Kenneth L Parker | Duquesne University (original) (raw)

Kenneth Parker was named to the Ryan Endowed Chair for Newman Studies at Duquesne University in the spring of 2017. More information on this appointment can be found at: http://www.duq.edu/news/duquesne-taps-national-newman-scholar-as-new-ryan-endowed-chair

Parker assumed the role of Interim Executive Director of the National Institute for Newman Studies (NINS) for 2016-2017, and has been on leave from his position as Steber Professor in Theological Studies in the Department of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University. ​NINS is a private residential research library devoted to the study of John Henry Newman, and affiliated with Duquesne University. As Interim Executive Director, Professor Parker manages the physical and digital library of the institute, oversees the development of the digitization of John Henry Newman's archive, located at the Birmingham Oratory in Birmingham, England. He also functions as Editor-in-Chief of the Newman Studies Journal and manages the institute's Scholars Program. Implementing the Duquesne University/NINS reaffiliation agreement (May 2016), is a key priority for his interim role.

Professor Parker completed his PhD under the direction of Eamon Duffy at Cambridge University, and began his study of John Henry Newman during post-doctoral studies at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. ​His research interests include Newman's understanding of doctrinal development and its reception by historians and theologians, nineteenth-century debates over authority in the Catholic Church, and the rise of historical consciousness in the Christian tradition.

Professor Parker ​has ​received awards ​for undergraduate teaching and graduate mentoring​. In 2007 he founded a college-in-prison program which provides higher education for both incarcerated students and prison staff members at a maximum security prison. He continues to advocate for higher education in prisons.

​Because of his familiarity with the Birmingham Oratory Archives, he will be exploring the digital humanities applications needed for NINS' digitization of Newman's archival collection, and the cataloguing of the 238,000 images of the physical archives in Birmingham.

​In his editorial oversight of the Newman Studies Journal, ​Professor ​Parker hopes to attract articles that reflect Newman's wide ranging intellectual influence, in the fields of theology, history, philosophy, literature, educational theory, and much more. In conjunction with digitization projects of the National Institute for Newman Studies, he also hopes that annotated and critically introduced transcriptions of hitherto inaccessible Newman material can be made available to scholars and interested readers.
Address: Department of Theology
Fisher Hall 614A
Duquesne University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15282

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