Rufus Burnett describes himself as a “convert” to the study of theology. “I completed my undergraduate degree in biology at Xavier University, but I was deeply affected by the intro to theology course I took from Fr. Phillip Linden [Ph.D, S.T.D.] as a requirement in my first year. In fact,” he explains, “that course had a 91�Թ� connection — the book for the course was by Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation.”

“There was so much that I identified with in Gutierrez’s words about the eruption of the poor in history. I was just enamored with his explanation of how poverty in Latin America came into existence and what that had to do with God and Christianity. It kind of jarred me from the sort of Christianity that I had been practicing up to that point, where you go to church, you do the rituals, but you never ask yourself ‘how does Christianity relate to larger political issues like poverty, gender, race, or class?’”

Connecting Theology to Music

After receiving an M.A. in religious studies, Burnett returned to his passion for liberation theology for his Ph.D. “I was looking for a connection, a cultural parallel, between the experience of indigenous people in Latin America that Gutierrez was talking about and the African experience in North America. I asked myself ‘What is the cultural center of African American Christian life?’ and I started looking at all the music: spirituals, gospel, jazz, and — the blues. This is the ‘stock’ that the African American imagination of the divine is cooked in.”

“I think the ‘blues people’ are people who were pushed to the margins of life as the black middle class moved toward access to mainstream civic life. The problem then is that those people claim they are the representatives of what it means to be a Christian, they define faith, religion, and culture. And the blues people say ‘no, no, no … we have our own culture, our own history.’ There was very real risk in taking that position.”

In his work, Burnett found a fundamental question for himself. “How was this religion that was used to enslave my ancestors something they also found meaning in to free themselves?”

“For me, this isn’t armchair theology; it’s the question of how is hope produced. I think we’re still in a crisis of hope and it’s getting increasingly difficult to speak across the identities we’ve created for ourselves. It takes courage to speak across divides and blues people are examples of this courage — that’s why I like to think of my theology as a blues song.”

First Year Advising and the Blues

Because Burnett sees the blues as “a kind of toughness that speaks to the struggles of everyday life,” he sees a strong connection between this musical genre and advising students who are making the transition to college.

“The blues are all about resiliency and grit,” he explains. “Surviving and thriving in hard times or low spirits.”

“Students often need a push to understand that there is a flow, a life, to being an undergraduate. They’re so future-oriented: I’ve got to get my resume together, I’ve got to apply for this grant and this internship — I’ve got to be competitive because I’ve only got four years to get this right. But, in the midst of that, life hits them. And when it hits, well, there’s some blues songs that can speak to that,” he says.

“Blues songs speak with the voice of a people attentive to the ‘hard times’ that life often deals us. The great wisdom of blues people is that they realized the ritual power of naming and sharing their struggles and triumphs,” he continues.

“Advisement for me is blues ritual; it is soul work. It is my hope that all of my students feel invited to the work of naming their struggles and triumphs."

Rufus Burnett earned a B.A. in Biology from Xavier University of Louisiana, an M.A. in Religious Studies from Loyola University New Orleans, and a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Duquesne University. His dissertation, Decolonizing Revelation: A Spatial Reading of the Blues, was selected for the Duquesne University Distinguished Dissertation Award for the Humanities and a book-length version of the work is forthcoming with Fortress Press.

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Originally published by Lisa Walenceus at on September 26, 2017.

Courtney Henderson, a 2010 University of 91�Թ� graduate majoring in Chinese and the Program of Liberal Studies, was named the winner of the 2010 Liu Family Distinguished Achievement Award in Asian Studies.

91�Թ�’s Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures bestows the award each year to the student whose character and undergraduate work best exemplifies the qualities of commitment, diligence and imagination in the study of Asia.

“Courtney represents the best among our students in the rigor of her intellectual pursuit and the breadth of her cultural horizon,” said Xiaoshan Yang, associate professor of East Asian languages and cultures and chair of the selection committee. “We had a very strong pool of candidates this year, but the committee’s vote was unanimous.”

Henderson did not begin to learn Chinese until her sophomore year. “I wanted to take on a new and different challenge to satisfy my college language requirement—and by the time I finished my required courses, I had fallen in love with Chinese, with its beautiful sounds and the cultural richness that permeates the language.”

Fast-track language learning
After only two semesters of study, Henderson took first prize in the annual Chinese Speech Contest, an accomplishment that she has repeated in both her junior and senior years.

