Dr. Paula M. Kane, who holds the John and Lucine O’Brien Marous Chair in Catholic Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, will give the Pope Benedict XVI Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, September 27 at the Fred Rogers Center at Saint Vincent College. Her topic will be “Does Data Reveal the Future of the American Catholic Church?”
In addition to holding the John and Lucine O’Brien Marous Chair, Dr. Kane has a joint appointment in the Department of History at Pitt. She researches and teaches American religious history with a specialization in modern Catholicism, religion and the arts, and religion and the media.
She earned the Ph.D. from Yale University in 1988 and was a visiting scholar and visiting professor at the Center for the Study of American Religion at Princeton University from 1996 to 1997.
Her most recent book is Sister Thorn and Catholic Mysticism in Modern America, a study of an Irish American nun from Manhattan who reported receiving the stigmata in 1921 and whose followers attempted to make her the first American saint.
Other books include Separatism and Subculture: Boston Catholicism, 1900-1920, University of North Carolina Press, 1994; and Gender Identities in American Catholicism, American Catholic Identities Series, Orbis Books, 2001, which earned an honorable mention, 2001 Catholic Press Association Book Award in the gender category.
Dr. Kane is the author of:
“Jews and Catholics Converge: ‘Song of Bernadette,'” in Catholics in the Movies, edited by Colleen McDannell, Oxford University Press, 2007.
“The Supernatural and Slavery: Catholics, Power, and Oppression,” in The Problem of Evil: Slavery, Freedom, and the Ambiguities of American Reform, edited by Steven Mintz and John Stauffer, University of Massachusetts Press, 2007.
“American Catholics at a Crossroads: Review Essay,” Religion and American Culture 16.2 (Summer 2006).
“Getting beyond Gothic: Challenges for Contemporary Catholic Church Architecture,” in American Sanctuary: Understanding Sacred Spaces, edited by Louis P. Nelson, Indiana University Press, 2006.
“Marian Devotionalism since 1940: Continuity or Casualty?” in Habits of Devotion: Catholic Religious Practice in Twentieth-Century America, edited by James M. O’Toole, Cornell University Press, 2004.
The Pope Benedict XVI Chair of Biblical Theology and Liturgical Proclamation at Saint Vincent Seminary was established in 2005 thanks to generous donations from Mr. and Mrs. John F. Donahue and Dr. and Mrs. George Magovern, Sr.
Speakers in Saint Vincent Seminary’s Pope Benedict XVI Lecture Series have included Dr. Scott Hahn, who held the inaugural Chair; Archbishop Wilton Gregory, then Archbishop of Atlanta; Rev. Pablo T. Gadenz of the Diocese of Trenton; Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization; Dr. John F. Haught of Georgetown University; Dr. Philip Jenkins, author and professor at both Baylor University and Penn State University; and Dr. George Weigl, author, political analyst and social activist.
For reservations for this free lecture, please call 724-805-2820 or email kelly.shrum@stvincent.edu
