The MacTaggart Catholic Intellectual Tradition Lecture Series
St. Mary’s University welcomes you to a free, annual lectures series that engages the Catholic Intellectual Tradition – a tradition at the heart of the educational enterprises at St. Mary’s.
Glenn MacTaggart (J.D. ’79, M.A. ’89), longtime attorney and counsel with Prichard Hawkins Young LLP, and his wife, Karla MacTaggart, gave a major gift to St. Mary’s University to create the MacTaggart Catholic Intellectual Tradition Lecture Series Endowment.
The lecture series is a cornerstone of the Center for Catholic Studies which is a result of the University’s Defining Moment Comprehensive Campaign.
The Catholic Intellectual Tradition for Our World Today
The Spring 2025 lectures focus on aspects of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition that can be helpful for addressing issues or problems we, as a society, are facing. Our speakers will focus on three areas through a constructive lens — Community, Law and the Environment.
Upcoming Speakers
Community
Featuring Jonathan Tran, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Faculty and Associate Professor of Theology in Great Texts, Baylor UniversityTuesday, Feb. 25, 2025
7 p.m.
University Center, Mengler Conference RoomTran will focus on the need humans have for community and relationships, and the forces that seem to be dividing and isolating people.
About the Speaker
Jonathan Tran, Ph.D., is a Christian theologian based at Baylor University in Waco. He is the Associate Dean for Faculty in the Honors College and Associate Professor for Theology within the Great Texts program. His research focuses on the human life in language, and what that life reveals about God and God’s world. He is the author of Asian Americans and the Spirit of Racial Capitalism.
Law
Featuring Richard Garnett, J.D.
Paul J. Schierl/Fort Howard Corp. Professor of Law
Concurrent Professor of Political Science
Director, Program on Church, State and Society, University of Notre DameWednesday, April 2, 2025
7 p.m.
University Center, Mengler Conference RoomGarnett will focus on religious freedom, on religion having too much influence over society and law, and people’s religious freedom being curtailed by society and law.
About the Speaker
Richard W. Garnett, J.D., teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, criminal law, the First Amendment, and law and religion. He is a leading authority on questions and debates regarding religious freedom and church-state relations and is the founding director of Notre Dame Law School’s Program on Church, State and Society. Garnett clerked for the late Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court William H. Rehnquist, and for the late Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, Richard S. Arnold. He earned his Doctorate of Jurisprudence from Yale Law School in 1995 and his Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude, from Duke University in 1990. He joined the faculty at the University of Notre Dame in 1999 after practicing law in Washington, D.C., with Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin.
Environment
Featuring Amanda Baugh, Ph.D.
Professor and Associate Chair of Religious Studies and Director of the Master’s Program in Sustainability, California State University, NorthridgeWednesday, April 16, 2025
7 p.m.
University Center, Mengler Conference RoomBaugh will draw on her recently published book Falling in Love with Nature: The Values of Latinx Catholic Environmentalism (NYU Press, 2024), drawing out some of its religious themes and how they contribute to a better understanding of environmentalism.
About the Speaker
Amanda Baugh, Ph.D., is a scholar of the environmental humanities working at the intersection of religion, race and environmental justice. She is Professor and Associate Chair of Religious Studies and Director of the Masters Program in Sustainability at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). Baugh’s research on overlooked environmental actors stems from conversations with her students at CSUN, a Hispanic-Serving Institution in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley that serves many first-generation college students from working-class, immigrant communities.
Nancy Rourke, Ph.D.
The Future of Catholic Intellectual Tradition from a Laudato Si’ Perspective
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Victor Carmona, Ph.D.
The Future of Catholic Intellectual Tradition from a Hispanic Perspective
Thursday, March 7, 2024
Timothy R. Gabrielli, Ph.D.
The Future of Catholic Intellectual Tradition from a Marianist Perspective
Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024