Upcoming Events
Upcoming Events
Previous Events
Interfaith Nonviolence Initiative Conference | April 2024
Sponsored by the Lane Center for Catholic Social Thought and the Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice, USF’s Interfaith Nonviolence Initiative Conference featured community-engaged and interdisciplinary research by USF faculty.
The conference was designed to include significant participation by members of the USF community and San Francisco-based faith congregations and civic organizations.
An Americanized Jesuit Tradition of Education: The University of San Francisco’s Place in the Jesuit College Network | APRIL 2024
The Lane Center was proud to welcome Dr. Michael T. Rizzi to discuss his book, Jesuit Colleges and Universities in the United States: A History (CUA Press, 2022), focusing on how the University of San Francisco played a special role in the history of Jesuit higher education in the United States.
Planting Seeds For a Post-Growth Economy: Insights from Degrowth and Catholic Social Teaching | APril 2024
Chad Baron, USF Alum and co-founder of Degrowth California discussed economic and environmental justice in conversation with degrowth and Catholic social thought.
Ignatian Spirituality and Jesuit Higher Education | feb 2024
This event welcomed IPIT participants (asynchronous and in-person) and mentors for a conversation on Ignatian spirituality and Jesuit Higher Education led by Agbonkhianmeghe E Orobator, SJ, Dean of the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University.
Women Shaping the Catholic Social Tradition: Erin Lothes Biviano, PhD | dec. 2023
Erin Lothes Biviano is a theologian, a researcher in the field of energy ethics, and a scholar of the faith-based environmental movement. The author of Inspired Sustainability: Planting Seeds for Action (2016), Lothes Biviano works for the Laudato Si Movement as a Senior Manager of the Laudato Si Animators Program.
Celebrating Black Catholic History Month: Dr. Ansel Augustine | nov. 2023
This annual event is organized by the USF Community Black Catholic History Month Committee, a forum consisting of USF students, faculty and staff and Bay Area parishioners to celebrate Black Catholic history, to foster dialogue regarding issues relevant to the community. On the evening of November 30th, 2023, the Committee, in partnership with the Lane Center and Black Achievement Success and Engagement (BASE) will host renowned educator, scholar, and Catholic youth minister, Dr. Ansel Augustine.
Co-sponsored by University Ministry, Theology and Religious Studies, Critical Diversity Studies, Gleeson Library, and St. Paul of the Shipwreck Church.
Honoring Latinx Heritage Month with Jesica Fernandez and Victor Carmona | sept. 2023
In partnership with the Jesuit School of Theology’s Instituto Hispano, the Lane Center will host a workshop that centers the voices and experiences of Latinx youth and draws upon the wisdom of the Catholic social tradition. Panelists invite participants to join Pope Francis in dreaming of a community beyond borders and to accompany them through a conciencia con compromiso, as we engage each other in action oriented conversation.
Asian Americans and the Spirit of Racial Capitalism with Jonathan Tran, PhD | May 2023
Jonathan Tran is Associate Professor of Philosophical Theology and George W. Baines Chair of Religion at Baylor University in Waco, TX. He will be lecturing about his book titled Asian American and the Spirit of Racial Capitalism (Oxford University Press, 2021). Prof. Tran develops arguments concerning antiracist theory and practice from the perspective of what is called "racial capitalism," namely the view that political economy shapes racial identity. According to OUP, he "does so by means of an extended analysis of two case studies: a Chinese migrant settlement in the Mississippi Delta (1868-1969) and the Redeemer Community Church in the Bayview/Hunters Point section of San Francisco (1969-present). While his analysis is focused on particular groups and persons, he uses it to examine more broadly racial capitalism's processes and commitments at the sites of their structural and systemic unfolding. In pursuing a research agenda that pushes beyond the narrow confines of racial identity, Tran reaches back to trusted modes of analysis that have been obscured by the prevailing antiracist orthodoxy and proposes reframing antiracism in terms of a theologically salient account of political economy."
One Earth: A Symposium on the future of Integral Ecology & Spirituality (Oxford, USF & Duke) | April 2023
Celia Deane-Drummond (Oxford), Paul Fiddes, FBA (Oxford), & Norman Wirzba (Duke) will share their latest research on ecology and spirituality. Each person is thinking and working towards renewal of spiritual resources for the renewal of our One Earth. The work is consonant with USF's commitment to enact radical solidarity with the planet in our lives and educational practices, inspired as we are to do so by the witness of Pope Francis's encyclical letter Laudato Si (2015).
