Julie Byrne

Professor and Monsignor Thomas Hartman Chair in Catholic Studies Hofstra University

  • Long Island NY

The Professor and Monsignor Thomas Hartman Chair in Catholic Studies at Hofstra University

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Spotlight

1 min

Pope’s Openness Appealed to Other Faiths

Dr. Julie Byrne, Hofstra University’s Monsignor Thomas Hartman Chair in Catholic Studies and chair of the Department of Religion, spoke to several media outlets following the passing of Pope Francis on April 21. She told the McClatchy Newspapers that Francis’ openness helped him become popular among people of different faiths. “The Catholic Church has, at some points, seemed under recent papacies to be more insular and more interested in policing its boundaries and more interested in advocacy for Catholics only,” she said, noting that Francis helped people of other faiths feel advocated for. USA Today News Network talked to Dr. Byrne about Conservatives worrying about Pope Francis’ teachings on morality, attacks on capitalism, and stance on issues like abortion and contraception. The “so-called bedroom issues have always been important to conservatives, and to Catholic conservatives,” Dr. Byrne said. While Francis did not change church doctrine, he showed a willingness to loosen the rules on who should receive Communion or forgiveness for their sins. “When Francis lightens up on that,” Byrne said, “people wonder what’s next.”

Julie Byrne

1 min

Survey Shows U.S. Christian Population Stabilizing

Dr. Julie Byrne, Hofstra University’s Monsignor Thomas Hartman Chair in Catholic Studies and chair of the Department of Religion, was interviewed by Newsday about a survey released by the Pew Research Center that found that the share of Americans identifying as Christian appears to have stabilized after falling for years. Dr. Byrne said that the stabilization in “Christian adherence might mean, among other things, that Christian churches learned from the prior years’ huge decline not to take for granted its majority-religion status, and that the churches tried new strategies of tone, outreach, and connection that kept the people they already had.

Julie Byrne

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Biography

Julie Byrne holds the Monsignor Thomas J. Hartman Chair in Catholic Studies and serves as Professor in the Department of Religion. Since 2020 she has served as chair of the department. Before arriving in New York in September 2006, she taught at Duke University (2004-2006) and Texas Christian University (2000-2004). Her second book, The Other Catholics: Remaking America’s Largest Religion, was published by Columbia University Press in 2016. It is a cultural history of independent Catholicism in the U.S. Her first book, O God of Players: The Story of the Immaculata Mighty Macs (Columbia 2003), tells the story of Catholic women's basketball in the Philadelphia archdiocese from 1930-75. Her current book project, which won a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholars award, focuses on tristate families affected by 9/11 and its aftermath. As part of research she is learning to speak Spanish.

Industry Expertise

Education/Learning
Religious Institutions
Writing and Editing

Areas of Expertise

Religion and Popular Culture
Religion and Sports
Pope Francis
Independent Catholics
Roman Catholics
Religion and Race
Religion, gender and sexuality
Religion and Politics
Religion and Today's Headlines

Accomplishments

Additional media

Writes for media, appears on television, speaks on the radio and consults for film, museums and newspapers, including The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Smithsonian,”Frontline,” Voice of America, News 12 Long Island, NY1’s “The Call,” NPR’s “Only A Game,” the Daily Beast, the Christian Science Monitor and the Religion News Service.

Education

Duke University

Ph.D.

2001

Duke University

M.A.

1996

Duke University

B.A.

1990

Media Appearances

Pope Francis says priests can bless same-sex couples

WNBC-TV  tv

2023-12-18

Dr. Byrne was interviewed by WNBC-TV, Newsday, The Christian Science Monitor, and WRHU-FM about the Vatican’s announcement that Pope Francis has formally allowed blessings for same sex couples. Also see:

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2023/1221/Monumental-shift-or-mixed-bag-Pope-allows-same-sex-blessings

https://www.newsday.com/news/nation/Vatican-LGBTQ-pope-b82442

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The Catholic diaspora: Independent communities as the church's 'research lab'

National Catholic Reporter  online

2023-09-19

Dr. Byrne was featured in the National Catholic Reporter about the “Catholic diaspora” – Catholics who have left the institution but retained a connection, often highly personalized and in new forms, to the tradition.

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‘Pray for Damar’: Wave of public prayer follows Hamlin’s collapse

Associated Press  online

2023-01-07

The Associated Press talked to Dr. Julie Byrne about the intersection of prayer and sports following the collapse of Damar Hamilin during an NFL game.

“In commemorating life or death in sport, people say pray, pray, pray a lot,” Dr. Byrne told the AP. “I don’t think it reaches the pitch that you have here because of the incredibly dramatic circumstances. But it’s a pretty go-to response.”

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Research Grants

American Catholicism and the Cantor Fitzgerald Employees Who Lost Their Lives on 9/11

NEH Public Scholars Grant

2018-08-08

Religion Professor Julie Byrne has won a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) award for a book project using oral history, ethnography, and archives to examine tristate suburban Catholicism of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Byrne, the Monsignor Thomas J. Hartman Endowed Chair in Catholic Studies, will focus in part on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 in 2021, and how the tragedy has impacted Catholic families and communities in the New York metropolitan area. Among those who perished, those of Catholic faith were an overrepresented segment. Byrne will give an account of five men killed in World Trade Center and examine their shared cultural and religious background.

Dr. Byrne’s grant is part of the NEH’s Public Scholars Program, which supports well-researched books in the humanities intended to reach a broad readership. Her grant is the only one awarded to a scholar at a Long Island institution. A total of $43.1 million was awarded for 218 humanities projects across the country.

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Courses

What is Religion; Demonology; Religion & Media; Religion in the Americas;

Teaching interests include American religion, US Catholicism, global Catholicism, fieldwork in religion, African American religion, gender and religion, religion and media

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