Nexus: Conversations on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition

New Issue!
Nexus is a digital-age journal that amplifies and publishes scholarly dialogue taking place in the Hank Center.
With its focus on the critical and creative work of younger, emerging scholars, Volume III: Catholic Imaginations both honors and continues this work by exploring the Catholic Imagination, one expression and offspring of the Catholic intellectual tradition.
May these pieces, provided by the next generation of Catholic artists and scholars, stimulate insight and engender constructive, life-giving conversation.

Sam Sawyer Event Video: Now Available

The Hank Center proudly welcomed Sam Sawyer, S.J., editor of America Media, to speak on the topic of depolarization. View the video recording and event information here.

Dr. Joe Vukov featured on the AMDG Podcast

The Hank Center's Associate Director, Dr. Joe Vukov was recently interviewed in AMDG: A Jesuit podcast, discussing his new book, Staying Human in an Era of Artificial Intelligence.

Listen to the podcast here, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check out Joe's new book here.

Congratulations, Joe!

Conversations on the Catholic Imagination

A public voices archive featuring writers, poets, playwrights, and more. Recorded at the 2019 Catholic Imagination Conference.

Highlights of the Third Biennial Catholic Imagination Conference

Poets, novelists, filmmakers, and more gathered at Loyola in September 2019 to reflect on the future of the Catholic literary tradition. Join us in a look back.

News
  • 2024 Catholic Imagination Conference

    October 31–November 2, 2024
    University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana

    The Hank Center is proud to partner with the University of Notre Dame’s de Nicola Center for the Fifth Biennial Catholic Imagination Conference, "Ever Ancient, Ever New: On Catholic Imagination.” With a particular focus on the literary arts, this conference will explore unique expressions of the Catholic imagination in more than 150 presentations, performances, and discussions across the disciplines including philosophy, theology, ethics, law, history, and the natural and social sciences, as well as the creative domains of film, music, theater, and the visual arts.

    This event is open to the public and all are welcome.
  • Blessed, Broken, and Given: Students’ Perspectives on the Eucharist and Social Justice

    November 7, 2024
    Palm Court, MDS Chapel, Damen Den, Ignatius House

    As part of Ignatian Heritage Month, the Hank Center and Campus Ministry invites you to take part in an event investigating the connection between the Eucharist and Social Justice. The day will include two research colloquia where invited undergraduate students will present short papers on this topic, the celebration of Evening Prayer/Vespers, dinner, Mass, and a concluding pizza social.

    All members of the Loyola Community are invited to this event, but RSVP is required no later than October 31.
  • On Humility: Christopher Bellitto Book Lecture

    November 12, 2024 | 7pm CST
    McCormick Lounge, Coffey Hall, Lake Shore Campus

    Humility, a cultural history and biography of the idea of humility, argues that the frightening alternative to humility has been the death of civility. In this book, Bellitto explores humility in Greco-Roman history, philosophy, and literature; in the ancient and medieval Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scriptures and sermons; in the Enlightenment; and in contemporary discussions of education in virtue and citizenship.

    Attendance is free and all are welcome.
  • Catholic Media Influencer Summit 2024

    November 12, 2024
    University of St. Mary of the Lake | Mundelein, IL

    This summit will gather leading voices in Catholic media and the academy to discuss the challenges of communicating for and about the Church while gathering vital information about the values and practices these influencers are bringing to the digital space. Over four days, participants will hear from expert presenters from a variety of fields and engage with questions surrounding the risks and rewards of digital ministry.

