Staff


 

Casey Beaumier SJ

Casey Beaumier, S.J., is the director of the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in United States religious history from Boston College and focused his dissertation on the development of Jesuit education in the 20th century. At Boston College, Fr. Beaumier teaches in the Capstone Program and lives in Fenwick Hall, where he serves as mentor and spiritual director for students, seminarians, women religious, and priests. In addition to directing the Institute, Fr. Beaumier also serves as Vice President and University Secretary.

Fr. Casey Beaumier's curriculum vitae

Matthew Schweitzer

Matt Schweitzer is the associate director at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies. He received his bachelor's degree in economics from Boston College.  After several years working in the investment services sector at State Street Bank, he decided to pursue a career within the nonprofit world, spurred on by his participation in the 19th annotation of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.  He first worked as a financial consultant within the Archdiocese of Boston, then Director of Finance and Operations at two Catholic parishes and schools, and most recently, as Assistant Controller at Saint Anselm College.  At the Institute, he oversees strategic planning, marketing, financial and administrative leadership, and fundraising, among other areas, to assist in the development and promotion of the programs offered by the Institute.  He has deep regard for Society of Jesus and Catholic education and is passionate about furthering the work of the Society through the mission of the Institute.

Anuska Gras

Anuška Lisec Gras is the assistant director for finance and operations at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies. She grew up and spent the majority of her life in Slovenia, where she received her B.A. in Sociology and served nineteen years in the Slovenian military, primarily as a human resource officer. While in the military she obtained her graduate degree in Military Science from Air University in Alabama, participated in several crisis management operations and met her husband Sam. They married in 2008, lived for several years in Slovenia and Italy, and decided to move to the United States. Before moving to Boston and joining the Institute in 2023, Anuška worked five years in international admission at Oregon State University.  She is excited to apply her diverse experience and interpersonal skills to support the mission, projects and staff of the Institute.

Ashlee Hatch

Ashlee Hatch is the assistant director for Marketing and Programming at the Institue. She received her B.A. in Sociology from Brigham Young University. She worked in marketing fulfilliment for the BYU Athletics Department before transitioning to religious education. After several years of teaching high school religious education for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ashlee came to Boston College as a graduate student in the Masters of Theological Studies program at the STM. At the institute, she oversees marketing, advertising, strategic planning, as well as the development of promotion and programs offered here at the institute. Through her studies and her prior work as a graduate assistant at the Institute, she has developed a deep appreciation for Jesuit education and spirituality, and is passionate about promoting the works of the Institute.

Claude Pavur SJ

Claude Pavur, S.J., an associate editor, specializes in the translation of Latin documents relating to the Society of Jesus. His graduate degrees are in scripture, philosophy, and classics. At the Institute he has produced English editions of the famous Jesuit plan of studies from 1599 (the Ratio Studiorum, 2005), Ribadeneira's life of Ignatius (2014), and the Latin texts in the first Jesuit pedagogy reader (2016). His recent overview of the historiography of Jesuit pedagogy is available at Brill's Jesuit Historiography Online. Other interests of his include Jesuit education and formation, classical humanism, and Latin pedagogy. He has been a member of the Society of Jesus since 1973.  

Fr. Claude Pavur's curriculum vitae

Robert Gerlich, SJ

Robert Gerlich, S.J., an associate editor, obtained his B.A degree in Philosophy from St. Louis University (1972), M.A. in European History from Saint Louis University (1977); Bakkalaureat in Catholic Theology from Hochschule Sankt Georgen, Frankfurt am Main, Germany (1980) and Ph.D in Modern European History from Saint Louis University (1987). Prior to coming to the Institute in 2021, Fr. Gerlich was a member of the editorial and research staff of the Encyclopedia of Jesuit History project under the direction of the Jesuit Historical Institute in Rome, Italy (1987-1988) and for a semester and several summers thereafter.  He was an associate professor of history at Loyola University New Orleans from 1989 until 2021, when he was granted emeritus status.  His present project at the Institute involves translating and editing a new biography of St. Ignatius by Enrique García Hernán.

Fr. Robert Gerlich's curriculum vitae

Taiga Guterres

Taiga Guterres is the managing editor of the Jesuit Educational Quarterly at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, where he engages and facilitates collegiality between the Institute and the global network of Jesuit Studies scholars. He assists and supports the Institute’s outreach efforts and special projects that promote educational research of the Jesuits and their educational and spiritual mission. Taiga holds a M.A. in Theology & Ministry and a M.S.W. from Boston College and is a current Ph.D. candidate in Formative Education. He is on the editorial board of Integratus, the Journal of the Catholic Psychotherapy Association, and is a core member of the Psychological Humanities & Ethics initiatives at Boston College.

Alessandro Corsi

Alessandro Corsi is the digital scholarship editor at the Institute of Advanced Jesuit Studies. He obtained his Ph.D in Modern History and Church History from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano and specialized in qualitative and quantitative historical analysis of Ancien Régime social structures, observed through the lens of digital tools. He joined the Institute as a fellow in 2022 and continued his postdoc project started in 2019 (Fondazione 1563 - Turin), a database created from Treinnales and Breves registration catalogs of the Old Society. In his current position, he facilitates and promotes collegiality between the IAJS and the global network of scholars and research centers around the world, by overseeing all the Digital Projects sponsored by the Institute, including mobile phone applications.

