Blackfriars Hall

Book Launch: Ricœur at the Limits of Philosophy
2022-10-07 15:00 - 17:30 (Europe/London) | Pembroke college, Oxford, Pembroke College, St. Aldates, Oxford, OX1 1DW, United Kingdom
A fresh and provocative look at one of the twentieth century’s greatest religious thinkers. The book presents French philosopher Paul Ricœur’s unique insights on the finite human quest for ultimate reality. Ricœur pushes philosophy to its limits, always aware of the finitude of human reasoning, yet hopeful that something meaningful can be said about the big metaphysical and religious questions of God, creation, and evil.
The author of the book, Barnabas Aspray, Junior Research Fellow at Pembroke College Oxford and Associate Member at the Las Casas Institute, will give a short introduction.
Response by Dritëro Demjaha, D.Phil, University of Oxford.

A Bent but Beautiful World: An Introduction
2022-10-11 16:00 - 17:00
In a new Future of the Humanities Project event series — A Bent but Beautiful World: Literature, Art, and the Environment — we delve into the topical area of our environment. In recent years, we have rightly heard much about the world’s environmental problems, dangers, and disasters. However, in this series, we will invite speakers to explore the ways in which art and literature have foregrounded the inspirational beauty, delicacy, and strength of the natural world.
To launch this new series, Kathryn Temple and Michael Scott will reflect on their particular theatrical and literary interests in relation to the series’ aims and purpose. In this discussion, Kathryn Temple will introduce the series with reflections on the transdisciplinary nature of recent work on art, literature, and the environment, focusing in particular on the role studies of emotion have played in recent years. Michael Scott will consider some of the issues raised by writers from Shakespeare to Wallace Stevens, illustrating how different poets through time have celebrated and used images of their environment in a variety of ways and for differing purposes. A Q&A with the audience, moderated by Kathryn Temple and Michael Scott, will follow the presentation.
Open to all. Online.

Speakers:
Kathryn Temple is a professor in the Department of English at Georgetown University where she has taught since 1994. She specializes in the study of law and the humanities. Among her publications are Loving Justice: Legal Emotions in William Blackstone’s England (2019) and the co-edited Research Handbook on Law and Emotions (2021). Her humanities outreach activities include work with military veterans and the incarcerated.
Michael Scott is senior dean, fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, college adviser for postgraduate students, and a member of the Las Casas Institute. He also serves as senior adviser to the president at Georgetown University. Scott was on the editorial board which relaunched Critical Survey from Oxford University Press. Scott previously served as the pro vice chancellor at De Montfort University and founding vice chancellor of Wrexham Glyndwr University.

This event is sponsored by the Future of the Humanities Project; the Georgetown Humanities Initiative; the Georgetown Master’s Program in the Engaged and Public Humanities; Campion Hall, Oxford; and the Las Casas Institute (Blackfriars Hall, Oxford). It is part of the one-year-long series: A Bent but Beautiful World: Literature, Art, and the Environment.

Dorothy Day: Cultural critic and Catholic activist
2022-10-12 17:00 - 18:00, 2022-10-19 17:00 - 18:00, 2022-10-26 17:00 - 18:00
Dorothy Day (1897-1980) challenged the world to become more Christian, and challenged Christians to live up to their beliefs. The Catholic Worker movement, which she co-founded and continually inspired, put her many powerful and thoughtful words into action. In this term’s reading group, we will be looking at some of those words and actions, focussing on Loaves and Fishes, which is a collection of little essays, mostly concerned with the Worker houses and farms. We will also discuss selected other readings by and about her, on war and on poverty.
The meetings will be online. All are welcome. Register here.
The group will be led by Edward Hadas, a Research Fellow at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford University. He is the author of Counsels of Imperfection: Thinking through Catholic Social Teaching, published by Catholic University of America Press in 2021, and Money, Finance, Reality, Morality, published by Ethics International Press in 2022.
For further information, contact Edward at edward.hadas@bfriars.ox.ac.uk
The readings:
Week 1 (12 Oct ): Loaves and Fishes, Chapters 1 and 2: pp 3-28
Week 2 (19 Oct): Loaves and Fishes, Chapters 3 and 4: pp. 29-62
Week 3 (26 Oct): Loaves and Fishes, Chapters 6, 7, and 8: pp. 71-92
Week 4 (2 Nov): Loaves and Fishes, Chapters 9 and 10: pp. 95-121
Week 5 (9 Nov): Loaves and Fishes, Chapters 13 and 14: pp. 153-161
Week 6 (16 Nov): Loaves and Fishes, Chapters 16 and 19: pp. 166-184; 210-221
Week 7 (23 Nov) Dorothy Day on war:
On pacifism in the Second World War: https://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/articles/360.html https://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/articles/868.html
On the Second World War: https://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/articles/390.html
On the first nuclear bombing: https://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/articles/554.html
On Vietnam: https://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/articles/250.html
Week 8 (30 Nov): Appreciations of Dorothy Day on poverty:
By Larry Chapp: https://www.communio-icr.com/files/Chapp_-_42.2_Poverty_and_Kenosis.pdf
By Father John Hugo: https://terrenouvelle.home.blog/fr-john-hugo-dorothy-day-apostle-of-the-industrial-age-1980/

