DATE: October 10, 2006
MEDIA CONTACT: Melanie McDonald, director of media relations
PHONE: 574-284-4579
E-MAIL: mmcdonal@saintmarys.edu

Longtime Saint Mary’s College Professor Earns Endowed Chair Appointment

NOTRE DAME, Ind.— Saint Mary’s College announces the appointment of Dr. Joseph Incandela to the Joyce McMahon Hank Aquinas Chair in Catholic Theology. Incandela is a professor of religious studies and associate dean of faculty at Saint Mary’s College. Chair holder responsibilities include teaching an upper level course on Aquinas and conducting a Thomas Aquinas Symposium each year. Incandela succeeds Dr. Keith Egan, who held the Chair from its inception in 1998 through his retirement from the College last year.

“It’s a very humbling recognition,” says Incandela of his appointment. “To have the opportunity to hold an endowed chair named for Thomas Aquinas, a theologian and philosopher whose ideas greatly influenced my own course of study and continue to influence my teaching, is a tremendous honor.”

Incandela’s scholarship on Aquinas is extensive and respected. His dissertation, “Aquinas's Lost Legacy: God's Practical Knowledge and Situated Human Freedom,” and other work have been cited many times by other scholars. Incandela’s two main areas of study are medieval theology and contemporary Christian ethics.

Also recognized for his masterful teaching, Incandela won the Maria Pieta Award for teaching excellence in 1995. His course, Catholic Social Thought, is regarded by many across campus as legendary. He has worked to help students live the principles of the Catholic Church's social teaching by encouraging internships at the South Bend Center for the Homeless and by volunteering himself over the years.

Incandela graduated summa cum laude in philosophy and theology from the University of Notre Dame, and received his master’s degree and doctorate in religion from Princeton University. In 2002, Bishop John M. D’Arcy appointed him to the lay review board for the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend in response to The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. Incandela was also an ethics consultant on two local hospital boards.

The Aquinas Chair in Catholic Theology is the gift of Joyce McMahon Hank of Moline, Ill., a distinguished alumna of Saint Mary's College. A longtime member of the Saint Mary’s College Board of Regents and Board of Trustees, Hank continues as Trustee Emerita.

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