Meet the Fellows

Fellowships are awarded to scholars in the fields of history, spirituality, and pedagogy, among others, to facilitate the completion and/or publication of academic work related to the Society of Jesus.


2023鈥2024 Fellows


Francisco Mota, S.J.

Francisco Mota, S.J. of the Portuguese Province, is an IAJS Fellow. For the past seven years, he oversaw Brot茅ria 鈥 a Jesuit cultural center in downtown Lisbon. He also served as a parish priest, the Vice-President of Jesuit Refugee Service in Portugal, the President of a parish school, and a member of the Province鈥檚 Finance board.听听

Jes煤s Folgado, S.J.

Jesus Folgado-Garcia, is a visiting fellow at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies. He holds a ThD from the San Damaso Ecclesiastical University (Madrid,Spain). He is a professor at the Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University (Lima, Peru) and visiting professor at the San Damaso Ecclesiastical University. His research interests are liturgical and sacramental theology in the 15th-16th centuries and the history of evangelization in early globalization. He has developed the project 鈥淢eeting lines between Granada's Muslims and the indigenous religious traditions of East Asia and America鈥 at the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University (2022-2023). He is a researcher in the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project of the Ministry of Education of the People鈥檚 Republic of China: 鈥淭he Pacific Headquarters Route and the Diffusion and Influence of Chinese Artistic Objects in Latin America (16th-19th Century)." He has recently published the book Historia Contempor谩nea de la Iglesia en Am茅rica Latina (Editorial UNIR, 2023) where he deals with evangelization in Latin America and its connections with Asia.

Alessandro Corsi

Research Fellow, 2023-2024

Jose虂 M. Guibert, S.J., is the in-residence fellow at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, while he is also the Gasson Professor at Boston College for the year 2023-2024. He has served for ten years (2013-2023) as Rector (President) at the University of Deusto in Spain. He joins the Institute during his sabbatical, after 25 years on administrative assignments.He holds a Bachelor in Theology from the University of Deusto, an STL in Systematic Theology from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, an MBA in Higher Education Management from the Institute of Education (then at the University of London, now at UCL), and a doctorate in Industrial Engineering from the University of the Basque Country.In the past years he has written about Ignatian Leadership, with a special focus on the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, on Higher Education Management, and on St. Francis Xavier. At the Institute he will continue to do research on both St. Francis Xavier and Ignatian Leadership.

Thierry Meynard, S.J.

Research Fellow, 2024

Thierry Meynard, S.J.,听is a visiting fellow at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies. He is currently professor and PhD director at the philosophy department of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, where he teaches Western Philosophy and Latin Classics. He is the vice-director of the Archive for Introduction of Western Knowledge, at Sun Yat-Sen University. In 2012-2014, he was also the director of The Beijing Center for Chinese Studies, a study program established by the Jesuits in 1998. In 2003, he obtained his PhD in Philosophy from Peking University, presenting a thesis on Liang Shuming. From 2003 to 2006, he taught philosophy at Fordham University, New York. Since 2006, he is a member of the Macau Ricci Institute. He has authored twenty academic articles and a dozen of essays.


Past Fellows


Alessandro Corsi

Institute Fellow, 2023-2024

Silvia Notarfonso听(PhD Universit脿 degli Studi di Macerata, E枚tv枚s Lor谩nd University) is using her fellowship to work on the edition and translation into English of the unpublished autobiography of Giulio Mancinelli (1537-1618), who established the first Jesuit mission in Constantinople.

Alessandro Corsi

Institute Fellow, 2023-2024

Sergio Gadea听is a priest of the Society of Jesus (SJ). He is currently pursuing his doctoral degree in Philosophy at the Hochschule f眉r Philosophie in Munich. His project focuses on the thought of the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor and his use of the concept of 'agape'. Using his work, the main focus is to explore how the recovery of Christian resources can help to address some contemporary problems, such as disputes about recognition, the foundations of altruism or the dialogue in societies between individuals with different backgrounds and perspectives on life. Sergio Gadea has studied Philosophy and Theology at the Universidad Pontificia "Comillas" in Madrid.

Alessandro Corsi

Research Fellow, Spring 2022

Alessandro Corsi听(Ph.D. 鈥淯niversit脿 Cattolica del Sacro Cuore鈥 of Milan) specializes in qualitative and quantitative historical analysis of听Ancien R茅gime听social structures, observed through the lens of digital tools.

