Jay P. Dolan Professor Emeritus of History  460 Decio Hall  (574) 631-6647  fax: (574) 631-4717  email: dolan.1@nd.edu

Greetings - I have been on the faculty at the University of Notre Dame since 1971. Previously I taught at the University of San Francisco, my first academic appointment after I received my PhD from the University of Chicago. While at Notre Dame I founded the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism in 1975 and was the director of the Center until 1993. To learn more about me and what I have done over the years, you can consult my vita.

As a member of the Department of History, I taught both undergraduate and graduate students. Though I taught courses in a variety of areas, my field of specialty was American Catholic history. I have published a number of books in this field. My most recent book was In Search of an American Catholicism: A History of Religion and Culture in Tension, published by Oxford University Press in 2002. It is an interpretive study of the relationship between Catholicism and American culture over the course of the past two hundred years. I have also written a general history entitled The American Catholic Experience: A History from Colonial Times to the Present. Published in 1985 it is regarded as the standard history of American Catholicism. Originally published by Doubleday, it is presently available in paperback from the University of Notre Dame Press. Both of these books as well as others can also be purchased through Amazon.com.

I am currently a professor emeritus. Though no longer teaching I am still writing. My most recent publication was an essay on Catholicism in the Midwest, entitled “A Different Breed of Catholics.” It was published in a volume on Religion and Public Life in the Midwest, (eds.) Philip Barlow and Mark Silk. At Notre Dame I taught a course on the Irish American experience for more than fifteen years. Using this as a basis I am writing a history of Irish America. This should be completed in 2007 and will appear in print with Bloomsbury Press sometime in 2008 or 2009. Be sure to check it out, it promises to be the definitive history of the Irish Americans.