ACCU 10th Annual Peace and Justice Meeting: January 15-17, 2010 ~ Register Today!
Transcending Borders: Catholic Social Thought in Teaching, Research and Action

Return to the conference welcome for the invitation, announcement and brochure.

Conference Schedule

Saturday, January 16, 2010

7:15-8:15 am:	Shuttles from Hotel
7:30-8:30 am:	Continental Breakfast and Morning Prayer
8:30-10:00 am:	I: Catholic Social Thought on Wealth and Poverty Speaker: Charles M. A. Clark, PhD, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, Tobin College of Business; Senior Fellow, Vincentian Center for Church and Society; and Professor of Economics at St. John’s University. / Respondent: Stephen Conroy, PhD, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of San Diego
10:15-11:45 am:	II: Catholic Higher Education in the 3rd Millennium: Race and Ethnicity in the U.S. Speaker: David T. Abalos, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies and Sociology at Seton Hall University / Respondent: Alberto Pulido, PhD, Chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of San Diego
11:45am–12:30 pm:	Lunch Buffet
12:45-3:15 pm:	III: Border Excursion *Pants and tennis shoes required. **Passport not required.
3:30-5:30 pm:	IV: Immigration on the U.S.-Mexico Border Keynote: Orlando Espin, ThD, Professor of Systematic Theology and Director of the Center for the Study of Latino/a Catholicism at the University of San Diego

I: Catholic Social Thought on Wealth and Poverty

Abstract: Catholic social thought is not an alternative economic theory or system. It is instead a set of principles and a vision of a “just economy.” As such it defines terms like wealth and poverty differently, defining them in terms of the dignity of the human person. Economists take a narrow view of the human person as “rational economic man”, and thus build markets and economic policy as if this included all that it means to be human. By adopting Christian Anthropology, CST allows for a broader understanding of what the nature and purpose of the economy is, thus promoting both a more realistic economic theory and promoting economic institutions and policies that better promote a “just economy”. This presentation will extensively use Caritas in veritate and the recent financial crisis to demonstrate why a critical understanding of wealth of poverty is so important, and how the crisis and global poverty are promoted by the purely “economic” view of wealth and poverty, and these problems can only be reversed by the CST approach.

Speaker: Charles M. A. Clark, PhD, is currently Senior Fellow, Vincentian Center for Church and Society; and Professor of Economics, St. John’s University, New York.  He earned a B.A. from Fordham University and both an M.A. and Ph.D. from the New School for Social Research, writing his dissertation under the supervision of Robert Heilbroner.

He is the author or editor of nine books, including:  Economic Theory and Natural Philosophy (1992), The Basic Income Guarantee: Ensuring Progress and Prosperity in the 21st Century (2002) and Rediscovering Abundance (with Helen Alford, Steve Cortright and Mike Naughton) (2006).   He has more than 100 professional publications, mostly in the fields of Catholic social thought; Poverty and Income Inequality; and the History of Economic Thought.    Dr. Clark has been Visiting Professor of Economics at University College Cork, Ireland and at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), Rome.   Dr. Clark has also served as a consultant on fiscal impact analysis; the economic impact of baseball stadiums; on tax and social welfare reforms in Ireland and since 2005 has assisted the New York City Police Benevolent Association (police union) in their salary arbitrations.  Dr. Clark was recently a Delegate for the Holy See Mission to the United Nations High Level Conference on the Financial Crisis and is an advisor to the Holy See’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations.   The son of two librarians, Dr. Clark lives on Long Island (where he was born) with his wife.  They have three grown children.    Current projects include: What Economists can learn from Catholic social thought (book); The Economic Wisdom of John Paul II (book) and Rich and Poor (a pamphlet on Catholic social thought to be published by in the UK by the Catholic Truth Society in 2010).

Respondent: Stephen Conroy, PhD, joined the faculty of the University of San Diego in the fall of 2004 as an associate professor of Economics after spending five years at the University of West Florida in Pensacola. Professor Conroy has received several research and teaching awards, including the Outstanding Undergraduate Business Educator Award (2007), Teaching Incentive Program (TIP) Award (2004), Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and Advising Award (2003) and the Dyson Faculty Award for Excellence in Research and Scholarly Activity (2002 and 2004). Professor Conroy earned a PhD in Economics from the University of Southern California (1998), where he also received an M.A. in Economics (1995) and completed an NIA postdoctoral fellowship in 1999. Professor Conroy received his bachelor’s degree in Economics from Creighton University, where he graduated with honors in 1987. Professor Conroy enjoys teaching undergraduate andgraduate courses primarily in applied microeconomics. Among the courses he has taught are: Managerial Economics and Decision Making, Principles of Microeconomics, Principles of Macroeconomics, Urban and Regional Economic Development, Internet Economics, Economic Demography and Aging Markets and Intermediate Microeconomics. He has published in a variety of venues, including Contemporary Economic Policy, Journal of Business Ethics, Social Science Quarterly, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, and the School Community Journal.

In addition to his academic scholarship, Professor Conroy has also participated in a number of economic consulting projects for clients in the private and public sectors, especially in the area of economic base analysis and, more recently, in valuation of nonmarket assets. Professor Conroy has several years of business experience in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, including positions with Hallmark Cards, Inc. (inventory controller), Catholic Charities of Los Angeles (outreach specialist/coordinator), El Centro del Pueblo of Los Angeles (emergency services caseworker) and Jovenes, Inc., a nonprofit organization serving homeless youth in Los Angeles.