“The first year, our skit about a visit to the beauty salon was pretty simple, because we didn’t have much vocabulary,” she says. “In this year’s skit, we used about 20 ‘four character’ Chinese idioms—those are really difficult to learn.”

In the summer after her sophomore year, Henderson participated in 91�Թ�’s intensive Chinese language program, offered through Fu Jen Catholic University in Taipei, Taiwan. This program is designed to take students through an entire year of study in just eight weeks.

Henderson says that although she had practiced diligently with 91�Թ� friends who were native Chinese speakers, her first tries at communication in Taiwan were not a huge success.

“I was so excited to be able to get authentic Chinese ‘bubble tea,’ my favorite drink. I tried to order it over and over again, but no one could understand me.”

Despite difficulties along the way, Henderson’s hard work paid off in her final semester when she was tested in the Oral Proficiency Interview administered by the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages. She was rated an advanced speaker, achieving the eighth level on a 10-level scale.

“It was a 30-minute Skype conversation,” Henderson explains. “We started out with a simple question about the meaning of my name, but we ended up talking about the differences between India and the United States, China’s ‘one child’ policy, and U.S. environmental regulations. It was a real challenge.”

Cultural fluency at work
Henderson’s post-graduation plans include teaching English in Shenzhen, a city outside of Hong Kong, to experience firsthand life in mainland China. She hopes to begin a graduate program in Asian studies upon her return to the United States.

“Bringing the best of Western culture from my liberal studies major together with the understanding of Eastern culture I gained from learning Chinese gives me a unique perspective on the world,” Henderson says. “That, together with my [International Service Learning Program] experience in India at an orphanage for children with disabilities and at Mother Teresa’s home for the dying, taught me something very important: Humanity crosses borders.”

Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, professor of English at the University of 91�Թ�, has received the 2010 Haskins Gold Medal from the Medieval Academy of America for her work, “Books Under Suspicion: Censorship and Tolerance of Revelatory Writing in Late Medieval England.” This award is given annually to a book, published in the previous six years, that is judged to be distinguished in the field of Medieval studies.

“It is rare that a book requires the reevaluation of major writers and movements in both Latin and the vernacular, in the realm of both theological treatises and literary art, permitting us to see both discourses as parts of a broader fabric,” the committee announced in presenting the award. “Kerby-Fulton’s magnum opus presents a fresh panorama of theology, literature, and history in the age of Chaucer with an originality that promises to have an impact across numerous disciplines within and beyond Medieval studies for years to come.”

“Books Under Suspicion,” published by University of 91�Թ� Press, explores censorship and tolerance of controversial revelatory theology in England from 1329 to 1437, suggesting that writers and translators as different as Chaucer, Langland, Julian of Norwich, “M.N,” and Margery Kempe positioned their work to take advantage of the tacit toleration that both religious and secular authorities extended to this type of writing. Kerby-Fulton makes use of neglected material in manuscripts and archives to construct an acclaimed revisionist account of theological politics in late medieval England and academic freedom in universities of the time.

A member of the Department of English faculty at 91�Թ� since 2005, Kerby-Fulton also is affiliated with the College of Arts and Letter’s Medieval Institute.

“The Haskins Medal is an extraordinary recognition of the achievement of a scholar who has in just a few years become absolutely central to 91�Թ�’s high place in the world of Medieval studies and our doctoral program,” said John Sitter, chair of the Department of English, says. “Our colleague Kathryn Kerby-Fulton’s award of course shines a light on her important work, but it also brightens the department, the Medieval Institute and the University.”

“Books Under Suspicion” also was awarded the John Ben Snow Prize from the American Conference on British Studies in 2007. That prize is awarded annually for the best book by a North American scholar in any field of British Studies dealing with the period from the Middle Ages through the 18th century.

Kerby-Fulton specializes in Middle English literature and related areas of medieval studies. She has written several books and articles on medieval literary writers, including “Reformist Apocalypticism and Piers Plowman.” Her edited collections include “Written Work: Langland, Labour and Authorship with Steven Justice; Iconography and the Professional Reader: The Politics of Book Production in the Douce Piers Plowman” with Denise Despres; and “Voices in Dialogue: Reading Women in the Middle Ages” with Linda Olson.

The Medieval Academy of America, founded in 1925, is the largest professional organization in the world devoted to Medieval studies. The Haskins Medal was established in 1940 to honor the academy’s founder and second president, Charles Homer Haskins.

