Dr Shaun Blanchard

Senior Lecturer in Theology
PhD

Email: shaun.blanchard@nd.edu.au

  • Biography

    Shaun Blanchard is Senior Lecturer in Theology on the Sydney campus. A North Carolina native and graduate of the UNC, Oxford, and Marquette, Shaun writes on a variety of topics in early modern and modern Catholicism, publishing in outlets like Commonweal, America, Church Life Journal, and The Tablet.

    He is the author of The Synod of Pistoia and Vatican II (OUP: 2020) and, with Ulrich Lehner, co-edited The Catholic Enlightenment: A Global Anthology (CUA: 2021). With UNDA colleague Stephen Bullivant, Shaun co-wrote Vatican II: A Very Short Introduction (OUP: 2023). With Richard T. Yoder, Shaun co-edited Jansenism: An International Anthology (CUA Press, 2024). He has contributed to the Oxford History of British and Irish Catholicism and the Cambridge History of the Papacy. Shaun is currently writing Catholicism and Enlightenment (under contract with Cambridge University Press) and his long-term research projects include a study of English-speaking Catholics in the age of Enlightenment and Revolution and the Modernist crisis from a longue durée perspective.

    Shaun is the convener of the Global Catholic Studies group at UNDA.

  • Teaching areas

    • Systematic and Historical Theology
    • Reformation and Early Modern
    • Vatican II
    • Catholic Social Thought
    • Contemporary global Catholicism

  • Research expertise and supervision

    • Contemporary global Catholicism
    • Vatican II
    • Vatican I
    • The Jansenist-Jesuit conflict
    • Catholicism and the Enlightenment

  • Books

    • The Synod of Pistoia and Vatican II: Jansenism and the Struggle for Catholic Reform. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2020).
    • Coauthor with Stephen Bullivant, Vatican II: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, March 2023).
    • Coeditor with Ulrich L. Lehner, Catholic Enlightenment: A Global Anthology. Series: Early Modern Sources (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2021)
    • Co-editor with Richard T. Yoder, Jansenism: An International Anthology (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press: 2024).
    • Catholicism and Enlightenment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, anticipated 2026). Under contract.
    • Co-editor with Mary Dunn, Rebecca Messbarger, and Jürgen Overhoff, The Global Catholic Enlightenment: Balancing Church Authority and Modern Allegiances across Europe, the Americas, and Australia (1700–1840) (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, anticipated 2027). Under contract.

  • Book chapters

    • “Catholic Enlightenment from Catholicisme intransigeant to the Reception of Vatican II: Black Legend, Myth, or Historiographical Tool?” in Marco Barducci, ed. Debating Enlightenment. Scholarship, Historiography and the Transmission of Books and Ideas (Durham University IMEMS Press/Boydell & Brewer Ltd: Woodbridge, UK, 2025), 37–70.
    • “Continuity and Discontinuity in Fruitful Tension,” in Andrei Orlov, ed., Embodying the Tradition: Essays in Memory of Joseph Mueller, S.J. (1960–2023) (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2025), 29–44.
    • “The Popes and the Enlightenment,” in The Cambridge History of the Papacy, Vol. 1: The Two Swords, edited by Joëlle Rollo-Koster, Robert A. Ventresca, Melodie Eichbauer and Miles Pattenden (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025), 366–401.
    • “Introduction,” in Christopher M. Bellitto, ed., The Essential Vatican II: The Council for the Future Church (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2024), xi–xxxi.
    • Co-authored with Richard T. Yoder, “An Introduction to Jansenism,” in Blanchard and Yoder, eds. Jansenism: An International Anthology (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2024), 1–64.
    • “The Catholic Story,” in Alec Ryrie and Mark A. Lamport, eds., Entangling Web: The Fractious Story of Christianity in Europe, Series: Global Story of Christianity (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2024), 80–95.
    • “This Side of the Alps: The Catholic Enlightenment in Britain and Ireland,” in Liam Chambers, ed. The Oxford History of British and Irish Catholicism, volume 3: Relief, Revolution, and Revival, 1746–1829 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023), 264–285.
    • “True and False Reformers in the Church: Congarian Lessons for Today,” in Salvador Ryan and Declan Marmion, eds., Reforming the Church: Global Perspectives (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2023), 17–33.
    • “Reform vom Arno bis zum Rhein – Die jansenistische Synode von Pistoia und die deutschsprachigen Länder,” in Der Jansenismus im deutschsprachigen Raum, 1670–1789: Bücher, Bilder, Bibliotheken. Translated by Christoph Schmitt-Maaß. Series: Frühe Neuzeit (Volume 250). Edited by Christoph Schmitt-Maaß (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023), 203–223.
    • “The ‘Fifth Vial’: Charles Walmesley’s Ultramontane Apocalypticism,” in British and Irish Religious Orders in Europe, 1560–1800: Conventuals and Monastics in Motion, edited by James Kelly and Cormac Begadon (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell and Brewer, 2022), 222–244.
    • “Introduction: The World of Catholic Enlightenment” (co-authored with Ulrich Lehner), in Catholic Enlightenment: A Global Anthology (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2021), 1–18.
    • “New Models of Church Government,” in Innovation in Early Modern Catholic Theology, edited by Ulrich L. Lehner (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2021), 87–110.
    • “Was John Carroll an ‘Enlightened’ Catholic? Resituating the Archbishop of Baltimore as a ‘Third Party’ Prelate,” in Katholische Aufklärung in Europa und Nordamerika, edited by Jürgen Overhoff and Andreas Oberdorf (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2019), 165–82.

