Rufus Burnett describes himself as a “convert” to the study of theology. “I completed my undergraduate degree in biology at Xavier University, but I was deeply affected by the intro to theology course I took from Fr. Phillip Linden [Ph.D, S.T.D.] as a requirement in my first year. In fact,” he explains, “that course had a Notre Dame connection — the book for the course was by Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation.”

“There was so much that I identified with in Gutierrez’s words about the eruption of the poor in history. I was just enamored with his explanation of how poverty in Latin America came into existence and what that had to do with God and Christianity. It kind of jarred me from the sort of Christianity that I had been practicing up to that point, where you go to church, you do the rituals, but you never ask yourself ‘how does Christianity relate to larger political issues like poverty, gender, race, or class?’”

Connecting Theology to Music

After receiving an M.A. in religious studies, Burnett returned to his passion for liberation theology for his Ph.D. “I was looking for a connection, a cultural parallel, between the experience of indigenous people in Latin America that Gutierrez was talking about and the African experience in North America. I asked myself ‘What is the cultural center of African American Christian life?’ and I started looking at all the music: spirituals, gospel, jazz, and — the blues. This is the ‘stock’ that the African American imagination of the divine is cooked in.”

“I think the ‘blues people’ are people who were pushed to the margins of life as the black middle class moved toward access to mainstream civic life. The problem then is that those people claim they are the representatives of what it means to be a Christian, they define faith, religion, and culture. And the blues people say ‘no, no, no … we have our own culture, our own history.’ There was very real risk in taking that position.”

In his work, Burnett found a fundamental question for himself. “How was this religion that was used to enslave my ancestors something they also found meaning in to free themselves?”

“For me, this isn’t armchair theology; it’s the question of how is hope produced. I think we’re still in a crisis of hope and it’s getting increasingly difficult to speak across the identities we’ve created for ourselves. It takes courage to speak across divides and blues people are examples of this courage — that’s why I like to think of my theology as a blues song.”

First Year Advising and the Blues

Because Burnett sees the blues as “a kind of toughness that speaks to the struggles of everyday life,” he sees a strong connection between this musical genre and advising students who are making the transition to college.

“The blues are all about resiliency and grit,” he explains. “Surviving and thriving in hard times or low spirits.”

“Students often need a push to understand that there is a flow, a life, to being an undergraduate. They’re so future-oriented: I’ve got to get my resume together, I’ve got to apply for this grant and this internship — I’ve got to be competitive because I’ve only got four years to get this right. But, in the midst of that, life hits them. And when it hits, well, there’s some blues songs that can speak to that,” he says.

“Blues songs speak with the voice of a people attentive to the ‘hard times’ that life often deals us. The great wisdom of blues people is that they realized the ritual power of naming and sharing their struggles and triumphs,” he continues.

“Advisement for me is blues ritual; it is soul work. It is my hope that all of my students feel invited to the work of naming their struggles and triumphs."

Rufus Burnett earned a B.A. in Biology from Xavier University of Louisiana, an M.A. in Religious 91��Ƶ from Loyola University New Orleans, and a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Duquesne University. His dissertation, Decolonizing Revelation: A Spatial Reading of the Blues, was selected for the Duquesne University Distinguished Dissertation Award for the Humanities and a book-length version of the work is forthcoming with Fortress Press.

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Originally published by Lisa Walenceus at on September 26, 2017.

Courtney Henderson, a 2010 University of Notre Dame graduate majoring in Chinese and the Program of Liberal 91��Ƶ, was named the winner of the 2010 Liu Family Distinguished Achievement Award in Asian 91��Ƶ.

Notre Dame’s Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures bestows the award each year to the student whose character and undergraduate work best exemplifies the qualities of commitment, diligence and imagination in the study of Asia.

“Courtney represents the best among our students in the rigor of her intellectual pursuit and the breadth of her cultural horizon,” said Xiaoshan Yang, associate professor of East Asian languages and cultures and chair of the selection committee. “We had a very strong pool of candidates this year, but the committee’s vote was unanimous.”

Henderson did not begin to learn Chinese until her sophomore year. “I wanted to take on a new and different challenge to satisfy my college language requirement—and by the time I finished my required courses, I had fallen in love with Chinese, with its beautiful sounds and the cultural richness that permeates the language.”

Fast-track language learning
After only two semesters of study, Henderson took first prize in the annual Chinese Speech Contest, an accomplishment that she has repeated in both her junior and senior years.

“The first year, our skit about a visit to the beauty salon was pretty simple, because we didn’t have much vocabulary,” she says. “In this year’s skit, we used about 20 ‘four character’ Chinese idioms—those are really difficult to learn.”

In the summer after her sophomore year, Henderson participated in Notre Dame’s intensive Chinese language program, offered through Fu Jen Catholic University in Taipei, Taiwan. This program is designed to take students through an entire year of study in just eight weeks.

Henderson says that although she had practiced diligently with Notre Dame friends who were native Chinese speakers, her first tries at communication in Taiwan were not a huge success.

“I was so excited to be able to get authentic Chinese ‘bubble tea,’ my favorite drink. I tried to order it over and over again, but no one could understand me.”

Despite difficulties along the way, Henderson’s hard work paid off in her final semester when she was tested in the Oral Proficiency Interview administered by the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages. She was rated an advanced speaker, achieving the eighth level on a 10-level scale.