Perspectives on Global Migration from Cairo, a Guest Lecture by Elena Habersky | MARCH 2023
Elena Habersky is the Project Leader for the Egyptian Migration Hub (EHUB) at The American University in Cairo, Egypt. Elena will share the present state of her work in refugee resettlement in North and Sub-Saharan Africa. "Elena has almost a decade of experience working on urban migration and refugee issues in the SWANA region. She has conducted ethnographic research in Egypt, Jordan, and Uganda with Darfuri and Congolese refugees and has managed long term projects funded by the European Union, the Embassy of the Netherlands and Dining for Women. She has additional work experience in research, project development, writing, and public speaking. Her research interests include how urban refugees contest border regimes, legal entitlements owed to refugees and asylum seekers, and European border externalization to North Africa. She speaks English, Egyptian Arabic, and Jordanian Arabic and is learning Sudanese Arabic and French." (source = LinkedIn)
Prophetic Communities: Organizing as an Expression of Catholic Social Thought | FEB. 2023
Plenary 1: Why Organizing?
With Sr. Cheryl Liske, OP (Gamaliel National Network), Nicholas Hayes-Mota (Teaching Fellow, Boston College and Organizer, GBIO), Bob Fambrini, SJ (Pastor, St. Francis Xavier Parish; Board Member FIA), and Ogechi Akalegbere (Leader, Action in Montgomery). Moderated by Tere Flores, Co-Director of Movement Development, Laudato Si’ Movement.
Plenary 2: Organizing and Synodality
With Austen Ivereigh, co-author of Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future with Pope Francis. Moderated by Cecilia Flores, Sacramento ACT & Action Planning Chair, USCCB Journeying Together Initiative.
Plenary 3: Organizing and Theology
With Lorena Melgarejo, Director, Faith in Action Bay Area; Jeremy Cruz, Associate Professor of Theology, St. John’s College of Liberal Arts & Sciences; and Timothy McManus, Senior Organizer, IAF.
Concluding Panel
With Mary Novak, Executive Director, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice; Ralph McCloud, Executive Director, Catholic Campaign for Human Development; Fr. Tony Pizzo, OSA, Provincial of the Midwest Augustinians; and Joe Rubio, Co-Director, IAF.
Love in Religion: A Conversation with 3 Oxford Scholars | Sept. 2022
Moderated by Dr. Cyrus P. Olsen, III, Lo Schiavo Chair in Catholic Social Thought, three scholars from the University of Oxford involved in the Program for the Study of Love in Religion: Revd Professor Paul S. Fiddes, FBA, Dr. Minlib Dallh, OP, and Dr. Tareq Moqbel shared their research with our community here at USF.
Inaugural Latinx Heritage Lecture on Religion and Public Life: Queer God de Amor with Miguel Diaz | Sept. 2022
Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month, with a presentation from Miguel H. Diaz, author of Queer God De Amor (Fordham University Press, 2022). Sponsored by The Joan and Ralph Lane Center for Catholic Social Thought and the Ignatian Tradition, Theology and Religious Studies Department, University Ministry, Latin@ & Chican@ Studies, & Gender and Sexuality Studies. Recording of this event can be accessed here.
Navigating Health Decisions in Uganda: Ancestral Relationships & Catholic Social Thought | Oct. 2022
Presented by: Dr. Cyrus P. Olsen, III, Lo Schiavo Chair in Catholic Social Thought
How do the fields of neurology, philosophy, and theology converge when considering behavioral health patterns in Uganda? Join a lunch-time conversation about healthcare and the humanities. Our Lo Schiavo Chair for ’22-’23, Dr. Cyrus P. Olsen III, D.Phil. (Oxon.), shall share his research and welcome feedback concerning the new three-year Templeton-funded collaboration with Amar Dhand, M.D., D.Phil. (Oxon.) and Ian Marcus Corbin, PhD and their Neurology Lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School (a precis of the research will be shared with participants in advance to optimize conversation about the work). Together with our Ugandan research council, we are using a philosophical framework provided by Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age (2007) to distinguish among worldviews, hence our working title: “Buffering, Porosity, and Brain Health in Uganda and the USA.” Religiously-inclined humans remain open to the idea that what is beyond immediate empirical comprehension may still influence human life and health. More empirically-inclined humans set stricter boundaries of what influences our lives. At times, worldviews of these kinds compete for our attention. We are looking at the ways community beliefs impact health-seeking behavior among Ugandans, especially beliefs about the ancestors presumed still to be influencing health and well-being.
Celebrating Black Catholic History Month: “Go In the Wilderness: The Call to Prophetic Witness” with Joseph Brown, S.J. | NOV. 2022
Black Catholics were given the mandate to evangelize themselves, in the Pastoral Letter, “What We Have Seen and Heard,” written by the Black Bishops of the United States in 1984. Nearly 40 years later, what does such evangelization look like? For Black Catholics, what do we understand to be “prophetic witness”? Even more importantly, what would be the “wilderness” of our time — the wilderness that the great Black Sacred Song urges us to encounter? A copy of this recording can be accessed here.
