CUAC is in the process of planning for its next triennial International Conference to be held at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, from May 22 to 26, 2011. The focus of the conference is: Sustainability: New Context for Higher Education.
To share and sustain the gifts of creation, past, present and future, has always been a corollary of the Christian Doctrine of Creation. But the abuses of global expansion, exploitation and pollution in recent decades have given an almost universal credibility to basic principles for good practice in what is now called ‘sustainability’. The simplest and most quoted version comes from UNESCO:
Sustainable development is seeking to meet the needs of the present without compromising those of future generations. We have to learn our way out of current social and environmental problems and learn to live sustainably. Sustainable development is a vision of development that encompasses populations, animal and plant species, ecosystems, natural resources and that integrates concerns such as the fight against poverty, gender equality, human rights, education for all, health, human security, intercultural dialogue, etc. Education for sustainable development aims to help people to develop the attitudes, skills, and knowledge to make informed decisions for the benefit of themselves and others, now and in the future, and to act upon these decisions.
How can a university or a college lift up this global concern in everything that it does, in everything that it teaches? How can the graduates of our institutions take leadership in their various fields in approaching all issues that they will face with this fundamental awareness in mind?
The 7th CUAC International Conference will be held at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. This Episcopal University, owned and governed by 28 dioceses of the southeastern United States, has itself made many environmental and sustainability initiatives. Located atop the Cumberland Plateau between Nashville and Chattanooga, its 13,000-acre domain provides an academic and recreational resource, and an unparalleled place in which to study and reflect. The university has an interdisciplinary Environmental Program with 12 academic disciplines involved – including the School of Theology and the Chapel. Even the Dining Services have adopted green practices, including a local-food purchasing program.
The programming for the conference will utilize the resources of this exquisite location. It also assumes that delegates from Member Institutions will have much to contribute, and there will be ‘Participant Presentations’ where reports can be made on some of the sustainability projects of one’s own college or within one’s own discipline. Presentation proposals will be solicited at the time of Registration and a listing of all proposals will be posted on the CUAC web site before the Conference. Due to numbers, some presentations may have to run concurrently.
The Plenary Speakers named to-date are:
Dr Kwok Pui-Lan: ‘The Theology and Philosophy of Sustainability’
Dr Kwok Pui-Lan is an internationally known Anglican scholar and theologian. She received her education at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (B.A.), her B.D. and M.Th. from the Southeast Asia Graduate School of Theology, and her Th.D, from Harvard University. She has taught at Chinese University of Hong Kong; Women's Theological Center, Boston; Auburn Seminary, New York; Union Theological Seminary, NY, and Yale Divinity School. Since 1992 she has been William F. Cole Professor of Christian Theology and Spirituality at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA.Dr. Kwok has played leadership roles in the American Academy of Religion, the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), and the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning. She is currently President-elect of the American Academy of Religion. She has spoken at the House of Bishops conference and at ATS workshops, as well as delivered lectures across the United States, Asia, and Europe. Her current research includes globalization and Christian theology and a long-term project on ‘Signifying Jesus’, in which she examines the relation between Christology, colonialism, and the modern world. Professor Kwok is the coeditor of two volumes: Off the Menu: Asian and Asian North American Women's Religion and Theology (Westminster) and Empire and the Christian Tradition: New Readings of Classical Theologians (Fortress). Her other publications include Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology (Westminster), Discovering the Bible in the Non-Biblical World (Orbis), and Introducing Asian Feminist Theology (Pilgrim).
Dr John M McCardell, Jr: ‘Higher Education in the US, the South, and at Sewanee’
Dr John M McCardell, Jr is Vice Chancellor of the University of the South. He is president emeritus of Middlebury College where he served from 1992-2004. He is a distinguished historian and possesses a record of achievement as a scholar of the American South. He joined the history faculty at Middlebury in 1976. In addition to teaching, McCardell served the college as dean for academic development and planning, dean of the faculty, provost, and vice president for academic affairs before being named president. A Maryland native, lifelong Episcopalian, and 1971 graduate of Washington and Lee University, he did his graduate work at The Johns Hopkins University and then at Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D. in history in 1976. A prolific writer, McCardell is the author of The Idea of a Southern Nation, developed from his Ph.D. dissertation, as well as many essays, chapters, articles, and book reviews. His specialty is U.S. history in the 19th century with special emphasis on the Old South and on American historiography.