Darren Dochuk
College of Arts and Letters
Andrew V. Tackes College Professor of History
William W. and Anna Jean Cushwa Co-Director, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism
- Religion and politics
- 20th-century American religious history
- Religion and oil
- Evangelicalism
Dochuk’s Latest News
Dochuk in the News
Aleteia
US and Vatican mark 40 years of formal diplomatic relations
January 09, 2024
The United States formally recognized the Holy See – the Vatican – on January 10, 1984, when President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II agreed to the establishment of diplomatic relations. It’s hard to imagine, on this 40th anniversary of that act, that there was a time when Washington did not formally recognize the Vatican. But, as Professor Darren Dochuk of the University of Notre Dame notes, that state of affairs had a lot to do with an anti-Catholic sentiment prevalent in American politics going back to the 19th century.
The Guardian
Texas fracking billionaire brothers fuel rightwing media with millions of dollars
September 05, 2023
“Thanks to their incredible wealth and largesse, the country as well as the [Republican] party are now feeling the effects of their aggressive brand of religiously-charged political activism,” said Darren Dochuk, a history professor at the University of Notre Dame and author of Anointed with Oil.
The New York Times
Abortion Has Never Just Been About Abortion
September 15, 2021
David Leege, professor emeritus of political science at Notre Dame, has an additional explanation for the process linking racial animosity and abortion...Darren Dochuk, a professor of history at Notre Dame and the author of “From Bible Belt to Sunbelt: Plain-Folk Religion, Grassroots Politics and the Rise of Evangelical Conservatism,” argued in an email that the strength of the opposition to abortion in the South grows out of the unique tensions in the region between notions of manhood and evangelical attempts to control the sins of men...
The New York Times
Luis Palau, the ‘Billy Graham of Latin America,’ Dies at 86
March 13, 2021
“His ministry was able to bridge gaps between whites and Latinos in a way that suburban white ministers could not, especially in the 1980s and ’90s,” said Darren Dochuk, a historian at the University of Notre Dame.
Christianity Today
Died: Luis Palau, Who Preached the Gospel from Portland to Latin America and Beyond
March 11, 2021
“Palau had a great way of preaching the gospel in an accessible manner and planting spiritual priorities aimed toward personal salvation in Christ, but he also had a certain social awareness,” said Notre Dame history professor Darren Dochuk. “If not a full-fledged social gospel, a message nevertheless that was aware of social concerns.”