Established in 2012 in the division of Mission and Identity, the Center for Catholic Faith and Culture (CCFC)  is a steward for Duquesne's unique Catholic, Spiritan character and for Catholic intellectual tradition more broadly. The Center is an institutional space that hosts conversations on social justice issues, pedagogy, and the arts, as well as an agent for change in concert with internal and external stakeholders.

Mission, Vision and  Core Values

Animated by Duquesne University's Spiritan heritage, our mission is to promote and advance the Catholic intellectual tradition across the entire spectrum of the University's pursuits. Through interdisciplinary research and collaborative problem-solving, our vision is to become a vital contributor to Catholic ideas, ideals and intellectual life. Our core values are academic excellence, inclusivity, collaboration, concern for marginalized persons, innovation and impact.

 

Who We Are

The Center for Catholic Faith and Culture exists to enhance and enrich the work done by Duquesne faculty, administrators, staff, and students. The Center develops innovative ways to integrate the Catholic intellectual tradition more deeply and broadly across the life of Duquesne. Toward that end, we pursue initiatives that engage historical and contemporary Catholic thought in such fields as the arts, aesthetics, business, economics, literature, and science. The Center supports programs that connect and network scholars from across Duquesne's nine schools and creates opportunities for cross-disciplinary research and teaching that engage and apply Catholic ideas and ideals.

 

Catholic ideals and ideas animate Duquesne University. They orient and inform our community in all its dimensions—academic, professional, spiritual, cultural, and moral. This common inheritance and shared dialogue unites Duquesne with other Catholic colleges and universities. Yet the Spiritan strand of that tradition imbues Duquesne with a distinctive identity and mission. Our Spiritan heritage is characterized by special commitments to educating the whole person, liberating those who suffer injustice, enacting cultural sensitivity, and sustaining spiritual openness in complex and challenging times.

 

Catholic ideals are grounded in a fearless spirit of inquiry and a confidence that the truths of our faith and the truths of reason are not opposed, but in fact are ultimately and profoundly compatible.The Center for Catholic Faith and Culture embraces and seeks to deepen Duquesne’s distinctive Catholic and Spiritan identity in a fashion that regards hospitality, charitable interfaith engagement, and cultural sensitivity as key ingredients for living that identity faithfully in the modern world. 

 

Priorities and Strategic Goals

Our priorities are to foster substantive scholarly engagement with Catholic ideas and ideals at Duquesne, impact scholarship and problem-solving beyond Duquesne and nurture an educational community characterized by the Spiritan charism.
  1. Contribute to Duquesne University's Catholic and Spiritan mission and to facilitate institutional culture and practice consonant with our mission and identity.
  2. Increase DU faculty and student awareness of Catholic ideas and ideals by utilizing diverse forms of faculty support and create new opportunities to broaden and deepen faculty engagement with the Center.
  3. Produce scholarship that contributes to Catholic intellectual life by sponsoring research, publications, dialogue, and problem-solving.
  4. Promote the reputation of the Center for Catholic Faith and Culture by communicating and amplifying our mission and our core values.
  5. Seek external funding for innovative programs and initiatives.

We will rely on quantitative and qualitative evidence for assessment.

 

What We Do

We promote research, teaching, and programs that engage and contribute to the Catholic intellectual tradition. We communicate the mission within the University and outside of it. We collaborate with University offices and programs to support programs across sectors of the University that enable us to live our mission consistently.

We support faculty scholarship that engages mission-related topics, resources and problems.  We provide programs to educate members of the Duquesne community and interested visitors about aspects of the Catholic faith and culture. We develop initiatives that highlight the resonance and relevance of Catholic perspectives in the different disciplines and professions that make up our nine schools. We support and cooperate with programs that focus on culturally diverse contributions to the Catholic faith and culture.

We encourage scholarship and teaching in the liberal arts, sciences, and professional schools that bring the resources of the Catholic intellectual tradition to bear on important contested issues. We support Duquesne's commitment to mission and justice in local and global contexts.

We support the work of Spiritan Campus Ministry. We look for ways to integrate ethics across the Duquesne curriculum. We create programs for faculty, staff, students and alumni to learn more about the moral and spiritual wisdom of Catholic tradition.

 

Scholarship

Common Good and Human Dignity

At the foundation of Catholic Social Teaching is the concept of the "common good.” You’ve likely heard this phrase, but have you thought about what it truly means and how it fits as a part of Catholic social teachings? The Center for Catholic Faith and Culture at Duquesne University is exploring "Catholicism and the Common Good" as a multi-year project generously supported by the Henry Luce Foundation.
Human Dignity in Catholic Tradition.

Catholicism and the Common Good aims to foster innovative scholarship as well as practices of public engagement. The goals are:

  • to understand and address issues that are important for the common good;
  • to foster collaborative networks across institutions, academic disciplines, and faith traditions;
  • to develop better ways for connecting scholarship to the variety of stakeholders it is meant to serve.

 

 

Student Research Awards

 

Congratulations to recipients of the Center's 2024 Student Research Awards for their abstracts exploring the topic of the common good and human dignity.

Graduate Research Symposium
Jesse Goodman | Philosophy | McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts
A Metaphysics of the Moral Imagination: John Ruskin's Realism, Revisited
Faculty Advisor/s: Michael Harrington, Ph.D.

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium
Jasmine Urzua | Physician Assistant Studies | Rangos School of Health Sciences | Junior
Emma Polen | Integrated Marketing Communications | McAnulty College and Graduate School of
Liberal Arts | Senior
Faculty Advisor/s: Michele Wisnesck, MS

 

Paluse Grant Details

Reflecting the Catholic, Spiritan mission and identity of Duquesne University, the Paluse Faculty Research Grant is an important university-wide internal funding opportunity intended to support full-time faculty scholarly research. 

Grant awards are for up to $6,000. Up to two awards will be granted.

  • Open to all full-time Duquesne faculty in any academic discipline with continuing full-time faculty appointments.
  • Intended to lead, at least, to publication in a reputable peer-reviewed journal.
  • Can be used to support a portion of a multi-phase research project, provided the project funded by the Paluse grant is clearly defined and the proposal makes a strong case for the likelihood of future external funding and publication.
  • Faculty are encouraged to pursue collaborative and cross-disciplinary research projects and to submit them for Paluse funding.
  • Recipients may teach no more than one summer course for supplementary pay during the summer they hold the grant.
  • Previous winners of Paluse Faculty Research Grants are welcome to apply. Proposals must demonstrate research outcomes from previous grants, and applications must show that the current proposal focuses on a new research project.
  • Preference will be given to applicants who have not received a Paluse Faculty Research Grant in the last two years.

Learn more
Direct inquiries to Dr.%20Kathleen%20Glenister%20Roberts

Apply for this Grant

 

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Center for Catholic Faith and Culture