Our 21st century lives make it increasingly difficult to live as humans. From social media to Zoom meetings to fitness trackers, we live our lives in digital spaces, and in doing so, lose our grip on what is most real. Trends like these are not waning, but rather accelerating, spurred by AI and other new technologies. Most of these technologies are not intrinsically problematic and some can be used for good. Yet as our lives become increasingly digitized, the most human aspects of our lives atrophy. For the Catholic, moreover, since the sacraments meet us in our humanity, the patterns of 21st-century life threaten to undermine a sacramental outlook. In the Magi Project Fall Lecture, Professor Joseph M. Vukov, author of the recent book Staying Human in an Era of Artificial Intelligence, discussed his diagnosis of our current situation, and issued a call to action to resist problematic trends in it. Professor Vukov is an Associate Professor of Philosophy Department and the Associate Director of the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage at Loyola University Chicago. He serves on the AI Research Group for the Dicastery for Culture and Education and is the current President of Philosophers in Jesuit Education.

Director of the American Identity Project at the Progressive Policy Institute, Richard Kahlenberg provided groundbreaking testimony that played a pivotal role in persuading the Supreme Court to strike down racial affirmative action, dismaying – and outraging – his own progressive circle. Yet, his conviction that economic disadvantage provides a better, more fair way to achieve diversity is unwavering.  In his new book, Class Matters: The Fight to Get Beyond Race Preferences, Reduce Inequality, and Build Real Diversity at America’s Colleges, Professor Kahlenberg made the definitive case for adopting a class-based approach to college admissions, giving more people a place at the table and more opportunity to “swim in the river of power.” He included an analysis of the preliminary admission results following the Supreme Court’s ruling, which indicate that colleges can achieve racial and economic diversity without explicit racial preferences. Professor Kahlenberg presented the case of Class Matters at this special event of Princeton University’s James Madison Program, co-presented with the new Spirited Debate Initiative of the University of Pennsylvania’s Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society (PRRUCS). Kahlenberg’s opening remarks were followed by comments from Professor Marta Tienda (Princeton University) and Professor John McWhorter (Columbia University and New York Times). The conversation was moderated by Professor Robert P. George, Faculty Director of the James Madison Program.

In this first annual meeting of the International Society for MacIntyrean Enquiry (ISME) since the passing of Alasdair MacIntyre,  this 3-day conference aimed to explore MacIntyre’s rich conceptualization of tradition and tradition-constituted enquiry, inviting discussions on the diverse interactions, conflicts, and potential reconciliations between various intellectual paradigms. Special attention was paid to how the contemporary moral philosophy and (and contemporary moral challenges) relate to classical virtue ethics, an ethical tradition reclaimed in the 20th century by MacIntyre and Elizabeth Anscombe, whose archive is held in Penn Special Collections through a partnership with PRRUCS.

Last spring two Penn faculty members, Ezekiel Emanuel (Med) and Harun Küçük (Hist & Soc of Science), co-authored a New York Times Op-Ed, “Higher Education needs more Socrates and Plato.”  Here is how it begins:

“The right attacks colleges and universities as leftist and woke. Progressives castigate them as perpetuating patriarchy and white privilege. The burdens of these culture war assaults are compounded by parents worried that the exorbitant costs of higher education aren’t worth it. No wonder Americans’ faith in universities is at a low.  Only 36% of Americans have confidence in higher education…”

How in the world could Socrates be a plausible solution to this crisis in trust?  And even if he somehow were, how might a remedy in that philosopher’s name correspond to the path of study outside the Humanities — to the natural sciences and the professional schools?  Moreover, the university context in spring 2024 appears very different than the one in spring 2025: to what extent might last year’s suggestions for strengthening the university remain relevant?

This informal colloquium convened a diverse group of scholars to reflect on the current relevance and practicality of “reasserting the liberal arts idea” proposed by the NYT essay co-authors.

The Anscombe Reading Group is an opportunity for scholars, students, and interested readers to come together virtually three times during the Fall and three times during the Spring to discuss the philosophy of Elizabeth Anscombe, one of the seminal thinkers of the 20th century.

