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K-State Today

October 14, 2011

Historian from Notre Dame to discuss Catholicism and the modern world in Parrish lecture presentation

Submitted by Communications and Marketing

An upcoming presentation in Kansas State University's Fred L. Parrish Lecture Series will help participants understand the relationship between Catholicism and the modern world.

John McGreevy, professor of history at the University of Notre Dame, will present his lecture at 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 24, in the Banquet Room at the K-State Alumni Center. The lecture, sponsored by the department of history, is free and open to the public.

McGreevy's lecture is titled "The Ellsworth Outrage (1854): Or How the Tarring and Feathering of A Jesuit Priest Helps Us Understand the Relationship Between Catholicism and the Modern World." The presentation will discuss how an incident in Ellsworth, Maine, is representative of the relationship of Catholicism with American society in the 19th century.

"The Parrish lecture is one of the highlights on the departmental calendar every two years, and the caliber of our lecturers illustrates why K-State has one of the strongest and most celebrated programs in the study of religious history at the graduate level in the United States," said Robert Linder, university distinguished professor of history at K-State.

McGreevy received his bachelor's in history from the University of Notre Dame and his master's and doctorate in history from Stanford University. He has taught at Valparaiso University and Harvard University, and currently serves as the dean of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame. The author of two books, McGreevy's "Parish Boundaries: The Catholic Encounter with Race in the 20th Century Urban North" was awarded the 1996 John Gilmary Shea Prize for best book on Catholic history from the American Catholic Historical Association.

The Fred L. Parrish Lecture Series is named in honor of Fred Louis Parrish, a former longtime history professor at K-State. The series features a biennial address by a leading figure in the field of religious history and continues Parrish's tradition of fostering the free exchange of ideas and insights in a communal setting. The lecture series replaced the Parrish Colloquium, which was established in 1984 by Parrish's daughter and son-in-law, Ethelinda Parrish Amos and Wendell Amos. It was created to honor Parrish's role in bringing lively discussion of history and religion in the Manhattan community.

Parrish earned his doctorate in the history of religion at Yale University in 1923, and served as head of the department of history, government and philosophy at K-State -- then known as Kansas State Agricultural College -- from 1942 until his retirement in 1958. He was well known on campus and in the Manhattan community as an avid conversationalist. Parrish was for many years the guiding light for the local Conversation Club, which met monthly to discuss and debate new creative and controversial ideas in religious history.

More information on McGreevy's lecture is available by contacting the K-State department of history at 785-532-6730.