Rev. Patrick D. Gaffney, CSC, is currently in Dhaka, serving as the Vice Chancellor of the Congregation’s newest university. Notre Dame University Bangladesh was founded 1n 2013 by the Sacred Heart of Jesus Province in response to requests from the Catholic bishops of Bangladesh who have appreciated the long experience of Holy Cross priests, brothers, and sisters as educators in East Bengal. Before that, Fr. Gaffney worked for 36 years on the faculty of the University of Notre Dame in the Department of Anthropology. He was also a fellow and field worker in the Joan B. Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies. He took his doctorate at the University of Chicago after studying theology at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. He was born and grew up near the Columbia River on the high plateau of eastern Washington State. From there, he first came to Indiana as a freshman in high school to study at Holy Cross Seminary. His academic interests include religion, authority, and socio-political life in the Islamic context especially in the Arab world. In addition to the Middle East, he has done research in Europe and east Africa. Lately he has turned his attention to the study of attitudes, rituals, and cultural practices surrounding death and memorials.