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Fogarty talks teaching in multiple departments

Religious Studies professor discusses cross-listing classes, resulting salary

Some University professors teach in multiple departments across different disciplines, which can affect their departmental status, who enrolls in their classes and what their research covers.

Gerald Fogarty is a Jesuit priest on the faculty at the University and the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of the History of Christianity. Although his “home department” is Religious Studies, he frequently teaches cross-listed classes in the Corcoran Department of History.

“What I have is what we call a courtesy appointment. I can offer courses in the History Department, but I have no voting rights in the department,” Fogarty said. “[I cannot vote on] appointments for new faculty and so forth — curriculum changes and such.”

Fogarty said in order to cross-list one of his classes, he calls the History Department and asks if they would be interested.

“If a course is cross-listed, there’s a certain way we allocate seats to students from different departments,” Fogarty said.

For example, Fogarty said he usually allocates 15 spots for history students, and the History Department gets credit for those 15 spots, while the Religious Studies department gets credit for the remaining five students.

“It’s sort of a game,” Fogarty said.

Fogarty has published an wide array of articles relating to both history and religion, and his current research focuses on the United States and the Vatican in World War II and the Holy See and American Catholicism from 1789 to 1870.

He has a total of 10 degrees in diverse subjects like Theology, History and Classics. He has held appointments at the Catholic University of America, Boston College and Fordham University, among other institutions.

“The graduate degrees [I have] that really count are all in history. I have two master's degrees and a Ph.D. in history,” Fogarty said. “Though I studied religious history at Yale, it was in the history department.”

Although Fogarty teaches in two departments at the University, his salary comes from Religious Studies.

He receives no special bonus or additional money for teaching in more than one department. His current salary is set at $95,800, according to University documents.

“In 1993, I was promised a salary of $90,000 to match another offer I received. Twenty years later, I am at [$94,000], which is barely over the mark,” Fogarty said. “I have held an endowed chair for 22 years.”

Fogarty said he enjoys teaching in two departments and cross-listing courses because of the diversity of students he encounters and their different perspectives.

“Getting history students is really much better because they’re attuned to history, whereas religious studies majors many times are not,” Fogarty said.

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