Ian Werrett, Ph.D., to address Saint Martin’s Society of Fellows

Spring colloquium focuses on the importance of a Benedictine education

 April 9, 2009

Lacey, Washington—The Saint Martin’s University Society of Fellows presents its Spring 2009 Colloquium on Wednesday, April 15 at 7:00 p.m. The event, free and open to the public, will take place at Saint Martin’s University in the Norman Worthington Conference Center. Please join us for an evening of celebration.

Besides conferring member status on a new group of inductees, the Society has invited Ian Werrett, Ph.D. to speak on the importance of a Benedictine education. In 2003, Saint Martin’s created the Catholic Benedictine Leadership Team to foster the University’s Catholic and Benedictine heritage and to promote a greater understanding of Saint Martin’s status as a Catholic university. In this presentation, Werrett will discuss the University’s ever evolving mission and the foundation upon which it rests: the Catholic Benedictine tradition.

Werrett is assistant professor of religious studies at Saint Martin’s University and director of its Spiritual Life Institute. He received his bachelor’s degree from Saint Martin’s in 1996, his master’s degree from Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia in 2000, and his Ph.D. from the University of Saint Andrews in Saint Andrews, Scotland in 2006.

Founded in 1971 by Father Michael Feeney, O.S.B., the Society of Fellows is Saint Martin’s academic honorary society. Membership in the Society recognizes students and faculty who, by their outstanding work in teaching and learning, contribute to the intellectual life of the University.

Saint Martin’s University is an independent four-year, Catholic, coeducational university located on a 320-acre wooded campus in Lacey, Washington. Established in 1895 by the Catholic Order of Saint Benedict, the University is one of 18 Benedictine colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and the only one west of the Rocky Mountains. Saint Martin’s University prepares students for successful lives through its 21 majors and six graduate programs spanning the liberal arts, business, education and engineering. Saint Martin’s welcomes 1,250 student from many ethnic and religious backgrounds to its main campus, and 650 more to its five extension campuses located at Fort Lewis Army Post, McChord Air Force Base, Olympic College, Centralia College and Tacoma Community College.

For additional information:

Jeff Birkenstein, Ph.D.
Assistant professor of English
360-486-8846
jbirkentsein@stmartin.edu