PAST EVENTS AND AGENDA Archives - Contemporary Humanism

2023 Rome (ACU Campus) Annual Seminar

Rethinking (and Rebuilding) Trust in Contemporary Societies

20-25 August 2023

Australian Catholic University – Rome Campus

In-person and online event

Contemporary societies experience a widespread crisis of trust. Political, economic, scientific, educational, and religious institutions are increasingly affected by it. The protests against the vaccination for Covid-19, the abstention on the occasion of general and local elections, the increasingly widespread questioning of the opinion of the experts, the growing fortune of the various conspiracy theories, the polarization in the Church and in society, are just some symptoms of a transversal and radical crisis, potentially capable of undermining the very foundations of civil coexistence. Individual and collective existences are based, in fact, on trust. The Seminar will deal with questions like the following: What is trust? What does it mean to trust somebody at a personal or social level? How to rebuild trust?

Click here to download the programme.

2022 Lisbon Annual Seminar

The 2022 Annual Seminar took place on 5-9 September in Lisbon, hosted by the Catholic University of Portugal (UCP), under the umbrella title “Integral Human Development”.

Integral Human Development (IHD) is a concept first coined by Pope Paul VI in his Encyclical Populorum progressio signaling that the focus of development should be in “the development of each man and of the whole man” (n. 14). Pope Francis has renewed this intention for a focus on IHD by encouraging to seek ways that “may better meet the needs of the men and women whom they are called to serve”. In institutional terms, the creation of a Dicastery of Integral Human Development bringing together all the activity related to this theme is a strong affirmation of a renewed attention to the field.

In line with this focus on IHD, the 2022 annual seminar of the International PhD Program & Research Network Contemporary Humanism in cooperation with the Postdoc-Fellowship Program in Integral Human Development at UCP aimed at discussing issues concerning the three main areas of concern in IHD: Faith and Integral Development, Fringes of Humanity and Care of Creation.

The seminar allowed to enrich the research frameworks and insights around the multiple dimensions of integral human development by challenging society’s preconceptions of development, poverty and inequality and debating knowledge on concepts, notions and realities of the world we live in.

On the assumption that “authentic development is the development that makes every person ‘more human’ and seeks to promote the good of the whole person and of every person”, the seminar aimed at understanding what a New and Contemporary Humanism might mean and how it could help to transform 21^st century’s culture and society.

Keynote Speakers:

Andrew McKenzie-McHarg (Australian Catholic University): “Modes of Understanding the Margins”

Michael Bourgatte (Institut Catholique de Paris): “Video Empowerment in the Digital Age”

Chiara Pesaresi (Université Catholique de Lyon): “A Philosophical Perspective on Integral Human Development in the Light of Vulnerability”

João Duque (Universidade Católica Portuguesa): “Monist post-humanism or analogical new humanism?”

Alejandra Carrasco (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile): “Justice, Respect and Care”

A selection of the presented papers:

Tiago Abalroado_Value Creation in The Strategic Management of Church Social Institutions In Portugal

Rajat Denzil Acharya_Philosophy, Education, and Integral Human Development

Maxime Begyn_Absolute and otherness: a given space for human being to grow

Filippo Benedetti _The Islamic Revolution of 1979: the Last Revolution of the 20th Century

Pierangelo Bianco_The Word and the World for an Integral human development in George Lindbeck’s Postliberal Theology

Alessandra Boscolo_Active, bodily experience Mathematics learning activities. Practices and beliefs of Italian and Australian teachers

Francesca Fioretti_Strategic leadership in the construction of a Whole-School Approach for Citizenship

Christophe Herzog_Behind, Through and Beyond the Literary Character: the Person as Real Presence in George Steiner

Jessica Humbert_From equality to fraternity, with Gabriel Marcel

Alexandra Pereira_Nepali Female Migrants From the First and Second Generations in Portugal: Integration and Discrimination Issues

Filipa Machado Rodrigues_The Human Face of Science: What are People (in Academia) for?

Cecilia Sabato_STI2MA, proposal of new curricula for the primary school cycle: from overcoming “mathematical illiteracy” to education for Green Transition

Sebastian Schwibach_Mysticism and Subjectivity in Elémire Zolla’s Thought

Marco Tassella_Enhancing free will? New perspectives on Moral Artificial Intelligence

Gian Vito Zani_Röpke: an Alternative Route

2021 Online Annual Seminar

Fraternity

Social Friendship during the Time of Social Distancing

September 6th-10th, 2021

(to watch the videos click on the title of each conference)

6 September : Luca VALERA (PUC), Distance and Presence in a Technological Environment
7 September : Matteo RIZZOLLI (Università Lumsa), Covid-19 and Social Preferences
8 September : Emmanuel FALQUE (ICP), Fraternity and Solitude
9 September : Stephanie COLLINS (ACU), Loneliness and Obligation
10 September : Alexandre PALMA (UCP), Humanity and Spatiality

The program.

2021 Annual Seminar – Benedetta Papasogli and Stefano Biancu

2021 Annual Seminar – Matteo Rizzoli and Stefano Biancu

International Conference “The Human Measure”

International Conference “The Human Measure. Legacy, Conflicts, and Perspectives of Humanism” (Lumsa University, Rome, 9-11 January 2019)

2020 Annual Seminar

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the third annual seminar, which should have taken place at the Melbourne campus of Australian Catholic University in September 2020, has been canceled. Instead, different local initiatives will be planned by the partner universities.

LUMSA University, in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame Rome Global Gateway, organaised a doctoral seminar on Pandemic – an intellectual challenge which took place – as Webinar and and in-Person event – on September 10-11.

Watch the video of the Seminar

The poster

© University of Notre Dame Rome Global Gateway – rome.nd.edu

2019 Paris annual Seminar

The second annual seminar took place at Institut Catholique in Paris (May 20-24 2019) under the title “Tradition et innovation dans l’humanisme contemporain”.

2018 Rome annual Seminar

The first annual seminar took place at LUMSA University in Rome (May 21-25 2018) under the title “Contemporary Humanism Questioning an Idea: A Time of Fragility, a Time of Opportunity”