For the last decade my passion has been to teach and write in Catholic theology, ethics, and church history. I graduated in 2003 from the Catholic University of America with a doctorate in religious studies. My first book, A Catholic Brain Trust (University of Notre Dame Press, 2011), tells the story of a group of intellectuals who formed after World War II. Their story is an aspect of Catholic community-building. Their work is, I think, an important instructional commentary for Catholics who today seek to make their mark on the wider society. My other projects include editing a two-volume work, The Making of Modern Immigration: An Encyclopedia of People and Ideas (ABC-CLIO, 2012). I'm also contracted to write a short book on the history of Franciscan higher education in the United States and edit a Civil War Chaplain's diary. Additionally, I am writing a book-length study of nineteenth-century American Catholic miracle narratives; a monograph that I hope will illustrate how Catholics and Jews collaborated in the years leading up to America's involvement in World War II; and lastly, I am at work on a biography of Patrick Cardinal Hayes (no relation; d. 1938) of New York which not only will delve into his career, but will highlight his abiding engagement with the culture of New York City. I am also working on several shorter articles, mostly connected with the Baltimore Province of the Redemptorists, in whose Brooklyn archives I am privileged to work. I love discussing the Catholic Church and have taught at a number of schools in the United States, including Fordham University and St. John's University in New York, and at the University of Makeni in Sierra Leone, West Africa, where I lectured in 2010. If you'd like to talk to me about speaking before your parish or school, feel free to drop me a line at pjhayesphd@gmail.com.