Courses

Core Seminar: Understanding and Living the Catholic Social Tradition (3 credits)

This course will have three components: 1) The close reading of classic texts of the Catholic Social Tradition, particularly but not exclusively the papal and conciliar documents from Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum to John Paul II's Centesimus Annus. Other texts will include source documents (e.g. writings by Thomas Aquinas and Augustine) and contemporary appropriations (e.g. writings by liberation theologians and neo-conservatives). Requirement: Short papers of critical analysis and responses, intensive class participation; 2) Immersion in professional context. Each student will find a placement in a location similar to that student's anticipated profession. The student is to observe, interview, and to the extent possible participate in the life of the setting. For instance, the students can observe a law or architectural firm or a medical practice. The director and the executive committee will develop a list of placements or the student can seek one out on her own, which must then be approved by the director. Requirement: keep an ongoing journal as a "pastoral ethnography" of the setting (an interpretation of the practice in the setting in light of the Catholic Social Tradition); 3) Final project: each student is to articulate or construct a setting in his or her anticipated profession in light of the Catholic Social Tradition (e.g. imagine and construct what a law firm/health clinic/ad agency would look like if it practiced in light of the Catholic social tradition.). The pedagogical goals and means of this course requires that it be a seminar (no more than 15 students).

The Core Seminar is offered each fall.
 

Colloquia and Social Concerns Seminars (1 credit)

Three 1-credit colloquia/social concerns seminars with at least one colloquium and one social concerns seminar. In keeping with the goal set out by Dean Roche in his 1997 Christmas Address, four one-credit colloquia will be held in the dorms each year.

The colloquia will be devoted to the critical reading and discussion of one or two major works or figures each semester. Past colloquia have included "Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement" (Prof. Todd David Whitmore) and "Contemporary Appropriations of the Catholic Social Tradition" (Professor Kathleen Maas Weigert).

Social concerns seminars are one-credit courses lodged first within the Department of Theology and often cross-listed with other Departments.
 

Electives

Students in the minor may take up to three three-credit electives from a list of approved courses prepared each semester by the Catholic Social Tradition Committee, the last of which will serve as an "exit level" course and be so designated by the Concentration Committee.

For one of the electives, we encourage, but do not require, students to do an independent research project (e.g. write a major paper) in conjunction with an internship that relates to their professional plans (e.g. broadcast, publishing, news, or community service internship). The project would involve reflection on that internship in light of the Catholic social tradition. Members of the Concentration Executive and Advisory Committee will serve as directors of the research. The Committee includes R. Scott Appleby (History), Jay Dolan (History), Patrick Gaffney, CSC (Anthropology), Joseph Incandela (St. Mary's Theology), Maura Ryan (Theology), Kathleen Maas Weigert (American Studies/ Center for Social Concern), Paul Weithman (Philosophy), and Charles Wilbur (Economics).
 

Other

Students will be encouraged, though not required, to write a senior essay, in the department in which they are majoring, that in some way reflects the interdisciplinary concerns developed in the Catholic Social Tradition. Such an essay will not be counted as a course in the Concentration, but rather will be viewed as the result of carrying the concern of the Concentration into the heart of the student's discipline.

Students may approach members of the Concentration's Executive and Advisory Committee for advice on any and all matters.