Between Democracy and Authoritarian Challenges:
SACRU to host its inaugural Summer School in Lisbon

 

The Summer School will welcome 16 students from 6 universities in Europe, Oceania, North America and South America, showcasing the global outreach of the SACRU network and its commitment to engaging the young generation worldwide

 

 

The Strategic Alliance of Catholic Research Universities (SACRU) will hold its first Summer School: “A New World Order: The Way Ahead between Democracy and Authoritarian Challenges.” The initiative will take place from July 1st to July 14th, 2024, at the Lisbon campus of Universidade Católica Portuguesa, one of the partners of the SACRU network.

The Summer School will welcome 16 students from 6 universities in Europe, Oceania, North America and South America. The program aims to provide a comprehensive educational experience, combining academic study with cultural immersion. This first edition will be dedicated to the pervasive and pressing challenges currently threatening the stability and deemed desirability of ‘liberal democracy’ in an increasingly interconnected, competitive and complex global order.

A crushing sequence of world-rocking events – from the 9/11 terror attacks and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a global refugee crisis, unprecedented waves of migration, and a global public health catastrophe caused by Covid-19 – has taken a heavy toll on liberal democracy’s standing, self-confidence and perceived suitability in dealing with present-day intricate realities.

«This Summer School reflects SACRU’s commitment to engaging the young generation worldwide. This program will offer students a unique experience that goes beyond the hours of teaching. It will be an opportunity for them to feel part of a global network and build strong ties with one another. In a present and future defined by internationalization, it is fundamental for the Alliance to keep proposing similar initiatives» SACRU Secretary General and Università Cattolica Vice-Rector Prof. Pier Sandro Cocconcelli commented.

The course will be both extremely relevant and consequential to scholars and students seeking to reflect on how ‘liberal democracy’ should be defined, how it was developed, what interactions have been adopted, what has gone wrong, what criticisms have become popular, and what principles should guide a possible ‘liberal democratic” revival. The multidisciplinary nature of the program is one of its principal strengths. Indeed, the students selected to attend the program come from several backgrounds: Political Science, International Relations, Development and Cooperation, History, Philosophy, Law, Nursing, Languages, Business, and Psychology. This integration of various disciplines enriches the learning experience, fosters a comprehensive understanding of complex global issues, and proves that the SACRU’s focus on interdisciplinarity is a cornerstone of its activities.

In addition to professors from Universidade Católica Portuguesa, faculty members from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Italy) and Sophia University (Japan) will contribute with their expertise. Participants will also engage in visits and cultural activities around Lisbon, enhancing their overall experience. «Many of the challenges currently threatening the stability of democratic societies are global – both in nature and impact. That is why initiatives like SACRU Summer School bring immense value: it allows experts and students from all over the world to come together and share unique experiences, offer different perspectives and propose innovative solutions, while immersing themselves in a program that promotes scientific curiosity and generous communication. It is a true honor for the University Católica Portuguesa to host this inaugural program in Lisbon and contribute to the revitalization of democratic political thought», Prof. Mónica Dias, Director of the Institute of Political Studies at Universidade Católica Portuguesa and Scientific Director of the Summer School, affirmed.

 

Reflections on United Nations SDGs:
n.13 Climate Action

UC Chile has realized this insight through the written article of Maryon Urbina, Director of  Sustainability, and the video of  Catalina Miranda, Engineering student

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 with the goal of providing a path for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. The core of the Agenda is represented by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which represent an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership to adopt strategies that aim to end poverty and other deprivations, improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth. The Strategic Alliance of Catholic Research Universities is collecting insights from SACRU experts and students on the SDGs. 

This contribution is by UC Chile on SDG n13: Climate Action

A Strategy for Climate Action

Written by Maryon Urbina, Sustainability Director of UC Chile

Universities, in their mission to form well-rounded individuals, have an ethical responsibility to address contemporary global challenges such as climate change. SDG 13, “Climate Action,” recognizes climate change as a global threat affecting all countries, with consequences including rising temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns, increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events, and rising sea levels. Pope Francis, through Laudato Si’, has issued an urgent call to care for our common home, emphasizing the need for an ecological conversion that leads us to respect and protect the environment. Catholic universities, in their mission to form holistic individuals, have the ethical responsibility to address contemporary global challenges by promoting climate action in their teaching and research activities, community engagement, and setting an example for society through their own daily practices.

