The Program on Global Ethics and Social Trust is an international project based at Boston College that brings faculty together across disciplinary and institutional boundaries to address the ethical dimensions of urgent global issues and the implications for our academic, political, and religious communities.
Key elements
- Collaboration among predominantly Catholic research universities on five continents
- Interdisciplinary faculty working groups
- International conferences in summer 2024 and 2025
- Pilot phase 2023-2025
- 2025-2026: Climate Change and Migration working group continues work
Summer 2025 Colloquium
Participants in the Summer 2025 Colloquium. Pictured from left to right: Chris Higgins, Hanqin Tian, Jonathan Laurence (Chair, DGE), Dr. Andrea Vicini, Maryanne Loughry, Katie Young (Chair, CCM), Jessie Babcock (Assistant), Oscar Melo (UC Chile, Santiago), Martin Summers, Angela Ards, Noah Snyder, Erik Owens (Director), Fr. Jim Keenan (PI), Vidya Ann Jacob (Christ University, Bangalore), Linda Hogan (TCD, Dublin), Nelson Ribeiro (UCP, Lisbon), Cathy Kaveny, Fr. Elias Opongo (Hekima University, Kenya), and Anne McDonald (Sophia University, Tokyo). Not Pictured: Fr. Francisco de Roux, (Javeriana University, Bogotá)
Summer 2025 Colloquium program booklet (click to download)
On June 22-25, we held our second annual Summer Colloquium of the Program on Global Ethics and Social Trust. Once again, the members of our international, interdisciplinary working groups met in person at Boston College, where they shared their collaborative work from the past year and formulated a vision for the future of the pilot program.
Director Erik Owens and Principal Investigator Fr. Jim Keenan laid out the purpose of the colloquium: to listen to members’ reflections on their experiences from the past two years, and to discuss a vision for a future Center for Global Ethics and Social Trust. Keenan centered the theme of social trust, uplifting the social trust which has emerged among working group members over the past two years of meetings. Members presented on their collaborative and individual projects, then articulated several key commitments for a future Center on Global Ethics and Social Trust: greater engagement with students; widening international involvement; and articulating an explicit commitment to social trust. This Center would be a recognized place that university faculty could turn to for guidance on how to address emerging ethical crises around the globe, uniting university faculty to think, act, and collaborate interdisciplinarily and internationally to identify and address these crises.
Reflections on the Project
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James F. Keenan
Vice Provost for Global Engagement,
Canisius Professor,
Director of The Jesuit InstituteThe Program on Global Ethics and Social Trust
“I want a Center for Global Ethics and Social Trust that unites our faculty to think, act, and collaborate interdisciplinarily and internationally, as a catalyst for discussions to increase the reach of our other centers.”
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Katharine Young
Associate Dean for Faculty and Global Programs, Professor, and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar at Boston College Law SchoolClimate Change and Migration
“I think The Program on Global Ethics and Social Trust can be a frame that has to rest with diverging interpretations of the central concepts, but nevertheless pragmatically choosing moments where one can see pathways forward.”
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Jonathan Laurence
Professor of Political Science and Director of the Clough Center for Constitutional Democracy at Boston CollegeDemocracy, Governance, and Education
“[Our working group has been], in a sense, a test-run, in real time, of what benefit such a group could bring in times of acute crisis, living as we do in times of acute crisis. One of the greatest values of our regular convenings is this culture that we fostered amongst ourselves.”
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Linda Hogan
Chair of Ecumenics, School of Religion, Theology and Peace Studies, Trinity College Dublin
Democracy, Governance, and Education
“If we can reframe this way of thinking about what we do and the importance of academic freedom in terms of a public good and the basis of social trust, I think that is one way that we can begin to address the challenges [facing universities].”
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Erik Owens
Director, International Studies Program; Professor of the Practice, TheologyDemocracy, Governance, and Education
“I think that universities ought to be in the business of generating recognition of interconnection and that ought to generate a recognition of our obligation to each other. Catholic universities have a special role to play in this, in recognizing the dignity of the human and our connectedness and our obligations to one another, and I think that we are especially well-suited to address this kind of obligation.”
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Andrea Vicini, SJ
Michael P. Walsh Professor of BioethicsClimate Change and Migration
“This embodies a vision of justice in the way in which we proceed: collaborating, fostering participation, but also aiming at a good which would, hopefully, be concrete in their own lives. This is what we hope to embody.”
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Francisco de Roux, SJ
Former Chair of the Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-RepetitionDemocracy, Governance, and Education
“The international role of academia working on peace and ethical values [is to] bring serenity and discernment to the field of common sense to build a new world. And in the inspiration of Pope Francis and Pope Leo, we must carry the message of fraternity, intelligent understanding, and hope.”
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Anne McDonald
Professor, Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies; Director of the Island Sustainability Institute, Sophia UniversityClimate Change and Migration
“We talk about trust in this group. When you can bring together people whom you can trust, no matter what, that they will be there for you. That’s the beauty of all of our groups.”
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Angela Ards
Associate Professor; Director of the Journalism ProgramDemocracy, Governance, and Education
“But for me, it was in conversation with everyone that I finally understood what social trust meant for me. As I did my work, learning that so much of the civic or community engagement—before that could occur—a process of social trust needed to happen, relationship building. That’s the definition for me.”
Working Groups
Two working groups of scholars from research universities on five continents are investigating the role of ethics and social trust. We began in the pilot phase with a focus on two contemporary issues: how education serves at a time of threat to democracy and the problematic of climate refugees.
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