Angela Ards presents keynote address at Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Scholarship Banquet

Angela Ards, director of the Boston College journalism program and member of the Working Group on Democracy, Governance, and Education, was the keynote speaker at the 42nd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Scholarship Banquet at Boston College.

In her address, Prof. Ards reflected on the importance of remembering the history of the Civil Rights Movement and urged the audience to be conscious of social change. “One of [King’s] beliefs was that moral laws guide the universe just as physical laws do,” Ards said. “As he famously said after the Selma March, ‘The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.’ But we often forget that he qualified that statement by saying that the universe’s moral arc does not mean that progress rolls along the wheels of inevitability, that achieving justice is just a matter of time.” 

Climate Change & Migration Working Group holds Tenth Meeting on January 14, 2025

On January 14th, the Climate Change and Migration Working Group held their first meeting of 2025 and the tenth overall meeting. Echoing the theme of Social Trust, the sub-group collaborating with Christ University in Bangalore voiced their hope to deepen trust among Christ University, their collaborators at the Christ Nodal Office, and the people of Kerala through their collaboration and upcoming travel to India in early March. During this trip, Boston College working group members Maryanne Loughry, Noah Snyder, and Andrea Vicini, SJ, will meet with working group member Vidya Ann Jacob and her colleague Dr. Maxmillan Martin, both of Christ University, for two International Symposia on Climate Migration at the Christ Nodal Office in Trivandrum and Christ Central Campus in Bangalore.

Additionally, Anne McDonald updated members on the other sub-group project, which is conducting field research on islands in the Republic of the Marshall Islands and San Andres, Colombia along with colleagues from the Sophia University Island Sustainability Institute and Javeriana University, Bogota. With initial scoping visits completed, working group members Anne McDonald, Oscar Melo, Hanqin Tian, and Katie Young are coordinating plans for field visits and research in the months leading up to the GEST Program's Summer 2025 Colloquium in June.

Climate Change & Migration Lecture Series: Liz Fisher of Oxford University

This Fall the Program on Global Ethics and Social Trust inaugurated a lecture series at Boston College on Climate Change and Migration, co-sponsored by the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society and the Law School. Our first lecture on November 12 featured Liz Fisher, Professor of Law at Oxford University. In her lecture, entitled “Geek Democracy: How to Be an ‘Expert’ in the Anthropocene,” Fisher shared five lessons for a more constructive and hopeful vision of expertise and its place in democracy, drawing from her experience studying environmental law.

Watch the lecture on YouTube: Climate and Migration Lecture Series - Geek Democracy: How to be an 'Expert' in the Anthropocene

Climate Change & Migration Working Group holds Ninth Meeting on November 12, 2024

Professor Liz Fisher of Oxford joined the working group for an informal breakfast meeting on November 12, providing insight from her 30 years of interdisciplinary work on environmental law. Fisher praised the group’s interdisciplinary network, affirming its necessity when facing climate change and environmental problems. Such groups must strive for ongoing, reciprocal conversation—both low-stakes and rigorous, pushing up against the disciplinary limits. Fisher and the group discussed the influence of international legal agreements, such as the Paris Agreement, to provide a framework, consensus, and inspiration; and the importance of action at the local level, which addresses the climate change impacts felt by particular communities and areas.
After the meeting, Liz Fisher gave a public lecture entitled “Geek Democracy: How to Be an ‘Expert’ in the Anthropocene” as part of the Climate and Migration Lecture Series, co-sponsored with the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science & Society, Boston College Law School. Her lecture may be viewed online on YouTube:

Democracy, Governance & Education Working Group holds Eighth Meeting on October 18, 2024 and Ninth Meeting on November 8, 2024

During the 8th and 9th meetings of the Working Group on Democracy, Governance, and Education, held on October 18 and November 8, the working group shifted their direction to developing both long-term and short-term outputs. The group’s goals are to encourage social trust during a time of dramatic social and political polarization around the world while increasing awareness of the group and its work. In the short-term, members committed to produce reflections on their experiences of working in an interdisciplinary group and on themes discussed during the meetings, such as the role of constitutional democracy and the dangers of political polarization. For the long-term, members began formulating plans for collaborative events such as panels and workshops at various members’ universities.

