Recent Research Grants
As an example, recent research grants awarded through our program include:
In 2018, Gabrielle Guillerm, a doctoral candidate at Northwestern University, was awarded funding to complete research on her dissertation “French Catholicism and the Early U.S. Catholic Church, ca. 1790-1860.” In studying the origins and spread of the Sisters of Charity of St Joseph’s, the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, and the Ladies of Charity, Ms. Guillerm hopes to trace the transformation and depth of French Catholic influences on the U.S. Catholic Church. Publication of her manuscript, as well as several articles, are the anticipated outcome.
In 2017, John Harney, Ph.D., was awarded funding to conduct intensive research on the China Missions of the American Provinces of the Congregation of the Mission between 1921 and 1951 in Mainland China, and in the years following 1951 in Taiwan. He plans to produce a monograph that situates the American Vincentians at the center of a historical analysis of Sino-American relations from the 1920s until normalization of relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China in 1979.
Meghan Clark, Ph.D., was also awarded funding in 2017 in order to produce “Charity Embraces Justice for Women and Girls: A Case Study of the Daughters of Charity in East Africa.” She planned to examine the work of the D.C.’s in East Africa through the lens of Catholic social teaching’s understanding of integral human development, charity, and justice. Dr. Clark anticipates publishing several articles as a result of her research.
In 2016, the V.S.I. approved one grant, doctoral candidate Edward Gray was awarded funding in order to travel to France and conduct research in numerous archives on “The Marillac: Family Strategy, Religion, and Diplomacy in the Making of the French State during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.” His aim is to produce a manuscript that examines the Marillac and explains the importance of the interaction of familial alliances, religion, and diplomacy.
Recent Grant Outcomes
As an example, several notable recent outcomes from our grant program include:
A 2014 two-year research grant to Sean Smith, Ph.D., Research Fellow at University College Dublin, awarded to study the rise of the Congregation of the Mission in eighteenth-century France, aided in producing several articles, including “Succeeding the Jesuits: The Congregation of the Mission and the Colégio da Purificação in Evora.” A monograph is also underway provisionally entitled: Succeeding the Jesuits: Politics, Piety and the Congregation of the Mission in eighteenth-century Europe.
In 2013, a grant to Thomas A. Maier, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the School of Management, University of San Francisco, in order to collect and edit research papers from a wide variety of sources on Vincent de Paul’s connection to hospitality, led to the special publication of: Vincentian Heritage 33,1: Vincentian Hospitality
A 2012 research grant to Raymond L. Sickinger, Ph.D., of the Department of History, Providence College, in order to pursue research into the life, legacy, and lessons of Frédéric Ozanam, produced the 2017 biography: Antoine Frédéric Ozanam
In 2011, a four-year grant to Matthieu Brejon de Lavergnée, Ph.D., Lecturer in Contemporary History at the Sorbonne, to help fund his study of the history of the Daughters of Charity, led to the 2016 publication: Le temps des cornettes: Histoire des Filles de la Charité, XIXe-XXe siècle
Also in 2011, a grant to Catherine O’Donnell, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History at Arizona State University, in order to study Elizabeth Seton’s conversion and early years of life, helped produce the 2018 publication: Elizabeth Seton: American Saint
A 2009 research grant to Alison McQueen, Ph.D., Professor of Art History at McMaster University, in order to study the interconnections between Daughters of Charity and Empress Eugénie, led to the 2011 publication of Empress Eugénie and the Arts: Politics and Visual Culture in the Nineteenth Century