Higher Education Commons^™

Catholics & Cultures As An Act Of Improvisation: A Response, Thomas M. Landy

Journal of Global Catholicism

This essay responds to seven articles published in the same issue of the Journal of Global Catholicism on the use of Catholics & Cultures, a multimedia website, as a pedagogical resource for college classrooms. The site is deliberately presented in a fashion that undermines notions of center and periphery and presents Catholicism from a lay, lived-religion perspective as the multicultural faith that it is, minimizing reference to religious typologies. Particular attention is given to how to navigate tensions around theorizing, categorizing and sorting information for cross-cultural comparison. Given scholars’ current state of knowledge, writing about and teaching about global Catholicism …

Catholics & Cultures: A Panoramic View In Search Of Greater Understanding, Stephanie M. Wong

Journal of Global Catholicism

While internet-based technologies can open up greater awareness of the world or create self-perpetuating echo-chambers, the Catholics & Cultures project aspires to do the former. Aiming to ‘widen the lens’ on the variety of Catholic communities and practices, the site delivers on this goal by introducing viewers to a vast array of articles, pictures and videos from around the world. The organization of the site by country and by certain key features of lived Catholicism offers some interpretive guidance. However, the project could be strengthened as a pedagogical resource if it were more extensively thematized and hosted reflections on potential …

The Value Of Online Resources: Reflections On Teaching An Introduction To Global Christianity, Hillary Kaell

Journal of Global Catholicism

Reflecting on my experience teaching Introduction to Global Christianity, this essay ponders questions at the heart of undergraduate teaching: How can we encourage students to utilize online sources? How can we empower them to seek out answers to their questions? It offers practical examples of how I have used the Catholics & Cultures website in my classroom at a large public university. In particular, I reflect on my experience working with students who are mostly of Catholic heritage, but from many cultural and social contexts.

Teaching Sexuality On The Catholics & Cultures Website: A Refreshing Turn Toward The Longue Durée, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

I present a close reading of the Catholics & Cultures (C&C) website’s treatment of sexuality-related issues and discuss this material in relation to debates about how to teach sexuality in religious studies and theology classrooms. The C&C website occasionally and intermittently uses a typical “contemporary issues” approach that considers sexuality in relation to legal and legislative decisions and government policies. In contrast, country profiles consistently situate sexuality in relation processes like nation building, urbanization, and lay Catholics’ growing authority. My interpretation highlights the site’s decision to emphasize the longue durée, long-term and deep structural processes driving cultural and religious changes. …

Ritual Among The Scilohtac: Global Catholicism, The Nacirema, And Interfaith Studies, Anita Houck

Journal of Global Catholicism

More than six decades after its publication, Horace Miner’s 1956 article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” remains a reliable pedagogical tool, remarkably successful in helping students see their own ethnocentric biases. Catholics & Cultures has potential to do similar work. The site lacks some of what makes Miner’s text so effective, in particular its capacity to bring about a sudden shift in perception. The site also shares some of the article’s limitations, particularly in focusing on ritual to the relative exclusion of other aspects of religion. That said, the site can help students gain the religious literacy and develop the …

Focus On The Busy Intersections Of Culture And Cultural Change, Laura Elder

Journal of Global Catholicism

The dynamics of religious resurgence reveal the important ways that religious ritual and performance are meaning making spaces which are not self-contained or cut off from the rest of culture, but rather are a key locus of cultural change. A renewed emphasis on the busy intersections of meaning making – as rituals are connected, disconnected, and reconnected to other domains of social life – would improve the utility of the Catholics & Cultures website for understanding global cultural change. And a renewed emphasis on cultural change would also provide a better means for exploring reflexively by seeking to understand both …

A Widened Angle Of View: Teaching Theology And Racial Embodiment, Mara Brecht

Journal of Global Catholicism

Today’s undergraduate students are digital natives, shaped by constant access to information and countless experiences of encountering the world through the convenience of a screen. The ostensible comfort students have with difference gives way to a paradox, and one that’s made especially apparent in the theology classroom: Students are comfortable with seeing difference and particularity at a distance, but not adept at locating difference and particularity “at home.” I contend that Catholics & Cultures can help students from the dominant culture—namely, white students who comprise the vast majority of Catholic college students—destabilize their notion of the Catholic tradition as tightly …

Introducing Catholics & Cultures: Ethnography, Encyclopedia, Cyborg, Mathew N. Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

In introducing the Catholics & Cultures site and the articles in this special issue, this essay initially locates the overall Catholic & Cultures project within the traditions of ethnography and encyclopedia. Drawing extensively on the work of J. Z. Smith, this essay reflects upon the theoretical implications of emphasizing the diversity of Catholicism in and through a web-based platform that facilitates comparative study and pedagogy. This essay then more specifically considers the web-based aspects of Catholics & Cultures by identifying a nascent cyborgian aesthetic in the site and considering how the site might eventually engage post-modern themes and concerns.

