits and the Liberal Arts. Listen and Learn.

October 5, 2010
An Ecological Inquiry: Jesus and the Cosmos - Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J., Distinguished Professor of Theology at Fordham University. Part of the series In Our Lifetimes: Environmental Changes and Stewardship. Supported by the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

October 25, 2010
From Brother to Other and Back - Eugene Pogany, author of In My Brother's Image: Twin Brothers Separated by Faith After the Holocaust. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

October 28, 2010
The Scientific Life: Moral Enterprise or Value Free? - Steven Shapin, the Franklin L. Ford Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University and author of The Scientific Life.

November 3, 2010
Zen Meditation and Discussion of Social Justice and Contemplation - Rev. Robert Kennedy, S.J. and Roshi and Professor Anna Brown, St. Peter's College in New Jersey.

November 4, 2010
Faith, Power and Politics in Afghanistan - Afghan native Fahima Vorgetts, an activist, director of the Women's Afghan Fund and board member of Women for Afghan Women.

November 8, 2010
Sacrifice and the Sacrifices of War - Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke University Divinity School. Supported by the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

November 9, 2010
Revelations of Sexual Abuse in the Church of Europe, and Response of Catholics Worldwide - Fishbowl discussion with Rev. James Corkery, S.J. of the Milltown Institute, Dublin, and Holy Cross faculty and staff members: Margaret Freije, dean; Marybeth Kearns Barrett, chaplain; Mat Schmalz, professor of religious studies; Alice Laffey, professor of religious studies; and Thomas M. Landy, director of the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

November 10, 2010
The Modern Papacy: Five-hundred years of change - Rev. Thomas Worcester, S.J., professor of history at Holy Cross, and Rev. James Corkery, S.J., associate professor of theology at the Milltown Institute, Dublln, co-editors of The Papacy since 1500: From Italian Prince to Universal Pastor.

November 18, 2010
The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds and Souls of Our Soldiers - Nancy Sherman, University Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown, and author of The Untold War. Supported by the Rehm Family Endowment.

December 3, 2010
Religion and Reason in the American Founding - Daylong colloquium featuring keynote speaker Jonathan Israel, professor of modern European history at the Institute for Advanced Study and one of the world's leading historians of the Enlightenment, Carla Mulford, associate professor of English at Pennsylvania State University, Robert Faulkner, professor of political science at Boston College, and Vincent Phillip Munoz, associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame.

Spring 2011

January 27-28, 2011
Framing Mary: The Mother of God in Modern Russian Culture - Working symposium on the various ways the iconic image of Mary has been used to frame and shape Russian national, cultural and spiritual self-expression. Co-sponsored by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, the Russian Program of the Modern Languages and Literatures Department, and the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton.

February 3, 2011
When the Well Runs Dry: Finding Solutions for the Freshwater Crisis - Steven Solomon, journalist and author of Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization. Part of the yearlong series In Our Lifetimes: Environmental Change and Stewardship.

February 8, 2011
Religious Identity in a Pluralistic Age: Liberal, Conservative, Or Just Catholic? - Paul Baumann, editor of Commonweal. Co-sponsored with the College Honors Program.

February 9, 2011
Saving the Environment: What Might Have to Change at Holy Cross? - Presidential Task Force on the Environment members, John Cannon, associate director of physical plant, and Katherine Kiel, associate professor of economics. Part of the yearlong environmental series In Our Lifetimes: Environmental Change and Stewardship.

February 10, 2011
Jesus De-constructed and Re-constructed: Political, Cultural and Personal Subtexts in the Gospel Films - Rev. Lloyd Baugh, S.J., International Jesuit Visiting Fellow.

February 14, 2011
Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa - Dambisa Moyo, international economist and named one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World" by Time Magazine. Co-sponsored with the Montserrat Global Society Cluster.

February 15, 2011
The Biodiversity Crisis: Why Driving Species Extinct Makes Us Less Human - Kierán Suckling ‘88, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. Part of the series In Our Lifetimes: Environmental Change and Stewardship.

February 22, 2011
Moralities in Conflict: How Health Care Became So Hard a Problem for America - Paul Starr, Princeton University professor and co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect. Supported by the Rehm Family Endowment.

February 22, 2011
From NFL Prospect to University President - Dennis Golden '63, president of Fontbonne University, gives the Thomas More Lecture on Faith, Work and Civic Life. Listen and Learn.

March 2, 2011
Killing Time, Saving Time: Defying the Holocaust by Counting the Days - Alan Rosen, renowned Holocaust scholar and educator, talks about his current project, "A New Index for Time: Calendars and the Holocaust." Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish Christian Understanding.

March 15, 2011
Jerusalem, Jerusalem - Renowned author and Boston Globe columnist James Carroll, speaks about his newest book Jerusalem, Jerusalem: How the Ancient City Ignited Our Modern World. Co-sponsored with the Worcester JCC and supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

March 16, 2011
Living with Hope in a Crucified World: Resurrection Faith, Ignatian Spirituality and Liberation Theology - J. Matthew Ashley, associate professor of systematic theology at the University of Notre Dame. Supported by the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

March 21, 2011
Spirituality and the Transformation of 20th-Century American Catholicism - James McCartin '96, associate professor of history at Seton Hall University and author of Prayers of the Faithful: The Shifting Spiritual Life of American Catholics.

March 22, 2011
New Words for Worship: coming changes in Catholic Liturgy - Featuring a panel of experts on liturgy: Joanne Pierce, associate professor of religious studies at Holy Cross; Edward Foley, Capuchin, Duns Scotus Professor of Spirituality and professor of liturgy and music at the Catholic Theological Union; and Rev. John Baldovin, S.J., '69, professor of historical and liturgical theology at Boston College.

March 25-May 16, 2011
Sculptural Installation in Saint Joseph Memorial Chapel - German artist Angela Glajcar exhibits Curalium. Artist Talk: March 27.

March 28, 2011
Lessons from the Fields: Pesticides and Health - Brenda Eskenazi, professor of maternal and child health and epidemiology and director of the Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health at the University of California Berkeley, gives the Katherine A. Henry '86 Memorial Lecture. Also part of the series In Our Lifetimes: Environmental Change and Stewardship. Supported by the Rehm Family Endowment.

April 1-2, 2011
"Let Justice Roll Down" A Conference on the Practice and Pedagogy of Organizing in the 21st Century - Organized by Margaret A. Post, director, Donelan Office of Community-Based Learning, Susan Crawford Sullivan, assistant professor, Sociology and Anthropology, and the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture. Mark Warren, keynote.

April 26, 2011
Standing in the Shoes My Mother Made: My Journey to Womanism - Diana Hayes, professor of systematic theology at Georgetown University. Supported by the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity and co-sponsored by Africana Studies and Women and Gender Studies. Supported by the Rehm Family Endowment.

May 5, 2011
Responding to the Death of Osama bin Laden - Fishbowl-style discussion with Dustin Gish, visiting assistant professor, political science; Captain Ronald L. Harrell, U.S. Navy, commanding officer & chair of Naval science; Marybeth Kearns-Barrett, acting director, Office of the College Chaplains; Ward J. Thomas, associate professor and chair, political science; and Stephanie E. Yuhl, associate professor, history. Thomas M. Landy, director of the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, moderates.

Fall 2009

September 17, 2009
On the Sacredness of Emptiness: Contemporary Art and Religion at St. Peter's Jesuit-Church in Cologne - Fr. Friedhelm Mennekes, S.J., International Visiting Jesuit Scholar with the Visual Arts department at Holy Cross.

September 21, 2009
What Hopkins Can Teach Us - Paul Mariani, professor of English at Boston College. Presidential Colloquium on Jesuits and the Liberal Arts.

September 24, 2009
Thomas More Lecture on Faith, Work and Civic Life - B.J. Cassin '55, chairman and president of the Cassin Educational Initiative Foundation.

September 26, 2009
Alumni/ae Colloquium: "Sent to the Frontiers: Jesuits, Alumni/ae, and the Work of the Church" - Keynote address by Rev. James Corkery, S.J., theologian at the Milltown Institute of Philosophy and Theology in Ireland.

September 28, 2009
Mystical Transfers, Local and Global: The Modernity of 'Folk' Catholicism in the Philippines - Smita Lahiri, Associate Professor of anthropology at Harvard University.