Searching for Home in the New World: The Philosophy and Neuroscience of Belonging in America With Dr. Ian Corbin | Nov. 2022
No one person can make a world alone. Each of us develops our sense of what is true and false, good and bad, important and trivial, imperative and forbidden, in a constant feedback loop with other humans. To remove us from these loops is to court the disintegration of these worlds, first in loneliness, and at the far end, insanity. Long standing arguments to this effect, from philosophers like Aristotle, Hegel and Husserl have now been given granular texture and strong reinforcement by the findings of modern science. Actually, though, we want more than a simply coherent world in which to live and work and love. We want to be at home in the world, embedded in a place where we truly belong. Most of us get small glimpses of thorough-going at-homeness in peak experiences of contemplation, sex, prayer, friendship, aesthetic rapture, intoxication, communal ritual, etc. But there is variation: some cultures seem to place their inhabitants in closer or further proximity to home. Contemporary America stands out as a culture which seems hell-bent on inculcating a vision of the world in which one can never be at home. Our spiritual indigence powers the most prosperous economy the world has ever seen, and now threatens to dissolve our union in a slow, sad, angry process of disintegration and alienation. The situation is urgent. But any conversation about what is to be done must begin with a deep assessment of what in the world is going on in twenty-first century America. A copy of this presentation can be accessed here.
"To Recover the Land Is To Recover Everything!”: The Decolonizing Model of Education of the Misak People of Colombia | Nov. 2022
Misak educators and activists will speak in-person about decolonizing education in the context of Colombia. Sponsored by Joan & Ralph Lane Center for Catholic Social Thought and the Ignatian Tradition, Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice, University Ministry, and the School of Education, USF Center for Humanizing Education & Research (C-HER), the Miner Anderson Family Foundation and the Center for Empowering Refugees & Immigrants (CERI). A copy of this presentation can be accessed here.
Women Shaping the Catholic Social Tradition: Marie Dennis on Catholic Nonviolence, Nonviolent Courage: Witness of the Martyrs in El Salvador | Dec. 2022
The four US churchwomen who were killed in El Salvador in 1980 lived the virtue of nonviolence in the midst of horrific violence, accompanying the Salvadoran people whose faith and courage helped to create a beloved community. Their witness offers powerful inspiration for the paradigm shift from violence to nonviolence that our world so desperately needs now.
Marie Dennis is is senior advisor to the secretary general of Pax Christi International, the
global Catholic peace movement, and program chair of Pax Christi’s Catholic Nonviolence
Initiative. She was co-president of Pax Christi International from 2007 to 2019 and is a Pax
Christi USA Teacher of Peace. Marie was one of the primary organizers of two conferences
on nonviolence and just peace (2016 and 2019) that were cosponsored by the Vatican and
Pax Christi International. She is author or co-author of seven books, editor of Choosing
Peace: The Catholic Church Returns to Gospel Nonviolence (Orbis Books, 2017) and co-
editor of Advancing Nonviolence in the Church and the World (Pax Christi International
2020). A copy of this recording can be accessed here. Passcode: 4V4fri+J
Ignatian Year Conversation: Finding God in all things | April 2022
University of San Francisco Professors, Mark Miller and Joseph Nguyen, SJ discuss Ignatian spirituality and religious experience within the context of the Ignatian Year.
Valuing lives and Healing earth: Religion, gender and life on earth | april 2022
Conversation with authors and editors of Valuing Lives, Healing Earth: Religion, Gender and Life on Earth featuring Lilian Dube (University of San Francisco), Teresia Hinga (Santa Clara University), Sarah E. Robinson (Pacific Lutheran University), and Theresa Yugar (California State University, Los Angeles). This volume highlights women advocates globally committed to gender and ecological justice in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Featuring scholars concerned with the intersections of religion, environment, and gender, their labor and collaborative solidarity, grounded in love, give us a realistic hope for the future.
Decolonizing the academy: Strategies for authentic engagement with tribal communities | April 2022
Professor Joely Proudfit, PhD provided insight into how University faculty, staff, and administrators can build relationships with tribal communities based on principles of responsibility, reciprocity, and respect. She discussed practices and protocols to support authentic engagement based on lessons learned through
her work in the California State University and California Community College systems.
Discerning Dialogue: Women, the diaconate, and a synodal Church | March 2022
In the spirit of continuing as a listening, discerning Church, co-hosted by the St. Ignatius Parish and Discerning Deacons, reflect ed upon the ancient history of ordained women deacons and recognized how women are answering the call to serve the church today in this moment of a global synod, and how it relates to the vision for the diaconate and for the church.