Blackstone Communion, Anne-Catherine Schaaf

Office of Sustainability

This short story describes a spiritual connection with nature experienced by the author when walking along a trail in Blackstone Gateway Park. Blackstone Gateway Park is an urban, riverfront park in Worcester, Massachusetts. Features of the park include walking paths and an elevated boardwalk which crosses the Middle River and the surrounding wetlands.

Actualizing Mission And Holistic Education Through Service-Learning, Michelle C. Sterk Barrett

Scholarship and Professional Writing from the J.D. Power Center and Donelan Office

The author reflects on how to update the mission and holistic education through service-learning. Her chapter connects reflection with emerging research evidence, providing a solid analysis about service-learning and her contribution to the development of a fraternal spirituality.

Bishop Healy Committee E-Newsletter (Winter 2021), Bishop Healy Committee, College Of The Holy Cross

Bishop Healy Committee Newsletter

This e-publication is the newsletter for Holy Cross ALANA alumni created by the Bishop Healy Committee of the Holy Cross Alumni Association (HCAA). Read student testimonials and alumni highlights, learn how to get involved through volunteering and mentorship, and stay up to date on campus news and events.

Featured articles include a welcome letter to new Holy Cross president Vincent Rougeau, announcement of the Anti-racism Alliance, and online events sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Education and Office of Alumni Relations.

Holy Cross Choirs (Fall 2020), Choir, College Of The Holy Cross

Holy Cross Choirs Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Reducing Paper Usage Through Monthly Printing Reports: A Case Study From The College Of The Holy Cross, Office Of Sustainability

Office of Sustainability

This case study outlines the project goals, implementation, and results of a reporting initiative aimed to reduce waste on a small, liberal arts college campus.

Bishop Healy Committee E-Newsletter (Fall 2020), Bishop Healy Committee, College Of The Holy Cross

Bishop Healy Committee Newsletter

This e-publication is the newsletter for Holy Cross ALANA alumni created by the Bishop Healy Committee of the Holy Cross Alumni Association (HCAA). Read student testimonials and alumni highlights, learn how to get involved through volunteering and mentorship, and stay up to date on campus news and events.

Featured articles include events sponsored by the Office of Alumni Relations, a student profile, and an alumni highlight.

2020-2021 Catalog, College Of The Holy Cross

Course Catalogs

This catalog lists available courses for the 2020-2021 academic year. The College Catalog is a document of record issued in September 2020. The Catalog contains current information regarding the College calendar, admissions, degree requirements, fees, regulations and course offerings.

This catalog contains an important note regarding the on-going COVID-19 Pandemic.

Bishop Healy Committee E-Newsletter (Spring 2020), Bishop Healy Committee, College Of The Holy Cross

Bishop Healy Committee Newsletter

This e-publication is the newsletter for Holy Cross ALANA alumni created by the Bishop Healy Committee of the Holy Cross Alumni Association (HCAA). Read student testimonials and alumni highlights, learn how to get involved through volunteering and mentorship, and stay up to date on campus news and events.

Featured articles include award recipients, upcoming online events sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Education, and an alumni highlight.

Holy Cross Choirs Newsletter (Spring 2020), Choir, College Of The Holy Cross

Holy Cross Choirs Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Bishop Healy Committee E-Newsletter (Winter 2020), Bishop Healy Committee, College Of The Holy Cross

Bishop Healy Committee Newsletter

This e-publication is the newsletter for Holy Cross ALANA alumni created by the Bishop Healy Committee of the Holy Cross Alumni Association (HCAA). Read student testimonials and alumni highlights, learn how to get involved through volunteering and mentorship, and stay up to date on campus news and events.

Featured articles include profiles of new members, a tribute to Mable Milner, upcoming events by the Office of Multicultural Education, and an alumni highlight.

