The Work of Human Hands
A Conference on Liturgy and the Senses
Hosted by the Theology Department (Liturgical Studies) at the University of Notre Dame, Sacred Music at Notre Dame, and the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
The Work of Human Hands: Liturgy and the Senses convenes scholars from a wide variety of disciplines from around the world at the University of Notre Dame to share their work and wisdom on the intersection between liturgy and the senses. Intentionally broad, the conference theme invites liturgists, art historians, musicologists, theologians, biblical exegetes, patrologists, historians, musicians, artists, scholars of religion and of ritual, disability specialists, anthropologists, sociologists, ethnographers, archeologists, philosophers, catechists, pastoral practitioners, and more to an interdisciplinary, constructive conversation about the ways in which Christian and Jewish worship forms, employs, invokes, evokes, and plays on human sense perception—sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, kinesthetics and proprioception, as well as the imaginative faculties.
An experimental Vespers composed by J. J. Wright, titled "The Work of Human Hands," will premiere at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art on April 17.
Credits
Kimberly Belcher and Notre Dame’s Department of Theology (Liturgical Studies)
Kimberly Belcher, associate professor in the Department of Theology, uses tools including phenomenology, critical theory, ritual theory, and trinitarian theology in her exploration of the development, practice, and meaning of Christian liturgy and human ritual. Belcher was the President of the North American Academy of Liturgy in 2025. She serves on the Vital Worship Grants Board of the Calvin Institute for Christian Worship and has represented the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on the Methodist-Catholic, Episcopal-Catholic, and Pentecostal-Catholic dialogues in the United States. She is a faculty fellow of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and the Kellogg Institute of International Studies, as well as a Research Associate of Stellenbosch University in Practical Theology and Ministry.
Teaching and research in the Department of Theology are dedicated both to a creative appropriation of the riches of the Christian tradition and to a thorough engagement with the questions and concerns of the contemporary world. While explicitly Catholic in its religious tradition the department comprises a wide range of religious perspectives and is committed to ecumenical and interreligious dialogue.
Kimberly Belcher Discover the Department of Theology
Rebecca Maloy and Sacred Music at Notre Dame
Rebecca Maloy, director of Sacred Music at Notre Dame and J.W. van Gorkom Professor of Music, is a specialist in medieval liturgy and chant. She focuses on the Old Hispanic liturgy, practiced on the Iberian Peninsula between the seventh and eleventh centuries. Her approach to this tradition incorporates diverse perspectives, including musical analysis, notational paleography, the relationship between words and music, and the intersections between liturgical texts and patristic theology. Her recent book, Songs of Sacrifice: Chant, Identity, and Christian Formation in Early Medieval Iberia, situates the chant as part Visigothic Iberia’s intellectual and cultural renewal in the seventh century. Her current and recent work has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and the National Humanities Center.
Sacred Music at Notre Dame (SMND) is a community of faculty, students, and staff who are committed to the training of the future music leaders of our churches, concert halls, and schools and universities. SMND is an interdisciplinary and ecumenical research and teaching program with a Roman Catholic core. The graduate program includes the Master of Sacred Music degree with specializations in Organ, Voice, and Choral Conducting, and the Calvin M. Bower Doctor of Musical Arts Program, offering the DMA degree in Organ or Choral Conducting performance.
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
Through its collections, exhibitions, and programs, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art serves and welcomes all to engage in wonder, spiritual reflection, inquiry, and research. One of the nation’s oldest university art museums, it maintains more than 32,000 artworks including painting, sculpture, decorative arts, works on paper, and textiles.
Funding & Support
This is a partner program of the 2027 Notre Dame Arts Biennial, supported with funding from the Notre Dame Arts Initiative.
This project is also made possible with funding from the Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good and the Global Catholic Research Initiative at Notre Dame.
Images
Mosaic ceiling by Mimmo Paladino in Mary, Queen of Families Chapel at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. Photo by Barbara Johnston, courtesy of the University of Notre Dame.