Collegium Institute

Fall 2021–Summer 2022 Squarespace Sliders & Headers (4) (1).png

a vibrant intellectual community.

Founded by faculty, alumni, students, & friends of the University of Pennsylvania, the Collegium Institute is an independent, academic community with a catholic vision: that is, it draws mainstream learning into conversation with the Catholic intellectual tradition & cultivates reflection on the catholic, or universal, questions that animate every human life.

Check out our 10th Anniversary video, in which students, faculty, and staff discuss the mission and impact of the Collegium Institute.

Upcoming Events:

Check out the full calendar ➲

“This one evening with Collegium spoke more to me, intellectually and spiritually, than any other event I’ve attended during my time at Penn.”

— Junior at the University of Pennsylvania

Join the Collegium Institute Team

Collegium Institute is now accepting applications for **two full-time, resident positions** on the Collegium Institute team:
Programs and Operations Coordinator (MA or 1-2 years of experience required)
Program Fellow and Operations Assistant
**Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue rolling until the search is concluded.** Click the button below to view the full descriptions and learn how to apply.

Learn more

Squarespace Images-11.png — Partnership with Dappled Things Arts Quarterly

Dappled Things is a literary magazine dedicated to providing a space for emerging writers to engage the literary world from a Catholic perspective. The magazine is committed to quality writing that takes advantage of the religious, theological, philosophical, artistic, cultural, and literary heritage of the Catholic Church in order to inform and enrich contemporary literary culture.

Learn More about the Magazine

Squarespace Images.png — Genealogies of Modernity Project

The Genealogies of Modernity Project seeks to motivate and organize a critical, cross-disciplinary inquiry into influential narratives of the origins of “modernity” in the humanities. The GenMod Project recognizes that the stories we tell ourselves about the passage to modernity are many and often conflicting even within one discipline. Attention to the complexity of the intertwined genealogies of the present opens the possibility to forge new relations to the past and discover resources for life-giving responses in the present.
Click below to explore the new website for the GenMod Project, including a blog and podcast series:

Find out more

Squarespace Images-4.png — CI Partnership with PRRUCS

Collegium works closely with Penn’s Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society (PRRUCS) to host events, opportunities for fellowships and relevant publications.

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One week left! Join us next Wednesday, April 24th, to hear Professor William Cavanaugh, Archbishop Borys Gudziak, and Professor Timothy Shah on The Myth of Religious Violence. Get tickets here: CollegiumPennClub2024.eventbrite.com

TONIGHT: Join Collegium Institute’s Magi Project for this evening conversation with Prof. Allison Covey, Prof. Christina Parajon Skinner, and Jesús Fernández-Villaverde on the economics of climate change and its insights into key policy choices: How should we ensure this transition is efficient? How do we distribute its costs within society? How do we incentivize technological progress in climate adaptation and mitigation? What are the challenges for the transition created by geo-strategic fragmentation? Learn more and RSVP here: collegiuminstitute.org/calendar/cost-of-climate-change

Outgoing Collegium student co-president Sydney Sun profiled in Penn Today for her scientific research! By using linguistics models to analyze game play between parents and children, Sydney Sun, a fourth-year from Lexington, Kentucky, is listening in on the ways environment shapes interaction. As reported in Omnia, Sun’s research, presented at an international conference and published in a scientific journal, is with the Emotion, Development, Environment, and Neurogenetics (EDEN) lab run by Rebecca Waller of the School of Arts & Sciences. Congratulations Sydney!

We hope you're having a blessed Annunciation! Please join us as we read Robert Southwell's "Our Lady's Salutation": Spell Eva backe and Ave shall yowe finde, The first beganne, the last reversd our harmes; An angell's witching wordes did Eva blynde, An angell's Ave disinchauntes the charmes: Death first by woeman's weakenes entred in, In woeman's vertue life doth nowe beginn. O virgin brest! the heavens to thee inclyne, In thee their joy and soveraigne they agnize; Too meane their glory is to match with thyne, Whose chaste receite God more then heaven did prize. Hayle fayrest heaven, that heaven and earth dost blisse, Where vertewes starres, God sonne of justice is! sun With hauty mynd to Godhead man aspird, And was by pride from place of pleasure chasd; With lovinge mind our manhead God desird, And us by love in greater pleasure placd; Man labouring to ascend procurd our fall, God yelding to descend cut off our thrall. Fra Angelico, The Annunciation, 1432–34, in the Museo Diocesano, Cortona, Italy.