In this context, UC Chile in 2019 became the first Chilean university to declare a climate emergency, join the Race to Zero, and commit to carbon neutrality by 2038, the year the institution will celebrate its 150th anniversary. Since 2020, UC Chile has developed an organizational structure and participatory process, forming a climate action council that includes representatives from operational, educational, and research areas, as well as students. The council has guided the development of baselines, plans, and new objectives related to mitigation and adaptation on its campuses. In 2023, the university published its Climate Action Strategy, and to date, there have been notable advances. The consideration of SDG 13, Climate Action, by Catholic universities is a natural extension of their foundational principles, educational mission, and commitment to society. Adopting this goal to form agents of positive change is fundamental for a world that desperately needs sustainable and just solutions.

In remembrance of Prof. Franco Anelli

 

On behalf of all members of the Strategic Alliance of Catholic Research Universities (SACRU) I would like to acknowledge how saddened we were by the recent death of our dear friend and colleague, Professor Franco Anelli, the Rector of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.

Franco was a highly esteemed legal academic and leader in Catholic higher education. As the Rector of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, he was critical to the establishment and success of SACRU. We will miss his insight, his vision, his intellect and his humour.

Our prayers and our thoughts are with his family, his friends and all of his colleagues at Sacro Cuore.

 

Professor Zlatko Skrbis

SACRU President 

SACRU partners’ meeting at the 2024 NAFSA conference

 

 

On Friday 31 May at NAFSA 2024 in New Orleans, colleagues from SACRU universities came together for a morning coffee reception to network and discuss their collaborations.  Hosted by Australian Catholic University, more than 20 colleagues enjoyed the event.  This SACRU networking activity has now become a regular event at the NAFSA and EAIE conferences.  Chris Riley as a member of the SACRU Executive Board thanked every one for their support and spoke briefly about the benefits of SACRU membership and the significant achievements of this young research focused alliance.

 

SEMINAR

Towards A Virtue Ethics for
Autonomous Vehicles

Click on the picture or here to follow for event

 

Date: May 14

Time: 

5pm in Lisbon

6 pm in Milan and Barcelona

Noon in Boston and Santiago de Chile

1 pm in Rio de Janeiro

1 am (May 15) in Tokyo

2 am (May 15) in Sydney

 

Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation:
Economy and Society Awards
Publications section and Scholarships section

 

7th edition of the Economy and Society Award – Publications section

To promote knowledge of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church, the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation (FCAPP) has announced a prize worth 20,000 euro for publications in economic and social fields

The award is biennial; allocations will take place in 2025.

Publication requirements

The prize will be awarded to a publication issued after 2019. The prize-winning work must be distinguished by its original contribution towards explaining, developing or applying the Church’s social doctrine in today’s context, be rigorous and of notable quality. The Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation intends to reward contributions that are easily understood by the general public and express with prophetic force a Christian commitment in economic and social activity. The jury will consider entries published in French, English, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, German and Polish. If there is more than one winner, the prize will be divided among them equally.

Reporting of candidates

Applications must be submitted by May 22nd 2024 

Candidates are invited to send their nomination to: centannus.award@foundation.va

 

 

4th Edition INTERNATIONAL “ECONOMY AND SOCIETY” AWARD for the assignment of two scholarships

To promote knowledge of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church, the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation (FCAPP) is offering a prize awarding two scholarships to young researchers worth 10,000 and/or 20,000 euro

The award is annual; allocations will take place in 2024.

Scholarship requirements

In response to the Holy Father’s appeals, FCAPP will be announcing a qualification-based competition for the assignment of two scholarships reserved for young research scholars of no more than 35 years of age. Commencing with the 2024/2025 academic year, they must attend advanced specialization courses and / or research courses at Universities or Higher Education Institutions / Schools in the study and application of new models of socio-economic development which, in line with the principles of the Social Doctrine of the Church, are inclusive, supportive and sustainable. The scholarships will have a value of € 10,000 if specialization/research will take place in the same country of residence of the candidate, € 20,000 otherwise.

Candidates should send a short 3-page presentation to the award jury showing the project they intend to work on – attaching the opinion of a professor responsible for the project itself – and a copy of the university qualifications indicated below.

Candidates must have a master’s degree, or equivalent qualification, obtained in the period between 1st August 2017 and 31st December 2023. Academic excellence will be considered in the evaluation process.

