SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Thomas Rzeznik, associate professor and chairman of the Department of History in the College of Arts and Sciences at Seton Hall University, received national recognition — including top honors for scholarly excellence — from the Catholic Press Association for American Catholic Studies, the journal he co-edits with Rodger Van Allen of Villanova University, in Pennsylvania.
American Catholic Studies received first place for General Excellence for a Scholarly Magazine in the CPA’s annual awards. Rzeznik noted that American Catholic Studies has received this top honor for four out of the past five years. The journal features scholarly articles, book reviews and essays on topics in the field. Rzeznik has served as the journal’s co-editor since 2013.
“It is nice to be honored by one’s peers in the world of Catholic publishing,” Rzeznik said in a press release.
In awarding the General Excellence award, judges praised ACS for its “consistent excellence in topics, editing, design and presentation. This publication presents a serious, scholarly, topical image and appears to attract solid scholars who offer relevant topics of current interest.”
American Catholic Studies — formerly the Records of the American Catholic Historical Society — is the oldest, continuously published Catholic scholarly journal in the United States. It is sponsored by the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, an organization founded in 1884 by those concerned that Catholics were losing their history. In response, members of the society began collecting historical documents and working to preserve the Catholic past.
“We have published for more than 125 years, through the Depression, world wars and through all the changes that have taken place in scholarly publishing,” Rzeznik said. “As a journal, we are quite proud to maintain our commitment to quality scholarship and also to ensure its appeal to a general audience through clear prose and engaging narrative.”
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