Faculty Travel Seminars

offered by the Center for Catholic Thought and Culture

Starting January 2009, the Center for Catholic Thought and Culture will provide an annual opportunity for faculty to participate in a fully-funded travel immersion seminar. Funds for travel seminars have been provided by a donor. The purpose of these seminars is to bring together small groups of approximately ten faculty members from a variety of disciplines who are interested in the opportunity for intellectual engagement, conversation and reflection on the Church ’s varied traditions.

Each seminar will be conducted by a leading Catholic expert in the field. Venues will vary in view of either their historical or contemporary significance to the Church’s traditions and its mission as these relate to the seminar topic . This opportunity for faculty to travel together to places connected to the Church ’s history and/or contemporary mission, coupled with the opportunity for serious intellectual engagement with issues of continuing importance to the Church and society, is meant to be an enriching and illuminating experience for each participant.

 

2010 Faculty Travel Immersion Seminar on Sustainability

The next faculty travel immersion seminar will take place in the Dominican Republic and will focus on “Sustainability, Eco-Theology and Eco-Justice”. Eleven faculty members from the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Business will participate. The seminar will begin in Santo Domingo on Sat. morning Jan. 2, 2010 and will conclude in Santo Domingo on Friday afternoon Jan. 8, 2010.

The seminar will be led by Jame Schaefer, Ph.D., Marquette University. Before pursuing a doctorate in Theology with a focus on ecological theology and environmental ethics, Prof. Schaefer was a consultant to governments on local, state, national and international levels on involving the public in environmental issues. Her career in theology grew from her interest in whether there were resources in Catholic Christianity that could be brought to bear on the many intractable problems she faced in her environmental work.

Led by Prof. Schaefer, faculty participants will consider these resources, examine the principles of Catholic social teaching and their relevance to the natural environment and apply reconstructed concepts to environmental problems and solutions underway in the Dominican Republic. After the seminar begins in Santo Domingo, participants will travel to El Cercado, in the province of San Juan de la Maguana, for two nights lodging and three days of combined seminar and site visits to environmental projects in which the local Catholic church is taking the lead. The seminar will wrap up in Santo Domingo.

                                                                     

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Inaugural Seminar January 2009:

Rome: Catholic Health Care and Health Care Ethics

The inaugural faculty seminar took place in Rome, January 2 - 8, 2009. Brian Johnstone, internationally renowned scholar and author in the field of Christian ethics, conducted the seminar on Catholic Health Care and Health Care Ethics. Catholic perspectives on a variety of topics, e.g., human genome project, justice and health care resources, were explored, with stimulating conversation spilling over into meal times. Nine faculty, 3 from College of Arts & Sciences and 6 from the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, participated in this inaugural seminar.

Please Click Here to See the Photo-Journal of the Rome, 2009 Seminar.

 

Post-Seminar Public Forum:

Forum 2009: Catholic Health Care and Health Care Ethics

On the afternoons of March 25 and 26, 2009, participants in the Health Care Ethics Seminar will present papers generated by the seminar experience. The forum will take place in Mother Rosalie Hill Hall, room 102. Both the forum on March 25 and the forum on March 26 will begin at 3:30p.m. and end at 5:30p.m. See titles below.

 

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 Presentations:

“Want Fries With That?:

The Catholic Church and Moral Dilemma in Individual Health Care”

Prof. Sandra Sgoutas-Emch, College of Arts and Sciences

“The Conundrum of Reproductive Technology”

Prof. Kathy James and Prof. Cynthia Connelly, Hahn School of Nursing

“Facets of the Nurse’s Role and Catholic Social Teaching”

Prof. Sally Brosz Hardin, Hahn School of Nursing

Thursday, March 26th, 2009 Presentations:

“Social Justice in Health Care: The Church’s View”

Prof. Diane Fatica, Hahn School of Nursing

“Preparing USD Pre-Med Students”

Prof. Debbie Tahmasebbi, College of Arts and Sciences

“Genetic Intervention: Ethical and Scientific Challenges”

Prof. Tammy Dwyer, College of Arts and Sciences

“Religious Influences on the Reproductive Health Decisions

of HIV+ Latinas Living on the Border”

Prof. Susan Instone and Prof. Mary-Rose Mueller, Hahn School of Nursing