Encyclopedia of Religion
and Society

William H. Swatos, Jr. Editor

Table of Contents | Cover Page  |  Editors  |  Contributors  |  Introduction  |  Web Version

DONOVAN, JOHN D.
(1918-) With B.A. and M.A. degrees from Boston College and a Ph.D. from Harvard, Donovan was a faculty member at Fordham University until 1952, when he joined the Boston College faculty, where he taught until his retirement in 1988. He was President of the American Catholic Sociological Society in 1958 and served as Associate Editor of American Catholic Sociological Review, Sociological Analysis , and Sociology of Education .

Donovan is best known for The Academic Man in the Catholic College (Sheed & Ward 1964), which received very positive reviews at the time of publication. He received the Best Book Award from ACSS in 1965. His books, monographs, and contributed book chapters have focused primarily on issues in Catholic education, sociology of American Catholicism, issues of the Catholic parish, dilemmas of the priesthood, social profiles of the American hierarchy, and Catholic intellectuals. His current research is concerned with issues of institutional religious identity at Catholic universities and colleges, and with the hypothesis that outstanding Catholic graduates are increasingly less likely to enter the ranks of Catholic academe.

Loretta M. Morris

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