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The eighth Faculty Pub Night of the 2024-25 season features Sean Dempsey, associate professor and chair of history (Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts). He will discuss his recent book, "City of Dignity: Christianity, Liberalism, and the Making of Global Los Angeles."

About Faculty Pub Night

Students, staff, faculty, alumni, and members of the public are all invited to the 2024-25 series of Faculty Pub Night at the William H. Hannon Library. Eight LMU professors are selected annually to discuss their latest publication or project in a comfortable setting and format that welcomes diverse perspectives for an inclusive conversation aimed to educate the entire community. All Faculty Pub Nights are free and open to the public.

About the Author's Work

Contemporary Los Angeles is commonly seen as an American bulwark of progressive secular politics, a place that values immigration, equity, diversity, and human rights. But what accounts for the city’s embrace of such staunchly liberal values, which are more hotly contested in other parts of the country? The answer, Sean Dempsey reveals, lies not with those frequent targets of credit and blame—Democrats in Hollywood—but instead with liberal Protestants and other steadfast religious organizations of the postwar era.

As the Religious Right movement emerged in the 1970s, progressive religious activists quietly began promoting an ethical vision that made waves worldwide but saw the largest impact in its place of origin: metropolitan Los Angeles. At the center of this vision lay the concept of human dignity—entwining the integral importance of political and expressive freedom with the moral sanctity of the human condition—which suffused all of the political values that arose from it, whether tolerance, diversity, or equality of opportunity. The work of these religious organizations birthed such phenomena as the Sanctuary Movement—which provided safe haven for refugees fleeing conflict-torn Central America—and advocacy for the homeless, both of which became increasingly fraught issues amid the rising tides of neoliberalism and conservatism. City of Dignity explores how these interwoven spiritual and theological strands found common ground—and made common impacts—in the humanitarian ecosystem of one of America’s largest and most dynamic metro areas.

About the Author

Father Sean Dempsey, S.J., is a Jesuit priest of the California Province. He received a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Notre Dame, an M.A. in American Studies from Saint Louis University, and an M.Div. from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley. He completed his doctoral studies in History at the University of Pennsylvania, with a dissertation titled, "The Politics of Dignity: Social Christianity and the Making of Global Los Angeles." His research focuses on the historical intersections of religion, social thought, and urban politics in the twentieth-century. During his Jesuit formation, he previously worked at LMU from 2003-2005, teaching part-time in the American Cultures Program and serving as Direct Service Coordinator at the Center for Service and Action.

About the William H. Hannon Library

The William H. Hannon Library fosters excellence in academic achievement through an array of distinctive services that enable learners to feed their curiosity, experience new worlds, develop their ideas, inform their decision-making, and inspire others. More information can be found at http://library.lmu.edu

For more information about this event, contact the Outreach and Engagement team at the William H. Hannon library via email at library.outreach@lmu.edu or call 310-338-5234.