SACRU Alliance will hold a third webinar about the role of universities in confronting the ecological crisis
The International Alliance of Catholic Research Universities (SACRU), composed of eight institutions, is organizing webinars for students, academics, and the general public. This series of webinars will focus on how universities can contribute to solving the socio-environmental challenges faced by the planet.
The SACRU Alliance (Strategic Alliance of Catholic Research Universities) will hold a second webinar: “Integral Ecology and the Working Future: Re-imagining University Education”. The main goal is to reflect on both the role of universities in the ecological crisis and the necessity of finding systemic solutions to the latter from the academy. The webinar will be held on Zoom and will also be transmitted by the YouTube channel of the UC. The third one will be held on July 1st at 8:30 AM (Santiago / Boston) and 14:30 PM (Rome), and will have Tara Pisani (Boston College, EE.UU) and Fr. Joshtrom Kureethadam (The Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development) as panelists.
According to one of the organizers, Román Guridi, the webinar intends to deepen the conversation about the role of universities in this changing context, especially considering the socio-environmental crisis. “We have posed the same four questions to all the speakers, revolving around not only how universities are preparing students for the future, but also how they are helping to generate this future”, he says.
This series of webinars emerged from one of the SACRU working groups, called: “Catholic Universities Caring for Our Common Home and the Wellbeing of All People”. This working group takes as one of its key references the principles proposed by the encyclical Laudato si´, especially the notion of integral ecology, that speaks of the necessity of systemic solutions and the interconnection between environmental and social challenges.
Guridi says: “we hope to converse about the kinds of transformations that are required to make that future possible, in terms of the education we provide in our universities, and also the research and the impact of our universities on our societies.
These webinars will be of interest to students and faculty members who want to reflect on the role of universities in our present context. The SACRU Alliance is composed of the Catholic University of Australia, Boston College (U.S.A), the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio (Brasil), Sophia University (Japan), the Catholic University of Portugal, Sacro Cuore University (Italy), and Ramón Llull University (Spain).