    Translations and Edited Selections with Introductions

    • “Documents from the Synod of Pistoia: A Jansenist Vision for Liturgy and Devotion” (author of critical introduction and translator) in Blanchard and Yoder, eds. Jansenism: An International Anthology (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2024), 316–333.
    • “The Jansenist Church of Utrecht” (author of critical introduction and translator), in Blanchard and Yoder, eds. Jansenism: An International Anthology (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2024), 273–279.
    • “The Fight Against Superstition: Lodovico Antonio Muratori (1672–1750),” (author of critical introduction and translator, with the assistance of Glauco Schettini), in Shaun Blanchard and Ulrich L. Lehner, Catholic Enlightenment: A Global Anthology (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, August 2021), 21–37.
    • “British Catholicism as Reasonable and Patriotic Christianity: Joseph Berington (1743–1827),” (author of critical introduction and editor) in Shaun Blanchard and Ulrich L. Lehner, Catholic Enlightenment: A Global Anthology (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, August 2021), 253–72.
    • “Catholicism and Democracy: John Carroll (1736–1815),” (author of critical introduction and editor), in Shaun Blanchard and Ulrich L. Lehner, Catholic Enlightenment: A Global Anthology (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, August 2021), 273–90.

  • Journal articles and proceedings

    • “The Ghost of Modernism: Evocations of Anti-Modernist Doctrinal Documents at Vatican II,” Theological Studies 86.2 (2025): 220–244.
    • “Settling Old Scores: Pastor Aeternus as the Final Defeat of Early Modern Opponents of Papalism,” Newman Studies Journal 17.1 (Summer 2020): 24–51.
    • “Balance and Imbalance: The Papacy and the Contested Legacies of the Vatican Councils,” Horizons 47.1 (June 2020): 25–32 (contribution to roundtable on 150th Anniversary of the First Vatican Council).
    • “Neither Cisalpine nor Ultramontane: John Carroll’s Ambivalent Relationship with English Catholicism, 1780–1800,” US Catholic Historian 36.3 (Summer 2018): 1–28.
    • “The Ghost of Pistoia: Evocations of Auctorem Fidei in the Debate over Episcopal Collegiality at Vatican II,” Theological Studies 79.1 (March 2018): 60–85.
    • “The Minority Report at Trent and the Vatican Councils: Dissenting Episcopal Voices as Positive Sources for Theological Reflection,” New Blackfriars 98 (March 2017): 147–156.
    • “Proto-Ecumenical’ Catholic Reform in Eighteenth Century Italy: Lodovico Muratori as a Forerunner of Vatican II,” Pro Ecclesia 25 (Winter 2016): 71–90.

