(BALTIMORE, Md.) – A book detailing Notre Dame of Maryland University’s first 100 years won the 2022 Distinguished Book Award at the Conference on the History of Women Religious last month.
Pursuing Truth: How Gender Shaped Catholic Education at the College of Notre Dame by Sister Mary Oates depicts the perseverance of the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) foundresses to establish the nation’s first Catholic college to award women a four-year degree. Published in March 2021 by Cornell University Press, the meticulously researched book examines the University’s rich heritage and SSND legacy.
The conference, hosted by the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, presents the Distinguished Book Award every three years to honor outstanding research and scholarship. The award’s citation praises Pursuing Truth, saying it “explores the nuanced complexity of founding and sustaining a Catholic women’s college” and “reminds the Catholic community and academic scholars of the cultural and academic importance of Catholic women’s colleges in the history of American Catholicism.”
Pursuing Truth artfully weaves together the narratives of pioneering Catholic women educators and administrators who taught generations of students, guided the institution’s development, started one of the first weekend colleges in the nation and grew its identity as a Catholic liberal arts college. It celebrates the fortitude of the women who laid a solid foundation for today’s Notre Dame of Maryland University with flourishing undergraduate, master’s and doctoral programs.
Established in 1895, Notre Dame of Maryland University (NDMU) is a private, Catholic institution in Baltimore, Maryland, with the mission to educate leaders to transform the world. Notre Dame has been named one of the best "Regional Universities North" by U.S. News & World Report.
Julia Campagna, director of mission and ministry at NDMU, discusses both the history of All Saints' Day and how the holiday is recognized on campus in this USA TODAY feature article.
