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  • The Ninety-First Annual Meeting of the American Catholic Historical Association
  • American Catholic Historical Association

Report of the Committee on Program

The ninety-first annual meeting of the American Catholic Historical Association was held in conjunction with the annual meetings of the American Historical Association and other affiliated societies at the Marriott Boston Copley Place Hotel from Thursday, January 6, to Sunday, January 9, 2011.

The program opened on Thursday afternoon with a session jointly sponsored with the AHA, “Women of Independent Means? The Construction of Spiritual Life Stories in Late Medieval and Early Modern European Society.” Sarah Ross (Boston College) chaired the session, and the papers included “Joan of Arc: Neither Prophet nor Puppet” by Larissa Juliet Taylor (Colby College and 2011 ACHA president); “The Devil and the Saint: The Case of Teresa of Jesus” by Elizabeth Rhodes (Boston College); and “‘In the End, God Helped Me Defeat Myself’: The Spiritual Life of Camilla Battista da Varano” by William V. Hudon (Bloomsburg University). Jodi Bilinkoff (University of North Carolina at Greensboro) provided commentary. The Executive Council of the Association also met on Thursday afternoon.

A full day of sessions began on Friday morning. The first was “Roman Catholic Modernism and the Role of Leonce de Grandmaison,” chaired by Janice Farnham (Boston College). Papers by Peter J. Bernardi, S. J. (Loyola University Chicago) on “A Courageous Manifesto: The French Jesuit Response to Integrisme” and by I. Michael Bellafiore, S. J. (University of Scranton) on “Reading the Signs of the Times: Leonce de Grandmaison’s Anticipation of the Modernist Crisis” were complemented by a comment from Harvey Hill (Berry College, GA). Also that morning was a session presenting recent research on the history of Catholic missionaries and native peoples in China: “The Changing Tides of Twentieth-Century Shanghai Catholicism.” Chaired by Angelyn Dries, O. S. F. (Saint Louis University), and with commentary by the audience, the papers were “French Jesuit Priests and Chinese Jesuit Brothers: Painting a Picture of Ministry at the Shanghai Tushanwan Orphanage” by Jeremy Clarke, S. J. (Boston College); “Culture Shock or Comfort from the Voyage: The First Glimpse of American Catholic Missionaries to Shanghai in the 1920s” by Robert E. Carbonneau, C. P. (Passionist Historical Archives); and “An Army Set in Battle Array: The 1951 Attack on the Shanghai Legion of Mary” by Paul Mariani, S. J. (Santa Clara University). [End Page 305]

In the first session on Friday afternoon, “American Catholic History: The State of the Conversation,” Steven M. Avella (Marquette University and 2010 ACHA president) introduced Leslie Woodcock Tentler (The Catholic University of America). Tentler reviewed trends in the historiography of American Catholicism over the last two decades, followed by a lively discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of recent scholarship as well as needs and opportunities for future study. At the same time, Beth Griech-Polelle (Bowling Green State University) presided at the session “German Catholics Negotiate National Socialism: Three Case Studies.” Kevin Spicer, C. S. C. (Stonehill College, MA), delivered a paper, “Catholic Clergy and Jews under National Socialism,” followed by a paper from Ulrike Ehret (University of Erlangen), “Negotiating ‘Volksgemeinshaft’: Roman Catholics and the National Socialist State,” and a paper from Mark Edward Ruff (Saint Louis University), “Walter Adolph and the Commemoration of Catholic Martyrs of National Socialism.” James Bernauer, S. J. (Boston College), provided commentary. The afternoon concluded with the annual business meeting of the Association, at which various reports were presented and discussed.

Two sessions were held on Saturday morning, the first of them a joint session with the American Historical Association. Carol Coburn (Avila University) presided at “Words and Deeds: New Perspectives on Catholic Laywomen in Twentieth-Century America.” Monica Mercado (University of Chicago) began with “‘What a Blessing It Is to Be Fond of Reading Good Books’: Reading Circles and Catholic Women in Turn-of-the-Century America.” Next, Jeanne Pettit (Hope College, MI) read her paper,“‘Up against a Stone Wall’: Gender, Power, and the National Catholic Community Houses,” followed by Mary J. Henold (Roanoke College, VA) and her paper, “The Ladies in Hats Have Their Say: The National Council of Catholic Women, Vatican II, and the Women’s Movement, 1962–1975.” The commentary by Mel Piehl...

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