ICR: Spring 2026 Semester of Scholarship

Seton Hall’s Institute for Communication and Religion (ICR), within the College of Human Development, Culture, and Media (CHDCM), reports a successful and productive Spring semester. The semester began with ICR Director Jon Radwan, Ph.D., interviewing professor, journalist and author Anthony DePalma about his new book On This Ground: Hardship and Hope at the Toughest Prep School in America. Professor DePalma, a former writer in residence, described research on St. Benedict’s and how faith motivates education. The interview is available via the ICR PodBean channel.

A subsequent webinar, “Leo XIV: The North and South American Pope," was hosted by the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross’ School of Church Communications. The discussion featured commentary by Reverend John Wauck of the and Gretchen Crowe, editor-in-chief of OSV News. ICR Director Radwan, and COMM/CORE adjunct faculty member Colette Liddy initiated a distribution partnership to help share this and future SCC content on Church communications.

In April, the ICR formalized a grant funded partnership with Palacký University (PU) Olomouc, Czech Republic through the European Union’s Erasmus + Grant Program.

Radwan described the initiative as the product of many years of work, noting,

Almost ten years ago Professor Yates introduced me to Dr. Jaroslav Franc, chair of PU’s Communication department. We have maintained a productive relationship, and now this grant will fund an exchange network with PU as the hub and five North American universities as the spokes. We are honored to work alongside top universities like NYU and the University of Ottawa to study the intersection of communication and religion!

 The program will sponsor faculty and student travel to the Czech Republic, with preliminary plans for James Kimble, Ph.D., to travel there to develop and share research on propaganda, religion and war. Through Erasmus+, students and educators gain access to international learning opportunities across higher education.

The ICR’s feature podcast, Inter/Sections, relaunched this spring with a new episode entitled “Blessed Be the Strangers: Islamic Ethics and the Anthropocene,” features a discussion with Aseel Azab, a doctoral student at Brown University. The relaunch is part of a partnership between Seton Hall University, The Journal of Interreligious Studies (JIRS) and Interreligious Studies Media. The second episode, “Exploring Pluralism in Catholic Thought between the Theological and Political,” features Matthew Cavedon, director of the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice. Both episodes are available to view now on the ICR’s PodBean and Seton Hall’s YouTube channel.

CORECast, the ICR’s podcast that features discussions on texts related to Seton Hall University’s Core Curriculum, also had a new episode released this spring. “I Corinthians 12,” featured Patrick Manning, Ph.D., Liam (LJ) J. Davis ’27, with host Bernie Wagenblast. This episode and other CORECast episodes are available to view now on the ICR's PodBean.

Also in April, ICR Director Radwan contributed to the Petersheim Academic Expo in collaboration with CORE 2101 student Reydina Lawrence. To advance a Mission Partners project, Radwan and Lawrence spoke on Dorothy Day’s theme of precarity and the importance of direct action and corporeal works of mercy. Working directly with those who need help most may seem like a risk, but, as Day explains, the bigger risk in turning away from brothers and sisters in need is “moral failure.”

ICR Steering Committee member and Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Media and the Arts, Ruth Tsuria, Ph.D., participated as a panelist in a virtual webinar on public literacy and religion Hosted by the American Academy of Religion. The webinar, entitled “The Urgency of Public Literacy on Religion in the Digital Age,” took place on April 21, 2026. The event consisted of a panel discussion featuring the 2026 Martin E. Marty Award Winner, Andrew Mark Henry, Ph.D., along with fellow panelists Andrew Ali Aghapour, Ph.D., Mary Hamner and Tsuria, with moderator Harold Morales, Ph.D. A recording of the webinar is available to view via the American Academy of Religion’s website.  

The semester also saw an important curriculum development milestone. Radwan and Liddy collaborated to create a new course proposal that earned unanimous approvals at four different levels of review. COMM/CORE 3343 – Communication, Communications, and Catholicism will be offered for the first time in Summer 2026 and is already fully enrolled for the Fall. Looking to the future, there are several major ICR projects under development, including a story share grant proposal advancing the University’s new strategic plan and arts programming for the 2027 Lilly National Network conference.

About the Institute for Communication and Religion 
The Institute for Communication and Religion (ICR) is an affiliated unit within Seton Hall University’s College of Human Development, Culture, and Media. Religious traditions are primary drivers for social action across humanity’s full moral range, from care through violence. Launched with THRUST funding in Fall 2017, the ICR is an interdisciplinary nexus for communication and media scholarship addressing the critical intersection between religion and society. Guided by Nostra Aetate’s spirit of ecumenical and interreligious cooperation, the Institute seeks to engage in public dialogue and debate, promote academic inquiry and support religious dimensions of creativity.

Our values are Seton Hall’s values: servant leadership, curricular innovation, and intellectual excellence. For more information, visit the Institute for Communication and Religion website.   

Categories: Arts and Culture, Faith and Service