The Kenefick Chair Reading Group will begin this fall starting Monday, Sept. 13. The six session reading group will be conducted on Zoom, as it has since the pandemic took hold in spring of 2020, and take place from 3:45 to 5 p.m. A schedule with readings is given below.
The Society of Jesus has declared this year of the 500th anniversary of the conversion of its founder, St. Ignatius, the Ignatian Year. It is to be celebrated by Jesuits and Jesuit institutions around the world from May 2021 to July 2022. Since higher education is our mission at Creighton and a vital Jesuit mission around the world, this is a good time to focus on that mission in the context of patterns of change in higher education that some call the “corporatization” of the university.
Patrick Murray, professor of philosophy and the John C. Kenefick Faculty Chair in the Humanities, has chosen Just Universities: Catholic Social Teaching Confronts Corporatized Higher Education (Fordham University Press, 2021) by Gerald J. Beyer, Associate Professor of Christian Ethics in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University. The 256-page book addresses the topic from the vantage point of critical social theory and Catholic Social Teaching.
“Gerald J. Beyer’s Just Universities discusses ways that U.S. Catholic institutions of higher education have embodied or failed to embody Catholic social teaching in their campus policies and practices. Beyer argues that the corporatization of the university has infected U.S. higher education with hyper-individualistic models and practices that hinder the ability of Catholic institutions to create an environment imbued with bedrock values and principles of Catholic Social Teaching such as respect for human rights, solidarity, and justice,” describes the book on the publisher’s website.
This reading group will complement the Commitment to Justice in Jesuit Higher Education series at Creighton sponsored by the Vice President of Mission and Ministry, the Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, and the A.F. Jacobson Endowed Chair in Communication and complement the book club series on racial justice sponsored by the Division of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Creighton Intercultural Center, the A.F. Jacobson Endowed Chair in Communication, and the Schlegel Center for Service and Justice.
Dr. Beyer has kindly agreed to meet with the reading group and other invited guests over zoom later this fall semester to discuss his book. The date and time for that zoom discussion is to be determined.
If you plan to participate in the reading group, and would like a paperback copy of Just Universities, let Murray know as soon as possible at [email protected]. Zoom invitations will then be sent to all interested reading group participants for all the meetings this fall.
Schedule:
Monday, Sept. 13: Chapter 1: The Mission of Catholic Higher Education in the Age of the Corporatized University
Monday, Sept. 27: Chapter 2: Embodying Solidarity on Catholic Campuses: The Case of Worker Justice
Monday, Oct. 18: Chapter 3: Catholic Universities, the Right to Education, and the Option for the Poor: Recruiting, Admitting, and Retaining Economically Disadvantaged Students
Monday, Nov. 1: Chapter 4: Socially Responsible Investment, the Stewardship of University Resources, and Integral Ecology
Monday, Nov. 15: Chapter 5: Racial Inclusion and Justice at Catholic Colleges and Universities: From Tokenism to Participation
Monday, Nov. 29: Chapter 6: Gender and LGBTQ Equality in the University: A Challenge for CTS (Catholic Social Teaching) in the Age of Corporatized Higher Education
The theme selected by the John C. Kenefick Faculty Chair in the Humanities is “reconceiving social theory.” It takes its inspiration from this passage in Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’: “We urgently need a humanism capable of bringing together the different fields of knowledge, including economics, in the service of a more integral and integrating vision” (Laudato Si’, page 141).
For more, email [email protected].
