The Center for Cultural Restoration (CCR) is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to preserving, revitalizing, and sharing cultural, religious, and historical knowledge through research, publication, public speaking, and media. Its programs explore Western culture, memory, community, and faith through a range of formats including essays, lectures, collaborative writing, and creative projects such as theatrical adaptations and multimedia. CCR’s contributors include nationally recognized writers and public intellectuals whose work informs, educates, and promotes reflection on cultural continuity and renewal.
The mission of the Center for Cultural Restoration (CCR) is to educate and inspire public audiences by documenting and reviving vital cultural traditions that are at risk of being forgotten. CCR does this through high-level research and writing, public speaking, collaborative authorship, and the development of creative media. The organization supports work that deepens public understanding of cultural, religious, and historical inheritance, with an emphasis on free, accessible, and engaging content such as essays, lectures, podcasts, and performances.
CCR’s foundational initiative is Remembering Upstate New York, a five-year civic storytelling project that explores the religious and cultural significance of the region through essays, fiction, memoir, historical research, and local engagement. The project showcases CCR’s mission in action, bringing together contributors with deep experience in journalism, literature, and public life to preserve and communicate stories that reflect shared American heritage and identity. This model sets the tone for future regional and national programming aimed at cultural restoration through narrative.
Mary Eberstadt is author of several influential books, including Primal Screams (2019), How the West Really Lost God: A New Theory of Secularization (2013), and Adam and Eve after the Pill, Revisited (2023). Her books have been translated into over a dozen languages. She is also author of a work of fiction, The Loser Letters: A Comic Tale of Life, Death, and Atheism (2010), that was adapted for stage, and premiered at The Catholic University of America in 2017 – an experience that will help to bring Stage Two of this Project to theatrical, as well as literary, life. Mary Eberstadt has twice been awarded honorary doctorates in humane letters (Seton Hall University, 2014; Magdalen College, NH, 2022). Eberstadt's work can be found here: https://www.maryeberstadt.com/
Andrew Doran is an Army veteran, distinguished journalist, and former member of the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. State Department, Research Director Doran has extensive experience of American politics and culture at both the national and regional levels. Like Project Director Eberstadt and Catholic Studies Director Lopez, he is a known quantity in intellectual circles, with publications in leading journals of ideas. Author Doran’s legal background and familiarity with American regional literary traditions are additional assets for this Project. He is also a child of rural Upstate, the Southern Tier, with deep roots in the area, and a lifelong immersion in its history. More about Andrew’s work can be found on his website, andrewgdoran.com.
Benjamin Ranieri, a Christendom College graduate, an ardent Virginian by background with a strong interest in regional histories, will be amplifying parts of the project as they emerge. He will manage correspondence, scheduling, and online updates for Director Mary Eberstadt, and field media requests. He will oversee web and digital media for the “Remembering Upstate New York” Project, consult on related issues including marketing, logo and other branding, and oversee events and institutions for presentation of research and Project development.
Michael Savoy and Judy Kelly are a husband-and-wife local logistics, networking, community and lifelong residents of Upstate New York, currently in the Rochester area, with undergraduate degrees from the Rochester Institute of Technology. They will assist in the development of the brand’s vision, creative concepts for promotional pieces, publications, print collateral, and any other visuals or related tasks.
Dr. Kathryn Jean Lopez will be focusing on capturing the religious past and present of New York – including men and women who are canonized saints in the Catholic Church. A native New Yorker, Dr. Lopez is a senior fellow at the National Review Institute where she directs the Center for Religion, Culture, and Civil Society. She is also religion editor of National Review magazine, a nationally syndicated columnist with Andrews McMeel Universal, and author of A Year with the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living. Kathryn has received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from CUA. She speaks frequently on faith in public life, virtue, prayer, and religious freedom.