  • Conference papers

    Invited presentations

    • “Newman and the Future of Dogma,” panel discussion at the Angelicum University, 3 November 2025.
    • “Saint John Henry Newman, Doctor of the Universal Church: His Relevance Today,” presentations by the positio authors at the Gregorian University, Rome, 31 October 2005.
    • Response to Stephen Bullivant's keynote lecture, "Polarization and Unity in American Catholicism since Vatican II," at “The Legacies of Nicaea I and Vatican II: An Inheritance Unfolding,” September 4–7, 2025 at Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI.
    • “The Legacy of Modernism and anti-Modernism at Vatican II,” faculty workshop at Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology, Franklin, WI, September 3, 2025.
    • “Newman as the Newest Doctor of the Church: An Insider’s View into the Cause,” lecture and Q&A with students and faculty at Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology, Franklin, WI, September 3, 2025.
    • “Status Quaestionis,” invited lecture (conference co-convenor) at “The Catholic Enlightenment in Europe, the Americas and Australia (1700–1840): Balancing Loyalties Between State, Nationality, Citizenship and the Global Church,” co-hosted by Washington University and St. Louis University, 20–21 September 2024, in St. Louis, Missouri.
    • “Between Rome and Westminster: ‘Cisalpine’ Catholicism and the Struggle for Toleration,” invited lecture (conference co-convenor) at “The Catholic Enlightenment in Europe, the Americas and Australia (1700–1840): Balancing Loyalties Between State, Nationality, Citizenship and the Global Church,” co-hosted by Washington University and St. Louis University, 20–21 September 2024, in St. Louis, Missouri.
    • “John Henry Newman’s Idea of a University: The Quest for Catholic Education in Protestant Lands,” invited presentation for the University of Münster’s Excellenzcluster in Religion and Politics, 10 July 2024.
    • “‘I am no Papist’: The ‘Cisalpine’ Catholics of Enlightenment Britain,” invited presentation for the University of Münster’s Excellenzcluster in Religion and Politics, 4 July 2024.
    • “Roundtable: (Re-)Introducing Vatican II,” invited seminar at the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, University of Notre Dame (USA), 5 April 2024.
    • “Teaching and Studying Early Modern Catholic Reform: Translations of the Jansenist ‘Friends of Truth,’” invited lecture/seminar at Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC, 28 June 2024.
    • “The Early Modern Roots of Vatican II’s Liturgical Reforms,” invited lecture for the Archdiocese of Sydney’s lecture series celebrating the 60th anniversary of Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, University of Notre Dame Australia’s Broadway Campus, 15 November 2023.
    • “Conciliar Amnesia: A Vision for Synodality,” invited lecture at the University of Notre Dame (USA), August 30, 2023.
    • “Synodality and the Roots of Vatican II,” a conversation with Kristin Colberg, moderated by Kathy Sprows-Cummings, in the series “Synodality in Perspective: Traditions Past and Present,” co-sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute, the American Cusanus Society, and the Nova Forum. September 19, 2022.
    • “The Rise and Fall of the Counter-Enlightenment Narrative in the Catholic Church,” lecture in the Geschichte am Mittwoch (“History on Wednesday”) series at the University of Vienna, June 15, 2022.
    • “Charles Walmesley Between Enlightenment and Counter-Revolution,” invited lecture at a one-day seminar on Bishop Charles Walmesley at Douai Abbey, Reading, UK, April 28, 2022.
    • Response to Prof. Rebecca Messbarger’s presidential address on Pope Benedict XIV and enlightenment Catholicism at the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS) annual meeting in Baltimore, MD, March 31–April 2, 2022.
    • “Jansenism Matters, For Better or Worse,” invited lecture at the University of Notre Dame (USA), October 29, 2021.
    • “Re-Thinking Jansenism: Towards a More Nuanced Understanding of Complex and Misunderstood Reformist Phenomena,” invited lecture at the Patristics, Medieval, and Renaissance conference at Villanova University, October 15–17, 2021.
    • “Catholic Enlightenment: What is it Good For?” invited presentation and roundtable discussion for the Webinar panel “Debating Enlightenment,” hosted by the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (IMEMS), Durham University, July 6, 2021.
    • “German Speaking Catholicism in the Age of Beethoven,” invited essay for the online conference “Rethinking Beethoven and the Enlightenment,” hosted by Daniel Chua (Hong Kong University) and Nicholas Chong (Rutgers), June 21–23, 2021. In absentia (pre-circulated essay).
    • “The Enlightenment and Reformkatholizismus in German-speaking lands,” invited essay for a panel on Germany and the Enlightenment, Early Modern Conference at Durham University, July 8–10, 2020 (annual conference organized by the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (IMEMS), moved to Zoom due to the Coronavirus).
    • “The North Atlantic Catholic Enlightenment: America, Britain and Ireland,” seminar at Maynooth University, AHI Visiting Fellows Series, May 28, 2020. Postponed due to Coronavirus.
    • “Settling Old Scores: Pastor Aeternus as the Liquidation of Early Modern Opponents of Papalism,” invited lecture at the National Institute for Newman Studies (NINS) Spring Symposium on the First Vatican Council in Pittsburgh, PA, March 14–15, 2019.
    • “Reform from the Arno to the Rhine: The Synod of Pistoia and the German-Speaking Lands,” Invited presenter at “Jansenistische Netzwerke: Mäzene, Übersetzer und Drucker im Alten Reich, 1641–1790” (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany, 19–21 October, 2018).
    • “An American Cisalpine: Archbishop Carroll as an Inheritor of English Catholic Reform,” invited presenter at the DGEJ-Jahrestagung 2017: “Katholische Aufklärung in Europa und Nordamerika” at Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster, 12–15 September 2017.
    • “A ‘Pistoian Infection’ in Eighteenth-Century England? Tracing the Connection between English Cisalpinism and Continental Catholic Reform,” invited lecture at the Ecclesiastical History seminar, Durham University, England, 1 December 2016.