Join us on April 24th for a fascinating discussion between Professor William Cavanaugh, Archbishop Borys Gudziak, and Professor Timothy Shah on The Myth of Religious Violence. Get tickets here: CollegiumPennClub2024.eventbrite.com

Join Collegium Institute’s Magi Project for this evening conversation with Prof. Allison Covey, Prof. Christina Parajon Skinner, and Jesús Fernández-Villaverde on the economics of climate change and its insights into key policy choices: How should we ensure this transition is efficient? How do we distribute its costs within society? How do we incentivize technological progress in climate adaptation and mitigation? What are the challenges for the transition created by geo-strategic fragmentation? Learn more and RSVP here: collegiuminstitute.org/calendar/cost-of-climate-change

We hope you're having a blessed start to Holy Week! Join us this morning as we reflect on Mary Oliver's "The Poet Thinks about the Donkey." On the outskirts of Jerusalem the donkey waited. Not especially brave, or filled with understanding, he stood and waited. How horses, turned out into the meadow, leap with delight! How doves, released from their cages, clatter away, splashed with sunlight. But the donkey, tied to a tree as usual, waited. Then he let himself be led away. Then he let the stranger mount. Never had he seen such crowds! And I wonder if he at all imagined what was to happen. Still, he was what he had always been: small, dark, obedient. I hope, finally, he felt brave. I hope, finally, he loved the man who rode so lightly upon him, as he lifted one dusty hoof and stepped, as he had to, forward. Louis Robbe, "Sheep and a donkey in a pasture," oil on panel.

Join us on Wednesday, April 24th for a discussion on the landmark monograph of William Cavanaugh, The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict. We’ll be hosting Professor Cavanaugh and discussants Archbishop Borys Gudziak and Professor Timothy Shah at the Penn Club of New York next month to explore the themes of global conflict, state violence, and religious extremism. Early bird tickets are on sale until March 31st and can be found here: CollegiumPennClub2024.eventbrite.com

We hope you're having a good morning! Join us as we read from the Prayer of St. Patrick: Christ shield me today Against poison, against burning, Against drowning, against wounding, So that reward may come to me in abundance. Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me, Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ in the ear that hears me. I arise today Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, Through a belief in the Threeness, Through a confession of the Oneness Of the Creator of creation. Painting: "A Legend of Saint Patrick," Briton Riviere, 1877, oil on canvas.

Join our team! Collegium Institute is now accepting applications for two full-time, resident positions on the Collegium Institute team: - Programs and Operations Coordinator (MA or 1-2 years of experience required) - Program Fellow and Operations Assistant Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue rolling until the search is concluded. To learn more and apply, go to collegiuminstitute.org/join-the-team.

Collegium Institute is proud to announce that former Collegium Institute executive committee member and current Collegium undergraduate fellow, Emma Søndergaard Jensen, and recent alumnus and former Collegium undergraduate fellow, Joshua Yang, have been awarded the 2024 Thouron Award for graduate studies in the United Kingdom. Each Thouron Scholar receives tuition for up to two years, as well as travel and living stipends. Emma and Joshua are two of nine Penn students to receive this award. Congratulations, Emma and Joshua!

Join us on Saturday, March 23, for a fascinating discussion on civic virtues with Fran Maier, Chris Roberts, Dr. Ángel Alvarado, and Prof. Catherine Wilson. Participants will receive a copy of Fran Maier's new book, True Confessions: Voices of Faith from a Life in the Church, published by Ignatius Press in February 2024. Dr. Maier will also be available to sign books. Sign up here: collegiuminstitute.org/calendar/civic-virtues-freedom-and-justice

We hope you are having a blessed Monday morning! Join us in reflecting on this morning prayer: Blessed be God the Father for his gift of this sacrifice of praise. In the spirit of this Lenten season, let us pray: — Instruct us, Lord, in the ways of your kingdom. God of power and mercy, give us the spirit of prayer and repentance, — with burning love for you and all mankind. Help us to work with you in making all things new in Christ, — and in spreading justice and peace throughout the world. Teach us the meaning and value of creation, — so that we may join its voice to ours as we sing your praise. Forgive us for failing to see Christ in the poor, the distressed and the troublesome, — and for our failure to reverence your Son in their persons. Art: Rembrandt van Rijn, Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, 1633, oil on canvas.

Next week: join us for the first session of our Food for Thought module, "Of Monsters and Men," as we discuss monster theory ancient and modern. Dinner will be provided. Sign up here: collegiuminstitute.org/calendar/of-monsters-and-men