Seton Hall University
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NetVUE Regional Conference 2012

NetVUE Regional Conference hosted by Seton Hall University
“The Origins and Goal of the Scientific Vocation”
Friday, March 30, 2012

View Plenary Speakers' Talks and Conference White Paper »

Seton Hall University’s Center for Vocation and Servant Leadership was pleased to host this opportunity to combine reflection on scientific research as a vocation with reflection on the social implications of scientific research. This regional conference is rooted in three hypotheses:

  1. The choice of a scientific career is often connected with a deep and influential personal experience which inspires a vocational commitment to this career. With the conferees we will explore these personal experiences by asking the question “how did you personally come upon your scientific vocation?”
     
  2. The notion of “vocation” is connected to a strong sense of personal values that are oriented to seeking a greater good or providing a greater benefit to society as a whole. Accordingly, we ask, “What is the good, ‘the whole,’ that your scientific research is oriented towards?”
     
  3. Assuming that a good number of today’s scientists have a vocational commitment to their careers, how can we advise future scientists in their search for their vocation?

The aim is to deepen the intentionality of the participants’ scientific praxis and to awaken other attendees to the personalist dimensions of science and its role in molding the future of the human family. The focus of the conference is to increase the understanding of a scientific career as a vocation for the good of humanity.

The target audience is faculty from the sciences and humanities, administrators and staff involved in academic, career or vocation mentoring at Seton Hall and Regional NetVUE Member Institutions. Our expectation is that member institutions, other than Seton Hall, will send a team of 2-3 people. We will also invite key faculty from local colleges. Only Seton Hall faculty will be able to invite students to attend the plenary lectures.

About the Speakers

Ilia DelioIlia Delio, O.S.F., holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and a Ph.D. in Historical Theology. She is a Senior Research Fellow of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. She has written extensively on science and religion, and received the Templeton Course Award in Science and Religion in 2000. She is currently involved in research on transhumanism, technology, evolution, ecology and education. She is the author of ten books and her latest, The Emergent Christ: Exploring the Meaning of Catholic in an Evolutionary Universe, was published in Spring 2011.

John HaugheyJohn C. Haughey, S.J. is a Senior Research Fellow of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.  He is the author of numerous books, most recently Where is Knowing Going? The Horizons of the Knowing Subject, which highlights the contribution faculty research makes to the Catholic intellectual tradition.  This book was awarded the 2010 Catholic Book Award in Education from the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada. He is the editor of Revisiting the Idea of Vocation, Theological Explorations, and of In Search of the Whole: Twelve Essays on Faith and Academic Life due to be published in Fall 2011.

This conference is co-sponsored by Seton Hall University’s Center for Vocation and Servant Leadership and the Center for Catholic Studies.