The Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies

The Catholic University of America’s Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies [IPR] is an interdisciplinary policy research center whose Fellows, scholars, and students provide timely analysis of policy issues relevant to the life of the Church, the University, legislators, scholars, professionals, and concerned citizens, including the media.

As the oldest institute at the Catholic University, IPR provides a forum that welcomes and encourages participation and active collaboration among scholars, professionals and experts from a variety of disciplines, institutions, and faith traditions. The Institute is committed to sharing its research widely with the Church, policymakers, the media, and the academic community.

IPR organizes, facilitates, and sponsors policy analysis, empirical research, and publications focused on the policies that govern the public and private sectors.

Since our founding in 1974, our Fellows and scholars have organized hundreds of symposia, conferences, round-tables, debates, lectures, and publications, each of which was carefully designed to bring rigorous academic research to bear on contemporary questions that lie at the intersection of law, religion, and policy.

What’s Happening Now in IPR?

  • Dr. Maryann Cusimano Love spoke at “The Human and Moral Costs of the New Nuclear Arms Race” with the Kroc Institute for International Peace on September 24th, 2026

  • The Institute for Policy Research welcomes new Collegiate Fellow, Ebuka Ifeanyichukwu, on Thursday, September 3rd, 2026

  • The Institute for Policy Research, along with the School of Theology and Religious Studies, School of Philosophy, and School of Canon Law, held a seminar entitled “John Henry Newman, Doctor of the Church at 225,” on Monday, February 23, 2026.

  • The Institute for Policy Research, its director, fellows, and research assistants, mourn the passing of Senior Fellow Marshall J. Breger on Sunday, August 3, 2025.

  • The Institute for Policy Research celebrates the election of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, O.S.A. as Pope Leo XIV on Thursday, May 8, 2025.

  • Director David Long’s new book Newman, Canon Law, and Development: Quarrying Granite Rocks with Razors, the second book in the Bibliotheca Iuris Canonici series, has been published by CUA Press and is available on Amazon.

  • The Institute for Policy Research mourns the death of Pope Francis on Monday, April 21, 2025, at the age of 88.

  • The Institute for Policy Research co-sponsored, along with the McLean Center for the Study of Culture and Values and the School of Theology and Religious Studies, an online panel discussion of CUA law professor and IPR Senior Fellow Marshall Breger's new book The Contest and Control of Jerusalem's Holy Sites (Cambridge University Press, 2024). 

Find out more about what the Institute is doing by visiting the OUR EVENTS and OUR WORK pages on our website.

You can also follow the Institute on X.