The Distinguished Teaching Award is presented to a college or university professor who has demonstrated a high commitment to teaching beyond the expected requirements of their position and through their influence and skill have promoted Catholic studies from one generation of scholars to another.

The ACHA is delighted to bestow the 2026 Distinguished Teaching Award on Dr. Kevin Madigan, the Winn Research Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard University. Dr. Madigan’s twenty-five career at Harvard was punctuated by a number of teaching awards, which is enough to justify his receipt of the ACHA’s distinguished teaching award.

A few personal testimonies in his students’ own words, however, will go a bit farther to bring texture to his impact as a teacher and mentor. One student recalls Kevin’s “steady kindness through all the stages of my time at Harvard,” how he lifted her confidence as a writer, making her feel she was “saying something that mattered.” Another student writes that “working under Kevin Madigan, I never felt as though I was being trained. Instead I felt like I was allowed to grow into an academic…Especially in those treacherous years before tenure, when my future was entirely in my own hands, I realized just how valuable a gift he gave me.”

Kevin Madigan was the kind of professor who wouldn’t just explain where in the library you could find the reference dictionary but personally walk you over to the library and show you that reference dictionary. He was (and still is) generous—with his time, with his praise, with his expertise. I can’t begin to describe just how much his support meant to me—not just in grad school, but in the many years since. But Dr. Madigan gave his students more than encouragement and confidence. He also gave us a model of character.

Despite his tremendous professional accomplishments—Kevin Madigan is the author and editor of numerous field-defining books, an award-winning scholar of stunning versatility whose expertise ranges from 12th c. Italy to 20th c. Germany—Kevin embodies the virtues of both humor and humility, and in so doing has set a standard for his students worth striving for. It is my pleasure to confer upon Kevin Madigan the American Catholic Historical Association’s 2026 Distinguished Teaching Award.