The Harvard Catholic Forum offers non-credit courses, public lectures, reading groups, sacred music events, and other programs in which the Catholic intellectual and cultural tradition engages the academy, the professions, and the arts. Student Fellows have a special involvement in the Forum: they join a lively intellectual community, may undertake educational projects with the Forum’s support or further our mission through outreach, and are invited to smaller, informal gatherings with Catholic scholars, scientists, prelates and public intellectuals.
Most Fellows are current students at Harvard (College, FAS, or the professional schools), but current students from other area universities, as well as post-docs, are welcome to apply. Fellows are Catholic or seriously considering becoming Catholic, for example by joining OCIA. The target number of Fellows is fifteen to twenty, although there may be somewhat more or fewer. See here for current and recent Fellows.
FELLOWS RECEIVE
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Invitations to dinners, lunches, or coffee with program speakers and other faculty, including distinguished scholars, scientists, and prelates, typically about six per year (e.g., recently, columnist Ross Douthat, Biblical scholar Jon Levenson, art historian Caroline Bruzelius, theologian Thomas Joseph White OP, Archbishop Borys Gudziak, historian of science Katya Krause).
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Invitations to periodic Fellows-only gatherings, typically dinners, currently six per year, offering intellectual friendship with others devoted to Catholic intellectual life. Spouses and fiancé(s) are invited to these gatherings.
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Early notice of opportunities from the Forum and other institutes offering programs in the Catholic tradition (including summer offerings) through regular communications from the Executive Director or Program Manager
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Facilities, planning , outreach/networking, and food to support Fellows forming groups or developing programs programs around a common interest.
Fellows Commitments
Fellows are required to attend the Foundational Seminar, which takes place on a Saturday in September, to gather as a community, study a foundational text, learn about the Forum’s mission, and discuss the place of the Catholic intellectual and cultural tradition in the secular university.
Fellows commit to attend a minimum number of the Forum’s public offerings, typically at least four lectures, workshops, or sacred music programs, plus at least one semester program (which may be a group organized by the Fellow).
Fellows commit to undertake at least one project, sketched out in the application, consistent with their fields of interest, talents, and goals, as well as with the Forum’s mission. Projects are of two types:
1. AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM, for which the Forum provides venue, announcements, meals/receptions, registration, and books/ honoraria as applicable. Examples:
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A reading group, proposed and facilitated by 1-2 Fellows typically meeting 4-7 times; 10-15 participants read and discuss a work or selections (recently, a selection of texts in Catholic Social Thought, Cervantes’ Don Quixote, readings on Catholic-Jewish relations, Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility ).
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An ongoing discussion group focused on a particular area of interest, organized and facilitated by 1-2 Fellows and supported/sponsored by the Forum (recently, a discussion group on Neuroscience and the Embodied Person, and the ongoing theology discussions of the Ratzinger Memorial Society)
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Planning and organizational support for an invited speaker in a field of interest to the Fellow, usually including a lunch/dinner and reception (e.g., the visit by Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda).
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Instruction in an area where the Fellow has competence (recently, a Choral Singing Workshop and a full-year Introduction to Christian Latin).
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Presentation of research/thesis that engages the Catholic tradition, typically one session with talk, Q&A/conversation, and refreshments (recently, undergraduate thesis presentations on Orestes Brownson and masters’ thesis presentation on scholarship in Greek religion)
Fellows are welcome to propose other programs in a variety of formats touching on dimensions of the Catholic tradition, e.g., in science, philosophy, literature and the arts, music, history, medicine and psychology, law, or public policy.
Fellows work out in advance with the Forum the criteria for participation in the Fellow’s program, which may be student-only, undergraduate-only, or general audience. Fellows may and indeed are encouraged to propose programs co-sponsored with other organizations such as university chaplaincies and related groups, departments/institutes, or student clubs/groups of various kinds.
2. STRUCTURED OUTREACH TO A PARTICULAR AUDIENCE. This role supports the Forum’s mission through organizational efforts and outreach: to an existing Catholic student organization; or to students/faculty, whether Catholic or non-Catholic, within a university interest group (as in area studies, music, or the arts) or in one of the graduate or professional schools. The Fellow would expand and deepen the Forum’s presence with this audience, and draw participants to Forum events, by some combination that may include emailing to a particular list, social media, postering, announcement at meetings and/or liturgies, having the group co-sponsor events with the Forum, and word of mouth. Once the outreach project is defined, the Forum will provide marketing materials on a timely basis.
COMPOSITION OF THE FELLOWS GROUP
The Fellows are a diverse group in their interests and disciplines. They are a mix of undergraduate and graduate students, and some post-docs. As a target, somewhat less than half the group may be committed primarily to an outreach project; the majority is mainly committed to an educational program. Fellows are welcome and encouraged to propose both kinds of projects if they are able and willing to do so.
This Fellows community is supported by a grant from the Lumen Christi Institute with funding through John Templeton Grant #63614 from the John Templeton Foundation.
SOME COMMENTS FROM FELLOWS
JACOB GENUALDI AB'26
Fellow 2023-24 & 2024-25
“The opportunity to be an HCF fellow as a truly defining aspect of my time at Harvard. In my two years as a fellow, the chance to meet with fantastic speakers, lead a reading group, and build relationships with other fellows enabled a deepening of my faith that I continue to cherish after graduation.”
SOFIA CAROZZA
Postdoctoral Fellow 2024-25
“My experience with the Harvard Catholic Forum as a postdoctoral fellow was deeply enriching. The Forum supported a project that convened scholars from different disciplines to seek a deeper understanding of the human person in light of neuroscience, a unique space that instantiated the original purpose of the university. Beyond this particular initiative, the opportunity to learn from and share in friendship with other Catholics in academia was both personally and intellectually nourishing.”
JORDAN VANDERPOOL PHD'28
Fellow 2024-25 & 2025-26
“As a PhD student in literature, my passion is to help others read books well. HCF has given me a unique opportunity to put this passion to use and guide others through complex works of poetry and fiction in the collective search for wisdom and understanding.”