Can Local Media Help Save Democracy?
2022-10-17 16:00 - 17:15
This event is part of the ongoing event series Free Speech at the Crossroads: International Dialogues. These events are sponsored by the Free Speech Project (Georgetown University), the Las Casas Institute and Campion Hall, hosted by Georgetown University on Zoom.
As populism and political turmoil continue to rise throughout the world, and especially in western democracies, what is the evolving role of the media in strengthening democratic institutions and upholding traditional values? When charismatic leaders scorn nationally known journalists as “enemies of the people,” do local media occupy an increasingly important place? Are these grass-roots institutions viable in the long term? How might they have influenced recent events in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Italy? What are their prospects in the United States?
Featuring
Stuart Allan is professor of journalism and communication in the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University. Much of his research revolves around the changing dynamics of war, conflict, and crisis reporting, including both professional and citizen reportage. His book publications include Citizen Witnessing: Revisioning Journalism in Times of Crisis and the second edition of The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism.
Jim Brady, a pioneer in digital news, is vice president for journalism programs at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. He previously led brands such as washingtonpost.com and Digital First Media, and launched a company that built online local news sites in three U.S. cities. He has held a wide range of executive roles, including executive editor of the online version of The Washington Post and head of news and sports for America Online. He is past president of the Online News Association.
Maria Power is a Senior Research Fellow in Human Dignity at the Las Casas Institute for Social Justice, Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford. A graduate of the University of London, she is the author of two books on religion in Northern Ireland, From Ecumenism to Community Relations: Inter-Church Relationships in Northern Ireland, and Catholic Social Teaching and Theologies of Peace in Northern Ireland: Cardinal Cahal Daly and the Pursuit of the Peaceable Kingdom published last year. Maria is the editor of Building Peace in Northern Ireland.
Michael Scott (moderator) is senior dean, fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, college adviser for postgraduate students, and a member of the Las Casas Institute. He also serves as senior adviser to the president of Georgetown University. Scott previously was the pro-vice-chancellor at De Montfort University and founding vice-chancellor of Wrexham Glyndwr University.
Sanford J. Ungar (moderator), president emeritus of Goucher College, is director of the Free Speech Project at Georgetown University, which documents challenges to free expression in American education, government, and civil society. Director of the Voice of America under President Bill Clinton, he was also dean of the American University School of Communication and is a former co-host of “All Things Considered” on NPR.

Women Religious and the Northern Irish Troubles
2022-10-20 16:00 - 17:30 | Blackfriars Hall, St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3LY, United Kingdom
Nuns walking past an IRA grafitti
An in-person talk by Drs Dianne Kirby and Briege Rafferty.
Dianne Kirby and Briege Rafferty will relate how and why they brought together religious women peace-builders in a series of oral history witness seminars to discuss their experiences of the Northern Ireland conflict. The project began in 2015. It quickly established that religious women were involved in many modes of activism working alongside a range of other community activists and professionals in the working-class communities that bore the brunt of the ‘Troubles’. Over time the project uncovered how, reflecting gospel imperatives to help, indeed love, society’s most marginalised, religious women became party to personal, societal and political reconciliation, proving effective peacebuilders at all levels. Nonetheless, the importance of their work and their significant contributions to securing a ‘positive’ peace had been erased from Troubles’ history, an omission the project is seeking to rectify. Briege will focus on the extensive contributions of Catholic sisters. Dianne will discuss the involvement of religious women in ‘back-channel’ secret talks. Both will address the obstacles confronting the project and the resistance to its research findings.
The talk is held in the Aula at Blackfriars Hall and live streamed simultaneously. For the live stream registration is required.
