About the Biennial Catholic Imagination Conference

The Third Biennial Catholic Imagination Conference followed on the success of the first Catholic Imagination conferences--hosted by the Center for Advanced Catholic Studies at the University of Southern California in spring of 2015 and by The Curran Center for American Catholic Studies at Fordham University in the spring of 2017.

The conference aimed to accomplish the following goals:
  • To enhance understanding and appreciation of the richness and variety of contributions being made by Catholic writers to contemporary literature, drama, and television.
  • To explore the critical and theoretical foundations of the Catholic Imagination.
  • To foster a community of writers and readers who share knowledge of and respect for Catholic tradition.
  • To promote collaboration among writers, critics, academics, educators, editors, publishers and readers along with the recognition that each of us is playing a role in a common project.
  • To make visible to the Church the important role its writers play in integrating the Catholic vision into the wider world.
  • To empower members of the Catholic literary community and find ways to create conditions under which the Catholic Imagination might continue to flourish.
  • To showcase the work of Catholic writers across the spectrum, with a particular emphasis on Chicago and Midwestern Catholic writers and work fostered by the Ignatian Imagination.

2019 Organizational Committee:              

Angela Alaimo Donnell
Mark Bosco, S.J.
Paul Contino
Anthony Domestico
Dana Gioia
Ron Hansen
Jessica Hooten Wilson
Michael P. Murphy (Host and Chair)