Center for Research on Global Catholicism Officially Launching This Fall

07/22/2022

The Center for Research on Global Catholicism, the only humanities-based Big Idea funded by the Research Institute, will officially launch this fall.  

The Center for Research on Global Catholicism (CRGC) supports scholarship at the nexus of Catholicism and culture, providing robust programming that promotes interdisciplinary research, collaboration, and methodological innovation. It brings together three key components of SLU’s Jesuit history and mission: a legacy of global engagement, a commitment to rigorous academic inquiry, and a focus on social justice. 

The CRGC is the only research center of its kind to focus on Catholicism in a global context.  

“Our ambition is to make SLU a destination for research on global Catholicism,” said Mary Dunn, CRGC Director. “We are building a center here at SLU that will be a hub for scholarship, connecting our own faculty and students with local archivists, national research centers, and the rich network of scholars around the world who work within the growing field of global Catholicism.”  

Over the course of the past two years, the CRGC has built a strong intellectual community at SLU, bringing together scholars from across the university — including the Madrid campus — for research discussions and conversations that cross disciplinary, even professional, boundaries.  

Of the several research colloquia the CRGC has hosted since 2020, Dunn recalls a particularly dynamic panel that featured faculty from Theological Studies and History together with MOCRA’s Director, David Brinker.

“It’s this kind of conversation across the usual divides that’s so invigorating — and so intellectually rich,” Dunn said.  

The CRGC has a robust slate of programming planned for the upcoming academic year, including lectures, talks, and book discussions, that will bring scholars from around the country to SLU’s campus.

The first of these events is the CRGC’s inaugural annual lecture to be held on Thursday, Sept. 29, and featuring Karin Vélez, Associate Professor of History at Macalester College and author of the award-winning The Miraculous Flying House of Loreto: Spreading Catholicism in the Early Modern World (Princeton, 2018). 

In addition to Dunn, the Executive Board of the CRGC includes Cathleen Fleck (Visual and Performing Arts), Kate Moran (American Studies), and Charles Parker (History).