Harpst Fellows Program

The Frances G. Harpst Center endeavors to animate the intellectual, aesthetic, and social dimensions of Catholic culture and thought across all of the academic disciplines; and engage with practical dimensions by drawing on Catholic Social Teaching.

While the academic disciplines provide paths to the pursuit of truth that can be epistemologically, theoretically, methodologically, or technologically distinct, the Catholic Intellectual Tradition centers “integration.” This means that we can ask questions - and encourage students to do the same - about how knowledge from different disciplines can enrich and inspire living a whole life.

Integration serves as an academic manifestation of Pope Francis’ call in Laudatory Sí to develop an “integral ecology” to confront interrelated challenges facing humanity. At USD, we encode integration into our core curriculum in the form of interdisciplinary learning and draw on the wisdom of lived experience through community-engaged learning. Interdisciplinary practice allows for the exploration of not just complementarity or compatibility among the disciplines, but also moments of incompatibility and tension that gives vitality to disciplinary variety.

The Harpst Center hopes to facilitate disciplinary and interdisciplinary engagement with important and timely themes while maintaining dialogue with Catholic thought, culture, and agency in the form of the Harpst Fellows Program, a series of ambitious three- year forums for interdisciplinary collaboration and inquiry-based community.

Each fellowship unfolds in two stages:

1. Faculty Study Group (year 1) 6-10 faculty will be awarded a $1000 stipend each to participate in a year-long study group that will include readings, discussion, speakers, and immersion experiences; convening monthly throughout the academic year. Fellows will explore a theme with special focus on how it interfaces with elements of Catholic thought such as Catholic social, moral, or spiritual teaching - but also with the ideas and work of Catholic institutions, organizations, religious orders, and other manifestations of Catholicity.

2. Faculty Field Group (year 2 and 3) After a year of study, the core faculty elects a chair and opens up their work to others to form a standing interdisciplinary field group. The logic of this group is to develop curricular, scholarly, or community collaboration around issues related to their theme. The Field Group will have an annual budget, supervised by the Harpst Center director and Mission Integration, to develop and cultivate ideas and energy around a deeper understanding of the theme and its intersection with Catholic thought and culture. It is our hope that the field group might continue beyond its funding from the Harpst Center, either through institutionalization or community-based inquiry.

For more information, please contact Esteban del Río at edelrio@sandiego.edu.