Panels Set for This Year’s Integrity of Creation Conference

The panelists and topics have been set for the second annual Integrity of Creation conference, Protecting Our Common Home: Scientific Contributions and Religious Perspectives.

Faculty, staff, students and the public and are invited to attend the following panels (and plenary presentations) scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 29, in the Charles J. Dougherty Ballroom, but registration is required.

An all-Spiritan panel will open the day with a discussion titled The Poor and the Earth are Crying Out: Protecting Our Common Home, at 8:30 a.m. This panel will feature:

  • The Rev. John Kilcran, C.S.Sp., Dublin, Ireland 
  • The Rev. Jude Nnorom, C.S.Sp., Rome, Italy
  • The Rev. Chika Oneyjiuwa, C.S.Sp., Brussels, Belgium.

At 11 a.m., Dr. Michael Blackhurst, research development manager for the University Center for Social and Urban Research at the University of Pittsburgh, will present Exploring the Limits of Science and Engineering for Environmental Decision Making. Dr. Brady Porter, associate professor of biological sciences in the Bayer School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, will offer his perspective during his presentation, Navigating the Anthropocene with Jack Sparrow’s Compass.

Closing the panel portion of the conference at 2:30 p.m. will be a group of experts from the University of San Diego with their presentation, Climate Change Education and Social Justice: Interdisciplinary Approaches in Sustainability or How We Can All Care for Our Common Home? Panelists include:

  • Dr. Michel A. Boudrias, Department of Environmental & Ocean Sciences
  • Dr. Julia Cantzler, Department of Sociology
  • Dr. Simon Croom, Sustainable Supply Chain Institute
  • Dr. Mark Woods, Department of Philosophy.

Plenary presentations will occur periodically throughout the first two days of the conference. Those presentations include:

  • Dr. Ursula Goodenough, The Evolutionary Dimensions of Laudato Si’, Wednesday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m.
  • Dr. Daniel P. Scheid, The Moral Vision of Laudato Si’: The Cosmic Common Good as a Common Ground for Interreligious Ecological Ethics, Thursday, Sept. 29 at 12:45 p.m.
  • Dr. Celia Deane-Drummond, The Theological Anthropology of Laudato Si: Tracing the Interplay of Theology, Science and Ecology, Thursday, Sept. 29 at 4 p.m.

For more information, including the full conference schedule, visit the conference website or contact Glory Smith at 412.396.4504.