Women and Catholicism
in the U.S.
Created by Dr. Kathleen Sprows Cummings.
Unit 1: Introduction: This unit will discuss
the invisibility of Catholic women in history, and introduce
strategies for their integration into historical narratives
of American Catholicism. We will also identify themes and
issues that we will return to in subsequent lectures.
Unit 2: Women Religious in American Life:
This unit will attempt to give an overview of women's religious
life in America, concentrating on the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. While it would be impossible to convey the astonishing
breadth and diversity of nuns' activities during this period,
particular women and congregations will be used to illuminate
themes and issues that are relevant to the broader experience.
Unit 3: Women in Family and Devotional
Life: Shifting the focus from women in religious communities,
this unit will view the experience of Catholic lay women
through the twin lenses of family and devotional life.
Unit 4: Transformations in Church and
Society: In this unit, we will explore how the twin developments--the
reforms of Vatican II and broader cultural change--shaped
the experience of American Catholic women in the 1960s and
beyond.
- Created by Notre Dame Professor.
- Five weeks in duration, with one week
for orientation.
- Typically 15-20 students in each course.
- Lectures delivered by video via web-streaming.
A CD-ROM of lecture also available for purchase.
- All lecture text available online in
text format.
- Supplemental readings are provided
to encourage further exploration of topic, internet links
provided for all readings.
- Weekly written assignments (150-200
words) required.
- Weekly facilitator-moderated chat sessions
with students in course.
- Facilitated by STEP Staff.
- All course materials available online
in the course.
Requirements for course include:
- Weekly viewing or reading of lecture
texts.
- Participation in class discussion using
discussion area (minimum 2 comments, questions or responses
weekly.)
- Weekly written assignment (150-200
words.)
- Weekly chat session with other students
in course (3 required throughout course.)
- Course evaluation.
- 3 to 5 hours a week (time varies from
student to student depending on your learning style and
schedule.)
A Certificate of Completion awarding 25
Contact Hours will be sent upon completion of all course
requirements.
This course offers an optional Supplemental
CD. While the video lectures for the course are available
in the course via webstreaming, Supplemental CDs containing
the video lectures can be purchased for viewing the lecture
without being connected to the Internet or for reviewing
the lecture after the course has ended.
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Dr. Cummings is the
Associate Director of the Cushwa Center for the Study
of American Catholicism at the University of Notre
Dame. Her teaching and research interests include
the history of American Catholicism and the history
of women and religion in the United States. She is
a member of the Young Scholars in American Religion
Program, sponsored by the Center for Religion and
American Culture, and will serve as local chair for
the next History of American Women Religious Triennial
Conference. Cummings is the editor of the Cushwa Center's
American Catholic Studies Newsletter, and
she has published articles and essays in the U.S.
Catholic Historian, American Catholic Studies,
Commonweal, and America. She is
presently at work on a manuscript, New Women of
the Old Faith: Gender and American Catholic Identity
in the Progressive Era, which will be published
by the University of North Carolina Press.
B.A. University of Scranton,
1989; M.A. University of Notre Dame, 1995; Ph.D. University
of Notre Dame, 1999
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