Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Paul J. Fitzgerald, S.J.
Paul J. Fitzgerald, S.J., is the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Fairfield University.
Fr. Fitzgerald has taught in both China and Kenya and for the past five years worked closely with other faculty to develop interdisciplinary minor programs in Arabic, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Cinema Studies, and Latin American Studies.
Born in Burbank, Calif., Fr. Fitzgerald attended public schools before earning a B.A. in History from Santa Clara University in 1980. Two years later he entered the Society of Jesus, beginning his religious formation at the Jesuit Novitiate in Montecito, California before going to Germany to study philosophy. Receiving a Ph. B (B.A.) in Philosophy from the Jesuit-run Hochschule fr Philosophie in Munich, he returned to the United States to teach at Jesuit High School in Sacramento.
Fr. Fitzgerald earned the M.Div. degree in 1991 and a Pontifical Licentiate with an emphasis in Ecclesiology at Weston School of Theology in 1993. After a brief stint of teaching at Santa Clara University, he went to the University of Paris - La Sorbonne, where he earned a D.E.A. (diplôme des études approfondies) and a Docteur ès Lettres (Ph.D.) in the Sociology of Religion. Concurrently he worked towards an S.T.D. (Pontifical Doctorate) in Ecclesiology from the Institut Catholique de Paris.
After joining the department of Religious Studies at Santa Clara in 1997, Fr. Fitzgerald taught courses and conducted research under the rubrics of both Systematic Theology and Sociology of Religion. He is the author of the book L'Église comme lieu de formation d'une conscience de la concitoyenneté (Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 1999) and seventeen scholarly articles. He served four years as faculty-in-residence for the Loyola Residential Learning community at Santa Clara and was director of the interdisciplinary Catholic Studies minor for seven years. He served as an adjunct lecturer at the Education College in Xiamen, China (1991) and as a visiting lecturer at Hekima College, Nairobi, Kenya (2004).
Division of Academic Affairs
The academic division houses the educational and cultural components of the University, including the six schools and colleges, the University Registrar, Enrollment Management including Undergraduate and Graduate Admissions and Financial Aid, the Dean of Freshman, the Office of Government Grants, the Trio Program, the Ignatian Residential College, and the Center for Academic Excellence.