The Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies (IAJS) at Boston College, Massachusetts is a premier research institute for the study of Jesuit history as well as its spirituality, pedagogy and heritage. Founded in 2014, the IAJS succeeded the Institute of Jesuit Sources (instituted in St. Louis in 1961) that had long established itself as among the foremost Jesuit institutions publishing primary sources and research tools on the Jesuits in the English language. The IAJS builds on this Jesuit academic tradition through its publications, symposia, workshops and digital projects.
Programmes
- The International Symposia on Jesuit Studies is an annual conference on Jesuit Studies across the disciplines. The conference facilitates an exchange of ideas between a global community of scholars and later makes them available to a wider academic readership through an open access publication. The 2020 International Symposium on Jesuit Studies entitled “Engaging the World: The Jesuits and Their Presence in Global History” will be held in Lisbon.
- The annual Feore Family Lecture Series on Jesuit Studies held at Boston College invites leading scholars within Jesuit Studies to present their research at the university. Alongside, the IAJS also presentS the George E Ganss SJ Award that recognises a scholar’s contribution to scholarship to Jesuit Studies.
- Besides the lecture series, the IAJS also hosts the Jesuit Studies Café, an online discussion series (rendered through Zoom video conferencing) with leading scholars working on the Jesuits. (For updates on the Jesuit Studies Café, please follow the twitter handle @JesuitPortal of the IAJS.)
- The IAJS offers a Certificate in Jesuit Studies programme through a series of on-campus and online academic courses, leadership seminars and an immersion programme where participants are invited to deepen their understanding of the history, spirituality, pedagogy and leadership heritage of the Society of Jesus.
- Ever to Excel is a Jesuit leadership programme for high school students that invites a diverse set of students to reflect on Jesuit spirituality while also enabling them to live their lives on campus.
- The Retreat Workshops focus on training MDiv students of theology in preparing and delivering the Spiritual Exercises.
Research
- The IAJS advances research in Jesuit Studies by supporting research, translation and publication of Jesuit Sources — which include primary texts and sources as well as academic scholarship related to the Jesuits.
- The fellowship programme of the IAJS welcomes In-Residence Fellows either through a year-long (September-May) Institute Fellowship appointment or a semester-long Senior Research Fellowship appointment. These fellowships are meant to facilitate research and publication of academic work related to the Society of Jesus. Apply here.
- Similarly, the IAJS welcomes Collaborative Scholars from across the globe, either at the IAJS or at their home institutions, collaborating with the Institute on projects related to Jesuit Studies.
Digital Projects
The open access Digital Projects of the IAJS offer a range of resources on Jesuit scholarship that are freely accessible, while also inviting scholars and institutions to collaborate.
- With the launching of the Portal to Jesuit Studies www.jesuitportal.bc.edu — an online open access database of primary texts and academic publications — the IAJS has made scholarship on Jesuit Studies far more accessible. Moreover, the portal is a collaborative effort that invites scholars, archivists and other stakeholders to participate in the project. The IAJS invites collaborators to this project.
- In 2019, the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies together with the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu in Rome and the Jesuitica Project at the KU Leuven launched a joint collaborative bibliographic project — the Jesuit Online Bibliography, now integrated within the Portal to Jesuit Studies. This bibliographic project is an open access multilingual — in nearly 50 languages — database of scholarship on the Jesuits. The Jesuit Online Bibliography is supported by a global network of voluntary scholars who along with Jesuit archives and research centres regularly contribute new citations and links to abstracts, journal articles, book chapters, monographs, dissertations and other allied material related to Jesuit Studies. If you would like to be a contributor to the bibliographic project, please do write to the project editors: jesuitonlinebibliography@bc.edu
- The IAJS launched the Jesuit Historiography Online in 2016 that provides an open access resource of thematic essays on the history of the Society of Jesus. The project is hosted with Brill Publishers.
Over the last few years, the IAJS along with its various programmes, research network, and its digital projects and publications has emerged as among the leading centres for Jesuit Studies.
Contact
Boston College
Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies
140 Commonwealth Avenue
Simboli Hall
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
USA
Phone: +1-617.552.2568
Fax: +1-617.552.2575
iajs@bc.edu
Twitter: @JesuitPortal
Rinald D’Souza
25 September 2019