Conference registration will open in fall 2026.
A detailed schedule and additional information will be published on the conference website.
“The Work of Human Hands: Liturgy and the Senses” will convene 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 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.
Learn more about The Work of Human Hands
About the Venue
McKenna Hall is the state-of-the-art conference center at the University of Notre Dame. The building is located on Notre Dame Avenue, directly across from the Morris Inn. Enter campus at the Notre Dame Avenue entrance off Angela Boulevard.
Visitor parking is available in the Walsh Lot or the Bookstore West Lot. Visitors pay to park in designated Notre Dame lots during weekday business hours (Monday–Friday, 6:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) using the ParkMobile app. ParkMobile allows payments using their app, their website (ParkMobile.io), by texting “PARK” to 77223, by Google Pay, or, if you don’t have a smartphone, by calling 1-877-727-5007.
After 4:00 p.m. on weekdays, all weekends except home football games, and during holiday closures observed by the University, there is no charge for parking. Designated accessible parking is available nearby for visitors with valid disability parking permits. For more information on parking and navigating campus, see Notre Dame’s visit page.
Funding & Support
This conference is 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.
The Work of Human Hands is a partner program of the 2027 Notre Dame Arts Biennial and is supported with funding from the Notre Dame Arts Initiative.
Image: 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.