Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies: Jesuit Studies Café

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The Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies and its collaborating partners 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. This season's discussions will discuss the history and spirituality of the Society of Jesus. These discussions – hosted by the Institute over coffee and available via Zoom videoconference on the indicated Thursdays monthly – are unique opportunities to learn more about the newest and most interesting scholarship in Jesuit Studies. If you have any questions, please contact the Institute (iajs@bc.edu). 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. The Jesuit Studies Café listing for the Fall 2026 semester goes as follows: Thursday, October 22 Natale Vacalebre, University of Alcalá, Spain God's Arsenal: The Libraries of the Society of Jesus in the Early Modern Age (1540–1773) Zoom | 9:20 a.m.–10am (U.S. Eastern, UTC-4) | 3:20 p.m., Rome 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. Thursday, November 19 Fr. Sam Conedera, S.J., St. Louis University, United States Son of Ignatius, Son of Israel: Pedro de Ribadeneyra Zoom | 9:20 a.m.–10am (U.S. Eastern, UTC-5) | 3:20 p.m., Rome The Jesuit author and administrator Pedro de Ribadeneyra (1526–1611) spent his life articulating a vision of his order’s identity centered 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. Thursday, December 17 Silvia Eleonora Brera, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Italy From Mission to Local Church: The Jesuits in the Rhodesias (1939–1958) Zoom | 9:20 a.m.–10am (U.S. Eastern, UTC-5) | 3:20 p.m., Rome This talk presents part of an ongoing PhD 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 education and the formation of local clergy, it examines the transition from mission to the local Church.