“It was a 30-minute Skype conversation,” Henderson explains. “We started out with a simple question about the meaning of my name, but we ended up talking about the differences between India and the United States, China’s ‘one child’ policy, and U.S. environmental regulations. It was a real challenge.”

Cultural fluency at work
Henderson’s post-graduation plans include teaching English in Shenzhen, a city outside of Hong Kong, to experience firsthand life in mainland China. She hopes to begin a graduate program in Asian studies upon her return to the United States.

“Bringing the best of Western culture from my liberal studies major together with the understanding of Eastern culture I gained from learning Chinese gives me a unique perspective on the world,” Henderson says. “That, together with my [International Service Learning Program] experience in India at an orphanage for children with disabilities and at Mother Teresa’s home for the dying, taught me something very important: Humanity crosses borders.”

Stuart Greene, associate dean for undergraduate studies in the University of Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters and associate professor in the Department of English, was honored with the 2010 Rodney F. Ganey, Ph.D., Faculty Community-Based Research Award at a ceremony this week.

The award, presented by Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns, recognizes Greene’s latest project, No Parent Left Behind (NPLB), a parent-centered research initiative that springs both from Greene’s theoretical work in literacy learning and his many years of community-based research in South Bend schools.

“Stuart’s commitment to research and service in education is truly admirable,” said John McGreevy, I.A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts and Letters. “I am particularly pleased to see his work recognized for the positive impact it has had on both our community and our students.

“What he’s accomplished through the NPLB initiative is a great example of Notre Dame’s commitment to conducting research, providing a vibrant undergraduate education, and engaging in and with the world.”

The Ganey Award recognizes faculty research that engages Notre Dame students in collaborations that affect real community issues in South Bend.
It was a conversation with school principals about the need for more parental involvement that started Greene on his two-year study that connected students from the College of Arts and Letters’ Education, 91��Ƶing and Society (ESS) minor with parents in local schools. Based on interviews, focus groups and surveys, Greene and his students “began to challenge prevailing models of parental involvement for minority and low-income parents,” he said.

“The typical observation about low-income parents is that they just don’t get involved in their children’s learning,” Greene said. “What we’re finding is that they’re actually doing a lot—it’s just not as visible as it could or should be. Our work is helping these parents tell their own stories, opening the way for them to make teachers and administrators aware of their strengths—and their needs.”

That work also spurred the next phase of the project, providing customized resources to support local parents in their efforts to help their children excel in reading and writing, the achievement for which the 2010 award has been bestowed.

This award includes a cash prize of $5,000 that is funded by Rodney Ganey, founder of Press Ganey Associates, as a part of the community-based research initiative facilitated by Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns.

After five years of service as associate dean for undergraduate studies, Greene will step down from that position at the end of June and will devote more time to NPLB as it makes the transition from a research project to a not-for-profit organization.

Greene currently co-directs NPLB and co-authors his research with Joyce Long, who teaches community-based research in ESS. Their work together will appear in a book Greene has co-edited, “Connecting Home and 91��Ƶ: Complexities, Concerns, and Considerations in Fostering Parent Involvement and Family Literacy,” which will be published by Teachers College Press this fall.

Contact: Stuart Greene, sgreene1@nd.edu

Ryan Lash, a University of Notre Dame senior majoring in medieval studies and anthropology, has been awarded a Gates Scholarship to pursue a master’s degree at the University of Cambridge.

Lash is one of only 29 American students who will become new Gates Scholars in 2010–2011. More than 800 U.S. students applied for this honor in the 2009 competition.

In a rigorous evaluation process, Gates Scholars are identified by academics in their fields of study, from Cambridge and other institutions of higher education, as exceptional researchers who have the ability to make a significant contribution to their intended disciplines. They also are recognized for their strong leadership skills and understanding of how their research can be applied to the challenges facing the world today.

Lash’s involvement in research began right after his freshman year with the anthropology department’s Cultural Landscapes of the Irish Coast (CLIC) .

“Over the last three years, Ryan has been on three of our field projects,” says Ian Kuijt, associate professor of anthropology. “Because of those projects, he’s attended four academic conferences in three countries. He’s co-presented two papers already and will co-present two more this spring.”

Taking full advantage of Notre Dame resources that support undergraduate research and international study has helped Lash establish an impressive academic track record at an early age. Funding from the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) allowed him to do fieldwork at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. The Nanovic Institute for European 91��Ƶ funded Lash for travel in Britain and Ireland to write a paper on the link between medieval castle architecture and elite identity formation. He spent his junior year at New College in Notre Dame’s Oxford program studying medieval history, literature and archeology. This summer, he’ll return to CLIC for the fourth time and participate in a research project at Bective Abbey in Ireland, before going to Cambridge.

According to Thomas Noble, professor and chair of history and former director of Notre Dame’s Medieval Institute, “Ryan has blended his broad interests in the medieval world with specific interests in literature and material culture in sophisticated ways that belie his age and experience. He combines intelligence, a taste for hard work, and a disinterested love of learning with grace.”

At Cambridge, Lash will study the 200-year period in which Anglo-Saxon Britain became a Christian culture.
“I admit that medieval studies can’t help humanity in the same way that medical or scientific research might,” Lash says, “but my work has relevancy and will, I hope, contribute by allowing us to better appreciate the challenges, complexities and consequences of public representations of the past.

“When we become aware that representations of history are so often implicated in substantiating culturally constructed narratives,” Lash explains, “we become more critical consumers of the sometimes value-laden representations of the past we’re exposed to, from high school text books to historic heritage sites.”