Bishop Healy Committee E-Newsletter (Fall 2019), Bishop Healy Committee, College Of The Holy Cross

Bishop Healy Committee Newsletter

This e-publication is the newsletter for Holy Cross ALANA alumni created by the Bishop Healy Committee of the Holy Cross Alumni Association (HCAA). Read student testimonials and alumni highlights, learn how to get involved through volunteering and mentorship, and stay up to date on campus news and events.

Featured articles include a recap of the ALANA Alumni & Student Reception, profle of the 2019 recipient of HCAA's Young Alumni Leadership Award and an alumni highlight.

Library Newsletter (Fall 2019), Holy Cross Libraries

Holy Cross Libraries Newsletters

Announcements and other items of interest related to the services offered by the libraries at the College of the Holy Cross. The newsletter features Montserrat Natural World Cluster collaboration between Professor Sarah Luria and Barabar Merolli, new staff in the College Archives, new database acquisitions, renovations and Authors on the Hill speaker Professor Melissa Schoenberger.

2019-2020 Catalog, College Of The Holy Cross

Course Catalogs

This catalog lists available courses for the 2019-2020 academic year. The College Catalog is a document of record issued in September 2019. The Catalog contains current information regarding the College calendar, admissions, degree requirements, fees, regulations and course offerings.

Change 2 To The History Of The College Of The Holy Cross Naval Rotc Unit, Brendan J. O'Donnell, O'Callahan Society, College Of The Holy Cross

75th Anniversary of NROTC at Holy Cross

This document lists revisions made to the 2017 revision of the History of the College of the Holy Cross Naval ROTC Unit. It is intended as a supplement for those who received print copies.

The first printed version (2016) will need Change 1 and Change 2.; the second printed version (2017) will only need Change 2.

The revised version is available at http://crossworks.holycross.edu/nrotc75/1/.

2019 Commencement Remarks By The President, Philip L. Boroughs S.J.

President's Remarks

Text of the remarks given by Rev. Philip L. Boroughs, S.J., President of the College of the Holy Cross during the 173rd Commencement Exercises held on Friday, May 24, 2019.

Father Boroughs is the 32nd president of Holy Cross.

2019 Commencement Address: Jane Dammen Mcauliffe, Jane Dammen Mcauliffe

Commencement Addresses

Prominent American educator Jane McAuliffe, a world-renowned scholar of Islam and one of the senior leaders at the Library of Congress, will address this year’s graduates during the College of the Holy Cross Commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 24, at 10:30 a.m. at the DCU Center in Worcester.

Jane McAuliffe is senior advisor to the librarian of Congress and formerly the inaugural director of national and international outreach. Her work at the Library has involved a broad range of its programs, including the National Book Festival, the Kluge research center for scholars, the Library’s exhibits, publishing office, visitors’ services, and …

Holy Cross Choirs Newsletter (Spring 2019), Choir, College Of The Holy Cross

Holy Cross Choirs Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Cover Photo: 1907 - College Of The Holy Cross Commencement Parade, Brynn A. Cotter

Of Life and History

This essay provides context for a photograph of the College of the Holy Cross 1907 Commencement Parade, which features an image of James Cardinal Gibbons. Cardinal Gibbons, a prominent religious figure of the time, was the Commencement speaker that year.

The photograph was published as the cover art for Of History and Life, vol.2 by permission of the College of the Holy Cross Archives and Special Collections.

The Human Element: An Interview With Professor Lorelle Semley, Brynn A. Cotter, Joshua Whitcomb

Of Life and History

No abstract provided.

Bishop Healy Committee E-Newsletter (V. 1, No. 4), Bishop Healy Committee, College Of The Holy Cross

Bishop Healy Committee Newsletter

This e-publication is the newsletter for Holy Cross ALANA alumni created by the Bishop Healy Committee of the Holy Cross Alumni Association (HCAA). Read student testimonials and alumni highlights, learn how to get involved through volunteering and mentorship, and stay up to date on campus news and events.

Featured articles include testimonials from attendees at the inaugural Alumni & Student of Color Retreat and an alumni highlight.

Holy Cross Choirs Newsletter (Winter 2019), Choir, College Of The Holy Cross

Holy Cross Choirs Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Library Newsletter (Spring 2019), Holy Cross Libraries

Holy Cross Libraries Newsletters

Announcements and other items of interest related to the services offered by the libraries at the College of the Holy Cross.