October 5, 2009
The Mission of the Church in the Asian Context - Peter C. Phan, the Ignacio Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought at Georgetown University.

October 6, 2009
Women in Prison in New England: What Can Be Done to Reduce Reliance on Incarceration? - Russ Immarigeon, editor of the national bi-monthly publication Women, Girls & Criminal Justice.

October 7, 2009
The Middle Class at Risk: The New Economic Security and What Can Be Done About It - Jacob Hacker, the Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science at Yale University. Part of the series After the Fall: Capitalism and a just way forward.

October 14, 2009
Pray the Devil Back to Hell: Women Ending the War in Liberia - Film screening and lecture by Janet Johnson Bryant, a former journalist for Liberian Catholic radio who helped launch the Liberian Mass Action for Peace.

October 15, 2009
Islamic Law, Shariah-based Finance, and Economic Theory - Caner Dagli, Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, Holy Cross. Part of the series After the Fall: Capitalism and a just way forward.

October 19, 2009
The Challenge of Climate Change - William D. Nordhaus, Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University. Part of the series After the Fall: Capitalism and a just way forward.

October 22, 2009
Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka: A Problem of State Formation - Ranjith Amarasinghe, Professor Emeritus of political science at the University of Peradeniya and former director of the Peace Building Unit in the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs and National Integration in Sri Lanka.

November 3, 2009
Recasting banks in 2009: An insider's view - David A. Spina '64, retired chairman and CEO of State Street Corporation and a Holy Cross trustee. Part of the series After the Fall: Capitalism and a just way forward.

November 10, 2009
Everyday Practice of Science: From Discovery and Credibility to Integrity and Faith - Fred Grinnell, professor of cell biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

November 11, 2009
Summer in the Holy Land - Two students, Amy Lazarus '10 and Miriam Westin '11, share their experiences as part of the Rothberg Summer Institute at Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

November 12, 2009
How to Prevent the Next Great Depression: A Jewish Law Perspective - Aaron Levine, the Samson and Halina Bitensky Professor of Economics and chairman of the department at Yeshiva University. Part of the series After the Fall: Capitalism and a just way forward.

November 17, 2009
Flourishing Economies: Supporting and deepening personal and public awareness - Daniel Barbezat, professor of economics at Amherst College. Part of the series After the Fall: Capitalism and a just way forward.

November 18, 2009
The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany - Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College.

November 19, 2009
Genetic Nonsense: From Bench to Bedside - Allan Jacobson, professor and chair of the department of molecular genetics and microbiology at UMass Medical School.

Spring 2010

February 16, 2010
Values in Economic Life - Sr. Catherine Cowley, RA, PhD, Associate Director of the Institute for Religion, Ethics and Public Life at Heythrop College, University of London. Part of the series After the Fall: Capitalism and a just way forward.

February 18, 2010
Inter-Religious Dialogue in Tibet: The Example of Ippolito Desideri, S.J. - Trent Pomplun, Associate Professor of Theology at Loyola College Maryland, will discuss his recent book, Jesuit on the Roof of the World: Ippolito Desideri's Mission to Tibet. Presidential Colloquium on Jesuits and the Liberal Arts.

February 18, 2010
Writers on Vocation: Brenda Miller - Author of Season of the Body and Blessing of the Animals and associate professor of English at Western Washington University.

February 22, 2010
Christians and Muslims Together: Lessons from Yesterday for Today - Sidney H. Griffith, Professor and chair of the Department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures at the Catholic University of America.

February 25, 2010
Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture - Ellen Ruppel Shell, author of Cheap, and professor of journalism and co-director of the Science and Medical Journalism Program at Boston University. Part of the series After the Fall: Capitalism and a just way forward.

March 9, 2010
Dorothy Day: Challenging Still (Thirty Years After Her Death) - Patrick Jordan, managing editor of Commonweal.

March 11, 2010
Reforming Health Care in the U.S.: What Now? - Jonathan Gruber, director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research and Professor of economics at MIT. Part of the series After the Fall: Capitalism and a just way forward.

March 18-19, 2010
Biological Foundations of Morality? Neuroscience, Evolution and Morality - Two-day conference features Michael Gazzaniga, professor of psychology and the director for the SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind at the University of California Santa Barbara; and Patrick Haggard, a researcher at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London.

March 22, 2010
Christians in a Muslim World: Christianity in Contemporary Middle East and North Africa - Kamal Feriali, anthropologist, Moroccan native, and former instructor of Arabic language and culture at the University of Florida.

March 23, 2010
The Representation of the Holocaust in Poetry - Marc Lee Raphael, professor and chair of religious studies, Nathan and Sophia Gumenick professor of Judaic Studies and director of the program and minor in Judaic Studies at the College of William and Mary.

March 25, 2010
Chesterton in America and at Holy Cross - Rev. Ian Boyd, C.S.B., president of the G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith and Culture at Seton Hall University and editor of The Chesterton Review, and Dermot A. Quinn, professor of history at Seton Hall and associate editor of The Chesterton Review.

April 6, 2010
Political Belief and Political Reconciliation: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Problem of the Taliban - Paula Newberg and Marshall B. Coyne Director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University.

April 7, 2010
Understanding the Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults in America - Christian Smith, Director of the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR). Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

April 8, 2010
The Place of Revelation in Christian-Muslim Dialogue - Mahmoud Ayoub, Professor of Islamic studies and Christian-Muslim relations at the Hartford Seminary and Professor Emeritus at Temple University.

April 12, 2010
Women in Afghanistan, from the Taliban Until Today - Patricia Omidian, head of social sciences for the Aga Khan University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan.

April 12, 2010
Rwandan Genocide - Fr. Romain Rurangirwa, a survivor of the genocide in Rwanda.

April 13, 2010
Dreaming Me: Black, Baptist and Buddhist; A Conversation - Jan Willis, professor of religion at Wesleyan University.

April 14, 2010
Film Screening and Lecture: "Icyizere: Hope" - Kenyan film maker Patrick Mureithi.

April 20, 2010
Every Person Has a Name: My time at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and Teaching the Holocaust - Thomas Doughton, Historian and senior lecturer in the Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies. Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish Christian Understanding.

Fall 2008

September 10, 2008
Faculty Author Discussion: Modernism, Drama, and the Audience for Irish Spectacle by Paige Reynolds.

September 16, 2008
Learning from 'God's Own Country,' Kerala, India: a Development Model and a Paradox — Rev. M.K. George, S.J., International Visiting Jesuit Fellow in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology.

September 17, 2008
Higher Education Reading Group: Jay Parini's The Art of Teaching and Jim Lang's Life on the Tenure Track: Lessons from the First Year.

September 30, 2008
Christology at the Crossroad: in Dialogue with Judaism and Islam - Rev. Paolo Gamberini, S.J., International Visiting Jesuit Fellow in the Department of Religious Studies.

October 7, 2008
Gustavo Gutierrez Meets Giuseppe Verdi: the Beauty of Liberation and the Liberation of Beauty - Professor Jim Nickoloff.

October 7, 2008
Ying Ruocheng: Revolution, Reform and Faith On Stage in Modern China - Claire Conceisson, Associate Professor, Tufts University.

October 19, 2008
Sacred musical traditions of South Asia - Vocalist Shubha Mudgal and her ensemble of five musicians, including virtuoso tabla player Aneesh Pradhan.

October 20, 2008
Faculty Author Discussion: David Schaefer's Illiberal Justice: John Rawls vs. the American Political Tradition.

October 28, 2008
Thomas More Lecture on Work, Faith and Civic Life: Paul LaCamera, '64, General Manager of WBUR, Boston's NPR news station.

October 29, 2008
Who's Afraid of American Religion? - Alan Wolfe, Professor & Director of The Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, Boston College. Deitchman Family Lectures in Religion and Modernity.

November 3, 2008
Modern Cosmology and Life's Meaning - Rev. George Coyne, S.J., Past Director of the Vatican Observatory and current President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. Deitchman Family Lectures in Religion and Modernity.

November 6, 2008
Faculty Author Discussion: Teaching the Daode Jing, edited by Gary DeAngelis and Warren G. Frisina.

November 14, 2008
The Catholic Philosopher: Dancing at Arms' Length with One's Theological Mistress - Robert Wood, University of Dallas.

November 24, 2008
Emperor Akbar and the Jesuits: Artistic Encounters Between Europe and Asia at the Mughal Courts of India - Mika Natif, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in Visual Arts.