During his semester fellowship at the Institute, Corsi will continue the development of a database based on听Triennales听and听Breves registration catalogs听of the Old Society, which he started during his postdoctoral research held at Fondazione 1563 between 2019鈥2021 (,听Fondazione 1563 per l鈥橝rte e la Cultura della Compagnia di San Paolo, Torino 2022).

Jose M. Cruz, S.J.

Research Fellow, Spring 2022

Jose M. Cruz, S.J.听(Ph.D. Cornell University) has served as Vice President for University and Global Relations at Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. He joins the Institute during his sabbatical, after 21 years on administrative assignments.听

During his time at the Institute, Cruz will be researching the transfer of leadership of the Philippine Mission from the Aragon Province to the Maryland-New York Province, in the years 1921鈥1927 and onwards. In addition, Cruz will be researching the experience of the Aragon Province Jesuits in their new assignment, the Bombay Mission. With the large narrative written up, he is focusing now on the experience of the Spanish and American Jesuits, who needed an extended period in order for them to work with each other productively.

Claudio Ferlan

Research Fellow Fall 2019; 2021-2022

Claudio Ferlan (Ph.D. University of Trieste) is a full-time researcher at the Fondazione Bruno Kessler in Trento, Italy, where he is also working as听.听

Ferlan was a fellow at the Institute for a semester in 2019 to conduct research on the food history of the Society of Jesus in the early modern Atlantic world.听He returns to the IAJS in the Spring 2022 semester to complete a project that will lead to the publication of a handbook of Jesuit history from Ignatius to Bergoglio with听.听

Sonia Isidori

Research Fellow, Fall 2021; Institute Fellow, 2020-2021

Sonia Isidori (Ph.D. University of Naples "L'Orientale")听held a two-semester fellowship at the Institute during the 2020鈥2021 academic year. She worked on the听, especially on the letters written during the long generalate of Muzio Vitelleschi (1615鈥1645). Through these letters, Dr. Isidori explored the Jesuit reactions to the creation of the Congregation "De Propaganda Fide" (1622) and the Jesuit vocation to martyrdom during the Sicilian plague of 1624鈥26.

She returns to the Institute for the Fall of 2021 to continue her work with the Digital Indipetae Database. 听See the first Digital Indipetae Newsletter for more information about their works.

Chris Collins

Research Fellow, Fall 2020

Fr. Christopher Collins, S.J.听(Ph.D., Boston College) held a semester fellowship with the Institute, where he completed his latest book with Ave Maria Press, titled听Habits of Freedom. He now serves as the Vice President for Mission at the University of Saint Thomas in Minnesota.

Robert Gerlich, S.J.

Research Fellow, Fall 2020

Rev. Robert S. Gerlich, S.J.听(Ph.D., Saint Louis University) held a one semester fellowship at the Institute, where he worked on translating and evaluating a new biography of St. Ignatius by Enrique Garc铆a Hern谩n. He now works as an associate editor for the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies.

Louise Rice

Research Fellow, Fall 2020

Louise Rice听(Ph.D., Columbia University) held a semester fellowship with the Institute where she prepared听a typological and cultural history of Roman thesis prints and the festive academic context for which they were made. Thesis prints, or "conclusions" as they were usually called in the seventeenth-century, are elaborate dedicatory images commissioned to decorate the thesis broadsheets of students undergoing a public academic defense at a college or university.听

Christoph Sander听(Ph.D.,听Technische Universit盲t Berlin) was a postdoctoral researcher at the Bibliotheca Hertziana (Max Planck Institute for Art History, Rome) when he came to the Institute. He devoted his semester fellowship to preparing a digital edition of a sixteenth-century Italian manuscript, which contains the first monographic treatise on magnetism and was written by the Jesuit, Leonardo Garzoni (1543-1592).

Hilmar Pabel

Research Fellow, Fall 2019

Hilmar Pabel听(Ph.D., Yale University) was a Professor of History at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada when he used his fellowship to finish chapters of his book on the literary career of Peter Canisius. His semester's research focused on Canisius鈥 polemical treatises on St. John the Baptist and the Blessed Virgin Mary, available in a 1583 edition at Boston College鈥檚 Burns Library.