Justice Martin Jenkins and Trustee Timothy Simon: A Conversation on Faith, Justice, and Community | Feb. 2022
Justice Jenkins and Trustee Timothy Simon honor the history and experiences of Black Catholics in this fireside conversation on faith, justice and community. Moderated by USF Trustee Naomi Kelly.
Place-based Social Justice: California Indian Experiences |dec. 2021
Nicole Myers-Lim will discuss contemporary relationships between California's Indigenous communities and the Catholic Church, with a focus on how USF's social justice work can be connected to justice for California Indians. As a Jesuit-educated Native person, Myers-Lim will discuss the need for historical correction, the on-going challenges in Church-Indian relations, and other issues related to this work.
women & CST - Faith at work: translating tradition into action|Dec. 2021
Join the Lane Center for our annual Women and Catholic Social Thought event. The goal of this event is to honor the women who have shaped CST and exercised leadership in Catholicism, while also challenging the ways they have been excluded.
This webinar will feature Sister Mary Haddad, President of the Catholic Health Association. Haddad, a Sister of Mercy, is an advocate for healthcare as a common good and human right. Titled Faith at Work: Translating Tradition into Action, her presentation will explore the influence that religious congregations of women have had on the social ministries of the Catholic Church and how Catholic social tradition has shaped and continues to permeate institutional ministries. Particular attention will be given to the Catholic health ministry.
renewing the earth speaker series: eco-spirituality and gratitude| nov. 2021
In the year of St. Ignatius and amidst the Laudato Si Action Plan rollout, the Lane Center is hosting a speaker series on pertinent themes related to integral ecology. USF’s Kim Carfore will present and then guide a meditation on Eco-Spirituality and Gratitude, exploring how our spirituality can foster a greater sense of appreciation for our natural world. How can faith promote a healthier relationship with nature? How does this relate to other issues we face as a global community striving for justice? Join us for this important conversation.
Renewing the Earth Speaker Series: Biodiversity and God in All Things | OCT. 2021
In the year of St. Ignatius and amidst the Laudato Si Action Plan rollout, the Lane Center is hosting a speaker series on pertinent themes related to integral ecology. Cecilia Titizano will present and guide a reflection on Biodiversity and God in All Things, exploring the intersectionality of biodiversity, social and environmental justice, and faith. How can faith promote a healthier relationship with nature? How does this relate to other issues we face as a global community striving for justice? Join us for this important conversation.
Integrating Ecology and Justice in a Changing Climate Book Launch | SEPT. 2021
The negative impact human systems are having on the environment and communities are better understood with each passing day. It is no longer a question of if we need to respond but how.
Edited by Sam Mickey and published by the Lane Center, Integrating Ecology and Justice in a Changing Climate forwards and engages with ideas pertinent to the climate crisis and the need to make sustainable and just transitions.
Please join us to celebrate the book and continue the conversation with the USF faculty who contributed to this timely volume: Gerard Kuperus, Sam Mickey, Vijaya Nagarajan, and Brian Dowd-Uribe. Short presentations on the topics of integral ecology, post-slow growth, the climate commons, and Buddhist eco spirituality will be followed by a Q & A session with the audience.
3RD ANNUAL WOMEN SHAPING THE CATHOLIC SOCIAL TRADITION SPEAKING SERIES | NOV. 2019
Kerry Robinson, global ambassador for the Leadership Roundtable, is passionate about fostering gender equity in the Church and reimagining structures to promote inclusive participation and transparent leadership. Kerry spoke on the topic of Women and the Church. Watch the recording.
BLACK LIVES DO MATTER|NOV. 2019
Does the notion of #BlackLivesMatter have any theological relevance for the Church today? If so, why does it seem like Church leaders are so silent about what catalyzed this movement in the first place? In honor of Black Catholic History Month, Dr. Shawnee Daniels-Sykes addressed these questions. Watch the recording.
2ND ANNUAL WOMEN SHAPING THE CATHOLIC SOCIAL TRADITION SPEAKING SERIES |NOV. 2018
This annual event honors the memory of Sr. Dorothy Kazel, O.S.U., Sr. Ita Ford, M.M., Sr. Maura Clarke, M.M., and lay missionary, Jean Donovan – four Catholic women murdered on December 2, 1980 in El Salvador. By exercising an uncompromising commitment to the poor during the Salvadoran civil war, these women embody a radical commitment to faith and social justice. This series commemorates their witness and lifts up the Catholic sisters and lay women who continue to shape the Catholic social tradition. Sr. Simone Campbell, Executive Director of NETWORK, was the keynote speaker for this event on November 29, 2018.