Climate Change & Migration Working Group holds Eighth Meeting on October 8, 2024

During the eighth meeting of the Working Group on Climate Change and Migration on October 8, 2024, members discussed and developed the details of the interdisciplinary projects which had been proposed at the Summer 2024 Colloquium. Katharine Young, Hanqin Tian, Anne McDonald, and Oscar Melo, who are developing a project on low-lying small island states in the Pacific and Caribbean, discussed the complex challenges of connecting qualitative data from field studies with quantitative scientific data from large-scale climate models. They hope that bridging the gap between qualitative and quantitative studies will provide a richer picture of the lived reality of people on low-lying small island states. Vidya Ann Jacob, Maryanne Loughry, Andrea Vicini, and Noah Snyder worked out details of the group’s growing collaboration with Christ University, Bangalore, which will bring together experts in law, ethics, psychology, and natural science to investigate climate migration in Kerala, India.

Bothering to Love Conference held in honor of Jim Keenan, S.J.

On September 13-14, several of our faculty colleagues in the Program on Global Ethics and Social Trust joined a celebratory conference in honor of Jim Keenan’s groundbreaking legacy in Catholic ethics. The conference -- and the book in which the conference papers were concurrently published -- is titled Bothering to Love: James F. Keenan’s Retrieval and Reinvention of Catholic Ethics. 

Andrea Vicini, S.J., Chair of the BC Theology Department and member of the GEST working group on Climate Change and Migration, offered opening remarks on the first day of the conference. 

Linda Hogan, Professor of Ecumenics at Trinity College Dublin and member of the working group on Democracy, Governance, and Education, delivered the conference keynote, entitled “Love’s Work: The Performative Theological Ethics of James F. Keenan.” 

Katharine Young, Professor at BC Law School and chair of the working group on Climate Change and Migration, presented her paper “Human Rights and Reinvention” during Saturday’s panels. 

The full conference schedule of speakers and panels is available online.

Congratulations, Jim!

Democracy, Governance & Education Working Group holds Seventh Meeting on September 13, 2024

On Friday, September 13, the working group on Democracy, Governance, and Education met for their seventh meeting–the first since the Summer 2024 Colloquium in June–to kick-off the second year of the Program. The first half of the meeting featured conversation with Erik Owens, Director of the International Studies program at BC, on the report “Toward a Hope-Filled, Democratic Future: Educating for Democratic Citizenship in the AJCU” by the AJCU Commission on Citizenship and Democracy, of which Owens was a member. The Report calls for a “Civic Examen” whereby faculty and staff may reflect on the ways in which they are approaching democratic civic education, understood as consisting of civic ethos, civic literacy, civic inquiry, and civic action. In the second half of the meeting, members discussed the possibility of creating a web page to conglomerate the working group members’ and member universities’ programming and resources related to democratic education.

Panel on Chris Higgins' new book, Undeclared

Chris Higgins’ new book, Undeclared: A Philosophy of Formative Higher Education (MIT Press, 2024), was the topic of a robust panel discussion on September 12 at Boston College. Higgins, a faculty member of the GEST working group on Democracy, Governance, and Education, is Associate Professor and Chair of the Formative Education Department at BC’s Lynch School of Education and Human Development. Undeclared presents an incisive critique of the ways in which contemporary American research universities fail their students today, and offers a model for reimagining the formative (and transformative) experience of liberal education, using historical examples and philosophical reflection. GEST director Erik Owens offered remarks as part of the panel, highlighting the importance of the civic and social dimensions of formative education, and reflecting on how the conversation about formative education at BC has moved into a new and broader phase.

Climate Change & Migration Working Group holds Seventh Meeting on September 10, 2024

On Tuesday (9/10), the Climate Change and Migration working group, chaired by Katharine Young, held their seventh meeting––the first of the second year of the Program. The meeting built upon the progress that the working group made during the Summer 2024 Colloquium in June at BC, with members organizing around two developing projects: a multi-dimensional analysis of interconnected climate drivers of migration on small island developing states; and a study of climate change-induced migration in Kerala, India. 

The two projects draw upon the interdisciplinary expertise of the working group members, revealing both the challenges and the richness of work that cuts across disciplinary boundaries. The working group also welcomed a new member, Vidya Ann Jacob, who is Assistant Professor at the School of Law, Christ University, Bangalore. The meeting adjourned with plans to continue developing and refining the projects in small groups before the October meeting.

James Keenan gives talk on GEST Program at Sophia University

On July 17th, Jim Keenan, PI of the Program on Global Ethics and Social Trust, gave a talk at Sophia University and met with ChancellorSali Augustine, SJ Chancellor of the Sophia School Corporation; Anne McDonald, Climate Change and Migration Working Group member, Professor, Sophia University Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, and member of the Island Sustainability Institute; along with other faculty of Sophia University. 