Stuart Greene, associate dean for undergraduate studies in the University of 91�Թ�’s College of Arts and Letters and associate professor in the Department of English, was honored with the 2010 Rodney F. Ganey, Ph.D., Faculty Community-Based Research Award at a ceremony this week.

The award, presented by 91�Թ�’s Center for Social Concerns, recognizes Greene’s latest project, No Parent Left Behind (NPLB), a parent-centered research initiative that springs both from Greene’s theoretical work in literacy learning and his many years of community-based research in South Bend schools.

“Stuart’s commitment to research and service in education is truly admirable,” said John McGreevy, I.A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts and Letters. “I am particularly pleased to see his work recognized for the positive impact it has had on both our community and our students.

“What he’s accomplished through the NPLB initiative is a great example of 91�Թ�’s commitment to conducting research, providing a vibrant undergraduate education, and engaging in and with the world.”

The Ganey Award recognizes faculty research that engages 91�Թ� students in collaborations that affect real community issues in South Bend.
It was a conversation with school principals about the need for more parental involvement that started Greene on his two-year study that connected students from the College of Arts and Letters’ Education, Schooling and Society (ESS) minor with parents in local schools. Based on interviews, focus groups and surveys, Greene and his students “began to challenge prevailing models of parental involvement for minority and low-income parents,” he said.

“The typical observation about low-income parents is that they just don’t get involved in their children’s learning,” Greene said. “What we’re finding is that they’re actually doing a lot—it’s just not as visible as it could or should be. Our work is helping these parents tell their own stories, opening the way for them to make teachers and administrators aware of their strengths—and their needs.”

That work also spurred the next phase of the project, providing customized resources to support local parents in their efforts to help their children excel in reading and writing, the achievement for which the 2010 award has been bestowed.

This award includes a cash prize of $5,000 that is funded by Rodney Ganey, founder of Press Ganey Associates, as a part of the community-based research initiative facilitated by 91�Թ�’s Center for Social Concerns.

After five years of service as associate dean for undergraduate studies, Greene will step down from that position at the end of June and will devote more time to NPLB as it makes the transition from a research project to a not-for-profit organization.

Greene currently co-directs NPLB and co-authors his research with Joyce Long, who teaches community-based research in ESS. Their work together will appear in a book Greene has co-edited, “Connecting Home and School: Complexities, Concerns, and Considerations in Fostering Parent Involvement and Family Literacy,” which will be published by Teachers College Press this fall.

Contact: Stuart Greene, sgreene1@nd.edu

University of 91�Թ� sophomore Kelly Fallon’s eyes light up when she talks about her visit to Ditchling, the small village in East Sussex, England, where, in 1921, Eric Gill founded the Guild of St. Joseph and St. Dominic. The guild was a Roman Catholic community of artists and craftsmen, inspired by medieval guilds.

“I’d never heard of Gill before,” she says, “but going to Ditchling and seeing so many people who knew Gill and the guild really brought home to me how important he was to English art.”

Micahlyn Allen, a sophomore and Fallon’s classmate in professor John Sherman’s special studies course “The Guild of Saints Joseph and Dominic: An Early 20th Century Model of Faith, Work, and Social Activism,” agrees.

“It is easy to read about people in a book and ‘know’ where and how they lived, but until you have been there, it is a superficial knowledge,” she says. “Once you have walked the paths they took to their workshops every day and stood in their doorways, it is impossible to deny the humanity of these people.”

Gill (1882-1940) was an English engraver, sculptor, typographer and writer. He began his career at London’s Central School of Art where he studied with calligrapher Edward Johnston, who is famous for creating the London Underground typeface. Gill himself designed 11 typefaces; he is most famous for Perpetua and Gill Sans, both designed in the 1920s. From 1914 to 1918, Gill carved the Stations of the Cross in Westminster Cathedral. Gill came to Ditchling in 1919 in search of a lifestyle consistent with his beliefs about art, politics and society.

“As a political science major, I am very interested in the political and social theories in Gill’s writing and art,” says Juliana Hoffelder, a senior in Sherman’s class. Noting that Gill was an artistic provocateur, she says that she didn’t always agree with his message but that talking face-to-face with people who were members of the guild and scholars of the movement helped her appreciate Gill’s work. “They were excited to answer my questions, really happy to share what they knew about Gill,” she says.