November 23, 2008
Olivier Messiaen Festival: Organ concert by Professor James David Christie.

December 2, 2008
Olivier Messiaen Festival: Performance featuring Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time.

December 5, 2008
Olivier Messiaen Festival: Conference on the life and work of Olivier Messiaen - Professor Rebecca Rischin, University of Ohio, and Rev. Stephen Schloesser, S.J., of Boston College.

December 7, 2008
Olivier Messiaen Festival: Performance featuring Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time and Trois Mélodies.

Spring 2009

January 27, 2009
The Faces of Jesus in Film Screening 1: Pier Paolo Pasolini's Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964).

January 29, 2009
The Faces of Jesus in Film Screening 2: Denys Arcand's Jesus of Montreal (1989).

February 2, 2009
The church's understanding of Christian responsibility for migrants, refugees and itinerant people - Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People. Deitchman Family Lectures in Religion and Modernity.

February 2, 2009
The Faces of Jesus in Film Screening 3: Valerio Zurlini's Black Jesus (1968).

February 3, 2009
Moral Frameworks for Thinking About the Legacies of War - Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and former Dean of the Harvard Divinity School. Part of the series Moral Responsibility for the Legacies of War: Vietnam to Iraq.

February 4, 2009
The Faces of Jesus in Film Screening 4: Mark Dornford-May's Son of Man (2006).

February 5, 2009
The Faces of Jesus in Film Lecture: The African Face of Jesus in Film - Rev. Lloyd Baugh, S.J., International Visiting Jesuit Fellow in the Department of Religious Studies.

February 5, 2009
Catholicism and Liberalism: Why they need each other - Paul Baumann, editor of Commonweal.

February 9, 2009
Religion and Aging in Communities of Memory - Ellen Idler, professor and acting dean for Social and Behavioral Sciences at the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers. Aging, Ethics and Spirituality Lecture.

February 10, 2009
Agent Orange: Consciousness and Conscience - Diane Fox, Visiting Professor of History and Anthropology. Part of the series Moral Responsibility for the Legacies of War: Vietnam to Iraq.

February 11, 2009
Luncheon Series: "How Can I Find God?"

February 14, 2009
Zen Meditation and Interreligious Forum - Rev. Robert Kennedy, S.J., Roshi, and Professor Anna J. Brown, Saint Peter's College.

February 17, 2009
U.S. Veterans Returning from the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - Panel Discussion part of the series Moral Responsibility for the Legacies of War: Vietnam to Iraq.

February 19, 2009
Where do we go from here? - Student Panel Discussion part of the series Moral Responsibility for the Legacies of War: Vietnam to Iraq.

March 12, 2009
The Gospels of Judas, Mary, and Thomas: The Good News About Marginalized Disciples in Early Christian Literature - Marvin Meyer, Griset Professor of Bible and Christian Studies and director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute at Chapman University.

March 16, 2009
The Religious Enlightenment - David Sorkin, Professor of History and Frances and Laurence Weinstein Professor of Jewish Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

March 17, 2009
Lessons from the Shoah: Why we teach the Holocaust at Holy Cross - Daniel Bitran, associate professor of psychology. Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish Christian Understanding.

March 18, 2009
Luncheon Series: "How Can I Find God?"

March 19, 2009
Hurricane Season: Life in Twentieth Century New Orleans - Leslie Harris, Emory University Professor

March 23, 2009
Contemporary Physics and Christian Faith: Conflict or Consonance? A Catholic/Atheist Disputation - Rev. Paul A. Schweitzer. S.J., '58, a professor of mathematics at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, and Matthew Koss, associate professor of physics at Holy Cross.

March 23, 2009
Thomas More Lecture on Work, Faith and Civic Life - John T. Broderick, Jr. '69, chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

March 25, 2009
‘Last' Lecture: "An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles: Darwin and Discovery" - Karen Ober, assistant professor of entomology and evolutionary biology.

March 26, 2009
How Jesuitical were the Jesuits? A brief encounter with the morality of the Jesuits - James Keenan, S.J., founder's chair in theology at Boston College. Presidential Colloquia on Jesuits and the Liberal Arts.

April 15, 2009
What Does Ethics Have to Do with Medicine? - Dr. Edmund Pellegrino, Chair of the President's Council on Bioethics, and Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Medical Ethics and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University.

April 16, 2009
Panel on Exile, War, and NGOs - Members of the Holy Cross and Worcester community.

April 16, 2009
Combat, Justice and the Lady In Between: Mapping Romanesque Ecclesiastical Militarism - James F. Powers, professor emeritus of history at Holy Cross.

April 16, 2009
Reading: Award-winning Irish writer, Colm Toibin, reads from his forthcoming novel Brooklyn.

April 20, 2009
Altruism and Morality: No Necessary Connection - C. Daniel Batson, professor emeritus in psychology at the University of Kansas.

April 22, 2009
Luncheon Series: "How Can I Find God?"

April 22, 2009
Holocaust and the Jewish Resistance - Yehuda Bauer, known worldwide as a compelling speaker and one of the world's most important scholars on Holocaust studies. Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

Fall 2007

September 19, 2007
Laywomen, Gender, and the Jesuits' Early Confraternal Models - Lance Lazar, Assumption College.

September 20, 2007
Faculty Author Discussion: Sarah Luria's Capital Speculations: Writing and Building Washington D.C.

September 25, 2007
Holocaust survivor Max Michelson shares his story. Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

October 1, 2007
Covering War and its Aftermath: is the media confrontational enough? - David E. Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent for The New York Times. Condé Nast Lectures on Media, Ethics and Values.

October 2, 2007
Tolerance and Intolerance, Eroticism and Asceticism, in Hinduism - Wendy Doniger, Director of the Martin Marty Center and Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. Deitchman Family Lectures in Religion and Modernity.

October 16, 2007
Men, Women and God: American Evangelical Protestants and the Politics of Gender - Margaret Bendroth, Ph.D., Executive Director of the American Congregational Association.

October 17, 2007
Atheism: A Conversation, Part I: "Atheism as Perfect Piety" - Louise Antony, Professor of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

October 24, 2007
Atheism: A Conversation, Part II: "Why God Doesn't Mix with Scholarship" - Bruce Kuklick, Nichols Professor of American History, University of Pennsylvania.

October 25, 2007
Atheism: A Conversation, Part III: Holy Cross Faculty Responses: Maria Granik, Visiting Assistant Professor, Philosophy; Matthew Koss, Associate Professor, Physics; Joseph Lawrence, Professor, Philosophy; Katherine McElaney, Chaplain's Office.

October 29, 2007
Protestant and Catholic Modernities - Fr. Anthony Carroll, S.J., Heythrop College, University of London. Deitchman Family Lectures in Religion and Modernity.

November 1, 2007
Of Golden Plates and Global Warming: Translating Mormonism in the Twenty-first Century - Dan Wotherspoon, Executive Director, Sunstone Education Foundation and editor. Deitchman Family Lectures in Religion and Modernity.

November 6, 2007
Shock and Awe: The Legacy of the Bush Administration in the Middle East - Lisa Anderson, James T. Shotwell Professor of International Relations and former dean of Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.

November 7, 2007
The Catholic Church, the Holocaust and the Silence of Pius XII - Frank Coppa, Professor of History at St. John's University. Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

November 8, 2007
Faculty Author Discussion: Jessica Waldoff's Recognition in Mozart's Operas.

November 12, 2007
Systems Thinking: A Way Forward for Education - Rev. James Moran, S.J., International Visiting Jesuit Fellow at Holy Cross.

November 12, 2007
Palestinians Negotiating Peace: Genuine Paths Toward a Peaceful Resolution - Qamar-ul Huda, Senior Program Officer in the Religion and Peacemaking Program at the United States Institute of Peace.

November 19, 2007
Israel: Facing an uncertain future - Michael Eisenstadt, Senior Fellow and Director, Military and Security Studies Program, Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

November 28, 2007
Faculty Author Discussion: Caroline Johnson Hodge's If Sons, Then Heirs: A Study of Kinship and Ehtnicity in the Letters of Paul.

Spring 2008

January 24, 2008
The Morality of Growing Old - Thomas R. Cole, Professor of Humanities in the Department of Religious Studies at Rice University. Aging, Ethics and Spirituality Lecture Series .

