Rose Luminiello

Rose Luminiello serves as an Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs, where she is affiliated with the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies. She joined the institute in 2022, initially as a postdoctoral researcher and subsequently as a Visiting Assistant Research Professor for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years. Luminiello is also a faculty fellow of the Keough School's Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion and has previously held research positions with Notre Dame's Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism and the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen.

Luminiello earned her PhD in History from the University of Aberdeen with a dissertation titled 'Confronting Modernity: Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, and the Catholic Church in Ireland and Prussian Poland, 1878-1914,' supervised by Prof. Michael Brown and Prof. Robert I. Frost. She also holds an MSc in Modern British and Irish History from the University of Edinburgh and a BA from Ave Maria University in Florida. Her doctoral work was funded by the Comparative Statecraft and Constitutional Thought Studentship at the Centre for the Study of Citizenship, Civil Society, and Rule of Law.

As a comparative and intellectual historian of modern Europe and migration, Luminiello's research centers on Catholic social teaching, religion and political resistance, and identity-building, with particular emphasis on migration, Ireland, and Poland. Her scholarly work examines Catholic political protest and resistance in Ireland and Poland, with a focus on the intellectual and social histories that shaped Catholic social teaching through Pope Leo XIII and Rerum Novarum (1891). She explores the relationship between citizens and the state, and the interplay of religious identity with politics in the civil sphere. Her current monograph project, 'Modernizing Catholicism: Rerum Novarum and Moral Legitimacy in Ireland and Poland, 1878-1914,' represents a significant contribution to understanding how Catholic social thought influenced political resistance movements.

Luminiello's publications reveal consistent engagement with the history of women religious, migration, and Catholic social thought. Her work spans book chapters, journal articles, and edited volumes that explore how Catholic women religious shaped national identities in Catholic migrant communities during the 19th and 20th centuries. She has also made significant contributions to understanding the influence of Thomistic philosophy on Irish political resistance and the implementation of Catholic social teaching in diverse contexts. Her research frequently draws on archival materials from Rome, Ireland, Australia, and the United States, demonstrating her transnational approach to historical scholarship.

Luminiello's scholarly achievements include the Past President's Prize for Best Graduate Paper from the American Conference for Irish Studies (2015), a Postgraduate Research Grant from the Royal Historical Society (2016), and the Santander Mobility Award (2016). She has also received significant research funding, including the Comparative Statecraft and Constitutional Thought Studentship (2015-2019) and the Peter D'Agostino Research Travel Grant from Notre Dame's Cushwa Center (2019).

In addition to her research, Luminiello has been actively involved in grant writing and academic service. She has prepared multiple grant applications totaling approximately $448,531 and contributed to a Wellcome Trust grant application for £1,000,000. She has organized international workshops, including the 'Globalizing Profession: History of Women Religious State of the Field Workshop,' and serves on the editorial board of the Canadian Catholic Historical Association's Historical Studies. Her teaching experience spans undergraduate courses at the University of Aberdeen and Notre Dame, where she has taught on modern Ireland, global empires, and European history.