Catholic Studies
Convenor:
Mario T. Garcia, History and Chicano Studies, at ext. 2471
or 4074 or e-mail garcia@history.ucsb.edu
or website
We have not finalized our agenda for next year; however, our
activities will revolve around three main functions. First,
we will have occasional informal discussion groups around
assigned readings probably connected to some of our outside
speakers. Second, we will organize some lectures with particular
speakers from both the campus as well as off-campus. And,
third, we will sponsor as in past years a specific Catholic
Studies Lecture Series in conjunction with the IHC. Our focus
group involves faculty and graduate students pursuing or interested
in interdisciplinary work in the area of Catholic Studies
broadly defined as the study of the Catholic experience both
in this country and in other lands. This can be from a historical,
humanities, or social science perspective and in most cases
involving all three. Catholicism represents one of the largest,
if not the largest, religion in the world and we are interested
in examining and understanding the relationship of Catholicism,
in all of its manifestations, to a varied of societies.
Our Catholic Studies focus group, besides its research interests,
also has the goal of developing interest in Catholic Studies
at UCSB as a legitimate academic area similar to Islamic or
Jewish Studies, to take those as examples. We believe that
we are laying the groundwork for a more institutionalized
Catholic Studies that is being planned around the Virgil Cordano
Endowed Chair in Catholic Studies that is in its fund-raising
stage. Conceived by some of the Catholic community in Santa
Barbara as well as from UCSB, this endowed Chair effort, named
after Fr. Virgil Cordano, a very beloved Franciscan at the
Santa Barbara Mission, has already raised close to $2 million
in its goal of $5 million. When implemented, it
will be the most significant Catholic Studies Chair in a public
institution and the most heavily endowed in either a public
or private university that has a Catholic Studies Chair. The
activities that our focus group has been sponsoring is bringing
attention to this future when Catholic Studies will make an
even larger impact at UCSB.
We have been fortunate to have the active participation of
several faculty and graduate students this year, many of who
will continue with us next year. Some of these include:
Prof. Wade Clark Roof, Religious Studies Prof. Michael O'Connell,
English
Prof. Patrick McCarthy, English
Prof. Ellen McCracken, Spanish & Portuguese
Prof. Rudy Bustos, Religious Studies
Prof. Mario Garcia, History and Chicano Studies
Tricia Mein, Sociology
Ryan Alaniz, Latin American & Iberian Studies
Melinda Gandara, Art History Frenando Lozano, Economic
Fr. Paul Rospond, St. Mark's Fr. Joe Scott, St. Mark's
