Center for Digital Humanities to be Named After Walter J. Ong, S.J.

The Center for Digital Humanities at Saint Louis University will now be known as the Walter J. Ong, S.J. Center for Digital Humanities, following a generous endowment from the family of the late scholar. 

The Center for Digital Humanities within the College of Arts and Sciences at Saint Louis University advances scholarship and learning in the humanities by developing research resources, standards and tools that foster student learning, and faculty and scholarly research.

"We could not be more honored and pleased by the naming of the center after Walter Ong," said Thomas Finan, Ph.D., director of the center. "Ong is one of a handful of SLU scholars who achieved world-wide recognition for his research in linguistics, language and technology."

Christopher Duncan, Ph.D., dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, thanked University provost Nancy Brickhouse, Ph.D., whose office made the new center possible by providing matching money to help with its launch.

"Provost Brickhouse's investment in this cutting-edge academic enterprise and her support for the humanities in this way is greatly appreciated by the college," Duncan said.

Duncan also extended thanks to Sara van den Berg, Ph.D., professor of English and director of the Ong Center in its previous iteration, and Jonathan Sawday, Ph.D, the Walter J. Ong Professor in the Humanities, for respective work in helping make endowment happen.