"Practicing Catholic: Ritual, Body, and Contestation in Catholic Faith"

Lawrence E. Sullivan (Ph.D., University of Chicago)
          Director, The Center for the Study of World Religions, and
          Professor of the History of Religions, Harvard Divinity School

Lawrence Sullivan has been at Harvard since 1990. Before that, he taught at the University of Chicago, where he had carried out his PhD studies in the comparative history of religions under the direction of Victor Turner, Mircea Eliade, and Joseph Kitagawa. He specializes in the study of ritual and ceremonial performance, with a special focus on Central Africa and South America, and he examines religious beliefs and practices centered on health and healing. His book Icanchu's Drum received best-book awards from the Association of American Publishers and the American Council of Learned Societies. He is associate editor of the 16-volume Encyclopedia of Religion published by Macmillan, which received the Hawkins Prize and the Dartmouth Medal from the American Library Association. He is past president of the American Academy of Religions. Recently he helped to developed the concepts and content for the Museum of World Religions in Taipei, Taiwan. The Religions of Humanity, a book series that he wrote with Julien Ries, recently received the 2000 Andersen Prize for the Best Series in Children's Literature.  For more information, please visit Dr. Sullivan's web site, www.lawrenceesullivan.com.

Plenary Address

Christopher Dustin (Ph.D., Yale University)
          Associate Professor and Chair of Philosophy, College of the Holy Cross

Professor Dustin has published papers in ethics, aesthetics, and ancient philosophy.  his research is currently devoted to the philosophy of art and architecture.

Topic: "The Liturgy of Theory"

Dr. Gary Macy, Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of San Diego, received both his Bachelor's and his Master's degrees from Marquette University where he specialized in historical and sacramental theology.  He earned his doctoral degree in Divinity from Cambridge University in 1978.  Dr. Macy is presently Professor of Theological and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego.  Dr. Macy has published three books on the history of the Eucharist, Theologies of the Eucharist in the Early Scholastic Period, The Banquet's Wisdom:  A Short History of the Theologies of the Lord's Supper and, Treasures from the Storeroom: Essays on Medieval Religion and the Eucharist. Most recently, he is collaborating with Dr. Bernard Cooke on a two volume series of source material on the history of ordination for Scarecrow Press and a book of Christian symbol and ritual for Oxford University Press.

At Holy Cross Joanne Pierce teaches historical and sacramental/liturgical theology.   Among her recent publications are: Joanne M. Pierce and Michael Downey, eds.  Source and Summit:  Commemorating Josef A. Jungmann, S.J. (Collegeville, MN:  Liturgical Press, 1999); and "'Green Women' and Blood Pollution:  Some Medieval Rituals for the Churching of Women after Childbirth," Studia Liturgica 29 (2/1999) 192-215. She received her Ph.D. in Theology (Liturgical Studies) from the University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN), and specializes in medieval liturgy.  Dr. Pierce also serves as a member of ARC-USA, the official ecumenical consultation between Anglicans and Roman Catholics in the United States, and as a member of the Theological Advisory Board of the Crossroad Publishing Company.   Her current research interests include:  the medieval eucharist; the ritual for the "churching" of women after childbirth; and liturgy and ecumenism.

Vicente L. Rafael is Professor at the Department of Communication, University of California at San Diego. He is the author of Contracting Colonialism: Translation and Christian Conversion in Tagalog Society Under Early Spanish Rule (Duke University Press, 1993), and White Love and Other Events in Filipino History (Duke, 2000). He is currently working on a book tentatively entitled Translation and Revenge: Language and the Origins of Nationalism in the Philippines.

Based on her research into the monastic medical practices of 11th century Cluny, France, Ms. Schroeder- Sheker has developed a model of compassionate medical and spiritual care for the dying, uniting art and science to relieve suffering through the use of sacred music prescribed to respond directly to a patient's physiological needs.

Mathew Schmalz is an Edward Bennett Williams Fellow and Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross where he also serves as director of Asian Studies.  He received his B.A. from Amherst College and Ph.D. in History of Religions from the University of Chicago.  His research is primarily focused on Catholicism in North India and his most recent publications address the lives of Catholic converts from Untouchability in rural North India.  His paper will examine a memory of violent political resistance as it is recalled and performed by Catholics converts in a North Indian village.  The paper will draw upon ethnographic research that Mathew Schmalz completed as a Fulbright Fellow in India in 1996.

Robert VerEecke S.J. is pastor of Saint Ignatius Church, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, and Jesuit Artist-in-Residence at Boston College. He is co-author of Introducing Dance in Christian Worship (Pastoral Press 1984/1999) . As Artistic Director of the Boston Liturgical Dance Ensemble (Resident Dance Company at Boston College) he is noted for his work, which integrates dance in liturgy and other forms of religious expression. The company has toured extensively in the United States and Canada and offers workshops and courses in sacred and liturgical dance.

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