IN PERSON AND ZOOM EVENT
Catholic Education and Newman
14 May 2026, 17:00-18:00, ET
Michael T. Rizzi, EdD — author of Jesuit Colleges and Universities in the United States: A History — joins NINS to discuss what Newman's vision of the university has to say to Catholic education today.
Author Conversation: Catholic Education and Newman
In Jesuit Colleges and Universities in the United States: A History (CUA Press, 2022), Rizzi tells the story of the fifty-four colleges and universities the Jesuits have operated in America since 1789 — a more than two-century experiment in Catholic higher education that navigated anti-Catholic prejudice, the rise of the modern research university, and the ongoing tension between Catholic identity and the pressures of American academic life. These are precisely the questions Newman took up in The Idea of a University, and Rizzi has explored them directly in the Newman Studies Journal and elsewhere in his scholarship. Join us for a conversation on what the American Jesuit experience reveals about Newman's vision — and what Newman, in turn, still has to say to Catholic higher education in our own moment.
Date: 14 May 2026
Time: 17:00 - 18:00 (ET)
Dr. Michael T. Rizzi
Director of Student Affairs
University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Michael T. Rizzi is Director of Student Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. He provides administrative leadership and oversees the planning and operational management of the Office of Student Affairs and all its sub-offices, student support services, and initiatives. He was born and raised in Pittsburgh. He holds a Doctor of Education and an M.A. in political science from the University of Pittsburgh, and a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University. He has taught political science, international affairs, and geography at Pitt for over fifteen years and is the author of Jesuit Colleges and Universities in the United States: A History (CUA Press, 2022).
