Workshop

Saint Mary's College, USA

Organizer: Dr. Kurt Buhring, Associate Professor in Saint Mary's College

This workshop is a sample class meeting from the course, “Religion & Science”. The course is a 300-level undergraduate seminar that meets the Interreligious Studies requirement for Saint Mary's Religious Studies and Theology majors. The students tend to be juniors and seniors. While many of them are majors in my Religious Studies and Theology department, the course also draws science majors as well as other interested students. The course tends to be small, with around 10-15 students. On the day of the sample class meeting, we read, discussed, and began to evaluate two chapters from John Haught's God After Darwin. Haught argues that evolutionary theory is a “gift” to theology, as it encourages Christian-based ways of understanding divine goodness and power, as well as empowering and inspiring possibilities for human life. One of my intentions in this 75-minute class session is to introduce students to creative ways of understanding God and humanity in light of evolutionary theory. Taught early in the semester, this session sets a foundation for our understanding of evolution, constructive Christian theology, and positive ways that religion can engage science.

University of Murcia, Spain

Organizer: Dr. Javier Cifuentes-Faura, Researcher in University of Murcia

The workshop "University students' concerns: policies to improve the education system" brought together several students from the University of Murcia and served to learn about the main concerns of students, strengthen academic research and debate, promote cooperation to achieve sustainability and research on higher education to achieve student welfare and achieve sustainable development. We discussed the degree of concern of university students about these problems that may condition their current life and analyze whether these concerns may affect their academic performance, also distinguishing according to gender and age. Aspects such as mental health, the high cost of living, the need to re-evaluate the way of working or the fight against climate change are among the main concerns of young people. All these issues are the major challenges facing a generation in constant transformation, which also affect their academic performance.