College of Arts & Sciences 

Fall 2008

Liam Matthew Brockey, Assistant Professor of History at Princeton University, spoke on "The Art of Language: Early Jesuit Experiments with Asian Tongues, 1550-1650." Brockey examined how Jesuits in China pioneered the study of the Chinese language.

Fall 2007

Francis X. Clooney, S.J., Parkman Professor of Divinity and Comparative Theology at the Harvard University Divinity School, spoke on "One God or Three: A Hindu-Jesuit Debate on the Identity of God." Dr. Clooney's lecture focused on the Hindu concept of the Trimurti, the "three forms" of the Divine. He examined attempts by early Jesuits in India to compare and contrast this concept with the Christian concept of the Trinity, and also considered the status of the Trimurti within the Hindu tradition itself.

Fall 2006

Michael Sells, John Henry Barrows Professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School, delivered a lecture on "Jihad and Crusade: American Power in a World of Religion." Dr. Sells also conducted a seminar for St. Joseph's faculty on "Islam in the Classroom."

Fall 2005

Kenneth Pomeranz, Chancellor's Professor of History at the University of California at Irvine, spoke on "East and West in the Origins of a Modern World Economy." Dr. Pomeranz noted the similarities between the major economies of Eurasia prior to the Industrial Revolution, and presented new perspectives on the old question, "Why was Europe first?"

Fall 2004

Filmmaker Carma Hinton, who earned her Ph.D. in Art History at Harvard University, screened and discussed her film, "Morning Sun: A Film about Cultural Revolution," which attempts to create an inner history of China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (c. 1964-1976). The film provides a multi-perspective view of the period through the eyes of a generation born around the founding of the People's Republic of China, and that come of age in the 1960s.