February 4, 2008
'Last' Lecture Series - Alice Laffey, Associate Professor of Religious Studies.

February 7, 2008
Faculty Author Discussion: Lee Oser, Department of English, author of The Return of Christian Humanism.

February 13, 2008
Broken Homes, Broken Hearts: The Holocaust and its Languages - Alan Rosen, lecturer in English and Holocaust Literature at Bar-Ilan University and the International School for Holocaust Education at Yad Vashem. Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

February 18, 2008
The Sense of Beauty and Talk of God - Alejandro Garcia-Rivera. Phi Beta Kappa Lecture.

February 25, 2008
Woodrow Wilson: Father of Modern America? - Ronald Pestritto, the Charles and Lucia Shipley Chair in American Constitution and Associate Professor of Political Science, Hillsdale College.

March 10, 2008
Finding My Family at Yad Vashem - Stephen Shapiro. Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

March 16, 2008
Roads to Peace in Israel and the Relationship between Jews and Muslims - Yehezkel Landau, Faculty Associate in Interfaith Relations, Hartford Seminary, and Imam Yahya Hendi, Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University. Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

March 18, 2008
Created for Joy: A Christian View of Suffering - Sidney Callahan, award-winning author, professor, columnist and psychologist.

March 18, 2008
Medical Progress and The Relief of Suffering: How Much Can We Afford?- Daniel Callahan.

March 25, 2008
Faculty Author Discussion: Alan Avery-Peck, Kraft-Hiatt Professor and Chair, Department of Religious Studies, editor of The Encyclopedia of Judaism.

March 28-30, 2008
Alumni Colloquium: Young Adult Catholics - conducted in conjunction with the Woodstock Theological Center.

April 1, 2008
Faith Across Generations: 2 Timothy 1:3-14 with reference to Caravaggio "Call of Matthew" and Chagall's "White Crucifixion" - Rev. Mario Farrugia, International Visiting Jesuit Fellow at Holy Cross, SJ, from Rome's Gregorian University.

April 2, 2008
The Murder of Emmett Till and Parental Grief - Harold Bush, Saint Louis University.

April 3, 2008
Faculty Author Discussion - Thomas Worcester, S.J.'s Cambridge Companion to the Jesuits.

April 7, 2008
Can the Old Media and the New Media Make Peace and Strengthen Democracy? - E.J. Dionne, Washington Post syndicated columnist and NPR commentator. Condé Nast Lectures on Media, Ethics and Values.

April 8, 2008
Thomas More Lecture on Faith, Work and Civic Life - Patrick Clancy '68, Chief Executive Officer of The Community Builders.

April 10-12, 2008
Art, Creativity, and Spirituality in Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov - A conference organized by Professor Predrag Cicovacki, Department of Philosophy.

April 14, 2008
Where Have All the Adults Gone? - Columnist Diana West, author of The Death of the Grown-up: How America's Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization.

April 15, 2008
Vatican Secret Diplomacy: Joseph P. Hurley and Pope Pius XII - Charles Gallagher, S.J., author.

April 16, 2008
God-Talk and Liberal Education - Hugh Heclo, Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Public Affairs, George Mason University.

April 17, 2008
'Last' Lecture Series - Victoria L. Swigert, Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and Dean of the Class of 2008.

April 24, 2008
Muslim-Christian Encounters in 21st Century - John Esposito, University Professor & Founding Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University. Deitchman Family Lectures in Religion and Modernity.

Fall 2006

September 7, 2006
Thomas More Lecture on Faith, Work and Civic Life: Edward J. Ludwig '73, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Becton, Dickinson and Company.

September 11, 2006
Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States - Sr. Helen Prejean, author. Lectures in Ministry.

September 15, 2006
The Bible and its Interpretations by Philosophers - Vittorio Hösle, Paul G. Kimball Professor of Arts and Letters, University of Notre Dame.

September 17, 2006
Jews and Catholics in Dialogue: What's on the Agenda? - Rabbi Irving Greenberg, president of Jewish Life Network and author of For the Sake of Heaven and Earth: The New Encounter between Judaism and Christianity, and Dr. Eugene Fisher, Associate Director of the American Catholic Bishops' Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. Kraft-Hiatt Symposium on Jewish and Roman Catholic Relations.

September 19, 2006
Last Lecture Series - Professor Steve Vineberg, Department of Theater.

September 25, 2006
Celebration of faculty scholarship: Lawrence Cahoone's Cultural Revolutions: Reason Versus Culture in Philosophy, Politics and Jihad.

September 27, 2006
Why the Jews? A Reflection on Three Weeks at Yad Vashem - William Shea, Director of the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, Visiting Professor of Religious Studies and author of The Lion and the Lamb: evangelicals and catholics in America.

October 5, 2006
The Modern Moral Maze: Seeking Common Ethical Ground in a Pluralist Society and World - Robert Kane '60, University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

October 12, 2006
The Rosary: Rediscovering the Past - Professor Joanne Pierce, Department of Religious Studies.

October 12, 2006
Religion in the Public Square: What Do Our Constitution and Traditions have to Say? - Richard W. Garnett, Associate Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame. The Hesburg Lecture of the Notre Dame Club of Worcester County.

October 16, 2006
Oil, Islam and the Press in Putin's Russia - Evgeny Kiselev.

October 17, 2006
Faculty Author Discussion: Ellen Perry's The Aesthetics of Emulation in the Visual Arts of Ancient Rome.

October 19, 2006
Authority, Allegiance, and Advocacy: Religion and Politics in American Higher Education - Julie Reuben, Harvard historian of education. Deitchman Family Lectures in Religion and Modernity.

October 30, 2006
The Sins of the Parents: Justice, Love, and Children - Christina L.H. Traina, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Religion, Northwestern University.

November 2, 2006
Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill - Dr. Jessica Stern of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

November 6, 2006
The impact of technology on belief - Rev. John Staudenmaier, S.J. Deitchman Family Lectures in Religion and Modernity.

November 8, 2006
Building a Bionic Jesuit: Enhancing Human Function with Medical Technology - James Collins '87, University Professor and Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University.

November 9, 2006
Faculty Author Discussion: A Voice of Their Own: The Authority of the Local Parish by Bill Clark, S.J.

November 13, 2006
Stem Cells: Hype and Hope - Lydia Villa-Komaroff, Chief Scientific Officer of the Cambridge biotech company Cytonome.

November 16, 2006
Sen's Capability Approach and His Discontent with Ethical and Economic Theories - Rev. Lawrence Daka, S.J., International Visiting Jesuit Fellow at Holy Cross.

November 16, 2006
Effects of the Passing of Shoah Survivors: what happens to memory when the witnesses are gone? - Michael Berenbaum, University of Judaism, Los Angeles. Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

November 20, 2006
Jesuits and Jews: The Holocaust and the search for forgiveness - James Bernauer, S.J., Boston College.

November 29, 2006
The Pimple on Adonis' Nose: On the Allocation of Social Resources to Education and Medicine in the United States - Robert Paul Wolff, Professor of Philosophy and African American studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

November 30, 2006
Twenty-first Century Catholicism: What About Ordaining Women? - Phyllis Zagano, Senior Research Associate-in-Residence, Hofstra University.

Spring 2007

January 22, 2007
How Then Shall We Eat?: The Morality and Politics of Food - Brother David Andrews CSC, Executive Director, The National Catholic Rural Life Conference.

February 6, 2007
Faculty Author Discussion: Bill Roorbach's Temple Stream: A Rural Odyssey.

February 7, 2007
An Evening with Madame F - A one-person play about Fanja Fenelson, a young prisoner who performed in a women's orchestra at Auschwitz. Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

February 13, 2007
Dominance of the Present Over the Past: The Church's forgotten constitutionalist heritage - Francis Oakley, President Emeritus and the Edward Dorr Griffin Professor of the History of Ideas, Williams College. Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

February 22, 2007
Joachim of Fiore and History in Western Culture - Bernard McGinn, the Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology and of the History of Christianity, the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.

February 26, 2007
Evolution, Creation, and Eternity: What's Wrong with the ‘Creation' Part of Creation Science - Matt Cartmill, Professor of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy, Duke University.

March 12, 2007
On the Communion of Saints: 'You Shine Like Lights in the World' (Philippians 2:15) - Rev. James Corkery, S.J.

