Professors Rober and Thomson Earn Naclerio Award

Accompanying funding will support research to benefit research agendas

Sacred Heart University professors Daniel Rober and David Thomson are this year’s recipients of the University’s annual Richard and Barbara Naclerio Faculty Scholars Program award.  

The Naclerios established the program to support faculty research that will make significant contributions to the recipients’ field of study, with a secondary goal of the professors submitting their findings for publication. Each year, the Naclerio program provides two awards of $12,500 to fund research in the upcoming academic year.

Rober intends to research the relationship of Catholic higher education to the church and the broader cultural context (particularly in the United States). He will investigate how institutions should balance questions of identity and openness and how methods shaped by 1960s and 1980s contexts can be adjusted in light of contemporary realities, especially increased societal secularization. Rober will seek to formulate a path between overbearing and minimizing approaches to Catholic identity.

“I feel very honored to receive this scholarship award and to work at a University that supports academic research,” Rober said. “I am looking forward to engaging in this project beginning this summer and putting its results to use both in my publication agenda and in my broader work at Sacred Heart.”

Rober is assistant director of the Thomas More Honors Program at SHU, as well as an associate professor of Catholic studies. He earned his Ph.D. in systematic theology from Fordham University with his dissertation, Recognizing the Gift: Towards a Renewed Theology of Nature and Grace. Rober is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the Catholic Conversation Project, the Catholic Theological Society of America and the College Theology Society.

Thomson’s research will focus on the importance of 19th century finance, specifically bonds issued by various American states. Thomson’s articles, and subsequent book, will explore how states utilized this debt to advance slavery and Native American removal in addition to internal improvements, and how defaulting on these bonds held consequences that extended beyond the borders of these antebellum states.

“I'm incredibly grateful to the University for this award. It demonstrates faith in my work as a scholar and my ongoing research agenda. These funds will prove incredibly consequential, not only in conducting my archival research, but also in disseminating that information at academic conferences,” said Thomson.

“It is a real privilege to win this highly competitive award alongside a fellow humanist, and it reflects the ongoing commitment of the University to the liberal arts tradition that forms the bedrock of higher education,” he said.

Thomson is an associate professor of history and specializes in U.S. history during the Civil War era. His book, Bonds of War: How Civil War Financial Agents Sold the World on the Union, was recently published. His writings also have appeared in The Journal of the Civil War Era, The New York Times, Bloomberg and The Washington Post. Thomson earned his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia and has been on SHU’s faculty since the fall of 2016.

The Richard and Barbara Naclerio Faculty Scholars Program is open to all current junior, tenure-track faculty in good standing from across all disciplines who have completed three years of teaching at SHU. Applicants must demonstrate their interest and capability in conducting scholarly research that benefits the academic community and their field of study.