Roberta Kuhn Center: Laudato Si' - Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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Envisioning a Livable Future

The Envisioning a Livable Future conference aims to create lively interdisciplinary dialogues raising ecological consciousness, drawing attention to climate-forward initiatives, and encouraging both personal discernment and social action. Participation is free.

This conference is organized by John Carroll University, in collaboration with the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage at Loyola University Chicago. For more information please go to: https://www.jcu.edu/livable-future

Learn More About the Conference

Envisioning a Livable Future is an online, serial conference marking the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home. This groundbreaking document called climate change “one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day,” proposed an analysis of “the human roots of the ecological crisis,” and advanced a new ecological vision for the challenges ahead.

Guided by the Jesuit apostolic preferences to “accompany young people in the creation of a hope-filled future” and to “collaborate in the care of our common home,” the conference seeks to inspire lively interdisciplinary dialogues aimed at:

Raising ecological consciousness,
Drawing attention to climate-forward initiatives, and
Encouraging both personal discernment and social action.

The Current State of Climate Science

What’s happening? Are we too late? Can we bend the curve even now? What has changed since 2015? Further, what needs to be done, by when, and how to do it?

Watch Now

BVM Sisters, Associates, and Mount Carmel Bluffs residents:
Group viewing and discussion
Monday, Feb. 17
1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Terrace Theater

Speakers:

Katharine Hayhoe, Chief Scientist for the Nature Conservancy & Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor and Endowed Chair in Public Policy and Public Law, Texas Tech University
Ben Sovacool, Director of the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability and Professor of Earth & Environment, Boston University
Nancy Tuchman, Founding Dean of the Loyola University Chicago School of Sustainability and Professor of Biology, Loyola University Chicago

The Contribution of Catholic Social Thought

Ten years after the publication of Laudato Si’, what are, or ought to be, the growing edges of Catholic social thought? What does it have to contribute to our understanding of the climate crisis and the development of an ecological conscience?

Video Coming Soon

BVM Sisters, Associates, and Mount Carmel Bluffs residents:
Group viewing and discussion
Monday, March 17
1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Terrace Theater

Speakers:

Emily Burke, Social Media Manager and Young Adult Mobilization Program Assistant, Catholic Climate Covenant
Vincent Miller, Gudorf Chair in Catholic Theology and Culture, University of Dayton
“Ram” Ramanathan, Distinguished Research Professor in Climate Sciences, University of California at San Diego, and Pontifical Academy of Sciences
Susan Solomon, Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies and Chemistry, MIT, and Pontifical Academy of Sciences

The Political Economy of Climate Change

How do we move from what Pope Francis has called an “economy that kills” both people and planet to an economy that is truly sustainable and just? What are the levers of such a system change, and what are the obstacles to it?

Video Coming Soon

BVM Sisters, Associates, and Mount Carmel Bluffs residents:
Group viewing and discussion
Monday, April 21
1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Terrace Theater

Speakers:

Brian Boland, Co-Founder, Delta Fund
Katie Boland, Co-Founder, Delta Fund
Adrienne Buller, author of The Value of a Whale: On the Illusions of Green Capitalism
Nathan Schneider, Assistant Professor of Media Studies, University of Colorado Boulder
Felipe Witchger, Co-Founder, Francesco Collaborative

Environmental Politics

What are practical, effective forms of political action to counter the climate crisis and build both solidarity and momentum? Are all the winds countervailing, or are there promising movements and trends?

Video Coming Soon

BVM Sisters, Associates, and Mount Carmel Bluffs residents:
Group viewing and discussion
Monday, May 19
1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Terrace Theater

Speakers:

Daniel DiLeo, Director, Justice & Peace Studies Program, and Associate Professor of Cultural and Social Studies, Creighton University
Alexandria Nichols, Director of Parks and Recreation, City of Cleveland
Jesús Sanchez, Director, Great Lakes Environmental Justice Program, Restore America’s Estuaries
Philip Stoddard, Professor Emeritus of Biology, Florida International University, and Mayor of South Miami, 2010–2020
Pete Williams, John Carroll University Journalist in Residence & former NBC News correspondent