    Other Conference Presentations and Academic Lectures

    • “Jesus Christ Under Anathema’: Jansenist Figurism as Ecclesial Protest,” at the Eschatology at the Beginning of the Third Millennium conference (University of Notre Dame, Sydney, 9–10 February 2024.
    • “The English Catholic Roots of Newman’s Religious World,” at the March 2023 National Institute for Newman Studies conference (Pittsburgh, PA) on “The Early Modern Roots of Newman’s Religious World.”
    • “Ghosts on the Council Floor: Vatican II and the Legacy of Modernism,” at the October 2022 National Institute for Newman Studies conference (Pittsburgh, PA) on “Newman and Modernism.”
    • “Conspiracy Theories and Ecclesial Polarization in Eighteenth-Century Catholicism: Lessons for Today,” paper presented on the panel “The Culture Wars and Catholic Modernity” at the annual meeting of the American Catholic Historical Association, New Orleans, LA, January 6–8, 2022.
    • “Lingard on Newman: Why the Greatest English Catholic Scholar of the First Half of 1800s Didn’t Like Newman,” paper presented at “John Henry Newman: Scholar, Sage, Saint,” Conference and Online Symposium from the National Institute for Newman Studies, Pittsburgh, PA, 20–22 September 2021.
    • “Mapping the Catholic Enlightenment in Britain and Ireland: A Political Movement?” paper to be presented at Early Modern British and Irish Catholicism conference, co-hosted by Durham and Notre Dame, at Ushaw College, Durham, July 14–16, 2020. Postponed due to Coronavirus.
    • “Proto-Ecumenism? Late Jansenist Historical Narratives and Irenicism Towards Protestants, ca. 1770–1800,” paper to be presented at the annual meeting of the European Academy of Religion, Bologna, June 22–25, 2020. Postponed due to Coronavirus.
    • “Was There a Jansenist Theology of the Laity? Reexamining the Late Phase of the Movement (1775–1800),” paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Catholic Historical Association, New York, NY, January 3–5, 2020.
    • “Which Side of the Alps? Cisalpinism v. Ultramontanism in England (1780–1800),” paper presented at the Catholic Record Society conference in York, England, July 8–10, 2019.
    • “The Consequences of Early Modern Jesuit-Jansenist Conflicts for Global Catholicism,” paper presented at “Global History and Catholicism: An International Conference Sponsored by the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism,” University of Notre Dame, South Bend IN, April 4–6, 2019.
    • “The Nature of Catholic Dissent: From Unigenitus (1713) to Humanae Vitae (1968),” paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Catholic Historical Association, Chicago, IL, January 3–6, 2019.
    • “The Last Cisalpine? Resituating John Lingard (1771–1851) as a ‘Third Party’ Catholic,” Centre for Catholic Studies 10th Anniversary Celebratory Conference: “Catholic Theology in the Public Academy: Searching the Questions, Sounding the Depths,” 18–20 April 2018 at Durham University (UK).
    • “History, Church Reform, and the Interpretation of Vatican II,” Plenary Address at the Loyola-Marquette Graduate Theology Colloquium, Marquette University, 24 February 2018.
    • “The ‘General Obscuration’ of Catholic Truth: The Synod of Pistoia (1786) Between the Reformations,” paper presented at the Sixteenth Century Society Annual Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 26–29 October 2017.
    • “The ‘Fifth Vial’: Charles Walmesley’s Ultramontane Apocalypticism,” paper presented at “Early Modern Orders and Disorders: Religious Orders and British and Irish Catholicism” conference (co-hosted by Notre Dame and Durham), University of Notre Dame’s London Gateway, London, UK, 28–30 June 2017.
    • “Ricci’s Constantine: The Bishop of Pistoia’s Attempt to Battle Ultramontanism with Habsburg Power,” paper presented at the Ecclesiastical History Society conference, Magdalen College, Cambridge, 14 January 2017.
    • “The Minority Report: Listening to the ‘Echo’ of Dissenting Voices at Trent and the Vatican Councils,” paper presented at the Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain conference, Alfreton, England, 7 September 2016.
    • “Are Newman’s Seven ‘Notes’ of Doctrinal Development of Any Practical Value?” paper presented at Lumen Christi Institute Newman conference, Merton College, Oxford, England, 14 July 2016.
    • “Saved Through the Church? Jacques Dupuis and Gavin D’Costa in Dialogue,” paper presented at the Engaging Particularities conference, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, 4 April 2016.
    • “The Ghost of Pistoia: Remembering and Forgetting Auctorem Fidei in the Debate over Episcopal Collegiality at Vatican II,” paper presented at the annual Regional American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature conference, Luther College, St. Paul, MN, 1 April 2016.
    • “An Examination of Lumen Gentium 16,” paper presented at the Ecclesiological Investigations conference, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., 21 May 2015.

