By Eileen Conrad

	Historian Ann Taves

Ann Taves, an internationally recognized historian of Christianity and of American religion, is the first scholar appointed to the Virgil Cordano Chair in Catholic Studies at UC Santa Barbara.

Taves recently joined the Religious Studies Department from the Claremont School of Theology and the Claremont Graduate University, where she had been a professor since 1993.

The endowed chair is named in honor of the Rev. Virgil Cordano, a Franciscan friar and former pastor of the St. Barbara Parish at the Santa Barbara Mission. He has devoted his life to promoting greater understanding of all religions and increased dialogue among them.

Catherine L. Albanese, who chairs UCSB’s Religious Studies Department, described Taves as a world-class scholar who brings a global vision to Catholic studies.

“Ann Taves sees Catholicism in terms of the history of Christianity and in terms of a global sense of its interactions on a variety of cultural fronts,” said Albanese. “She is a first-class historian, methodologically very innovative, and brings an exciting perspective to her agenda in Catholic studies.”

Taves holds an undergraduate degree in religion from Pomona College, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. Her most recent award-winning book was “Fits, Trances, and Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James” (Princeton University Press).

“Most Catholic studies programs have been established under Roman Catholic auspices at private universities, with a denominational theological cast to that scholarship that is not a good fit for the concerns of our department nor for a public university such as ours,” Albanese explained. “Ann brings a different set of questions and skills to the study of Catholicism.”

“In my teaching, I have done a lot of work in the global history of Christianity,” said Taves. “One thing that is so exciting and appealing about this position is to help develop a program in Catholic studies within a comparative religious studies framework that emphasizes historical, cultural, and ethnographic approaches.”

Taves is developing a series of undergraduate courses that will examine different aspects of the Roman Catholic Church as a global institution. One will focus on how it was established and how it defined itself; another will examine the way Catholic spirituality and practices have been shaped by other cultures and religious traditions.

Other courses will consider the Catholic Church in the modern era, and its role in American life, in particular.

David Marshall, dean of humanities and fine arts, said that “the endowment allows the department to develop lectures and programming in Catholic studies for the Santa Barbara community, in addition to educating students and contributing to scholarship.”