October 6, 2020
Virtual Oct. 9 event features Jeremy D. Wilkins, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Theology at Boston College
St. Mary’s University and the Center for Catholic Studies will host the Lilly Fellows Program’s 30th Annual National Conference on Friday, Oct. 9. The virtual conference will connect discussions of liberal arts education with serving the common good in a Christian higher education context.
“It is a great honor to host the National Conference for the Lilly Fellows Program especially on the year of the program’s 30th anniversary,” said Alicia Cordoba Tait, D.M.A., Beirne Director of the Center for Catholic Studies and Professor of Music. “Hosting such a significant event that advances the integration of Christianity and academics reinforces a core commitment of the Center and the University as a whole. As a Catholic and Marianist institution of higher learning, we are committed to deepening our mission of transforming lives, by word and action.”
The Lilly Fellows Program 30th Annual National Conference schedule includes:
- 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.: Opening Plenary: Order Oeuvres: Liberal Education in Its New Context(s) with Jeremy D. Wilkins, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Theology at Boston College, discussing the classical function of wisdom is to order and to judge. Our contemporary appreciation for relativity and diversity poses problems of order and judgment in an acute form. This presentation proposes a strategy for recovering the possibility of intellectual, moral and spiritual normativity in a postmodern society; and examines opportunities and risks for liberal education — education for effective freedom and responsibility — in the social and intellectual contexts of the modern university.
- 1 to 2:25 p.m.: Plenary 2: The Dignity of Persons and Divine Presence: The Aim of Education as the Growth of the Soul with moderator James Greenaway, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Philosophy at St. Mary’s University; and St. Mary’s University panelists Professor of Law David Grenardo, J.D.; Associate Professor of Exercise and Sports Science Terri Boggess, Ph.D.; Professor of Biological Sciences Verónica Contreras-Shannon, Ph.D.; and Interim Dean of the Greehey School of Business and Professor of Management Stephanie Ward, Ph.D.
- 3:30 to 5 p.m.: Plenary 3: Spirituality and the Arts: Music and Conversation with Lilly Graduate Fellows with moderator Alicia Cordoba Tait and panelists Nathan Cornelius, D.M.A., Adjunct Faculty at Johns Hopkins University and Towson University; Joel Scott Davis, D.M.A., Associate Professor and Director of Music Theory, Composition and Musicology at Samford University; and Daniel Gee, D.M.A., Assistant Professor of Music at Westmont College
The conference is open to Lilly Fellows Program representatives only. A livestream of the plenary sessions will be available for non-conference attendees at www.stmarytx.edu/live on Oct. 9.
More about the Lilly Fellows Program:
One of the three Lilly Fellows Program initiatives is the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities. The National Network addresses issues of common interest to institutions in church-related higher education. The 98 members of the network represent a diversity of denominational traditions, institutional types, and geographical locations. Through their collaborative efforts, they explore and discuss the relationship of Christianity to the academic vocation and strengthen the religious nature of church-related institutions through a variety of activities and publications.