This Spring’s instantiation of the Anscombe Reading Group continues last year’s dive into the philosophical treasure trove that is the Collegium Institute Anscombe Archive, with a special focus on the subject of bioethics. Across three sessions, we will read hand-picked selections from the Archive.

What does Socrates have to teach the American University today? To address this question, Penn PRRUCS Faculty Director John J. DiIulio, Jr., considered the life and legacy of Michael Sugrue, one year after his death in January 2024.  Like Socrates, Sugrue was largely “unpublished”, but he devoted his career to teaching the philosophical wisdom and historical traditions of the last three millennia to generations of students at the University of Chicago, Columbia, Princeton, and Ave Maria University.  He also was among the most popular and celebrated lecturers of The Teaching Company’s Great Courses series and became, according to the New York Times, an “internet phenomenon” for both his teaching videos and his podcasts.  Could there be a future for “The Great Teacher” of “the great minds” in the contemporary research university and beyond?

Professor Stephanie Wong (Villanova; PRRUCS Senior Affiliate) joined us for “The Sun Rises in the East: Evangelization in East Asia” in a seminar discussion on missionaries in East Asia. We examined the history of Christian evangelization in mainly China, including the cultural and state tensions and different missionary approaches from Catholics and Protestants. We investigated the immediate and long-term consequences of various evangelization approaches, especially focusing on translations (i.e. Matteo Ricci’s integration of Confucian thought in his translations of Western philosophical texts).

The University of Pennsylvania’s Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society (PRRUCS)  presented a “Spirited Debate” symposium on Wednesday, January 22, 2025, at the Penn Club of New York (30 W 44th St).  The program began with a reception for all guests at 5:30 pm and a symposium from 6:30 – 8:30 pm.

Prof. John J. DiIulio, Faculty Director of PRRUCS, delivered the opening address: “South Philly Elegy: The Catholic Case for a Second New Deal.” The featured commentators included Sohrab Ahmari of UnHerd, Dr. E.J. Dionne of the Brookings Institution, and former US Senator Rick Santorum.

PRRUCS hosted this “Spirited Debate” symposium through its Perry-Collegium Initiative and it became the first part of a series on “Catholicism, Liberalism, and the Future of Democracy.” This event was co-sponsored by First Things and America Media.

For health equity, transformation happens as students share their perspectives of curriculum content from their own identities and experiences. It happens when they are challenged by others’ perspectives and attempt to understand how others can experience the same content differently. The arts can create a powerful form of sharing beyond routine conversations or discussions, which is critical for honest dialogue on difficult topics concerning race and identity.

The Collegium Institute and PRRUCS presented a Medical Humanities Special Event with Dr. Marshall Chin of the University of Chicago, who delivered a lecture on improving health equity through medical improv. He has in the past incorporated improv workshops  into the first year curriculum at UChicago. He then proceeded with a 1-hour workshop with everyone.

Marshall H. Chin, M.D., M.P.H., Richard Parrillo Family Distinguished Service Professor of Healthcare Ethics at the University of Chicago, is a practicing general internist and health services researcher who has dedicated his career to advancing health equity through interventions at individual, organizational, community, and policy levels. Through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Advancing Health Equity: Leading Care, Payment, and Systems Transformation program, Dr. Chin collaborates with teams of state Medicaid agencies, Medicaid managed care organizations, frontline healthcare delivery organizations, and community-based organizations to implement payment reforms to support and incentivize care transformations that advance health equity within an anti-racist framework. He also co-chairs the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network Health Equity Advisory Team.

This event is co-sponsored by the Health Humanities & Medical Arts Program at Villanova University and the John Templeton Foundation’s In Lumine Network Grant.

The virtue of Civil Disobedience is justly celebrated today.  But what about the opposite: when and why must we follow the law?  Penn’s Perry-Collegium Initiative presents a Legal Humanities Special Event that will examine a newly-published book by Professor Daniel Mark of Villanova University about the source of our obligation to be law-abiding citizens.

