Francesco Cesareo, PhD

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Adjunct Professor, Department of Humanities and Sciences

• E-mail: fcesareo@scs.edu

Francesco C. Cesareo, Ph.D. is President Emeritus of Assumption University (formerly College) in Worcester, Massachusetts where he served as its 16th President from 2007-2022. He graduated from Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception summa cum laude, and earned a master’s degree and doctorate from Fordham University. A Fulbright Scholar who studied at the University of Rome and the Pontifical Gregorian University, he has written two books and a number of scholarly articles on Catholic Reformation, 15th and 16th-century Roman history and the Renaissance Papacy. He was appointed to the John J. and Mary Jane Breen Chair in Catholic Studies at John Carroll University where he was the founding director of the Institute of Catholic Studies (1997-2004) while serving as professor of history (1989-2004). Following John Carroll, Dr. Cesareo served as Dean of the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts at Duquesne University (2004-2007). During his presidency, Dr. Cesareo demonstrated creative and innovative leadership resulting in new academic programs such as SOPHIA (the Sophomore Initiative at Assumption), actuarial science, criminology, data analytics, education, health sciences, nursing and sports management. He established articulation agreements with national universities such as the University of Notre Dame and the University of St. Thomas School of Law. Realizing an ambitious vision of Dr. Cesareo to provide students a unique opportunity to embark upon a personally and academically transformative experience, in spring 2013 the University opened a campus in Rome, Italy located in an authentic “Roman” neighborhood. Dr. Cesareo was an effective fundraiser and completed a $50 million capital campaign, the largest in Assumption’s history , in addition to raising millions of dollars throughout his presidency for scholarships, new academic buildings, academic programs, and faculty development. Dr. Cesareo is the Board President of the Sr. Thea Bowman Black Catholic Educational Foundation and former Chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Review Board, a position to which he was appointed by Cardinal Timothy Dolan. He served on numerous committees and Boards in the Diocese of Worcester and within the Worcester community. Dr. Cesareo served on the Advisory Board for St. Paul’s Seminary in the Diocese of Pittsburgh and the Board of Trustees for St. John’s Seminary in the Archdiocese of Boston. He also served as a Commissioner for the New England Commission of Higher Education. He is married and is the father of three grown children.

Ph.D., Fordham University (1986) - Late Medieval/Early Modern European History
M.A., Fordham University (1983) - Late Medieval/Early Modern European History
B.A., Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception (1981) - History

President, ASSUMPTION UNIVERSITY, Worcester, MA (July 2007 to June 2022)
Dean, DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY, Pittsburgh, PA McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts (August 2004 to June 2007)
John G. and Mary Jane Breen Chair in Catholic Studies and Director, Institute of Catholic Studies, JOHN CARROLL UNIVERSITY, Cleveland, OH (May 1997 to July 2004)
Managing Editor, Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu, INSTITUTUM HISTORICUM SOCIETATIS IESU, Rome and JOHN CARROLL UNIVERSITY, Cleveland, OH (January 2001 to December 2004)
Professor, Department of History (August 1999 to August 2004), Associate Professor, Department of History (August 1993 to August 1999), Assistant Professor, Department of History (August 1989 to August 1993), JOHN CARROLL UNIVERSITY, Cleveland, OH
Assistant Professor, Department of History, ALBERTUS MAGNUS COLLEGE, New Haven, CT (September 1987 to May 1989)
Adjunct Associate Professor, Graduate Institute for Studies in Catholic Doctrine, ST. JOHN'S UNIVERSITY, Jamaica, NY (January 1989 to May 1989)
Adjunct Professor, Department of History, VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY, Villanova, PA (August 2023 to present)

A Shepherd in Their Midst: The Episcopacy of Girolamo Seripando: 1554-1563 (Villanova: Augustinian Press, 1999)
Humanism and Catholic Reform: The Life and Work of Gregorio Cortese, 1483-1548 (Bern: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1990)
“Le coeur et l’esprit. Le sens d’une éducation chrétienne,” Bonne Nouvelle 32.186 (Juillet-Août 2009): 16-18.
“Can a Catholic College Exist Today?” The New England Journal of Higher Education 22.2 (Fall 2007): 17-18
"The Jesuit Colleges in Rome Under Everard Mercurian," The Mercurian Project: Forming Jesuit Culture, 1573-1580, ed. Thomas M. McCoog, S.J.(Rome: Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu and St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2004): 607-644.
“Robert Bellarmine,” Europe 1459 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World, ed. Jonathan Dewald (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004), 1: 244-246.
“Charles Borromeo,” Europe 1459 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World, ed. Jonathan Dewald (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004), 1: 284-285.
“The Catholic Reformation,” Europe 1459 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World, ed. Jonathan Dewald (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004), 5: 145-150.
“Theology,” Europe 1459 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World, ed. Jonathan Dewald (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004), 6: 24-28.
“Catholic Spirituality and Mysticism,” Europe 1459 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World, ed. Jonathan Dewald (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004), 1: 417-419.
“Catholic Studies and the Recovery of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition,” Connections (March 2003): 10-11.
"Innocent XI (1676-89): Defender of Christendom," The Great Popes Through History, 2 vols., ed. Frank J. Coppa (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002), 2:389-396
“Where Knowledge and Faith Meet: Catholic Studies and the Question of Identity,” Conversations 22 (Fall 2002): 24-31.
“The Complex Nature of Catholicism in the Renaissance,” Renaissance Quarterly 54 (Winter 2001): 1561-1573
"The Episcopacy in Sixteenth Century Italy," Early Modern Catholicism: Essays in Honor of John W. O’Malley, S.J., eds. Kathleen Comerford and Hilmar Pabel (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001): 65-83
"`Padre et Pastor Vostro:' Girolamo Seripando and the Restoration of the Episcopate in Salerno," The Historian 61.3 (1999): 579-595
"The Reform of the Diocese of Salerno During the Episcopacy of Girolamo Seripando," Analecta Augustiniana 61 (1998): 99-124
"Penitential Sermons in Renaissance Italy: Girolamo Seripando and the Pater Noster," The Catholic Historical Review, 83.1 (1997): 1-19
“Hubert Jedin,” Historians of the Christian Tradition, eds. Martin Klauber and Michael Bauman (Nashville: Broadman and Hallman, 1995), 491-517
"Reflections of a Shepherd: The Sermons of Girolamo Seripando," Augustinian Heritage, 39.2 (1993): 177-189
"The Collegium Germanicum and the Ignatian Vision of Education," The Sixteenth Century Journal, 24.4 (Winter 1993): 829-841
"Quest for Identity: The Ideals of Jesuit Education in the Sixteenth Century," The Jesuit Tradition in Education and Missions, ed. Christopher Chapple (Scranton: Scranton University Press, 1993), 17-33
"Patristic and Humanist Themes in the Sermons of Girolamo Seripando," Analecta Augustiniana, 56 (1993): 265-278
"Humanist Spirituality and Religious Reform in Salerno: The Case of Girolamo Seripando," Augustinian Heritage, 38.2 (1992): 189-201
"The Image of Bishop in the Sermons of Girolamo Seripando," Augustinian Heritage, 38.1 (1992): 7-21
"Charles V," Research Guide to European Historical Biography, 4 vols., ed. James Moncure, (Washington, DC: Beacham Publishing, Inc., 1992), 1:403-415

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