Sherman, an associate professional specialist in the Department of Art, Art History and Design, sees Gill as especially compelling for 91�Թ� students because his artistic community was so like the University’s academic community.

“For Gill and Guild members, artistic creation was a form of prayer. They lived an integrated life between work, prayer and play,” Sherman says, adding that aspects of Gill’s public life were in fact compartmentalized from his private life, which was not without controversy.

Students in the class explored the University’s Eric Gill Collection, which includes more than 2,000 pieces of the artist’s work, encompassing everything from books, pamphlets, sketches and prints to greeting cards, calendars, wood blocks and photographs; it also includes works of other guild members such as Hilary Pepler and Philip Hagreen.

As a capstone to their experiences in Sherman’s class, Fallon, Hoffelder and Allen produced a catalog and exhibit of Gill’s work. The exhibit, titled “All Art Is Propaganda,” will be on view at the Hesburgh Library in the Special Collections Room through August 20, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts; Learning Beyond the Classroom Faculty Lead Program; the Nanovic Institute for European Studies; the Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement; and the Department of Art, Art History and Design all helped fund the project. Assistance also was provided by the staffs of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum and the Ditchling Museum.

Ryan Lash, a University of 91�Թ� senior majoring in medieval studies and anthropology, has been awarded a Gates Scholarship to pursue a master’s degree at the University of Cambridge.

Lash is one of only 29 American students who will become new Gates Scholars in 2010–2011. More than 800 U.S. students applied for this honor in the 2009 competition.

In a rigorous evaluation process, Gates Scholars are identified by academics in their fields of study, from Cambridge and other institutions of higher education, as exceptional researchers who have the ability to make a significant contribution to their intended disciplines. They also are recognized for their strong leadership skills and understanding of how their research can be applied to the challenges facing the world today.

Lash’s involvement in research began right after his freshman year with the anthropology department’s Cultural Landscapes of the Irish Coast (CLIC) .

“Over the last three years, Ryan has been on three of our field projects,” says Ian Kuijt, associate professor of anthropology. “Because of those projects, he’s attended four academic conferences in three countries. He’s co-presented two papers already and will co-present two more this spring.”

Taking full advantage of 91�Թ� resources that support undergraduate research and international study has helped Lash establish an impressive academic track record at an early age. Funding from the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) allowed him to do fieldwork at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. The Nanovic Institute for European Studies funded Lash for travel in Britain and Ireland to write a paper on the link between medieval castle architecture and elite identity formation. He spent his junior year at New College in 91�Թ�’s Oxford program studying medieval history, literature and archeology. This summer, he’ll return to CLIC for the fourth time and participate in a research project at Bective Abbey in Ireland, before going to Cambridge.

According to Thomas Noble, professor and chair of history and former director of 91�Թ�’s Medieval Institute, “Ryan has blended his broad interests in the medieval world with specific interests in literature and material culture in sophisticated ways that belie his age and experience. He combines intelligence, a taste for hard work, and a disinterested love of learning with grace.”

At Cambridge, Lash will study the 200-year period in which Anglo-Saxon Britain became a Christian culture.
“I admit that medieval studies can’t help humanity in the same way that medical or scientific research might,” Lash says, “but my work has relevancy and will, I hope, contribute by allowing us to better appreciate the challenges, complexities and consequences of public representations of the past.

“When we become aware that representations of history are so often implicated in substantiating culturally constructed narratives,” Lash explains, “we become more critical consumers of the sometimes value-laden representations of the past we’re exposed to, from high school text books to historic heritage sites.”

“Plato’s Philosophers: The Coherence of the Dialogues” by Catherine Zuckert, Nancy Reeves Dreux Professor of Political Science at the University of 91�Թ�, received three 2009 American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE Awards), including the top prize, the R.R. Hawkins Award. Presented by the Professional and Scholarly Publishing (PSP) Division of the Association of American Publishers (AAP), the award was for the first time also given to an online publication, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews.

With the prestigious Hawkins Award, Zuckert’s book was recognized as the most outstanding professional, reference or scholarly work in 2009. “Plato’s Philosophers” also took the PROSE Award in Philosophy and the Award for Excellence in the Humanities. More than 400 books were submitted to the annual award program.

“I am pleased to see that the Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers recognizes what her colleagues have long known — Catherine Zuckert is an extraordinary scholar, more than deserving of this triple honor,” says Michael Desch, chair of 91�Թ�’s Department of Political Science. “Her most recent book ‘Plato’s Philosophers’ will not be her last major scholarly contribution, but it is certainly a milestone in her distinguished career.”