Keenan’s talk, entitled “Boston College Program on Global Ethics and Social Trust: Sharing Insights from Summer Colloquium 2024,” elaborated on the GEST program as a model for a setting in which people from different departments are welcome to openly share their views and collaborate across disciplines. We look forward to continuing to strengthen our ties with Sophia University, one of BC's strategic partners and a fellow member of SACRU.

The talk was attended by faculty from Sophia University, Tokyo (standing, left to right) Takashi Irohara, Vice President for Academic Affairs; Tetsuo Morishita, Vice President for Global Academic Affairs; Bryan Fleming, Executive Director, BC Office of Global Engagement; Chancellor Sali Augustine, SJ, Chancellor of Sophia School Corporation; James Keenan, SJ, Vice Provost for Global Engagement at BC and PI of the GEST Program; John Joseph Puthenkalam, SJ, Trustee for Global Academic Affairs; Guangwei Huang, Dean of the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies; Takahiro Tsuge, Professor, Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies; Akemi Ori, Professor, Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies; (seated, left to right) Noriko Hataya, Professor, Department of Hispanic Studies; Anne McDonald, Professor, Sophia University Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies and member of the WG on Climate Change and Migration; and Naoki Umemiya, Professor, Sophia University Center for Global Education and Discovery.

"Ethics and the University" Panel held at GEST Summer Colloquium

James Keenan, SJ, Principal Investigator of the Global Ethics and Social Trust Program, moderated a joint panel discussion on June 19, 2024 about “Ethics and the University” with Juan Larrain (Director of the Institute of Applied Ethics  at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile), Hanqin Tian (Boston College Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society Professor of Global Sustainability), Linda Hogan (Professor of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin), and Chris Higgins (Chair of the Formative Education Department at Boston College). Each offered incisive analysis of the challenges facing higher education in a pluralistic environment, including declining trust in the role that elite universities play in local, national, and global societies.

Summer 2024 Colloquium

The first annual Summer Colloquium of the Program on Global Ethics and Social Trust, held June 18-21, 2024, marked the first time that the members of our two international working groups all met in-person. Members of the Working Group of Climate Change & Migration and the Working Group on Democracy, Governance, and Education reflected on the past year and determined tangible outputs and action items for the second year of the Program.

Pictured here: [back row] Erik Owens (Director), Jonathan Laurence (Chair, Democracy, Governance & Education), Jessie Saeli (Assistant), Martin Summers, Nelson Ribeiro (UCP, Lisbon), Linda Hogan (TCD, Dublin) Chris Higgins, Cathleen Kaveny, Andrea Vicini, SJ, Jim Keenan, SJ (PI), Maryanne Loughry, Katie Young (Chair, Climate Change & Migration), Vidya Ann Jacob (Christ University, Bangalore), [front row] Juan Larrain (UC Chile, Santiago), Anne McDonald (Sophia University, Tokyo), Oscar Melo (UC Chile, Santiago), Francisco de Roux, SJ (Javeriana University, Bogotá), Elias Opongo, SJ (Hekima University, Kenya), and Hanqin Tian. Not pictured here: Angela Ards, Theresa Betancourt, Alu Dorotan, and Noah Snyder.

Hanqin Tian co-leads study "Global Nitrous Oxide Budget"

Hanqin Tian, a member of the Working Group on Climate Change and Migration, recently co-lead the most comprehensive worldwide assessment to date of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas primarily associated with farming practices.

“This emission increase is taking place when global greenhouse gasses should be rapidly declining towards net zero emissions if we have any chances to avoid the worst effects of climate change,” said Tian. Tian’s earth systems science research on greenhouse gas and agricultural emissions informs the Working Group’s discussions on food (in)security as a contributing factor to climate-induced migration around the world.

Read the academic paper here: Global nitrous oxide budget (1980-2020)
Read the BC News feature here: The global nitrous oxide budget

Katie Young Speaks on Climate Displacement at Los Andes University

On May 24, 2024, Katharine Young, chair of the Working Group on Climate Change and Migration and Professor at the BC Law School, spoke about climate displacement at the conference “Constitutional Justice in Contexts of Conflict: Lessons from Judgment T-025 of 2004 and Reflections on the Future of Internal Forced Displacement” at Los Andes University in Bogotá, Colombia.

She participated on the panel "Lessons Learned, Complementarities and Differences between Environmental Displacement and Displacement Caused by Armed Conflict" (“Aprendizajes, complementariedades y diferencias entre el desplazamiento ambiental y el causado por el conflicto armado”).

Watch her presentation (with Spanish translation) on YouTube.