In Memoriam: Mary Ellen Konieczny, 1959-2018

Mary Ellen Konieczny, the Henkels Family Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, died late last month. She was 58 years old and had suffered from cancer.

Dr. Konieczny was a fellow of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society and the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. Her research centered around religion and conflict, the family, and public politics. She was the author of The Spirit’s Tether: Family, Work and Religion Among American Catholics (Oxford University Press, 2013). She was co-editor of Polarization in the US Catholic Church: Naming the Wounds, Beginning to Heal (Liturgical Press, 2016).

A 1981 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Dr. Konieczny earned a master of divinity degree from the Weston Jesuit School of Technology, which later merged to form the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. She held a Ph.D. In sociology from the University of Chicago.