What do you do with a justice and peace studies major or minor?

Befriend a Gandhi; act like one.

Therese Cullen. 1999, double major in justice and peace studies and sociology, minor in theology.

Therese was so impressed by Arun Gandhi, grandson of the Mahatma, whom she heard speak at a national conference of the Peace Studies Association (continuing the conversation in the basement during the tornado alert that ended his talk) that she raised the funds and organized his lecture at St. Thomas.  Later she joined him for a January-term tour of India following the footsteps of his grandfather. 

"Sacred" bull relaxing in median of street--India, 1998

After graduation she took a job implementing social justice programs  in an inner-city Memphis parish pastored by David Knight, a Jesuit committed to social justice.  “Coincidentally” the Gandhis lived just across town. 

When a new pastor seemed less interested in social justice, she went to the Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, to study "how Catholicism should stand on the edge of culture critiquing it and not embedded in it," earning a Masters' Degree in 2004. 

Then she moved back to Memphis to help found what she hoped would be a Catholic Worker House.  She also taught courses on "Dorothy Day" and "Culture and Spirituality" for the diocesan lay institute.  When the "Dorothy Day House" turned out to be less interested in the Catholic Worker identity than she had hoped, she enrolled in the Irish School of Ecumenics in Dublin, where in the spring of 2008 she completed an MPhil in Reconciliation Studies --". . . an innovative cross-border programme. It takes an inter-disciplinary approach to the challenges of social reconciliation in the aftermath of armed conflict. Particular attention is given to ethnic conflicts and the role of religion in such conflicts. Courses allow specialisation in the fields of politics, social research, theology and religions." She then applied for their Ph.D. program.