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Nicholas Rademacher, Ph.D., serves as Professor in the Religious Studies Department at the University of Dayton. His research and teaching are in the fields of American Catholic studies, Catholic social thought and practice and the scholarship of teaching and learning. He has long been involved in Mission and Identity work in Catholic higher education, community based learning and interfaith collaboration.

Dr. Rademacher serves as co-Editor of American Catholic Studies and Founding Co-Executive Editor of Praxis: A Journal of Faith and Justice. He authored Paul Hanly Furfey: Priest, Scientist, Social Reformer (Fordham University Press, 2017).

He serves as Vice President of the American Catholic Historical Society. He has served on the Academic Affairs Committee of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary and on the Board of Directors of the College Theology Society. He also served as a member of the Historical Commission for the Cause for Canonization of Fr. William E. Atkinson, OSA. The team recently submitted their report to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Courses taught

• REL 103: Introduction to Theological and Religious Studies
• REL 261: Faith Traditions and Human Rights
• REL 561: Catholic Moral Theology

Professional activities

• American Catholic Studies (Co-Editor)
• American Catholic Historical Society (Vice President)
• American Catholic Historical Association
• College Theology Society
• American Academy of Religion

Misc.

• Dr. Rademacher recently completed service as a member of the historical commission for the cause for canonization of Fr. William Atkinson, OSA.
• In 2019, Dr. Rademacher completed the Spiritual Direction Formation Program with the Sisters of Mercy.

Research interests

• American Catholic Studies
• Catholic lay movements in the United States
• Catholic higher education
• Scholarship of teaching and learning

Selected publications

Paul Hanly Furfey: Priest, Scientist, Social Reformer. Fordham University Press, 2017.

American Catholicism in the Twenty-first Century: Crisis, Crossroads, or Renewal?, co-edited with Benjamin Peters. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Press, 2018.

A Realist’s Church: Essays in Honor of Joseph A. Komonchak, co-edited with Christopher Denny and Patrick Hayes. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Press, 2015.

“Pursuing and Impeding: Civil Rights and the Redemptorist Mission in Orangeburg, South Carolina, 1930-1955,” U.S. Catholic Historian (Fall 2021): 101-125.

“Prayer and Work in the City and on the Land: Ecological Consciousness among 20th Century Radical Catholics.” Chapter in Working Alternatives, edited by Christine Hinze and John Seitz. New York, Fordham University Press, 2020.

“Dorothy Day, Religion, and the Left.” Chapter in The Religious Left in Modern America: Doorkeepers of a Radical Faith, edited by Leilah Danielson, Marian Mollin, and Douglas Rossinow. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.

“A Faculty Commitment to Mission: A Case Study at Cabrini University,” with Beverly Reilly Bryde, Jeff Gingerich, Mary H. Van Brunt, and Jerry Zurek. Journal of Catholic Higher Education 38:2 (Summer 2019): 121-143.

“Striving for Mission Integration: Catholic Identity, Social Justice, and Interfaith Inclusivity.” Chapter in Intersections: Faith(s), Church and the Academy, edited by Mark Hanshaw and Tim Moore. Nashville, TN: General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church, 2018.

“Enhancing Learning through Community-Based Partnership,” with Alia Sheety. Chapter in University Partnerships for International Development, edited by Patrick Blessinger and Barbara Cozza. Bingley, West Yorkshire, England: Emerald Group Publishing, 2016.

“Religious Diversity, Civic Engagement and Community-Engaged Pedagogy: Forging Bonds of Solidarity through Interfaith Dialogue.” Chapter in Teaching Civic Engagement in the Religion Classroom, edited by Forrest Clingerman and Reid Locklin. AAR Teaching Religious Studies Series, Oxford University Press, 2015.