Save the Date | Imagine Something Else: Communities, Creativity, Resistance

The 2026 ACFT Conference program includes The Annual Janette Gray RSM Lecture delivered by Dr Mary Kate Holman. A celebration of the first decade of ACFT, and launch of the 2027 ACFT Art Exhibition based on the theme of this years’ conference, “Imagine Something Else: Communities, Creativity, Resistance.

Dr Mary Kate Holman is a scholar of contemporary Catholic theology. She holds a BA from Georgetown University, an MTS from Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry, and a PhD from Fordham University. Prior to her arrival at Fairfield, Dr. Holman was Assistant Professor of Theology at Benedictine University in the suburbs of Chicago. Dr. Holman’s teaching interests include Feminist Theology, Ignatian Spirituality, Vatican II, and Spirituality & Social Justice. Her research interests encompass Ecclesiology, Nouvelle Théologie, Marie-Dominique Chenu, Vatican II, and Feminist Theology.

Dr. Holman will publish Marie-Dominique Chenu and the Signs of the Times through University of Notre Dame Press in 2025. She published an English translation of Chenu’s Saulchoir: A School of Theology with Joseph Komonchak in 2023. Dr. Holman’s writing has appeared in the Journal of Jesuit Higher Education, Theological Studies, and Commonweal.

In a time marked by intersecting crises, narratives of disaster and nevertheless deep possibilities, we invite fresh perspectives to enact and sustain hope and courage.

Where and why does hope flourish? What sustains commitment and resistance in times of trial? What space can be made for dissonance and dissent? How do people engage and encourage others of like mind and heart? What resources can we find in our contexts and traditions? How do communities cultivate creative practices of transformation? To what are we called?

Please see our call for abstracts and save the date. More details to follow.