Patricia Hampl, the noted spiritual writer and memoirist, will deliver the 2007 Christian Culture Lecture at the Moreau Center for the Arts, September 13, 2007, at 7:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception. More details are available on the Christian Culture Lecture home page.
The department welcomes Dr. Colleen O’Brien of Wake Forest University, who will be teaching three courses a year in the department as a CWIL Fellow beginning in the fall of 2007.
Fr. Martin Boler, OSB delivered a talk on monasticism to HUST majors in October.
The department celebrated its 50th Anniversary September 17-18, 2006. One hundred and eighteen participants registered for this milestone event that included colloquia, a presidential luncheon, a library exhibit, and a panel discussion of alumnae talking about the impact the major has had on their lives. One highlight of the two-day gala was the revival of the Christian Culture Lecture, a distinctive component of the early years of the department, thanks to the generosity of Susan Fitzgerald Rice ’61 and her husband Donald B. Rice. Miri Rubin of the University of London spoke on the Virgin Mary in a lecture entitled “Mary: From Jewish Maiden to Global Icon.” An expanded, fully referenced version of this lecture is available for purchase at the campus bookstore. This annual lecture is also supported by a national advisory council that plans for future lectures and participates in campus discussions to enhance the humanities at Saint Mary’s. Current members of the council are: Paula Lawton Bevington ’58, Margaret M. Hill ’61, Ann Coryn Lohmuller ’81, Judith Rauenhorst Mahoney ’74, Kelly Anne McGannon ’99, Susan V. McGury ’80, Donald B. Rice, Susan Fitzgerald Rice ’61, and Lucia Anna Trigiani ’80.
Gail Mandell and five students (four majors) received a group Travel and Study Grant from CWIL for $2500 to attend Radical Encounters, a week-long summer residency program on religion and community at Mount Saviour Monastery, a Benedictine monastery in Elmira, NY. The grant will enable students to study the history of intentional communities and visit a variety of ecumenical communities with students from other colleges and universities participating in the program (including Cornell University, Ithaca College, and Empire State College). Gail is one of the organizers of the program. She is also an organizer for another group, the Emmaus Community, which organizes and hosts a conference on small Christian communities each October. At the meeting in October 2005, she and her husband presented a session on diversity.
On November 3rd, the department welcomed Cara Ford ’00 to talk to current majors about her career teaching composition and journalism at the University of Pittsburgh and her co-founding of an online literary journal, in addition to her current work on campus in the First Year Studies office.
Professor John Shinners is on a year-long sabbatical leave 2005-2006. He continues to work on a book project focused on medieval religious life.
On April 23rd, Cindy Wahlman ’06 led a group of ten junior and senior majors to visit the Art Institute in Chicago.
On April 18, 2005 Gail Mandell was installed as the second Bruno P. Schlesinger Chair in Humanistic Studies, succeeding Bruno Schlesinger in this endowed faculty chair, the first of its kind at Saint Mary’s. Gail and President Carol Mooney paid tribute to Bruno, who was awarded the title “Bruno P. Schlesinger Chair in Humanistic Studies Emeritus.” A statement from Bruno honoring Gail was read on his behalf, and then Dean Pat White spoke about Gail’s distinguished career. Gail discussed her current book project in a presentation entitled “Belize Revisited: Readings from a Work-in-Progress.” Several alumnae joined in the festivities, including Mary Burke ’85, Melissa Thatcher ’97, Susan McGury ’80, Anne Napoli ’94, Janet Kelley ’97, and Tracy Hartzler-Toon ’92.
In conjunction with the Medieval Institute at Notre Dame, the department sponsored three lectures by Philipp Rosemann of the University of Dallas, “The Story of a Great Medieval Book: Peter Lombard’s Sentences,” April 12-14. The talks will eventually be published as part of the Broadview Press series “Rethinking the Middle Ages,” co-edited by John Shinners.
