Seton Hall University will host a lecture titled “Women’s Leadership and the Foundations of Modern Catholic Universities,” featuring historian Bronwen McShea, Ph.D. The event is organized by the Department of Catholic Studies, Women and Gender Studies, and the Center for Faculty Development.
McShea stated: “I hope that, after learning about a wide range of women who helped to found and build up Catholic institutions of higher learning here in the USA and around the world, my audience will better appreciate the fact that history is full of such pioneering and achieving women. I also want audience members to better understand that, if they haven’t heard a lot about such women before, it’s partly because we historians are still actively researching their legacies and telling their stories fully for the first time—and because the way we teach history, including that of Catholicism in all time periods, still has catching up to do in this area, as in others.”
The lecture aims to address how women’s contributions to institutions and cultural movements have often gone unrecognized. Despite efforts in recent decades to highlight these roles, many important achievements by both lay and consecrated women in establishing modern Catholic universities remain little known.
The presentation will focus on examples from the 19th and early 20th centuries. It will examine how women served as founders, donors, administrators, and faculty at various institutions across the United States, Europe, and Latin America. The talk will also discuss how some women inspired or worked alongside bishops, Jesuits, and other male leaders in developing global networks of Catholic universities.
Bronwen McShea is based in New York City. She specializes in Catholic history from medieval times to the present. Her published works include “Women of the Church: What Every Catholic Should Know” (Ignatius 2024), “La Duchesse: The Life of Marie de Vignerot” (Pegasus 2023), and “Apostles of Empire: The Jesuits and New France” (Nebraska 2019). McShea’s articles have appeared in scholarly journals as well as publications like The Wall Street Journal and America Magazine. She has held academic positions at Columbia University, Princeton University, Loyola University Chicago, and holds degrees from Yale University and Harvard University.