March 13, 2007
Was Jesus in Auschwitz? Talking of God beyond barbed wire - Rev. Paolo Gamberini, S.J., Professor of Theology at the Pontifical Theological Faculty "San Luigi" in Naples, Italy. Deitchman Family Lectures in Religion and Modernity.

March 15, 2007
The Catholic Bishops and Revolutionary Violence in Ireland - Rev. Oliver Rafferty: Historian and International Visiting Jesuit Fellow.

March 16-18, 2007
Alumni/ae Colloquium III: Islam and Christianity - Speakers include: Sahar Bazzaz, Assistant Professor of History, College of the Holy Cross; Adam Gaiser, Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies, Florida State University; John Renard, Professor of Theological Studies, Saint Louis University; Anisa Mehdi, Adjunct Professor of Islamic Studies, Seton Hall University.

March 19, 2007
The Return of Religion in American Higher Education - John Schmalzbauer, Associate Professor and Blanche Gorman Strong Chair in Protestant Studies, Missouri State University.

March 22, 2007
Thomas Merton's Letters: What do they teach us about the man and the monk? - Christine Bochen, William H Shannon Chair in Catholic Studies, Nazareth College.

March 26, 2007
From Revenge to Reconciliation: An Israeli and a Palestinian Find Hope after the Violent Deaths of Family Members - Nella Cassouto, an Israeli woman who lost her husband in the Israeli Air Force and Ali Abu Awwad, a Palestinian from Hebron who lost his brother. Moderated by Thomas J. Fitzpatrick, S.J., Director of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem.

March 27, 2007
Faculty Author Discussion: Virginia Raguin and Sarah Stanbury's Women's Space: Patronage, Place, And Gender in the Medieval Church.

March 28, 2007
Christ's Passion in Image and Meditation - Professor Virginia Raguin, Jeffrey Luoma '09, and Elizabeth Morse, '09.

April 13-14, 2007
Shaping American Catholicism - An exploration of major themes in the life and work of David J. O'Brien, Loyola Professor of Roman Catholic Studies and founding Director of the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture at the College of the Holy Cross.

April 11, 2007
The End of the Religious Right - Damon Linker Ph.D., author of The Theocons: Secular America under Siege.

April 11, 2007
Thomas More Lecture on Faith, Work and Civic Life: Mark K. Shriver '86, Vice President and Managing Director of U.S. Programs for Save the Children.

April 17, 2007
Faculty Author Discussion: Bill Roorbach's Temple Stream: A Rural Odyssey.

April 18, 2007
Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church - George Weigel, the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies and Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, DC.

April 19-21, 2007
Understanding Other Minds and Moral Agency - A conference organized by Professor Karsten Stueber, Department of Philosophy.

Fall 2005

September 8, 2005
Thomas More Lecture on Faith, Work and Civic Life: Maggie Wilderotter, '77, Holy Cross Trustee, President and Chief Executive Officer of Citizens Communications, former Senior Vice President of Worldwide Public Sector at Microsoft.

September 30 - October 2, 2005
Keeping the Faith: Four Religious Perspectives on the Creation of Tradition - 15th Annual National Conference of the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts.

October 12, 2005
Last Lecture Series - Robert Garvey, Associate Professor of Physics

October 19, 2005
Media and Character - David Brooks, author, New York Times Op-Ed Columnist, and weekly political commentator on National Public Radio and "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer." Condé Nast Lectures on Media, Ethics and Values.

October 24, 2005
Theocons at War - Damon Linker, Ph.D. past editor of First Things.

November 4-6, 2005
Class-ifying 'Asian Values': Culture, Morality and the Politics of Being Middle Class in Asia - Conference.

November 16, 2005
The Sacred Music of Josquin des Prez - Lecture: Professor Jessica Waldoff. Recital: the Holy Cross Chamber singers, directed by Pamela Getnick.

November 30, 2005
Islam in America - Anisa Mehdi, an Emmy Award-winning journalist and producer of documentaries on Islam.

December 6, 2005
Celebration of books recently published by HC faculty: Steve Vineberg's High Comedy in American Movies.

Spring 2006

January 23, 2006
Los Alamos and the Atom Bomb Through a Young Boy's Eyes - James L. Nolan

February 8, 2006
Thomas More Lecture on Faith, Work and Civic Life - Sheila Cavanaugh, '81, Senior Vice President for Internal Communications at Fidelity Investments.

February 16, 2006
The Catholic Church Today and the New Pope - Rev. Charles E. Curran, the Elizabeth Scurlock University Professor of Human Values at Southern Methodist University.

February 21, 2006
Discussion of books recently published by HC faculty: Joanna Ziegler and Christopher Dustin's Practicing Mortality: Art, Philosophy, and Contemplative Seeing.

February 21, 2006
Savior of the Nation: Lincoln's Assassination and the Birth of an American Icon - Richard Wightman Fox, Professor of History at the University of Southern California.

February 22, 2006
Faculty Discussion Group on Higher Education - Discussion of Rebekah Nathan's My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student.

February 26, 2006
Religion Matters: Art, Piety, Destruction and the Politics of Display - An international group of art historians and museum professionals.

February 27, 2006
Faculty seminar on the theology of Pope Benedict XVI - Conducted by Rev. James Corkery, S.J., International Visiting Jesuit Fellow at Holy Cross.

February 27, 2006
Catholics and Contraception in Twentieth-Century America - Leslie Woodcock Tentler, The Catholic University of America. Deitchman Family Lectures in Religion and Modernity.

March 14, 2006
Catholic Childhood - Robert Orsi, Harvard University's Charles Warren Professor of the History of Religion in America. Deitchman Family Lectures in Religion and Modernity.

March 16, 2006
Catholics and Peacebuilding - Gerard F. Powers, University of Notre Dame.

March 20, 2006
A Half Century as Theologian: Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI - Rev. James Corkery, S.J., International Visiting Jesuit Fellow at Holy Cross.

March 21, 2006
Seeing Pictures of God - D. Z. Phillips, Rush Rhees Professor Emeritus, University of Wales, and Danforth Professor of the Philosophy of Religion, Claremont Graduate School.

March 23, 2006
Natural law and Oliver Wendell Holmes's refutation of it - Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University.

March 28, 2006
Is There Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus? - Debate between Professors William Lane Craig and Bart D. Ehrman.

March 29, 2006
Discussion of books recently published by HC faculty: Stephanie Yuhl's A Golden Haze of Memory: The Making of Historic Charleston.

April 3, 2006
Last Lecture Series - David J. O'Brien, Loyola Professor of Roman Catholic Studies.

April 4, 2006
Religion and Culture in the New World: Why America Was Different for Jews - Stephen J. Whitfield, Brandeis University.

April 10, 2006
The Catholic Church in Quebec: The Quieter Revolution - Jacques Monet, S.J., Visiting International Jesuit Fellow at Holy Cross.

April 19, 2006
Belonging and Genocide. A German Story, 1914-1945 - Thomas Kuehne, Clark University.

April 21, 2006
How Rational is the Heart? How Natural is Reason? How Universal is Faith? - Adriaan Peperzak, Loyola University of Chicago.

April 24, 2006
The Sacred Music of Mozart - Recital and lecture featuring the Holy Cross Chamber Singers, Pamela Getnick, director, and Jessica Waldoff, Associate Professor and Chair of the Music Department.

May 12-14, 2006
A Church that Can and Cannot Change - A conference for alumni/ae and spouses. Speakers: Judge John Noonan, and Professors M. Catheen Kaveny (Notre Dame Law School), Margaret Farley RSM (Yale University), and James Heft, SM (University of Dayton).

Fall 2004

September 16, 2004
Michael Moore's Film "Fahrenheit 9/11:" Political Documentary or Demagogic Propaganda? - Panelists: Professors David O'Brien (History) and Jeffrey Reno (Political Science) and students Elizabeth Letak '06 and Kenneth Olsen '05. Moderator: Professor Thomas Landy.

September 26 - October 1, 2004
Jesuit Heritage Week

September 30, 2004
Ignatius of Loyola: The Man and His Time - John O'Malley S.J., Distinguished Professor of Church History, Weston Jesuit School of Theology. Respondents: Profs. Francisco Gago-Jover and Susan Amatangelo; Moderator: Professor Mary Lee Ledbetter. Presidential Colloquia: Jesuit Liberal Education and the Engaging of Cultures.

October 4, 2004
Last Lecture Series - David Chu, Associate Professor of Economics.