On February 21st, John Shinners presented an illustrated lecture, “The Da Vinci Code: Cracked or Crackpot?” to over a hundred members of the campus community. This was a new rendition of the very popular talk he delivered at the 2004 Reunion. He plans to reprise it again at this year’s Reunion.
Philip Hicks was promoted from Associate Professor to Professor.
At her inauguration as the new President of Saint Mary's College, January 14-15, 2005, Dr. Carol Mooney paid tribute to Dr. Schlesinger as one of the many men who has made contributions to the history of this women’s college. Her inaugural address also praised the innovative work of Gail Mandell in her fall semester tandem course. Philip Hicks spoke at the Liberal Arts Symposium, extolling Abigail Adams as a model of liberal learning.
On December 8, 2004, Bruno Schlesinger taught his last class at Saint Mary’s, after 60 years in the classroom. The course was HUST 334, “Art and Culture,” taught to about twenty junior and senior majors. When class let out at 3:50 p.m., President Mooney and Patrick White, Vice-President and Dean of Faculty, stepped inside to offer their congratulations. Everyone adjourned to a nearby classroom to continue celebrating at the departmental Christmas party.
In November, the department welcomed Nancy Strzelecki Tai ’95 to talk to current majors about her seven years living in Japan, her work as an analyst in the political affairs section of the Consulate General of Japan at Chicago, and her current job in the Dean’s Office of the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University.
In October, 2004, 238 Madeleva was transformed into a high-tech classroom. Humanistic Studies now boasts the most technologically advanced classroom on campus. To the delight of students and faculty alike, we now have a superior audio system, an 84” screen, a mobile lectern, a data projector, and a document camera. The department is most grateful to Christian Culture/Humanistic Studies alumnae whose contributions to a fund started in the earliest days of the Program have made this state-of-the-art equipment possible.
Kelly McGannon ’99 finished up a two-year stint as Visiting Lecturer in Humanistic Studies. She taught a number of sections of Colloquium and “Lives and Times” and even a martial arts class on the side. The department is very grateful for the fabulous job she did filling in for Phil and Gail while they were on sabbatical.
On February 25, 2004 Angie Little Berg ’00 (ND Law ’03) spoke to the majors about her career as a lawyer doing estate and tax planning for non-profits. Even those not intending a legal career were impressed by Angie’s emphasis on the importance of the oral and written communication skills she learned in HUST.
The major event of 2003 was the visit on September 25th of Jill Ker Conway, former President of Smith College and author of The Road from Coorain (a canonical text in HUST 103). Hundreds turned out for her talk in O’Laughlin Auditorium. HUST majors also attended a reception for Conway in Stapleton following the lecture on women’s identity and western culture. Her visit revived a tradition dating from the earliest days of the department—bringing speakers of national and even international significance to campus.
Gail Mandell was on sabbatical leave for the 2003-2004 academic year. Much of her time was spent in South Bend writing her book, but she also spent three weeks in Central America, doing research in Belize.
On November 13, 2002 Mary Skinner, Professor of Religious Studies and History, Ithaca College and Empire State College (SUNY), gave a talk to the majors entitled “Creating Christianity: Women Leaders of the First Millennium.”
John Shinners served as Acting Chair of the department while Philip Hicks was on sabbatical leave for the 2002-2003 academic year writing essays on eighteenth-century British and American women.
On March 20, 2002 the department welcomed back Lisa Maxbauer ‘99, a freelance writer based in New York City. Lisa spoke to current Humanistic Studies students about how she landed her dream job as a writer and editor with Physician’s Weekly. She shared job tips as well as examples of her work.
On November 13, 2001 the department hosted a reception for Kelly McGannon ‘99. Afterwards, Kelly gave a preview of her Yale master’s thesis, a lecture with slides entitled “Medieval Machismo: How Pilgrims Brought Jerusalem to Western Europe.” She also answered questions about her travels in Italy and the Middle East. The next day she capped off her visit by teaching John Shinners’ medieval culture class.