The specialization courses applicable for the implementation of the project, must be of a minimum duration of one academic year.

Projects in French, English, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, German and Polish will be considered.

Reporting of candidates

Applications must be submitted, together with the documents indicated above, by May 22st 2024

Candidates are invited to send their nomination to: centannus.award@foundation.va

 

 

 

 

Reflections on United Nations SDGs:
n.4 Quality Education

 

Universitat Ramon Llull has realized this insight through the written article of Prof Elisabet Golobardes Ribé, Vice-Rector for Academic Organization and Quality | Digital University, and the video of Carlos Vazquez Parra, student in the same University

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 with the goal of providing a path for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. The core of the Agenda is represented by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which represent an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership to adopt strategies that aim to end poverty and other deprivations, improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth. The Strategic Alliance of Catholic Research Universities is collecting insights from SACRU experts and students on the SDGs. 

This contribution is by the Universitat Ramon Llull on SDG n.4: Quality Education

Artificial Intelligence, Education and Humanism

Written by Elisabet Golobardes Ribé, Vice-Rector for Academic Organization and Quality | Digital University

The irruption of ChatGPT, last November 2022, entered with great force into the heart of society, in homes, in companies, in schools and in the university. Suddenly, there is news about Artificial Intelligence (AI) every day and in any media. It is worth saying that the concept of AI was born around 1956 and aimed to group algorithms that performed tasks that would be considered intelligent if performed by a human. And, of course, a software, ChatGPT, that “converses better” than many humans confuses us. Both for the use and for the abuse we can make of it. Then a new earthquake comes, the results of the latest PISA 2022 report, which indicate that reading comprehension and mathematical knowledge are declining. Is AI responsible? Will AI displace education? Or could it be the path to follow?

Let’s stop for a moment. Remember that AI and ChatGPT are just tools. What we have to offer the members of university campuses are spaces to think, to discuss, to exchange points of view, to learn from each other, to respect each other. It is up to us to train responsible, ethical, and critical people and professionals. That they are able to listen, understand what they read and know how to write and communicate properly. What is needed is more humanism. That AI is a well-used tool that can also help enhance these more digital and, at the same time, more human skills. In fact, we, on our campus, have prepared and made available to everyone recommendations for the proper use of Artificial Intelligence-based tools, which have been developed by the Working Group on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence Tools Applied to Teaching-URL.

We must continue to educate, educate, and educate.

For reference: https://www.url.edu/en/pedagogical-innovation-and-quality/recommendations-proper-use-artificial-intelligence-based-tools

 

International Doctoral Student Collaboration
on Vulnerability and Healthcare

 

One Ph.D. student from each SACRU University will participate in a series of online webinars on the theme “Vulnerability and Healthcare”. The final webinar, to be held on November 14, 2024, will aim to showcase the doctoral students’ work to a broader SACRU and external audience

 

The Working Group “Vulnerability and Healthcare” addresses vulnerabilities in healthcare at all levels, determining ways in which new conceptions of vulnerability—as a unifying and empowering notion that points to the fundamental capacity of all human beings to be responsive to the relational reality of the other and to the common good—can help to rethink some of the ethical and practical problems that emerge in contemporary healthcare, not only in times of pandemics, but also now as we move forward in the shadow of one.

To facilitate the research into the broad question of Vulnerability and Healthcare, the Working Group is establishing an international doctoral webinar collaboration in which one Ph.D. student from each SACRU University has been selected to participate. During these webinars, doctoral students will be able to present their own work to fellow doctoral students and academics at partner universities. This will provide an opportunity for a unique interdisciplinary exchange of ideas shaped by the multiple contexts in which the Catholic Universities that make up SACRU operate: Australia, Brazil, Chile, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Spain, and the USA. The aim is to enrich the doctoral work of the individual students, to provide opportunities for collaboration, and to foster research networks on the theme of vulnerability and healthcare.

For each webinar, two papers will be circulated in advance by two doctoral students. These will be read by all participants before the webinar. A respondent, from among the doctoral students, will begin the webinar with a 15–20-minute presentation that responds to both of the pre-circulated papers. The aim of this ‘response’ is draw out interesting themes, comparisons, questions, or issues raised by the two papers in relation to the overarching theme of the webinars, namely, vulnerability in healthcare. What do these papers mean for our topic of vulnerability and healthcare? The paper contributors will then be given about five minutes each to respond to the respondent. The chair will then open the discussion to the broader webinar group for the remaining time. The final webinar, to be held on November 14, 2024, will aim to showcase the doctoral students’ work to a broader SACRU and external audience. The doctoral students will form the panel for a webinar discussion on the topic of vulnerability in healthcare that will be widely publicised for live attendance as well as recorded for later distribution.