October 6, 2004
Science and the Soul - Rev. Dr. John Polkinghorne.

October 7, 2004
Ethical Problems in Human Genetics - Rev. Dr. John Polkinghorne.

October 21, 2004
Jesuits in Asia - Nicolas Standaert S.J., Professor of Chinese Studies, University of Leuven, Belgium. Respondents: Rev. Stephen Chow, S.J., Harvard University, and Leila Phillip; Moderator: Thomas Gottschang. Presidential Colloquia: Jesuit Liberal Education and the Engaging of Cultures.

October 21, 2004
Lecture by Arun Gandhi, grandson of the Mahatma Gandhi.

November 3, 2004
Faculty Book Discussion - Professor David J. O'Brien reviews Professor William Shea's The Lion and The Lamb: Evangelicals and Catholics in America. Professor Shea reviews Professor Philip Rule S.J.'s Coleridge and Newman: The Centrality of Conscience.

November 14, 2004
International Inaction in the Rwandan Genocide - Film and lecture by Rwandan Jesuit Rev. Elisee Rutagambwa.

November 15, 2004
Last Lecture Series - Joe Lawrence, Associate Professor of Philosophy.

November 18-21, 2004
Colloquium on Renewing the Church

December 1, 2004
European Origins of Jesuit Education - Thomas Worcester, S.J., and William Stempsey S.J., College of the Holy Cross. Presidential Colloquia: Jesuit Liberal Education and the Engaging of Cultures.

Spring 2005

January 19 - March 18, 2005
Drawings Exhibit: "Draw, What You See!" - Drawings by Helga Weissova-Hoskova, the most famous child artist of the Terezin ghetto.

January 24, 2005
Suffering, Loss, and the Work of a Writer - Novelist Alice McDermott.

January 26, 2005
Jewish Magic and Jewish Witches: How and How Many? - Professor Meir Bar-Ilan, Bar Ilan University, Tel Aviv.

February 7, 2005
Lay Catholics and the Future of the American Church - Flanagan Lecture Series: Judge Ann Burke, United States Court of Appeals, First District, and former Interim Chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People.

February 8, 2005
How Holy Are Holy Wars? - Professor Ithamar Gruenwald, Tel Aviv University.

February 9, 2005
Draw, What You See! - Presentation and discussion.

February 9, 2005
Restorative Justice: A Model for Response to Clergy Abuse - Janine Geske, former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice, Distinguished Professor of Law and Director, Marquette Law School Restorative Justice Initiative.

February 14, 2005
Lilly Vocation Discernment Initiative Lectures in Ministry Series - Bishop Barbara Harris, suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and first woman bishop in the Episcopal Church worldwide.

February 16, 2005
Facing Frailty: Framework for Elder Care - Muriel Gillick, M.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Ambulatory Care & Prevention at Harvard Medical School, and a nationally recognized expert in medical ethics and care near the end of life.

February 17, 2005
Jesuits the New World - North and South America - Gauvin Bailey, Associate Professor of Art History, Clark University, and Jacques Monet, S.J., Director of the Canadian Institute of Jesuit Studies. Presidential Colloquia: Jesuit Liberal Education and the Engaging of Cultures.

February 22, 2005
Creationism and Evolution - Kenneth R. Miller, Brown University biologist and author of Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution.

February 24, 2005
A Conversation on The Supreme Court and Religion: Interpreting the First Amendment - Professor James Hitchcock of the History Department at St. Louis University, Bishop Thomas Curry of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and Professor Caren Dubnoff of the Holy Cross Department of Political Science.

February 24, 2005
Heidegger's Turn - Rev. William Richardson, S.J. '41, of the department of Philosophy, Boston College.

March 1, 2005
Religion and the Election of 2004 - Damon Linker, editor, First Things.

March 3, 2005
God on the Quad: How Religious Colleges and the Missionary Generation Are Changing America - Naomi Schaefer Riley, author.

March 14, 2005
Music-Thanatology and the Chalice of Repose Project: Prescriptive Music in the Care of the Dying - performance-lecture by Therese Schroeder-Sheker, visiting fellow.

March 15, 2005
Last Lecture Series - Loren Cass, Assistant Professor of Political Science.

March 16, 2005
Jesuit Education in the United States: Holy Cross through the 1940s - Kathleen Mahoney, President, Humanitas Foundation. Presidential Colloquia: Jesuit Liberal Education and the Engaging of Cultures.

March 31, 2005
Cyrus and the Temple: The Relation between Monotheism and Political Progress - Professor William B. Allen, Michigan State University.

April 2, 2005
Reflections on the Abuse Crisis: How Can the Laity be Part of the Solution? - Alice Hayes, former president of the University of San Diego and former National Review Board member.

April 5, 2005
Gandhi or Bin Laden? Religion and Politics in an Age of Globalization - Professor Darrell Fasching, University of Southern Florida.

April 7, 2005
Ministering to Gang Members in Los Angeles - Rev. Greg Boyle, S.J.

April 9, 2005
Apocryphal Literature in the Early Church - Professor Pheme Perkins, Boston College.

April 12, 2005
Professor Harvey Mansfield of Harvard University.

April 12, 2005
The Gospel of Mary and its part in The DaVinci Code - Professor Jane Schaberg, University of Detroit-Mercy.

April 14, 2005
Moral Reflection in Jesuit Education and Scholarship - Michael C. McFarland, S.J., President, College of the Holy Cross. Presidential Colloquia: Jesuit Liberal Education and the Engaging of Cultures.

April 18, 2005
Religion and Ethics in Liberal Arts Education - Dean Mark Roche, University of Notre Dame.

Fall 2003

September 10, 2003
Fast Food Nation - Author Eric Schlosser . Condé Nast Lectures on Media, Ethics and Values.

October 21, 2003
Thomas More Lectures on Faith, Work and Civic Life - Miguel Satut, '72, Program Director, W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

October 23, 2003
Beyond Scandal: Catholics Rethink Homosexuality - Beyond Brokenness: Healing, Renewal and the Church series: Mark Jordan, Asa Griggs Candler Professor, Department of Religion, Emory University.

October 23, 2003
Catholic Studies Faculty Reading Group discusses Mark Jordan's The Ethics of Sex.

November 5, 2003
Remote Justice: Tuning In to Citizenship - Professor Valerie Karno, J.D., Ph.D.

November 6, 2003
A Spirit in Love with the Earth: The Meaning and Promise of Religious Environmentalism - Professor Roger Gottlieb, Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

November 9, 2003
Student Interfaith Encounter visits the Jesuit Urban Center / Church of the Immaculate Conception in Boston for Sunday mass and a discussion of issues facing gay Catholics today.

November 11, 2003
Veils and Ecstasy: Stories and Images of Female Migrants in the Indonesian Borderlands - Johan Lindquist, an anthropologist at Cornell University.

November 12, 2003
Symposium on the Life and Work of Walter Ong, S.J.

November 13, 2003
Anxieties of a Career Diplomat: Reflections on America's Role in the World - Ambassador Peter Burleigh.

December 8, 2003
Pragmatism and the Modern Self - Michael J. Lacey, Emeritus Director, Center for American Society and Culture, Woodrow Wilson Center, Smithsonian Institution.

December 10, 2003
So I will Disappear: Insights into the Writings of Thomas Merton, on the 35th anniversary of Merton's death.

Spring 2004

January 21 - February 20, 2004
Exhibition - Vision Quest: Men, Women and Sacred Sites of the Sioux Nation - Photographs by Rev. Don Doll S.J.

January 28, 2004
Growing Old Together: Sources of Meaning in Relationality and Reciprocity - Susan H. McFadden.

February 5, 2004
The Jesuits and Modernity: the Case of John Courtney Murray - Rev. Joseph A. Komonchak, Professor, Catholic University. Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

February 9, 2004
Religious Congregations, Community Organizing, and Democratic Renewal - Professor Richard L. Wood, University of New Mexico.

February 10, 2004
Early Jewish Mysticism - Ithamar Gruenwald, professor of Jewish Mysticism, Tel Aviv University. Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

February 17, 2004
Last Lecture Series - Mary Lee Ledbetter, Professor of Biology.

February 18, 2004
After Babylon: The Loss of Cultural Heritage and the Future of Iraq's Past - Kathryn Slanski, Post-Doctoral Fellow in Assyriology, Yale University and Visiting Professor, Fairfield University.

