To pour forth benefits for
the common good is divine.
– Benjamin Franklin
Perry Scholars-Collegium Institute
Engaging Faith & Reason in the University and the Modern World
Partners for Sacred Places
Empowering community-serving religious organizations.
Common Ground for Common Good
Elevating Contemporary Church-State Debates
Program for Empirical Studies and Surveys
Examining Religion and spirituality empirically
Transnational Religious Organizations
Exploring global religion and transnational FBOs
Special Events 2023
Ongoing Seminar: Anscombe on Action and Ethics
February 22 | April 4 | May 7
Three Spring Sessions
February 22, 2023: Dr. John Peter DiIulio (Penn): “On Just Promises”
April 4, 2023: Prof Graham Hubbs (Idaho): “Anscombe’s Ethics of Money”
May 7: Dr. Paul Musso (Penn): “Anscombe on State Authority”
What Is (Human) Life II Conference
Thursday & Friday, July 13-14, 2023 | University of Pennsylvania
Session: “Reconsidering Human Agency and Intelligence in Age of AI”, featuring Professor Stake Ake (Drexel University) and Jesse Couenhoven (Villanova University)
Faculty Colloquium on "Cultivating the Art of Being Human: the Challenge and Opportunity of ChatGPT” featuring Professors Amy Sepinwall (Penn) and Weimao Ke (Drexel)
Friday, April 21, 2023 | University of Pennsylvania, Perelman Center for Political Science & Economics (133 S. 36th St), PCPSE Room 625
It’s here: AI has burst into higher education in ways that no longer seem possible for non-specialists to ignore. New interfaces like ChatGPT4 raise very significant practical questions relating to academic integrity and job displacement, to be sure. But they also provide an opportunity to revisit more fundamental questions about the ends of college education and the traits constitutive of a human life well-lived. This informal colloquium draws together faculty of diverse disciplinary trainings, backgrounds, and commitments to venture outside of our ordinary discourse communities and build intellectual friendship while discussing questions of broad scope for our university community.
This Friday afternoon colloquium will feature two discussion sessions, each of which will open with brief remarks, followed by a reception. Here is the schedule:
Coffee & Light Refreshments Available starting at 2:40pm
Session #1: 3:00: Amy Sepinwall (Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics, Wharton School, Penn): Becoming Human Again: What Social Insights Might AI Advances Offer to Us Here?
Session #2: 4:15: Weimao Ke (Professor of Information Science, Drexel): Engaging with AI as an Educator: New Challenges and Opportunities for Teaching and Mentorship
Friendship, Faith, and Philosophical Revolution with Prof. John Berkman (University of Toronto)
Friday, April 14, 2023 | 9:30 – 10:30 am | University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections | Van Pelt Library, 6th Floor, Seminar Room 627
A Perry-Collegium Initiative event
Collegium Institute, PRRUCS, & Penn Philosophy Present: Friendship, Faith, and Philosophical Revolution; an Anscombe Archive Exhibit & Presentation, with John Berkman (University of Toronto)
God and the Multiverse with Dr. Deb Haarsma
Thursday, April 13, 2023 | 7:30 pm | Penn Newman Center (111 S. 38th St.)
A Perry-Collegium Initiative Event
Collegium Institute & PRRUCS Present: “God and the Multiverse” with Dr. Deb Haarsma, Astronomer and President of BioLogos.
The Ethics of Killing with Joshua Stuchlik
Thursday, March 23, 2023 | 12-1:30 pm | University of Pennsylvania, Irvine Auditorium
Collegium Institute and the Penn Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society present: “The Ethics of Killing: Ansombe’s Contribution to Understanding Murder”, featuring Joshua Stuchlik, a Professor of Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas.
Reading Newman in the Third Reich with Prof. Helena Tomko
Tuesday, February 21, 2023 | 7:30 pm | Penn Newman Center
Collegium Institute & PRRUCS Present: “Reading Newman in the Third Reich”, an evening conversation with Prof. Helena Tomko, Professor of Literature at Villanova University in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the White Rose Student Resistance.
Medical Humanities on Wellness & Spirituality with Dr. Philip Gehrman and Dr. Thomas Kolon
Wednesday, February 8, 2023
Collegium Institute and the Penn Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society present: “Medical Humanities on Wellness and Spirituality”, featuring Dr. Philip Gehrman, Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Thomas Kolon, Chief of Urology Division at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Law & the Human Person, A History of the First Amendment with Prof. Sarah Barringer Gordon
Monday, January 30, 2023
Collegium Institute & PRRUCS Present: “Law & the Human Person: A History of the First Amendment”, featuring Prof. Sarah Barringer Gordon, Arlin M. Adams Professor of Constitutional Law at Penn Carey Law School.
The Lost Women: Recovering the Other English Catholic Literary Revival with Profs. Bonnie Lander Johnson and Julia Meszaros
Thursday, January 12, 2023 | 12 pm ET on Zoom
The Penn Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society, Collegium Institute, and Dappled Things present: “The Lost Women: Recovering the Other English Catholic Literary Revival”, an Ars Vivendi Arts Initiative conversation featuring Professors Bonnie Lander Johnson (Cambridge University) and Julia Meszaros (St. Patrick’s Pontifical University, Maynooth, Ireland).