Elizabeth Campbell

Elizabeth Campbell is the assistant program director for Ever to Excel at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies. After receiving her B.A. in English from Boston College, Elizabeth returned to BC in 2015 to lead the Church in the 21st Century Center’s marketing and expansion of the Agape Latte program to colleges, high schools, and parishes nationwide. As part of her work with the C21 Center, she collaborated on the development and promotion of the Ever to Excel program since its inaugural year in 2016. Elizabeth joined the Institute team in 2022 to focus her work on Ever to Excel and the formation of the college and high school students who journey through the program. She is excited to utilize her creative background and interest in digital media to support the mission of the Institute and inspire young people to learn about and share their stories of faith.


Research Scholars


 

Cristiano Casalini

Cristiano Casalini, Ph.D., is a Professor and Endowed Chair in Jesuit Pedagogy and Educational History, and a Research Scholar with the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies at Boston College. He teaches History of Jesuit Pedagogy, Social Justice in Jesuit Contexts, and Philosophy of Education. Casalini’s field of research is mainly early modern education and especially Jesuit education. He has worked on critical texts and commentaries of 16th and 17th century classics of education, especially in and around the Jesuit order. He is currently working of editing educational writings and documents as produced by Jesuit during the early modern period. He recently edited a collective volume on Jesuit Philosophy on the Eve of Modernity (Leiden-Boston, 2019). He also provided with Claude Pavur the first volume of a series devoted to the history of Jesuit pedagogy, entitled Jesuit Pedagogy. A Reader (1540–1616) (Boston: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2016). He also wrote a book on the Cursus Conimbricensis and the education at the Jesuit college of Coimbra (Rome: Anicia, 2012; and, in Portuguese, Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, 2015; in English, New York: Routledge, 2017), which was awarded with the Prémio Joaquím de Carvalho, 2016. Casalini serves as editor-in-chief of a series published by Brill on History of Early Modern Educational Thought.

Barton T. Geger, S.J.

Barton T. Geger, S.J., is a research scholar at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, Assistant Professor of the Practice at the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College, and general editor of Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits. He holds an M.A. in philosophy from Saint Louis University, a M.Th. in Systematic Theology from Heythrop College, an STL in historical theology from (then) Weston Jesuit School of Theology, and a doctorate in sacred theology from Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid. He writes on Ignatian spirituality and early Jesuit history. His essays include "Ten Things That St. Ignatius Never Said or Did" and “What Magis Really Means and Why It Matters.” He currently edits new editions of the Jesuit Constitutions and of the "Autobiography" of St. Ignatius Loyola.  

Barton Geger's curriculum vitae

Barton T. Geger, S.J.

Emanuele Colombo Ph.D., is Professor of Catholic Studies at DePaul University, Chicago. His research focuses on religious history in early modern Europe: theology and politics, Jesuit missions, and Christian-Muslim encounters in the Mediterranean. He has authored and edited several books and has published articles and book reviews in international journals. He was a 2018 fellow at the Institute. Currently, as Provost’s Fellow at Boston College and Research Scholar at the Institute, he works on the Digital Indipetae Database where letters written by Jesuits to the Superior General of the Society of Jesus to apply for the missions overseas can be accessed for scholarly research. Emanuele created the Jesuit Studies Café, informal online conversations hosted at the Institute, with the world's preeminent scholars working on the history, spirituality, and educational heritage of the Society of Jesus.

 


Senior Affiliated Scholars


 

Andrew Barrette

Andrew Barrette received his Ph.D. in 2018 from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where he finished his dissertation, The Origin of the Question: The Structure and Emergence of Questioning in Edmund Husserl’s Work, under the direction of Anthony Steinbock. He is in the process of preparing a manuscript on similar themes in Husserl’s method which means to ground his future work in phenomenological ethics.

Barrette is currently a Visiting Professor of Philosophy in the Philosophy Department at Boston College and a collaborating fellow of the Lonergan Institute and Institute of Advanced Jesuit Studies. At the Institute, Barrette is researching Jesuits in Leuven at the turn to the 20th century, focusing especially on Joseph Maréchal and Pierre Scheuer. Along with editing some of their work, he aims to show the enduring significance of how they engaged, understood, and influenced philosophical and theological traditions. To this end, Barrette highlights how their method emphasizes a charitable approach to interpretation. From this, he aims to prepare further research into the missionary and ecumenical work of the students of this school.

Claudio Ferlan

Claudio Ferlan (Ph.D. University of Trieste) is a full-time researcher at the Fondazione Bruno Kessler in Trento, Italy, where he is also working as editor-in-chief of FBK Magazine

Ferlan was a fellow at the Institute for a semester in 2019 to conduct research on the food history of the Society of Jesus in the early modern Atlantic world. He returns to the IAJS in the Spring 2022 semester to complete a project that will lead to the publication of a handbook of Jesuit history from Ignatius to Bergoglio with Jesuit Sources


2022 - 2023 Research Fellows


 

José Guibert, S.J.