February 18, 2004
Catholic Studies Faculty Reading Group - Paige Reynolds leads a discussion of the Kate O'Brien novel The Land of Spices.

February 27, 2004
Science, Religion and the Quest for Cosmic Purpose - John F. Haught, Georgetown University.

March 1, 2004
Sex Abuse in the Church: What have the revelations of abuse meant for your faith? - Campus forum.

March 2, 2004
Four Cultures of Catholicism - Author John O'Malley, S.J., , Catholic Studies Faculty Reading Group.

March 18, 2004
Holocaust Denial: the Argument and the Evidence - Robert Jan van Pelt, Visiting Professor at the Strassler Family Center for Holocaust Research, Clark University. Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

March 22, 2004
Confronting the Adolescent: The Abolition of High School - Leon Botstein, president of Bard College.

March 23, 2004
The Passion of Christ - Faculty panel: Profs. Patricia Bizzell (English), Bruce Herzberg (Bentley College) Frederick Murphy (Religious Studies), William Reiser SJ (Religious Studies), and Steve Vineberg (Theater).

March 24, 2004
The Falsification Challenge Revisited: Religious Principles and Historical Evidence - Terrence Tilley, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Dayton.

March 29, 2004
Faith, Fasting and Festivals - Panel discussion.

March 31, 2004
Aftermath: The Abuse Crisis and the Ministry of Priests - Rev. William Kremmell '61, Rev. Kenneth Brown, and Rev. William Campbell, SJ, '87.

April 6, 2004
Human Rights Challenges in East Timor - Rev. Ageng Marwata, S.J.

April 19, 2004
Evangelicals and Catholics in Latin America: Together or Apart? - Paul Freston, Calvin College.

April 20, 2004
Between Renaissance and Baroque: Jesuit Art in Rome, 1565-1610 - Author Gauvin Alexander Bailey of Clark University, Catholic Studies Faculty Reading Group.

April 21, 2004
Pope Pius XII and the Historians: Who Will Win? - Professor José Sanchez, Saint Louis University. Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

April 22, 2004
Last Lecture Series - Stephanie Yuhl, Assistant Professor of History.

Fall 2002

September 17, 2002
Catholic Studies Faculty Reading Group discusses work in progress by Professor Mat Schmalz.

September 23, 2002
Hindu Goddesses and Mary the Mother of God - Francis X. Clooney, S.J., Professor of Comparative Theology, Boston College.

September 25, 2002
America's War on Terrorism - Professor Howard Zinn.

September 25, 2002
Human Embryos: Science, Ethics and the Cloning Debate - Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph. D.

September 30, 2002
Last Lecture Series - Larry Cahoone, Associate Professor of Philosophy.

October 4, 2002
The Moral and Spiritual Costs of a Culture of War - Bishop Thomas Gumbleton.

October 8, 2002
Forging New Perspectives in the Sex Abuse Crisis - William Fortier, Worcester Pastoral Counseling Center, with responses by Rabbi Seth Bernstein and Rev. Barbara Merritt.

October 18-20, 2002
Practicing Catholic: Body, Performance and Contestation in Catholic Faith - Conference.

October 22, 2002
Passing for White: Race, Religion, and the Healy Family, 1820-1920 - Lecture by James O'Toole and discussion by Catholic Studies Faculty Reading Group.

October 24, 2002
The Fall of Yugoslavia and the War in Bosnia - Dr. Svetlana Broz, granddaughter of Josep Broz Tito, longtime ruler of Yugoslavia, and author of Good People in an Evil Time.

October 28, 2002
From Vatican II to the Next Papacy - A talk on the 40th anniversary of Vatican II by Robert Kaiser and John Allen.

November 5, 2002
Exploring Vocation: Five Responses to God's Call - Dialogue with five men and women who share their vocation stories to priesthood, religious life and other forms of ministry.

November 7, 2002
A Woman in Love - A one-woman performance by Cynthia Donnelly on the life of Catherine Doherty (founder of Friendship House and the Madonna House Apostolate).

November 12, 2002
Last Lecture Series - Vickie Langohr, Assistant Professor of Political Science.

November 13, 2002
Catholic Studies Faculty Reading Group - Visiting Fellow Bruce Morrill, S.J. leads a discussion on the balance between practice and objectivity in Catholic studies.

November 20, 2002
Catholic Higher Education in the Reform Era: Indonesia after the Fall of Soeharto - Discussion by International Visiting Jesuit Fellow Fr. Paul Wiryono, S.J.

December 9, 2002
Over-Application of Pesticides and the Environmental Situation in Indonesia - Discussion by Fr. Paul Wiryono, S.J., International Visiting Jesuit Fellow

Spring 2003

January 22, 2003
AIDS in Africa and its Effect on Children: What Can We Do? - Ellen McCurley, '82, of The Pendulum Project.

January 27, 2003
Israel Today: Five Zionist Voices - Hannah Rosenthal, Executive Director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs; and four Holy Cross faculty - Daniel Bitran, Patricia Bizzell, Edward Isser, and Amy Wolfson. Part of the Kraft-Hiatt Lecture Series.

January 29-30, 2003
Restoring the Moral Integrity of the Church: the Response of Catholic Higher Education to the Current Crisis in the Church - Discussion by Catholic Common Ground Initiative at Holy Cross.

January 29, 2003
Responding to the Crisis of Integrity in the Church: What Should Catholic Colleges Do? - A public dialogue featuring Monika Hellwig, President of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities; Matthew Clark '59, Bishop of Rochester, NY; Holy Cross President Michael C. McFarland, S.J.; David Gregory, Cardinal Newman Society; and Voice of the Faithful President Jim Post.

February 3, 2003
Abortion and the Law - Cathy Cleaver, an attorney and pro-life spokeswoman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops marks the 30th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade.

February 4, 2003
Transformative Hope for Hard Times: The Role of the Catholic University in a Civil Society - Flanagan Lecture: Dr. Mary Brabeck, dean, Lynch School of Education, Boston College.

February 10, 2003
Reception for new faculty.

February 12, 2003
Israel Today: Young People's Perspectives - Tsee'la Shmuely and Ayelet Handler, two young Israeli women living in Worcester, will meet with students to talk about Israeli life today from their perspectives.

February 18, 2003
The Love of Things Unseen: Catholic Prayer and the Moral Imagination in Twentieth Century United States - James McCartin '96, Catholic Studies Faculty Reading Group.

February 19, 2003
Keeping the Faith in Late Life - Aging, Ethics and Spirituality Lecture Series by Susan A. Eisenhandler.

February 25, 2003
Sacred and Secular: What's This Composer Think He's Doing? - Music Department Colloquium with International Visiting Jesuit Fellow Fr. Christopher Willcock, S.J.

February 25, 2003
Last Lecture Series - Helen Whall, Associate Professor of English.

March 10, 2003
The University: Before, After, and Beyond - Dennis O'Brien, President Emeritus of the University of Rochester.

March 12, 2003
Newman and the Restoration of the Interpersonal in Higher Education - Rev. Michael Buckley, S.J., Deitchman Family Lectures in Religion and Modernity.

March 13, 2003
Beyond Brokenness: Healing, Renewal and the Church series - Rev. Donald Cozzens, author of The Changing Face of the Priesthood and Sacred Silence.

March 15, 2003
War, Peace, and Conscientious Objection - A workshop on conscientious objection led by Brenna Cussen '00, Fr. Michael Baxter, C.S.C. and Tom Cornell of the Catholic Peace Fellowship.

March 17, 2003
Islam and Christianity in the 21st Century - Seyyed Hossein Nasr, University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University.

March 18, 2003
Whose History? - Spinoza's Critique of Religion as an Other 'Modernity' - Idit Dobbs Weinstein, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Vanderbilt University.

March 20, 2003
Who Owns The Bible? -A Judaeo-Christian Argument with Jacob Neusner and Bruce D. Chilton of Bard College.

April 2, 2003
Beyond Brokenness: Healing, Renewal and the Church series - Sr. Katarina Schuth, OSF.

April 8, 2003
Terrorism and War: Struggles with Apocalyptic Violence - Psychologist Robert Jay Lifton, Harvard Medical School, Deitchman Family Lectures in Religion and Modernity.

