SHU to Welcome Lilly Network Conference

Participants will explore the role of the arts in Christian higher education

The Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities chose Sacred Heart University’s Center for Catholic Studies to host the 2025 Lilly Network Administrator’s Workshop, Board Meeting and National Conference.

The network holds its annual national conference each fall on one member’s campus. Representatives from member colleges and universities meet to consider faith and learning, to exchange ideas and practices regarding their mission and to promote network programs and activities. The Lilly Network provided SHU with $126,500 to host the conference.

“We are honored that SHU has been selected to host the Lilly Network Annual Conference for fall 2025,” said Michelle Loris, director of the Center for Catholic Studies and conference co-director. “We have a long-established relationship with the Lilly Network, having been awarded grants from the organization since 2012 to host national network meetings as well as major national conferences.”

The Lilly Network’s mission is to strengthen the quality of church-related higher education. Members believe the Christian identity should shape the undergraduate experience in a Christian institution, and they work to promote that idea. The 2025 conference theme is “The Christian Imagination Expressed in the Arts in Christian Higher Education.”

“This theme asks us to explore how the arts are illustrated throughout the institution, both in and out of the classroom experience. It also explores how the arts not only shape the educational experience of our students, but how they enlighten and entertain our community both within and outside the University,” Loris said.

The conference will bring national recognition to SHU, as it will unite administrators, faculty and students from across the country. It is also an opportunity for SHU community members to hear from expert speakers and engage with faculty and students from other faith-based colleges and universities.

The keynote speakers will be Natalie Carnes from Baylor University in Texas, Cecelia Gonzalez-Andrieu from Loyola Marymount University in California and Jonathan Anderson from Duke University in North Carolina.

“This conference is an exciting opportunity to showcase SHU’s commitment to the arts, both here at the University and in our local community through our SHU Community Theatre,” said Daniel Rober, associate professor in SHU’s Catholic studies department and conference co-director.

Founded in 1991, the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities (formerly the Lilly Fellows Program) seeks to strengthen the quality and shape the character of church-related institutions of higher learning through four programmatic initiatives. First, it offers postdoctoral teaching fellowships at Valparaiso University for early career scholars who wish to prepare themselves for positions of teaching, scholarship and leadership within church-related institutions. Second, it supports students of exceptional academic talent who are exploring vocations in church-related higher education during their early years of graduate school in the Lilly Graduate Fellows Program. Third, it maintains a collaborative and ecumenical National Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities that sponsors a variety of activities designed to strengthen the mission of church-related institutions. The National Network represents among its current membership of 100 schools a diversity of denominational traditions, institutional types and geographical locations. Finally, it offers the Lilly Faculty Fellows Program for mid-career faculty leaders across the disciplines at Network schools to engage the intersections of Christian thought and practice with the academic vocation.

The Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities is based at Christ College, the interdisciplinary honors college of Valparaiso University in Northwest Indiana.

Pictured: Professor Michelle Loris speaks at a Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities-sponsored conference on Vatican II and Catholic higher education in 2022.