Dr. Lakeland, who is the Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J., Chair of Catholic Studies and a professor of religious studies, will receive the Distinguished Faculty/Administrator Award at the Fairfield Awards Dinner on March 26, 2020.
Since 1988, the annual Fairfield Awards Dinner has been a true celebration of Fairfield and has raised more than $19 million for the Alumni Multicultural Scholarship Fund and other endowed scholarships.
Continuing to recognize professional achievement, outstanding leadership, and volunteer commitment to Fairfield, this year’s Fairfield Awards Dinner will honor Paul F. Lakeland, PhD, with the Distinguished Faculty/Administrator Award.
The Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J., Chair of Catholic Studies and founder of the University’s Center for Catholic Studies, Dr. Lakeland’s affiliation with the Jesuits began long before his teaching career at Fairfield University — in fact, it started while he was a student in England, where he attended a Jesuit secondary school from the age of 11.
He later joined (and left) the Society of Jesus, earning a Licentiate in philosophy from Heythrop Pontifical Athenaeum, a master of arts in English language and literature from Oxford University, and a bachelor of divinity degree from the University of London. Dr. Lakeland continued his academic career at Vanderbilt University, earning a doctorate on the later religious and political thought of G.W.F. Hegel, prior to beginning his career at Fairfield.
Dr. Lakeland has amassed a number of distinctions for his work, including three book awards from the Catholic Press Association and the 2018 award for Best Theology Book of the Year from the College Theology Society. He is also a member of the American Academy of Religion, the American Theological Society, the College Theology Society, and the Catholic Theological Society of America, of which he was president in 2018-19.
He has been a scholar-in-residence at New York University and has held the Richardson Fellowship at Durham University in the United Kingdom. Among his awards at Fairfield, he was named the 1990 Teacher of the Year by AHANA, the minority students’ association, and received the Alpha Sigma Nu award for Fairfield’s Teacher of the Year in 2005. Most recently, he was awarded the 2020 Hellwig Award, for outstanding contributions to Catholic intellectual life, by the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU).
For more information on Fairfield Awards Dinner sponsorships, tickets or journal ads, please contact Anissa DeMatteo at (203) 254-4000, ext. 2115.