Professor Mark offered remarks on his 2024 book The Nature of Law: Authority, Obligation, and the Common Good, in which he argues that our responsibility to the law originates in the fact that it is a set of commands oriented towards the common good. Professor Mark defines legal obligation as fundamentally related to moral obligation and religious obligation more broadly.

Professor Daniel Mark is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Villanova University and former Chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. His remarks were followed with comments from Prof. Amy Sepinwall (University of Pennsylvania) and Dr. Evelyn Boyden (Princeton University).

Friday, September 17, 2024 | Silverstein Forum at the Penn Graduate School of Education

The event was a Faculty Colloquium organized around the theme of “The Civically Engaged Professor.” The participants represented a diverse cross-section of Penn faculty, including representatives from the School of Nursing, the Graduate School of Education, and the School of Arts & Sciences, as well as a number of distinct academic departments. The event sought to explore questions such as:

● What is the role of faculty in the civic formation of students? What role should civic-mindedness play in a faculty member’s understanding of their own work?
● How should faculty think both constructively and critically about the entry of their own politics and civic commitments into the classroom?
● What is the relationship between the role of civics in the classroom and the role of education more broadly?
● What, if any, are the unique civic responsibilities of faculty members teaching in the city of
Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania? What is Penn’s role in fostering local civic engagement and identity?

The event was organized around two main sessions, which each lasted approximately one (1) hour. The first, facilitated by Dr. Lia F. Howard (SNF Paideia Program), began with a presentation of Dr. Howard’s work with the Political Empathy Lab at Penn. Dr. Howard shared her experience of traveling across the state of Pennsylvania with a group of student research assistants to engage in “political listening” throughout Summer 2024. Participants
discussed pathways for mobilizing empathetic civic engagement with students, both inside and outside the classroom. The second session was facilitated by Prof. H. Gerald Campano (GSE). In the discussion, participants reflected on the role that their own civic commitment plays in their pedagogy, with many citing specific examples of issues in their classrooms that have shifted over the last few years.

The Anscombe Reading Group is an opportunity for scholars, students, and interested readers to come together virtually three times during the Fall and three times during the Spring to discuss the philosophy of Elizabeth Anscombe, one of the seminal thinkers of the 20th century.

This Fall’s instantiation of the Anscombe Reading Group continues last year’s dive into the philosophical treasure trove that is the Collegium Institute Anscombe Archive, with a special focus on the subject of natural theology. Across three sessions, we will read hand-picked selections from the Archive.

This was another exciting chance to engage Anscombe’s thought in a unique and open setting.

In 2009 the landmark monograph of William Cavanaugh, The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict, was published by Oxford University Press.  In that work, Cavanaugh showed how the term “religious violence” is not just an uncomplicated description of tragic phenomena witnessed all too frequently around the world.  On the contrary, he argued, it is a foundational myth of western societies that denigrate religious actors as irrational and their conflicts as intractable while at the same time concealing and legitimating state violence against those same actors.

Now in 2024, fifteen years later, it seems that many of the global conflicts – certainly in Ukraine and the Middle East as well as elsewhere in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the US itself – which have embroiled college campuses and played a role in toppling their presidents, have involved unmistakable religious elements. So how then are we to understand them if not by religious violence?  Is “religious extremism” any better or do alternatives like those mobilize new threats against religious liberty?  And how might it become possible not only to understand religious communities and their traditions as not primarily responsible for global violence but also to activate them as vital sources of healing and reconciliation?

As the world economy transitions to net-zero emissions, the economics of climate change offers important insights into key policy choices: How should we ensure this transition is efficient? How do we distribute its costs within society? How do we incentivize technological progress in climate adaptation and mitigation? What are the challenges for the transition created by geo-strategic fragmentation?

Our panelists explored these significant questions, from a range of perspectives, drawing together their academic expertise and their own faith perspectives, particularly in light of the recent apostolic exhortation, Laudate Deum.

This was a Perry-Collegium Event evening conversation with Prof. Allison Covey (Ethics, Villanova University), Prof. Christina Parajon Skinner (Legal Studies and Business Ethics, University of Pennsylvania), and Prof. Jesús Fernández-Villaverde (Economics, University of Pennsylvania).