Each year the Frances G. Harpst Center for Catholic Thought and Culture takes a small group of inter-disciplinary USD Faculty to a place connected in a broad sense with the Catholic intellectual and/or cultural and social traditions. The program is set around a specific theme each year which brings past, present and future discourse into relation. The theme can embrace a wide variety of foci, such as historical, ethical, social, theological, cultural and aesthetic.

The seminars are facilitated by experts in the field and involve a pre-seminar program of preparatory academic readings. The actual program consists of academic lectures, seminars and discussions with related cultural and immersion visits to sites, people and organizations. Each Faculty member selected to participate produces an academic paper upon return which is presented on campus in a series of follow-up presentations and additional collegial gatherings and discussions take place to continue the dialogue and strong links formed by the group during their trip. The program has a significant impact upon Faculty’s understanding of USD and its Catholic background and character, upon their teaching and research, and upon collegial relations.

 

Faculty Travel Immersion Seminar 2012 Exploring Celtic Christianity in the Land of Saints and Scholars

The theme for the 2012 seminar will be Celtic Christianity and the location will be Ireland, which, from the time of St Patrick’s mission and the country’s embracing of Christianity in the 5^th Century, soon came to be known a land of ‘saints and scholars’. Christianity in medieval Ireland blended with the unique cultural and social traditions of that land and developed into a very distinctive and progressively inculturated form of the Christian faith, indeed into something quite distinctive from the character of ‘Roman Christianity’ of the era.

This multi-disciplinary trip will include faculty participants from the following schools and departments:

Art, Architecture and Art History

Communication Studies

Languages and Literatures

Nursing and Health Sciences (x2)

Political Science & International Relations

Sociology

Theology and Religious Studies (x2)

Itinerary Outline

Day 1:

“A journey through the sacral landscapes of the Boyne valley and the Hill of Tara”

Bru Na Boinne, Knowth Passage Grave, Clonmacnoise

Day 2:

“Islands on the edge of Europe- an Irish timescape”

Full Day to the Aran Islands, Dun Aengus Fort and the Seven Churches

Day 3:

Cliffs of Moher, “A Guided Walk through The Burren” and Trinitarian Abbey

Day 4:

Dingle Peninsula, Gallurus Oratory, Kilmalkeador

Day 5:

“Turning darkness into light: monks and manuscripts in medieval Ireland”

Glenstal Abbey and Solas Bhride

Day 6:

Tour of Trinity College and the Enchanting Book of Kells

Trinity College Dublin and Walking Tour of Historic Dublin City

Day 7:

Spiritual Journey with Fr Michael Rogers

Glendalough

 

" The experience of sharing the [Faculty Travel Immersion Seminar] with my USD colleagues was a highlight. This trip created fellowship amongst a very diverse group of individuals and I will always be grateful for that.." - Evelyn Diaz Cruz,
participant in the 2010
travel seminar