April 8, 2003
Reading the Signs of the Times: Insights from Catholic Feminists - Beyond Brokenness: Healing, Renewal and the Church: Bernadette Brooten, Brandeis University; Christine Gudorf, Florida International University; and MaryBeth Kearns Barrett, Holy Cross Chaplain.

April 8, 2003
Last Lecture Series - Rick Murphy, Professor of Religious Studies.

April 9, 2003
Media Coverage of the Crisis in the Church: Three Views - Walter Robinson, lead investigative reporter, Globe Spotlight Team, Boston Globe; Peter Steinfels, "Beliefs" columnist, The New York Times; and Joseph Bergantino ‘73, investigative reporter, WBZ-TV. Condé Nast Lectures on Media, Ethics and Values.

April 12, 2003
Zen Meditation - Rev. Robert Kennedy, S.J., Roshi.

April 23, 2003
Teaching Black Elk: Promise and Pitfalls of Cross-cultural Education - Rev. Raymond Bucko, S.J., an anthropologist from Creighton University

April 23, 2003
Human rights and slavery in the world today - Francis Bok, a one-time slave from Sudan.

April 24, 2003
Boston's Chinatown: A Legacy of Environmental Injustice - Professor Andrew Leong, College of Public & Community Service, University of Massachusetts/Boston.

April 24, 2003
Amnesty or Amnesia? Commemorations of the Great Irish Famine - Professor Margaret Kelleher, National University of Ireland.

April 30, 2003
The Eliot School Rebellion, Boston, 1859: Education, Slavery and the Nineteenth Century Catholic Revival - John McGreevey, University of Notre Dame.

April 30, 2003
Catholicism and American Freedom: A History - Notre Dame historian John McGreevey,
Catholic Studies Faculty Reading Group.

Fall 2001

September 14-15, 2001
Toward a Deeper Understanding of Forgiveness: The Meaning and Significance of Forgiveness in Political, Social, and Theological Contexts - Inaugural Conference.

October 3, 2001
Understanding Islam - Professor Jimmy Jones, Manhattanville College; Professor Qamar al-Huda, Boston College; and Professors Todd Lewis, Laury Silvers-Alario, and Vickie Langohr, College of the Holy Cross.

October 10, 2001
Euphoria: Programming and Packaging American Youth - Oretha Winston, Atlantic Records.

October 23, 2001
Winslow Homer: The Nature of Observation - Elizabeth Johns, Senior Fellow, Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

October 24, 2001
Holding the Tension: Brain-Psyche-Spirit - William Fortier and a panel of commentors: David Doiron of Worcester Pastoral Counseling Center and Profs. Andrew Futterman and Christopher Dustin, College of the Holy Cross.

October 30, 2001
Seeking an Understanding Heart - student discussion group topic: "Student Identity."

October 31, 2001
Breakfast Discussion for Religious Leaders on Stem-Cell Research - Professor Thomas Shannon, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Professor William Stempsey, College of the Holy Cross; and a representative of the biotech industry.

November 13, 2001
Seeking an Understanding Heart - student discussion group topic: "Student Identity."

November 15, 2001
Forgiveness and the Aftermath of Contemporary Crimes Against Humanity - Marguerite Feitlowitz, Independent Scholar, and Anita Isaacs, Stinnes Professor of Global Studies, Haverford College.

November 16, 2001
Emotions in Black and White and Color - Ronald DeSousa, Philosophy Department, University of Toronto.

November 17, 2001
Religion in the Deaf Community: A Panel Presentation.

November 28, 2001
'Experiencing Advent' Luncheon Reflection Series: "Our Longing for God" - Led by Elizabeth Johns, Visiting Fellow, CREC.

November 29, 2001
As Leaven in the World: Catholic Perspectives on Faith, Vocation and the Intellectual Life - Book publication panel discussion and reception.

December 5, 2001
'Experiencing Advent' Luncheon Reflection Series: "God's Longing for Us" - Led by Elizabeth Johns, Visiting Fellow, CREC.

December 12, 2001
'Experiencing Advent' Luncheon Reflection Series: "Our Repentance and God's Assurance" - Led by Elizabeth Johns, Visiting Fellow, CREC.

December 13, 2001
The Catholic Community Forms Its Conscience on War and Terrorism - Featuring Suzanne Shanley, Agape Community; Kristin Heyer, Boston College; Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, St. Francis and Therese House; Ward Thomas, College of the Holy Cross.

December 19, 2001
'Experiencing Advent' Luncheon Reflection Series: "We Wait for the Light" - Led by Elizabeth Johns, Visiting Fellow, CREC.

Spring 2002

January 21, 2002
The Moral Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Student-led Teach-in and Debate - Panelists: Allison Bell, '05, Kristen Cortiglia, '02, Alix Dejean, '04, Sarah Dalton, '02, Nikia Kelly, '03, Katie Li, '05, Patrick Tigue, '03.

January 29, 2002
Jesuits and Their Influence on German Renaissance Churches - Jeffrey Chipps Smith, the Kay Fortson Chair in European Art, University of Texas at Austin.

January 31, 2002
Flanagan Lecture - Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, Director of Catholic Charities USA and former Dean of Harvard Divinity School.

February 1, 2002
Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity - Dr. William Shea, Saint Louis University.

February 2, 2002
Student Interfaith Encounter visits Congregation Beth Israel (a Conservative synagogue in Worcester, MA) - Hosted by Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum and Professor Patricia Bizzell.

February 5, 2002
The Worcester Interreligious Forum presents its Statement on Shared Values and Beliefs for the Worcester Community, which arises from extended interfaith dialogue among local religious leaders.

February 8, 2002
The Judecca Exchange - Dramatic reading of an original play by Richard Cusack '50, featuring Edward Isser, Steve Vineberg, Lynn Kremer and Joan Townsend.

February 10, 2002
The Klezmer Conservatory Band - Presented by Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding in cooperation with the Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts and the office of Student Programs and Leadership Development.

February 11, 2002
The Christian Critique of Societies: Just or Unjust? - Rev. Jean-Yves Calvez, S.J., presented by Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

February 11, 2002
Religion, Spirituality, and Aging Series - Helen Black.

February 19, 2002
Catholic Studies Reading Group: What is Catholic Place? - Led by John Schmalzbauer in conjunction with the Cantor Gallery exhibition, "Sacred Spaces: Legacy and Responsibility."

February 22, 2002
The Ethics of the War on Terrorism - Rev. J. Bryan Hehir: Director of Catholic Charities USA and former Dean of Harvard Divinity School.

February 22, 2002
Student Interfaith Encounter visits The Islamic Society of Greater Worcester - Hosted by Shaikh Hamid Mahmood, the Community's religious director.

February 24, 2002
Finding A Spiritual Home: Where Do Jewish Deaf Go? - An interactive dialogue workshop facilitated by Marla Berkowitz.

February 28, 2002
African American Spirituality Series - Farah Jasmine Griffin.

March 13, 2002
Jesuits in China: New Historical Perspectives - Nicolas Standaert, S.J., Institute for Advanced Studies.

March 14, 2002
'To Make Men Whole': Faith and Social Consciousness in C.L. Franklin's Detroit Ministry 1946-1969 - Professor Nick Salvatore, Cornell University.

March 15, 2002
Faculty/Staff Roundtable: Young Adult Catholics: Religion in the Culture of Choice - John Schmalzbauer, Tom Landy, Kim McElaney, Kristine Cyr-Goodwin.

March 19, 2002
Packachoag and Mount Saint James: Worcester's Early Christian Indian Communities - Professor Thomas Doughton.

March 20, 2002
The Poetry of Billy Collins: A Subject for Catholic Studies? - Catholic Studies Reading Group.

April 5-6-7, 2002
Sacred Spaces: Legacy and Responsibility - Conference.

April 12-13, 2002
The Anatomy of Evil - Conference.

April 16, 2002
The Anatomy of Evil - Discussion by Catholic Studies Faculty Reading Group.

April 21, 2002
Student Interfaith Encounter visits Salem Covenant Church (A Swedish-American Protestant church founded in 1880). Hosted by Pastor Mark Frykholm and Professor John Schmalzbauer.

April 24, 2002
Thomas More Lecture on Faith, Work and Civic Life - Joseph E. Murray, MD, class of 1940.

May 2, 2002
Report on the Middle East - Local Catholic Worker Scott Schaeffer-Duffy '80 visited the West Bank during the heaviest fighting two weeks ago.