  • In the media

    • “Witch Hunts and ‘New Theology’: Papal Centralization and the Modernist Crisis,” Christian History Magazine 157 (2025): 17–20.
    • “Only Christ is King: The Papal Response to Fascism,” Christian History Magazine 157 (2025): 21.
    • Interviewed for the “religious rebels” series of the ABC Radio National program God Forbid (panel discussion hosted by James Carleton), on the life and legacy of Giordano Bruno (aired 7 November 2025).
    • Interviewed for the “religious rebels” series of the ABC Radio National program God Forbid (panel discussion hosted by James Carleton), on the life and legacy of Joan of Arc (aired 31 October 2025).
    • “Doctor of Doctrinal Development,” The Living Church (October 19, 2025): 18–19.
    • Participated in a Tablet webinar led by Renée Köhler-Ryan titled “A Doctor for Our Times: The Enduring Voice of John Henry Newman” with Australian and British colleagues, 3 September 2025.
    • Interviewed for National Catholic Register (US) article “Don’t Cherry-Pick St. John Henry Newman, Say Theologians,” Jonathan Liedl, 20 August 2025.
    • Interviewed for Catholic Weekly (Sydney) article “Australian scholars thrilled to see Cardinal Newman become a Doctor of the Church,” Michael Cook, 5 August 2025.
    • Panel discussion with Paul Fahey and Vatican correspondent Colleen Dulle on the election of Pope Leo XIV, Third Space Podcast, 9 June 2025.
    • Interviewed for Australian Broadcasting Corporation Religion & Ethics story on Pope Francis and the history of the Vatican, “How the Catholic Church ended up with its own sovereign state,” Anna Levy, 19 May 2025.
    • Interviewed for Australian Broadcasting Corporation Religion &Ethics story on the election of Pope Leo XIV, “Where does Pope Leo XIV stand on key issues facing the Catholic Church?” Anna Levy, 9 May 2025.
    • Co-authored with Richard T. Yoder, “A Rival Magisterium: What today’s Traditionalists have in common with the Jansenists,” Commonweal (April 2025): 34–39.
    • Interviewed for America magazine’s Inside the Vatican podcast episode “Deep Dive: The Rise and Fall of Archbishop Viganò,” 30 July 2024.
    • “Viva! Viva! Gesù!” Christian History Magazine 151 (2024): 9–12.
    • “What a failed 18th-century synod—and a talking point for Archbishop Viganò—can teach us about synodality,” America (23 October 2023).
    • “True and false reformers,” The Tablet (21 October 2023), 4–6.
    • “Synodality & Catholic Amnesia: The conciliarist tradition gets a new name,” Commonweal 150.10 (October 2023): 20–25.
    • “Vatican II: Angels and devils on our shoulders,” Catholic Herald (UK), April 2023.
    • “Vatican II’s Departure from the Anti-Modernist Paradigm,” Genealogies of Modernity, published online in two parts, 29 November 2022 and 2 December 2022.
    • "'This Sacred Council’: Sixty Years of Vatican II,” The Tablet (22 October 2022), 4–6.
    • “Consulting the Faithful: John Henry Newman’s Relevance for a Fully Catholic Synodality,” in Spiritan Horizons 19 (2022): 98–113.
    • “The Reform was Real: Continuity and Change at Vatican II,” in Commonweal 149.3 (March 2022): 20–26. [Named one of fifteen essays in Commonweal’s “Best of 2022”]
