The Mission and Identity Reading Group’s first meeting is Wednesday, September 25 at 4:30 p.m. in Loyola Hall. Wine and cheese will be provided. Faculty interested in joining the group should contact Marshelle Woodward, assistant professor of English, at woodwar3@canisius.edu, or Rev. Patrick Lynch, S.J., professor emeritus of religious studies, at lynchp@canisius.edu, to ensure that we have enough food and drink for the occasion.
Texts can be found on D2L in the Canisius Colleagues & Companions Group under Reading Group 2019-20.
Reading Group Description: What does it mean to be an educator at a Jesuit institution? What are the roots of Jesuit ideals like magis, cura personalis and eloquentia perfecta, and how might we engage meaningfully with these ideals in our classrooms? What is the Ignatian Pedagogigcal Paradigm, and how does it resonate across the disciplines? How might Jesuit values intersect with, amplify, or, in some instances, disrupt our established pedagogies?
Our goal: To develop a deeper and more dynamic engagement with Canisius’ Jesuit mission.
Reading Selections: For our first meeting, we will read selections from the 1599 Ratio Studiorum, the document that standardized early Jesuit curriculum and pedagogy. We will also read Philip Shano’s short article on “Dining with St. Ignatius Loyola: Rules for Regulating One’s Eating.”
The group’s yearlong direction will be determined at our first meeting; however, each session is likely to include at least one primary text and one scholarly article, the latter of which will generally be tied to pedagogy. We are interested in centering one upcoming meeting on the topic of Educating for Justice, focusing especially on the topic of sustainability. Selected readings might include excerpts from Fr. Pedro Arrupe’s foundational “Promotion of Justice and Education for Justice” and Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si.
Submitted by: Marshelle Woodward, PhD, assistant professor, English