    Closed meeting.
  • American Catholic Philosophical Association, Annual Meeting

    November 14–17, 2024
    InterContinental Chicago Magnificent Mile

    The Hank Center is proud to co-sponsor the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. The conference, hosted by Loyola University Chicago, will be held at the InterContinental Chicago on the Magnificent Mile. This year’s conference -- with the theme “Male and Female He Created Them” -- will focus on questions of gender, though other topics in the Catholic philosophical tradition will also be considered. The program will include keynote addresses, contributed papers, satellite sessions, and posters. For more information, and to register, please visit https://acpaweb.org/
  • PAST EVENTS

    See previous events hosted by CCIH below!
  • Reckoning with History: Jesuit Slaveholding and the Present Work of Restorative Justice

    October 17–18, 2024
    Information Commons 4th Floor, Lake Shore Campus

    The Hank Center welcomed Rachel L. Swarns, longtime correspondent with the New York Times and author of The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church, as keynote speaker for this multi-day event. The objective was to examine Georgetown University as a main basis from which to reflect on the following questions: How should we as individuals, as a university, as a church approach this history? How do we remember these truths and engage with proper recognition? Who should be a part of this ongoing conversation? What steps should be taken to move forward toward restorative justice and reconciliation? How might the Catholic intellectual and social traditions serve as a resource to these topics, requirements, and questions?

    This two-day colloquium was co-sponsored by Loyola University Chicago's Institute for Racial Justice.

    Admission is free and all are welcome.
  • Second Annual Jesuit Lecture: "A Better Kind of Politics," Featuring Sam Sawyer, S.J. In-Person and Livestream

    October 3, 2024 | 7–8:30pm CDT
    In-person and livestreamed
    McCormick Lounge, Coffey Hall, LSC

    The Hank Center proudly welcomed Sam Sawyer, S.J., editor of America Media, to speak on the topic of depolarization. Taking place mere weeks before the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the second annual Jesuit Lecture came at a pivotal moment; it responded to the timely opportunity to explore the complex reality of polarization in American society, drawn as it is along political and religious lines.

    Event video recording now available.
  • Philip Metres: Seeking Refuge, Writing Home

    September 24, 2024 | 7-8:30PM
    McCormick Lounge, Coffey Hall

    In his recent Fugitive/Refuge, Philip Metres follows the journey of his refugee ancestors—from Lebanon to Mexico to the United States—in a vivid exploration of what it means to long for home. A book-length qasida, the collection draws on both ancient traditions and innovative forms—odes and arabics, sonnets and cut-ups, prayers and documentary voicings—in order to confront the perils of our age: forced migration, climate change, and toxic nationalism.
    Event video now available.
  • Power of the Word Conference: La Sapienza, Rome

    September 16-20, 2024
    Dipartimento di Studi Europei, Americani e Interculturali, La Sapienza University, Rome

    The Power of the Word: bringing together scholars in literature, philosophy, theology, ethics and religion in conversation with each other and with creative writers and their works. The Hank Center proudly sponsored the Power of the Word International Conference VII, which took place from 16-20 September, 2024, at La Sapienza University, Rome.
  • "In Defense of Others, In Defense of Faith: The Camden 28 Trial and the Vietnam War" with Michelle Nickerson

    September 18, 2024 | 4:30pm CDT
    Ceremonial Courtroom, Corboy Law Center, Water Tower Campus

    Historian Michelle Nickerson joined us for the debut of her new book, Spiritual Criminals: How the Camden 28 Put the Vietnam War on Trial . Defendant Kathleen "Cookie" Ridolfi (Emerita, Santa Clara School of Law) and expert witness Joseph Daoust S.J. (Red Cloud School) gave reflections.
  • Things Hidden: The Life and Legacy of René Girard Screening & Discussion with Director Sam Sorich and Producer Trevor Cribben Merrill

    September 12, 2024 | 7pm CDT
    Damen Cinema, Lake Shore Campus

    As part of the Faith in Focus series, the Hank Center screened "Things Hidden: The Life and Legacy of René Girard" and facilitated a discussion with director Sam Sorich and producer Trevor Cribben Merrill. This is a timely new documentary about René Girard, the thinker who coined "mimetic desire." Offering a deeply personal portrait of Girard the man and a sweeping narrative of his unfolding thought, "Things Hidden: The Life and Legacy of René Girard" explores the French polymath's passion for intellectual discovery, his midlife religious conversion, and his quest to uncover the violent origins of human culture.
  • Peter Maurin Conference

