Jesuit Studies Café
The Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies and its collaborating partners at the University of Lisbon and the Italian-German Historical Institute at the Bruno Kessler Foundation, invite you to join informal conversations with the world's preeminent scholars working on the history, spirituality, and educational heritage of the Society of Jesus. These discussions – hosted at the Institute over coffee and also available via Zoom videoconference – are unique opportunities to learn more about the newest and most interesting scholarship in Jesuit Studies.
If you would like to attend a café via videoconference, please register, and you will receive information on how to access the online meeting space 24 hours before the discussion. Please contact the Institute with any questions or if you wish to join or lead a café in the future (iajs@bc.edu).
Fall 2026 Conversations
At Jesuit Studies Cafes in the fall of 2026, we will disscuss the history and culture of the Society of Jesus.
Natale Vacalebre, University of Alcalá, Spain
Thursday, October 22 | 9:20 a.m. EST, UTC-4
God's Arsenal: The Libraries of the Society of Jesus in the Early Modern Age
(1540–1773)
This presentation explores how Jesuit institutions acquired, classified, controlled, read, and circulated books. Moving between normative prescriptions and everyday practice, it considers libraries as essential infrastructures of education, discipline, and knowledge production. The history of the Jesuit College of Perugia serves as an extended case study through which these broader structures and practices can be observed in detail.
Fr. Sam Conedera, S.J.,
St. Louis University, United States
Thursday, November 19 | 9:20 a.m. EST, UTC-5
Son of Ignatius, Son of Israel: Pedro de Ribadeneyra, S.J.
The Jesuit author and administrator Pedro de Ribadeneyra (1526–1611) spent his life articulating a vision of his order’s identitycentered on filiation to Ignatius of Loyola. He never acknowledged his Jewish lineage according to the flesh, yet he was deeply implicated in the controversy over Jesuit conversos. Conedera’s research explores the relationship between these two notions of sonship in Ribadeneyra’s life and work, as well as his lasting contribution to Jesuit historiography.
Silvia Elonora Brera,
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Italy
Thursday, December 17 | 9:20 a.m. EST, UTC-5
From Mission to Local Church: The Jesuits in the Rhodesias (1939–1958)
This talk presents part of an ongoing Ph.D. project on Catholic missions in sub-Saharan Africa from 1939 to 1958. Focusing on Jesuit activity in Northern and Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zambia and Zimbabwe), particularly in educationand the formation of local clergy, it examines the transition from mission to the local Church.
Past Conversations
Jesuit Studies Café Partners
Department for the History and Philosophy of Science
Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon
Italian-German Historical Institute
at the Bruno Kessler Foundation
If you have any questions, please contact (iajs@bc.edu)