Marco Rochini

Institute Fellow, 2019-2020

Marco Rochini (Ph.D.,听Universit脿 Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano) held a two-semester fellowship at the Institute. He used his time both to coordinate听the launch of the Digital Indipetae Database and to finish a book project on the first indipetae written during the "New" Society of Jesus, providing historical context of the Jesuit petitions appearing in the open-access database.

Andrew Barrette

Institute Fellow, 2019-2020

Andrew Barrette (Ph.D., Southern Illinois University Carbondale) held a two-semester fellowship at the Institute.听 At the Institute, Barrette researched Jesuits in Leuven at the turn to the 20th century, focusing especially on Joseph Mar茅chal and Pierre Scheuer. Along with editing some of their work, he prepared further research into the missionary and ecumenical work of the students of this school.

Laura Madella

Research Fellow, Spring 2019

Laura Madella听(Ph.D., Universit脿 Roma Tre) came to the Institute while serving as a research assistant at Universit脿 degli Studi di Parma. She used her fellowship at the Institute to research the Jesuits' triennial catalogs, which recorded information about every Jesuit since the 16th century.

Emanuele Colombo

Research Fellow, Fall 2018

Emanuele Colombo听(Ph.D., University of Milan and Padua) is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Catholic Studies at DePaul University. Dr. Colombo used his fellowship at the Institute to begin work on a digital database of the indipetae, those letters written by Jesuits to the Superior General of the Society of Jesus to apply for the missions overseas.

Aislinn Muller

Institute Fellow, 2018-2019

Aislinn Muller听(Ph.D., University of Cambridge) wrote her doctoral dissertation on the papal excommunication and deposition of Queen Elizabeth I in 1570. While at the Institute, she wrote about the political and religious implications of Queen Elizabeth鈥檚 excommunication for the Jesuit missions and began a new project that examines the role of material culture in those missions to early modern England.

Peter Nguyen, SJ

Research Fellow, Spring 2018

Peter Nguyen, S.J.,听(Ph.D., St. Michael鈥檚 College, University of Toronto) came to the Institute as an Assistant Professor of Theology at Creighton University. He used his fellowship to write a book on the writings and theology of Alfred Delp.

Elisa Frei

Institute Fellow, 2017-2018

Elisa Frei听(Ph.D., Universit脿 degli Studi di Udine) worked with Simon Ditchfield at the Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies at the University of York before coming to the Institute. She used to her fellowship to develop doctoral dissertation into a monographic-length publication and to write several articles.

Barbara Ganson

Research Fellow, Spring 2017

Barbara Ganson听(Ph.D., University of Texas-Austin) came to the Institute as a Professor of History and Director of Caribbean and Latin American Studies at Florida Atlantic University. She used her fellowship at the Institute to complete a new English translation and edited volume of Antonio Ruiz de Montoya鈥檚 Conquista espiritual hecha por los religiosos de la Compa帽铆a de Jes煤s en las provincias del Paraguay, Paran谩, Uruguay y Tape (1639), .

Francisco Malta Romeiras

Research Fellow, Fall 2017

Francisco Malta Romeiras听(Ph.D., Universidade de Lisboa) used his fellowship at the Institute to complete a book on Jesuit science and education in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He also wrote an essay on the history of the Society of Jesus in Portugal, from the sixteenth century to present times.

Eugenio Menegon

Research Fellow, Fall 2016

Jeffrey Muller听(Ph.D., Yale University) came to the Institute as a Professor of History of Art and Architecture at Brown University. He used his fellowship to research the Jesuits' global strategy of accommodation and to write a historiographical essay on Jesuit visual culture, which is

Cinthia Gannett

Research Fellow, Fall 2015

Cinthia Gannett听(Ph.D., University of New Hampsire) came to the Institute as an Associate Professor of English and Director of Core Writing at Fairfield University. She used her fellowship to research on a historiography essay on Jesuit rhetoric.

Charles Keenan

Institute Fellow, 2015-2016

Charles Keenan听(Ph.D., Northwestern University) used his fellowship at the Institute to complete a translation and annotated edition of The Exercise of a Christian Life (Esercitio della vita christiana, 1557), a devotional treatise written by Gaspar Loarte, S.J., which is . He also wrote a historiographical essay on Jesuit devotional literature, which is