Email: schultca@bc.edu
Dissertation Title: ‘Let the little children come to Me’: Catholic Children’s Moral Development in the United States, 1920-1965
Dissertation Committee: James O'Toole, Cynthia Lyerly, and Marilynn Johnson
Education:
M.A., Boston College
B.A., College of the Holy Cross
Research Interests:
I have a broad interest in nineteenth- and twentieth-century U.S. social history. The purpose of my dissertation is to show how Catholic children in the United States from 1920 to 1965 learned about religion and developed morally. By studying the moral development and imagination of children, one can better appreciate the significant role that early childhood religious instruction played in the development of a uniquely American Catholic identity. In addition, a study of the moral development of Catholic children from their birth until the rite of Confirmation will provide a window into the religious practice of lay Catholics that, at times, did not rigidly conform to the hierarchy’s conception of appropriate practice. Finally, my dissertation will argue that changes in the practice of religion over the course of the twentieth century and the more marked level of contention between laypeople and the church do not amount to the secularization of the American public in general and Catholics in particular. Instead, the restructuring of religion has resulted in a more individualistic, yet unquestionably Catholic, form of religious practice.
Grants:
Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism Research Travel Grant, February 2006
Publications:
“Do This in Memory of Me: American Catholicism and First Communion Customs in the Era of Quam Singulari,” published in the Summer 2004 issue of American Catholic Studies.
Conferences:
“Do This in Memory of Me: American Catholicism and First Communion Customs in the Era of Quam Singulari,” nominated for the 2003 Northeast Popular Culture Association’s graduate paper award
“Let the Little Children Come to Me: American Catholic Children’s Religious Education, 1920-1965,” presented at the American Catholic Historical Association spring conference, College of the Holy Cross, April 2006
“'Forming the Soul of the Child Unto God': The Role of the Family and the Church in American Catholic Children's Moral Development, 1920-1965,” presented at the History of Religion Conference, Boston College, March 2006
“Do This in Memory of Me: American Catholicism and First Communion Customs in the Era of Quam Singulari,” presented at the Northeast Popular Culture Association Annual Meeting, Worcester, MA, October 2003
Faculty Advisor: