Br. Ken Homan, S.J.
Assistant Professor
History
Courses Taught
History Matters; US History 1865-Present; Studies in American History (US Graduate Seminar); Utopias, Manifestos, Declarations
Education
BA: History & Theology, Fordham University, Fall 2014
MA: History, Fordham University, Spring 2014
MTS: Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, Spring 2020
PhD: Georgetown University, Spring 2025
Research Interests
Labor, Catholic, Religion, Midwest, Urban, Racial Justice, Lived Religion, St. Louis
Publications and Media Placements
Peer-Reviewed Publications
“Education for Justice Before Arrupe: Law and the Institutes for Social Order and
Social Sciences.” Jesuit Educational Quarterly, Expected Fall 2025. Invited.
“Whose Labor Law Do We Follow? St. Louis’s Jesuits and Labor Justice.” St. Louis University
Law Journal 69, no. 2 (Spring 2025). Invited.
“Community Organizing and the Spiritual Exercises.” Journal of Catholic Social Thought,
Fall 2024. Co-authored with David Inczauskis, SJ.
“Unlearning White Supremacy: A Spirituality for Racial Liberation by Alex Mikulich
(Review).” American Catholic Studies 135, no. 2 (2024): 88–90. Invited.
“An Opportunity for Conversion: American Jesuits and the Response to Laudato Si’.”
Journal of Jesuit Studies 3, no. 4 (September 30, 2016): 645–63. https://doi.org/10.1163/22141332-00304006. Invited.
Popular Publications
“What Dr. King and St. Ignatius Taught Me About Ignatian Spirituality.” In An Ignatian
Reader. CST and Community Organizing. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2025.
(Originally in The Jesuit Post)
“Digging Into Jesuit Slaveholding, Digging Into the Exercises.” In Praying for Freedom:
Racism and Ignatian Spirituality in America, 39–47. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical
Press, 2024. (Originally in Review for Religious)
“The Complicated History of American Jesuits & Racial Justice.” Daily Theology, October
2020. https://dailytheology.org/2020/10/20/the-complicated-history-of-american-jesuits-and-racial-justice/. Invited.
“I’m a Jesuit in Formation. Here’s Why I Decided to Take Care of My Mental Health.”
America Magazine, May 4, 2020. https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/05/04/im-jesuit-formation-heres-why-i-decided-take-care-my-mental-health. (Originally in The Jesuit Post)
America Magazine. “Why Jesuit Schools Should Recognize Graduate Student Unions.” January
3, 2020. https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2020/01/13/why-jesuit-schools-should-recognize-graduate-student-unions.
America Magazine. “I’m a Jesuit. How Should I Respond to Toxic Masculinity and #MeToo?”
October 24, 2017. https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2017/10/24/im-jesuit-how-should-i-respond-toxic-masculinity-and-metoo. (Originally in The Jesuit Post)
“Unnatural Gas: The Spiritual Implications of Fracking.” America Magazine, August
15, 2013. https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/faith-focus/unnatural-gas.
Invited Presentations
“St. Louis’s Jesuits and Labor Justice.” Presented at the St. Louis University Law
Symposium, St. Louis, MO, April 2024.
“Spirituality and Community Organizing.” Presented at the Prophetic Communities, San
Francisco, February 2023.
“Jesuit Education: Talking About Race in the Classroom.” Ignatian Solidarity Network
and Jesuit Anti-Racism Sodality, September 12, 2020. Presented with Justin White.
Conference Papers
“St. Louis Jesuits and the Creation of U.S. Catholic Normativity” of panel American
Catholicisms: New Directions for Religious History. To be presented at the American
Catholic Historical Association, New York, January 2025. Panel organizer.
“Inculturation, White Supremacy, and Jesuit Work for Racial Justice” of panel Motivations
and Hindrances in the Evangelization of Black Catholics. Presented at the American
Catholic Historical Association, San Francisco, January 4, 2024. Panel chair.
“Lived Religion and Lived Labor: The Role of Class in St. Louis’s Jesuit Labor Activism”
of panel Both a Christian and a Marxist?: Lived Realities and Resistance in the 20th-century
Culture Wars. Presented at the Labor and Working-Class History Association, Rutgers
University, May 19, 2023. Panel organizer.
“The Race to Convert: American Jesuits and the Missionary Appropriation of Racism.”
Ad Missio Conference, Spring 2020. (Conference canceled due to COVID).
“The Jesuit of St. Louis and Labor Justice.” Presented at the Fighting Inequality
Conference, Washington, DC, May 2015.
“The Role of the Suppression and Restoration on the Jesuit Social Apostolate.” Presented
at the Jesuit Suppression & Restoration Conference, St. Louis, MO, September 2014.
Professional Organizations and Associations
American Catholic Historical Association
Labor and Working-Class Historical Association
American Historical Association
Community Work and Service
St. Louis Faith-Labor Alliance
Board Member--Catholic Labor Network
Content Creator--Education for Justice and Ignatian Solidarity Network
Spiritual Director
Trail Maintenance Guide--Wilderness Volunteers