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
Working Groups
In the Program's initial phase, two working groups of scholars from research universities on five continents will investigate the role of ethics and social trust on two contemporary issues: how education serves at a time of threat to democracy and the problematic of climate refugees.
Featured Members
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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
“This is an opportunity for an exceptional group of thinkers to focus on the major political task of our generation: preserving democracy for the next generation. The challenge this working group addresses is global, and its members will bring international perspectives to bear on our central questions. I look forward to what our work will reveal about the most effective educational and formative experiences for maintaining resilient democratic systems.”
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Katharine Young
Associate Dean for Faculty and Global Programs, Professor, and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar at Boston College Law School
Climate Change and Migration
“There may be no ethical challenge more immense than that wrought by our changing, and in some places now unlivable, climate. Migration due to environmental degradation or extreme weather events is often forced on the world’s most vulnerable people, who are least responsible. Our Working Group brings together renowned experts from Boston College and across the world to grapple with this profound challenge, and I look forward to the insights that will come in bridging the environmental and earth sciences, ethics, human rights, social work and law.”
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M. Cathleen Kaveny
Darald and Juliet Libby Millennium Professor at Boston College Theology Department and Law SchoolDemocracy, Governance, and Education
“Recent Gallup polls show that Americans' approval of the U.S. Supreme Court is at an all-time low. Many people simply do not respect or trust the highest court in the land, which is the institutional embodiment of the rule of law in our democratic republic. As a law professor and ethicist, this phenomenon deeply concerns me. I am looking forward to exploring this and other problems with my colleagues in the working group on "Democracy, Governance, and Education," under the able leadership of Jonathan Laurence.”
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Linda Hogan
Chair of Ecumenics, School of Religion, Theology and Peace Studies, Trinity College Dublin
Democracy, Governance, and Education
“I would like to see our future work as also being focused on asking what a redeemed politics might look like, and from this to give an account of what education, especially our different disciplines, can bring to the task of building a redeemed politics.”
Events
Summer 2024 Colloquium
June 18-20, 2024
Since September Professors Katie Young and Jonathan Laurence have each been chairing a working group on "Climate Change and Migration" and "Democracy, Governance and Education," respectively. After a year of hybrid meetings, the two groups will meet in person from June 18 to June 20th here at BC for several days of conversation and collaboration.
As part of the Colloquium, on Wednesday, June 19th we are hosting a panel on “University Ethics and Social Trust” in light of our work over the past year. The panel will feature four participants: Linda Hogan from Trinity College, Dublin; Juan Larrain from Universidad Católica in Santiago; Hanqin Tian, Schiller Institute Professor and inaugural director of the Center for Earth Systems Science and Global Sustainability at BC; and Lynch School professor Chris Higgins, author of the recently published Undeclared: A Philosophy of Formative Higher Education. We look forward to the robust conversation after the panel and during the colloquium.
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