 

 

Laudato Si’ and the emerging contribution of
Catholic research universities to planetary health

This paper has been published in the journal Lancet Planetary Health and is the outcome of the collaboration among academics in the SACRU Working Group Laudato Si’

Climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss stem from human misuse of the Earth’s natural resources, especially fossil carbon. The paper emphasizes how these threats to planetary health fall disproportionately on minority and marginalized communities. Technical and legal solutions to planetary health are necessary and frequently effective, as seen in the sharp declines in the manufacture of chlorofluorocarbon resulting from the Montreal Protocol. However, the researchers underline how all these solutions have been just reactive, and none of these policies offer durable protection against hazards yet to come and go beyond the GDP logic.

To this extent, the paper recalls the engagement of the Holy Father Pope Francis through his 2015 encyclical letter, Laudato Sì: On Care for our Common Home, which examines the current planetary crisis, offering insights into their root causes and suggesting strategies for planetary restoration going beyond one-off solutions. To implement this vision, Pope Francis has developed a 7-year implementation plan inviting everyone to take concrete and scientifically informed actions to advance lasting and fair solutions to the planetary crises.

In response to this challenge, Catholic universities are forming interdisciplinary institutes designated to generate new knowledge about planetary threats and their impact on human health and wellbeing. The Strategic Alliance of Catholic Research Universities (SACRU) is an example of this cooperation, as the Alliance conducts basic, applied, and transnational research grounded in the concerns of the communities. For instance, to translate science from the academy to the world and advance equitable food policy, SACRU has established a collaboration with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Going forward, SACRU is well positioned to nurture the profound realignment of people’s relationship with the planet and each other, which Pope Francis calls for in Laudato Si’ and which the world urgently needs.

Full paper here

The Future of Catholic Universities in the Age of AI:
A Roadmap of Central Issues

This position paper is the outcome of the SACRU Scientific Colloquium on AI, hosted at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, on July 13 and 14, 2023. The paper was written by a group of researchers from the SACRU partner Universities 

Given AI’s increasing power and transformative potential, the SACRU conference was an occasion for examining not just the benefits and risks of a specific technology but the basic purposes and aspirations of a Catholic university in a technologically advanced society. At its best, what might a Catholic university be? What are the distinctive goods that Catholic universities can achieve and that give orientation and coherence to their activities? What are the essential and defining roles within a university, and what virtues and skills are required for persons to succeed in those roles as members of a university community? In answering such questions, this paper develops what might be called a normative vision for Catholic universities in a technological age. Because this was a meeting of Catholic research universities, the normative visions of the university can be divided into two broad areas: teaching and research. Because this was a meeting of Catholic research universities, the normative visions speak to the distinctively Catholic approach to higher education, including a conception of spirituality, the dignity of human persons, and the university’s proper role in furthering the common good of society.

The position paper adopts a realistic approach that addresses two challenges: the educational and the anthropological ones. It is divided into sections identifying the most pressing issues for the Scientific Colloquium. The issues are organized under three headings, based on the central tasks of the Catholic universities as understood by the authors: teaching, research, and service to society. The point is not to provide a rigid taxonomy but to give some organization to this complex technological revolution. In each section, the authors try to be aware of both the benefits and risks of AI in universities. Questions about possible connections between AI and the normative visions of the Catholic university are also included.

On July 13 and 14, 2023, the Strategic Alliance of Catholic Research Universities hosted the Scientific Colloquium “The Future of Catholic Universities in the AI Age.” The multidisciplinary initiative involved different disciplines in the discussion on the impact of AI on universities. The Colloquium was organized in plenary sessions, which included a keynote speaker from each SACRU University and two parallel sessions (AI, Education & Research; AI, Universities within Society) in which the issues presented by the plenary speakers were further addressed. Following the Conference, a group of academics from SACRU synthesized the results in the position paper The Future of Catholic Universities in the Age of AI: A Roadmap of Central Issues. 

Read here