    • “Why Lingard Didn’t Like Newman,” Newman Review, 24 September 2021 (online journal of the National Institute for Newman Studies), 3600 words.
    • “Traditionis Custodes Was Never Merely About the Liturgy,” Church Life Journal (Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame), 2 August 2021, 4000 words.
    • “Was There a ‘Catholic Enlightenment?’: Rethinking Religion and the Age of Lights,” Journal of the History of Ideas Blog, 26 July 2021, 2000 words.
    • “Old Myths About the Age of Enlightenment That Die Hard,” Church Life Journal (Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame), 11 June 2021, 2100 words.
    • “Fr. John Lingard (1771–1851): Between Enlightened Catholicism and the Newmanian Second Spring,” Newman Review 8 January 2021 (online journal of the National Institute for Newman Studies), 4000 words.
    • “Communal Guilt and the Black Catholic Experience in America: An Interview with Fr. Josh Johnson,” Church Life Journal, (Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame), 7 October 2020, 5400 word interview.
    • “The Twists and Turns That Led to the First Vatican Council,” Church Life Journal (Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame), 1 July 2020, 6700 words.
    • “Is the Pope Still Infallible? Reflections on the 150th Anniversary of Vatican I’s Definition,” Reality (magazine of the Irish Redemptorists), Part One: May 2020, 12–17; Part Two: June 2020, 18–19.
    • “From Jansenism to Humanae Vitae: The Long History of Catholic Dissent,” Church Life Journal (Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame), 10 March 2020, 3900 words.
    • “Shaun Blanchard on Jansenism, Pistoia, and Catholic Historiography,” interview with Dr. Adam DeVille, Eastern Christian Books, 28 February 2020, 5500 words.
    • “Rioting Over the Virgin Mary’s Belt: Enlightenment, Reform, and the Religion of the People in Tuscany,” Age of Revolutions 11 December 2019, 2000 words.
    • “Are Jansenists Among Us?” Church Life Journal (Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame), 4 October 2019, 3300 words.
    • “A Quasi-Defense of Gallicanism,” Church Life Journal (Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame), 19 October 2018, 2000 words.
    • “Ancient Faith and Modern Ways,” (on the English Catholic Cisalpine movement), Catholic Herald, 4 August 2017, 26–27.
    • “A Catholic Observer in Rome,” (on an ecumenical conference with Anglicans and Episcopalians) Living Church, 31 October 2016.
    • “Third Party” Catholic Reformers of the Eighteenth-Century: Between Jansenists and the Zelanti,” The Regensburg Forum: History, Theology, and Philosophy in the Augustinian Tradition, 17 October 2016.
    • “Jansenism: A Brief Sketch of a Complex Phenomenon,” The Regensburg Forum: History, Theology, and Philosophy in the Augustinian Tradition, 6 September 2016.
    • “The Neglect of Catholic Theology From Westphalia (1648) to the Bastille (1789),” The Regensburg Forum: History, Theology, and Philosophy in the Augustinian Tradition, 18 August 2016.

