Rate My Professor Shaun Blanchard

Dr. Shaun Blanchard serves as Senior Lecturer in Theology within the School of Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia, teaching on the Sydney campus. Originally from North Carolina, he graduated from the University of North Carolina, the University of Oxford, and Marquette University. His academic interests encompass contemporary global Catholicism, the Second Vatican Council, the First Vatican Council, the Jansenist-Jesuit conflict, and the intersection of Catholicism and the Enlightenment. As convener of the university's Global Catholic Studies group, he leads research initiatives exploring the history, cultures, and ideas of Catholicism worldwide.

Blanchard's scholarly output includes monographs, edited volumes, book chapters, and journal articles published by leading academic presses. He authored The Synod of Pistoia and Vatican II: Jansenism and the Struggle for Catholic Reform (Oxford University Press, 2020). With Stephen Bullivant, he co-authored Vatican II: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2023). He co-edited Catholic Enlightenment: A Global Anthology with Ulrich L. Lehner (Catholic University of America Press, 2021) and Jansenism: An International Anthology with Richard T. Yoder (Catholic University of America Press, 2024). Forthcoming works include Catholicism and Enlightenment (Cambridge University Press, 2026) and co-editing The Global Catholic Enlightenment: Balancing Church Authority and Modern Allegiances across Europe, the Americas, and Australia (1700–1840) (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2027). Book chapters appear in The Oxford History of British and Irish Catholicism, volume 3 (Oxford University Press, 2023) and The Cambridge History of the Papacy, volume 1 (Cambridge University Press, 2025). Journal publications include “The Ghost of Modernism: Evocations of Anti-Modernist Doctrinal Documents at Vatican II” (Theological Studies, 2025), “Settling Old Scores: Pastor Aeternus as the Final Defeat of Early Modern Opponents of Ultramontanism” (Newman Studies Journal, 2020), and contributions to periodicals such as Commonweal, America, Church Life Journal, and The Tablet.