    September 6-7, 2024
    St. Gregory the Great Church

    The Catholic Worker, founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933, is network of communities committed to nonviolence, voluntary poverty, prayer, and hospitality for the homeless, exiled, hungry, and forsaken. This day-long gathering looked closely at the life and work of Peter Maurin. His program of action consisted of roundtable discussions for the clarification of thought, houses of hospitality where the works of mercy could be performed, and agronomic universities-a return to working the land, where workers could become scholars and scholars workers. These topics were discussed in a roundtable, personalist way-- in the spirit of Peter Maurin.
  • Catholic Studies Consortium, Annual Meeting, Seton Hall University

    September 5–7, 2024
    Seton Hall University

    The Catholic Studies Consortium grew out of a small network of Catholic Studies scholars seeking to be a resource to each other and the growing movement of Centers and Programs in the country. As a movement that explicitly aspires to such an integral and integrating education, Catholic Studies has a vital role to play in the future of Catholic higher education and seeks to cultivate growth of students in the fullness of their being and the integration of knowledge in every discipline and realm of study. The Hank Center is proud to serve on the leadership team of the CS Consortium and provide support for its exciting, needed endeavors.
  • Primitive Mysteries: Open Rehearsal

    Open Rehearsal: Aug 24, 2024 | 2pm
    The Sarah Gabel Studio, 409 Mundelein Center

    The Hank Center is proud to cosponsor Primitive Mysteries, Martha Graham’s 1931 masterpiece. This multi-layered series is a production of the Dance division of Loyola’s Department of Fine and Performing Art–led by Professor Sandra Kaufmann–and is its distinct project for the fall, 2024. Please join us for a signature performance and post-concert discussion on November 22 with Professor Sandra Kaufmann, Renée Darline Roden, and Dr. Michael Murphy, Director of the Hank Center.

    Open Rehearsal of Primitive Mysteries was the first event in the series as we welcomed international Graham authority, Miki Orihara.
  • 'No Kind of Place': Location, Migration, and Imagination

    The Hank Center was pleased once again to cosponsor the International Flannery O'Connor Conference, hosted virtually this year by Nipissing University in North Bay, Ontario, Canada on August 2-3, 2021 and honoring the 57th anniversary of Flannery's death. The conference was held via Zoom and featured 24 presentations, music, film and poetry celebrating O'Connor's life and work, including audio drama of the short story "Revelation"--adapted and set by Karin Coonrod--on the evening of Monday, August 2nd.
    August 2 & 3, 2021
    Zoom Event


  • VIDEO AVAILABLE | Spirit and the Machine: Catholic Responses to an Increasingly Artificial World

    An interdisciplinary conversation with Fr. Phillip Larrey (Pontifical Lateran University), Ann Skeet (Santa Clara University), and John W. Farrell (journalist) on Artificial intelligence (AI), one of the most important technologies in the world today-- but also one rife with serious spiritual, social and ethical questions.
    May 12, 2021, 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM CDT
    Zoom Forum

  • Flannery: The Storied Life of the Writer from Georgia

    An award winning film by Elizabeth Coffman and Mark Bosco, SJ. Production of this film was supported by the Hank Center and it premiered at the 2019 Catholic Imagination Conference. It premiered on PBS American Masters on March 23 (check local listings).
  • Videos Available| Signs of the Times: Context, Contingency, Crisis

    This day-long symposium offered reflections on major events and current affairs impacting Catholics, the Church, and the study of theology and ethics today. Featured current LUC doctoral students and recent graduates.
    April 23, 2021, 9:00 AM
    Zoom Forum


  • Video Available| Loyola’s CATH 296 Students Sponsor Virtual Gala for RISE: Refugees In Schools Everywhere

    Zoom Forum
    All Are Welcome
    This event included:
    Remarks by Ann Strandoo of RISE
    Interviews with student refugees, both here and abroad
    Remarks from Fr. James Martin, SJ
    A performance by the International Orchestra of Refugees (founded and directed by Loyola graduate Sebastian Agignoae)
    An Examen prayer led by Jesuit Scholastics.
    Thursday, April 22, 2021
    4:00 - 5:15 PM CDT