  • Professional affiliations

    • American Catholic Historical Society
    • Austrian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

  • Other

    • Externally funded project 2025–2027: Chief Investigator, “A History of the Capuchins in Australia.” Co-authored $521,000 (AUD) research grant, a collaboration between UNDA, Durham University, and the Capuchins of Australia.
    • Externally funded project 2023–2026: Co-Principal Investigator, “The Theology and Spirituality of the Early Modern Capuchins.” Co-authored $325,000 (AUD) research grant, a collaboration between UNDA, Durham University, and the Capuchins of Australia.
    • Contributed an essay on John Henry Newman’s ecclesiology to the Positio document requested by the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in 2024. In 2025, Pope Leo XIV announced that the appointed committee had unanimously approved the request, and that Newman would be named the 38th Doctor of the Church. In light of this service, I have participated in a number of outreach opportunities, including writing popular-facing articles, giving in-person lectures, speaking with media in the US and Australia, and participating in online events.
    • 2025: Peter R. D’Agostino Research Travel Grant, awarded by the University of Notre Dame’s Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism in support of archival research in Rome.
    • July 2024: Visiting Fellow (two weeks) at the University of Münster, attached to the Excellenzcluster in Religion and Politics.
    • May 2022: Visiting Research Fellow, Ushaw College library and archives, Durham University (UK).
    • Member of the editorial board for the series Elements of the History of Theology and Philosophy, published by Cambridge University Press.
    • Co-convenor of international conference: “Catholic Enlightenment in Europe, the Americas and Australia (1750–1840): Balancing Loyalties between State, Nationality, Citizenship and Church,” St. Louis, MO, September 20–21, 2024,” with Jürgen Overhoff (University of Münster), Rebecca Messbarger (Washington University) and Mary Dunn (St. Louis University).
    • Invited member of the EU-funded COST research network “Print Culture and Public Spheres in Central Europe 1500–1800.”
    • Peer reviewer for Theological Studies, Journal of Jesuit Studies, Journal of Religious History, Irish Theological Quarterly, New Blackfriars, Yearbook of the Austrian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (including a special issue of 23 German essays), Religions, Newman Studies Journal, and Routledge Press (book proposal), Cambridge University Press Elements series (proposals and full manuscripts), UWA Press (University of Western Australia, full manuscript), Peeters Press, Leuven (chapters of edited volume).
    • Associate Editor, Newman Studies Journal, 2021–2023. Member of editorial board since 2021.
    • Member of the University of Notre Dame Australia’s Higher Degree by Research (HDR) faculty committee (responsible for many duties involving the research and progress of master’s and Ph.D. students). Currently co-directing two doctoral dissertations.