Published by the University of Chicago Press, “Plato’s Philosophers,” a 900-page volume that is the culmination of 12 years of research, writing and editing, takes on the difficult task of discerning Plato’s true ideas from the contradictory voices he used to express them.

“Most students of Plato now agree that it is necessary to read each of the dialogues as a whole, taking account of both the literary and the philosophical aspects,” Zuckert says. “But no one has shown how these little prose dramas go together to constitute a comprehensive view.”

That’s the purpose of her book, in which she proposes a new way of reading these imaginary conversations that organizes them by the dates Plato says they would have taken place, rather than speculations about when he wrote them.

“If we line the dialogues up in terms of their ‘dramatic dating,’” Zuckert says, “we see that the dialogues constitute a narrative. They tell the story of the rise, development and limitations of Socratic philosophy.”

Zuckert’s scholarly research focuses on the history of political philosophy and the relationship between literature and politics. Her book “Natural Right and the American Imagination: Political Philosophy in Novel Form” won the Professional and Scholarly Publishing Award for the best book written in philosophy and religion from the American Association of Publishers in 1990. “Understanding the Political Spirit: From Socrates to Nietzsche,” edited by Zuckert, received a Choice award as one of the best books published in political theory in 1989. She is in her fifth year as editor-in-chief of The Review of Politics, a quarterly journal established at 91�Թ� in 1939 and, since 2006, published by Cambridge University Press.

The Association of American Publishers is the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry. Its more than 300 members include most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies.

Contact: Catherine Zuckert, 574-631-6623, zuckert.2@nd.edu

John Van Engen, Andrew V. Tackes Professor of History, has been awarded both the John Gilmary Shea Prize from the American Catholic Historical Association (ACHA) and the Philip Schaff Prize from the American Society for Church History (ACSH) for his book “Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life: The Devotio Moderna and the World of the Later Middle Ages.”

The John Gilmary Shea Prize is an annual award given to a book judged by a committee of scholars to have made the most original and distinguished contribution to knowledge of the history of the Catholic Church. In presenting the award, this year’s judging committee declared, “Van Engen’s book succeeds admirably at showing us why the devotio moderna was important, presenting what has been done on it to date, then exploring new paths to a fuller understanding of the subject.”

The Philip Schaff Prize is awarded to the author of the best scholarly book that presents original research on any period in the history of Christianity or makes a significant synthesizing scholarly contribution. “Exceptionally erudite, well researched, and clearly written, this book will surely become the definitive work on the devotio moderna,” said the ACSH Research Committee when announcing the award.

“The award of the Shea prize, along with the Philip Schaff Prize, signals John Van Engen’s pre-eminence as an historian of the medieval church,” says Thomas Noble, professor and chair, Department of History. “His work has extended from the 12th century world of Benedictine monks to the 14th and 15th century world of pious lay communities, from Latin churchmen to Dutch-speaking men and women, from institutions and theology to social movements and daily life.”

Beginning in the 1380s in market towns in the heart of the Netherlands, the devotio moderna, or modern devout, formed households organized as communes and took up lives of private devotion. They refused to profess vows as members of any religious order or to acquire spouses and personal property as lay citizens. The movement grew in spite of opposition, spreading outward toward Münster, Flanders and Cologne.

In “Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life,” Van Engen shows the devotio moderna in their humanity, communities and beliefs, and places them within the context of the urban societies of the Low Countries and late medieval cultures.

Van Engen is an historian of religious and intellectual life during the European Middle Ages. Within this thousand-year period, his work focuses particularly on “Christianization” in Medieval European history broadly and religious movements in the later Middle Ages. He currently is translating from Middle Dutch the works of Alijt Bake, a previously unknown female mystic, and has also begun a work on 12th century reform and renewal tentatively titled “The Spirit of the Twelfth Century.” He plans to publish a second book on the devotio moderna sometime this year.

Van Engen joined the faculty at 91�Թ� in 1977 and from 1986 to 1998 served as director of 91�Թ�’s Medieval Institute, the largest contingent of medievalists of any North American University. In 2008, he was president of the American Society of Church History, an organization dedicated to the scholarly study of the history of Christianity and its relationship to surrounding cultures in all periods, locations and contexts.

Contact: John Van Engen, 574-631-5062, vanengen.1@nd.edu