    READ MORE
  • Video Available | War, Peace, and the Catholic Imagination

    This event featured National Book Award winning novelist Phil Klay and multiple award winning poet Philip Metres discussing how violence, warfare, and oppression are mediated through an imagination that knows the profound failure of such human endeavors. Part of our series of Conversations on the Catholic Imagination.
    March 11, 2021, 4:00 PM CST
    Zoom Forum


  • Gema Kloppe-Santamaría Named a 2020 Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Distinguished Scholar

    Congratulations to Gema Kloppe-Santamaría, Assistant Professor of History and a past recipient of a Hank Center research grant, on being named a 2020 Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Distinguished Scholar for her research project In the Name of Christ: Religious Violence and Its Legitimacy in Mexico (1920-2020). She spoke on her research on Wednesday, March 17, at 5:15 PM EDT/ 4:15 CDT.
    LEARN MORE
  • Video Available | Publication Lecture with Deborah E. Kanter: Chicago Católico: Making Catholic Parishes Mexican

    Featured Deborah E. Kanter speaking on themes from her 2020 publication Chicago Católico: Making Catholic Parishes Mexican. This event was cosponsored by the History Department.
    February 23, 2021, 4:00 PM CST
    Zoom Forum

  • Video Available | A Canticle for Leibowitz and the Monastic Figure in a Dystopian World

    January 26, 2021
    Avoiding excesses of both pietism and pessimism, Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz has an enduring relevance. Video is available of this conversation about this classic of speculative fiction -- a novel that rhymes with many realities of 21st Century life. Featuring Fr. Stephen Gregg, O. Cist. in dialogue with Katy Carl, Editor in Chief of Dappled Things.
  • Videos Available| Spring 2021 Series | Catholic Higher Education in Light of Catholic Social Thought

    Read more about our multi-part series on the publication Catholic Higher Education in Light of Catholic Social Thought: Critical-Constructive Essays, edited by Bernard Prusak and Jennifer Reed-Bouley. This series was cosponsored by The Ann Ida Gannon Center for Women and Leadership.
    Spring Semester 2021
  • Video Available | Are God's Providence and My White Privilege the Same Thing? With Mara Brecht

    A Students Only Q&A with Mara Brecht, associate professor of Theology and Religious Studies at LUC.
    November 19, 2020, 7:00 - 8:30 PM
  • Video Available| Election Round-Up: Results, Reflection, Renewal

    With Molly Andolina, Amanda Bryan, Miguel Diaz, Steven P. Millies, and Bernard Prusak.
    November 5, 2020, 7:00 - 8:30 PM
  • Video Available| Steven P. Millies | "The Gift of Our People": A Fresh Look at Our Faithful Citizenship in a Foreboding Moment

    The Hank Center was honored to welcome the fall 2020 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. Fellow in Catholic Studies, Steven P. Millies. Dr. Millies is associate professor of public theology and director of The Bernardin Center at Catholic Theological Union.
    October 29, 2020, 4:00 PM
  • Integral Ecology: A Jesuit Scientist's Perspective
    John Braverman, S.J.

    The Hank Center welcomed 2019 Teilhard Fellow in Catholic Studies, Dr. John Braverman, S.J. This major lecture focused on aspects of eco-theology and spiritualities of sustainability and action.
    October 29, 4:00 - 5:30 PM
    McCormick Lounge, Coffey Hall, LSC

  • The Future of Catholicism in America Discussion

    In-depth dialogue on the publication The Future of Catholicism in America. Editors Patricia O’Connell Killen & Mark Silk, alongside other scholars, discussed themes explored in the book
  • SPRING 2019: Quo Vadis? Scholars and Journalists Discuss the Future of Catholicism

    Catholicism in America is at a crossroads. What are the hopes and challenges of American Catholics today? Thanks to those who joined our panelists for a conversation on accountability, leadership, participation, and other issues facing the Church in America.