Summer School Staff

Main Lecturer: William Short OFM

Brother Bill Short was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. After graduating from the University of San Francisco, he joined the Franciscan Friars, making his solemn profession of vows in 1978. After graduate studies in Berkeley and Rome, he was appointed Professor of Spirituality at the Franciscan School of Theology at the University of San Diego. Since 2017 he also serves as director of the International Centre for Franciscan Studies and Research at St. Isidore’s College in Rome.  In addition to his academic work, he is also an amateur wine-maker, a Mediterranean plant gardener, and a translator for many international Franciscan meetings.

Public Lecture: Professor John McCafferty

John McCafferty is a Professor of History at University College Dublin and a Honorary Professor at CCS Durham. His research is concerned with religious change in early modern Ireland and Britain with special reference to the role of the Franciscan family. He is General Editor with James Kelly of the 5 volume Oxford History of British & Irish Catholicism (2023).
He is Chair of the Irish Manuscripts Commission and Director of the Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute – a collaboration between the Irish OFMs and UCD. He is also President of the Board of the Franciscan Collegium Sancti Bonaventurae (Quaracchi), Rome.

Main Lecturer: Professor Mary Beth Ingham CSJ

Sr. Mary Beth Ingham, CSJ currently serves as Congregational Leader of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, California. Mary Beth is Professor Emerita, LMU Philosophy Dept and formerly Professor of Philosophical Theology at the Franciscan School of Theology.  She holds a doctorate in Medieval Philosophy from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland and has published widely on the thought of Franciscan Master Blessed John Duns Scotus. Her monographs include Scotus for Dunces: An Introduction to the Subtle Doctor (2003), Rejoicing in the Works of the Lord: Beauty in the Franciscan Tradition (2009), The Harmony of Goodness: Mutuality and Moral Living in John Duns Scotus (2012), and Understanding John Duns Scotus: Of Realty the Rarest-Veined Unraveller (2017). In her research, she argues that the spirituality of beauty, the via pulchritudinis, is at the heart of the Franciscan intellectual tradition.

Public Lecture: Professor Margaret Carney OSF

Sr Margaret Carney is a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Neumann Communities. She received her degrees in Franciscan studies from the Franciscan Institute at St. Bonaventure University and the Antonianum in Rome. The focus of her doctoral work was the Rule of St. Clare. After serving two terms as minister general of her congregation she joined the faculty of the Franciscan Institute and was appointed dean and director in 1999. She was appointed president of the university in 2004. She has been engaged in the development of the Third Order Regular Rule (1982), the creation of the Commission on the Franciscan Intellectual Tradition, the Padua Program for lay executives in Franciscan institutions. She also chaired the Association of Franciscan Colleges and Universities and the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities. Her awards include the Monika Hellwig award of ACCU and the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Award from Pope Francis. 

A native of County Durham, Billy is the Duns Scotus Assistant Professor in Franciscan Studies. Billy teaches several courses on Franciscan theology at the University of Durham and has published on the thought of St. Bonaventure, Bl. John Duns Scotus, Alexander of Hales, and Robert Grosseteste. Billy wrote his PhD thesis on St. Bonaventure’s doctrine of Christ’s human knowledge and its role in shaping his understanding of the relationship between faith and reason. He is currently writing a book containing a previously unknown scientific work on the physics of colour and light attributable to St. Bonaventure. Billy is a keen beekeeper.