José M. Guibert, S.J., is the in-residence fellow at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, while he is also the Gasson Professor at Boston College for the year 2023-2024. He has served for ten years (2013-2023) as Rector (President) at the University of Deusto in Spain. He joins the Institute during his sabbatical, after 25 years on administrative assignments. He holds a Bachelor in Theology from the University of Deusto, an STL in Systematic Theology from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, an MBA in Higher Education Management from the Institute of Education (then at the University of London, now at UCL), and a doctorate in Industrial Engineering from the University of the Basque Country. In the past years he has written about Ignatian Leadership, with a special focus on the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, on Higher Education Management, and on St. Francis Xavier. At the Institute he will continue to do research on both St. Francis Xavier and Ignatian Leadership.

Thierry Meynard, S.J.

Thierry Meynard, S.J., is a visiting fellow at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies. He is currently professor and PhD director at the philosophy department of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, where he teaches Western Philosophy and Latin Classics. He is the vice-director of the Archive for Introduction of Western Knowledge, at Sun Yat-Sen University. In 2012-2014, he was also the director of The Beijing Center for Chinese Studies, a study program established by the Jesuits in 1998. In 2003, he obtained his PhD in Philosophy from Peking University, presenting a thesis on Liang Shuming. From 2003 to 2006, he taught philosophy at Fordham University, New York. Since 2006, he is a member of the Macau Ricci Institute. He has authored twenty academic articles and a dozen of essays.

Jesús Folgado, S.J.

Jesus Folgado-Garcia, is a visiting fellow at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies. He holds a ThD from the San Damaso Ecclesiastical University (Madrid,Spain). He is a professor at the Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University (Lima, Peru) and visiting professor at the San Damaso Ecclesiastical University. His research interests are liturgical and sacramental theology in the 15th-16th centuries and the history of evangelization in early globalization. He has developed the project “Meeting lines between Granada's Muslims and the indigenous religious traditions of East Asia and America” at the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University (2022-2023). He is a researcher in the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China: “The Pacific Headquarters Route and the Diffusion and Influence of Chinese Artistic Objects in Latin America (16th-19th Century)." He has recently published the book Historia Contemporánea de la Iglesia en América Latina (Editorial UNIR, 2023) where he deals with evangelization in Latin America and its connections with Asia.


Graduate Assistants


 

Matt Davis

Emily Glass is a graduate assistant with the Institute. She is currently in her first year of study in the STM at Boston College within the dual degree Master of Arts in Theology and Ministry and Master of Social Work program. Emily received her B.A. in Theology from Mount St. Mary's University.

Mitch Clark

Mitch Clark is currently pursuing his MBA at the Boston College Carroll School of Management, and has a background in infrastructure consulting and small business growth. As a graduate assistant, he is delighted to contribute to the institute's mission. Mitch's dedication to promoting the works of the institute, combined with his business acumen and strategic thinking, positions him as a support in marketing, programming, and strategic planning initiatives. With his passion for spiritual education and his commitment to excellence, Mitch is eager to make a meaningful impact on the institute's endeavors.

Matt Davis

Kasey Kimball is a Ph.D. candidate in historical theology at Boston College. Her current research focuses on early Franciscan anthropology and sacramental theology; she also has an abiding interest in pre-Modern Scriptural exegesis and theories of secularization. Inspired by the 20th century ressourcement movement, she intends her scholarly work in the Patristic and Medieval theological tradition to be of service to the contemporary Church as well as to the academy. Raised an Anglican in Newburyport, MA, she received a BA in International Studies from Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD) in 2008 and served for six years with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in Baltimore before moving to Canada for graduate studies. She received her MA in theology from Regent College (Vancouver, BC) in 2018. She was received into full communion with the Catholic Church in 2018, influenced, in part, by writing her MA thesis on St. Bonaventure. When she’s not studying, she enjoys British detective fiction, distance running, teatime, and making friends with other people's dogs.

Matt Davis

Brianna Braden is a graduate assistant with the Institute. She is currently in her first year of study at the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College. She is pursuing her Masters of Arts in Theology and Ministry, with a focus in social outreach. Briannareceived her B.A. in English Literature from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama. 


Undergraduate Assistants


 

Stephen Eckelkamp

Stephen Eckelkamp is an undergraduate assistant with the Institute. He is a Freshman at Boston College, and is currently undeclared in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences.

Olivia Ziegler

Olivia Ziegler is an undergraduate assistant with the Institute. 

Christian Eidt

Christian Eidt is an undergraduate assistant with the Institute. He is a Senior at Boston College.

Thomas Scordino

Thomas Scordino is an undergraduate associate working in the sales and marketing team. He is a sophomore in the Carroll School of Management studying Finance and Marketing with minors in Applied Psychology and Philosophy outside of the business school.

Emily Woollan

Emily Wollan is an undergraduate assistant with the Institute. She is a sophomore in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College double-majoring in Secondary Education and English with a Special Education Concentration and a Certificate in Teaching English Language Learners (TELL).