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
Our second issue, titled Robots and Rituals: Reflections on Faith in the Era of Science and AI, was recently featured in America Magazine. The issue transports us into the exciting and complicated present where faith, science, digital culture, and AI collide. Read on and let us know what you think!

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
  • PAST EVENTS

    See previous events hosted by CCIH below!
  • '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.