Mark William Roche is the Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Professor of German Language and Literature and Concurrent Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. From 1997 to 2008, Roche served as dean of Notre Dame's College of Arts and Letters. His books include Why Literature Matters in the 21st Century and The Intellectual Appeal of Catholicism and the Idea of a Catholic University (University of Notre Dame Press, 2003).