Lo Schiavo Faculty

The Lo Schiavo Chair in Catholic Social Thought is an endowed professorship for distinguished scholars who promote the Jesuit, Catholic character of USF through research and teaching. Faculty in residence and faculty fellows also support the vision of the Lo Schiavo fund to enhance Catholic social thought and the Ignatian tradition through their scholarship.

"The task of the Jesuit university is to be that place where the Church and world sit down to speak to one another."

-REV. STEPHEN SCHLOESSER, S.J., LO SCHIAVO CHAIR IN CATHOLIC STUDIES AND SOCIAL THOUGHT, 2005-2007

Sister Julia Prinz, VDMF

We are delighted to welcome our 2026-2027 Lo Schiavo Chair, Julia D. E. Prinz, VDMF. Dr. Prinz is a German Verbum Dei sister who ministers at their San Francisco downtown location and at their 'Seeds of Life' spirituality center out in Tracy, California. She has been profoundly grateful to be entrusted with a diverse human-spiritual care for immigrants in the Central valley of California which has been the deep well of the spiritual 'lucha' and consolation in her life and also a substantial part of her spiritual growth and joy. Also an artist, her black and white photography has been used in various academic publications. She has been an adjunct professor for Spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology of SCU at Berkeley since 2006, where she is also on the Core-doctoral faculty at the Graduate Theological Union and is on the faculty at Instituto San Pablo Apostle, Loeches/Madrid, Spain. 

Her long standing research is in hermeneutics, aesthetics, biblical spirituality and political theology in all of which she has published widely. Her books include Endangering Hunger for God and Theologie in Gefährdeter Zeit, an edited tribute to Johann Baptist Metz on his 90th birthday. Recently, however, she has begun research in the area of Spirituality and Healing. By doing so, she broadened her teaching from Theology students to healthcare students and professionals and began her involvement with "Interfaith America." Her experience and investigation in this area forms the foundation for her new book. She supports the Union of International Superiors (UISG) in Rome as a theological advisor, promoting the theological studies of religious sisters, which builds on the experience of her extensive work across Asia as the director of the "Women of Wisdom and Action Initiative" from 2012-2019. 

FORMER CHAIRS

2019-2024 (Faculty in Residence)
Joseph Nguyen, S.J.

2022-2023
Cyrus Olsen

Spring 2020
Mary Johnson, SNDdeN

2018-2019
William O'Neill, S.J.

2014-2017
Thomas Massaro, S.J.

2012-2013
James Hanvey, S.J.

2009-2011
James Stormes, S.J.

2008
Bishop Robert McElroy

2005-2007
Stephen Schloesser, S.J.