Proximities Seminars

YEAR IN REVIEW

Justice Up Close

Proximities seminars are a creative, new spin on one of the Institute’s founding convictions: that the best way to learn about and engage the work of justice is to get proximate with those most affected by injustice—and those working in their communities to undo it. As Pope Francis once noted, “God’s style is never distant, detached or indifferent. On the contrary, it is a style of proximity, compassion, and tenderness.”

Launched this past spring, these undergraduate seminars provide opportunities to briefly but intensely engage with a question of justice in a specific time and place. They include both rigorous coursework and an immersive experience during spring break. Questions of justice require getting proximate to them in order to better understand their origins, their impact on human lives, and possible responses. This pursuit of the truth calls for a posture of encounter, of nearness, of proximity. Consistent with the University’s mission, the aim, then, is to create a sense of human solidarity and concern for the common good that will bear fruit as learning becomes service to justice.

Prior to break, students dive into questions of community and social responsibility through the lens of Catholic social tradition. Reading the work of Pope Francis, Simone Weil, and Hannah Arendt, students gain new perspective on what they see and experience during break.

Natalia Gonzalez Giraldo ’27 and five classmates spent their spring break in the infamous Cancer Alley outside of New Orleans, Louisiana, as participants in the Proximities seminar on environmental justice. While there, they sat in on an interview by journalist and national television host Alex Wagner with community members. One was a sixty-year-old woman who is the oldest surviving member of her family, having lost family members to various kinds of cancer caused by the large numbers of petro-chemical companies located near residential communities there.

Other seminars took students to Tucson to study migrant justice at the border, the Twin Cities to study whole person healthcare, and Los Angeles to study the relationship between art and human dignity. Each of these seminars gave critical insight into a set of particular social problems but, more significantly, began to cultivate the profound sense of social responsibility that affirms that the world is indeed worth saving—and worth saving together—among participants.

“Being proximate is often used to solve a problem or change an outcome, but the proximity to the problem or the outcome frequently changes oneself.” – PATRICK MCKENZIE ’25

For the borderlands seminar, students watched the documentary Undeterred that tells the story of residents of the small border town Arivaca who protested against the militarization of their town. The next day, they visited Arivaca. There, an aid worker told of a man in the town whose political allegiances are associated with anti-immigration policies. But when this same man encountered a migrant walking through town, the man pointed him to where he could find water. For student Aria Bossone ’25, this story highlighted just how complex questions of justice—when viewed up close and in context—eschew easy answers and solutions.

Through the experiences these seminars provided, students began to discern how they can put their different disciplines to work for justice. Building on this year’s successful pilots, Proximities will expand from four to six locations in the upcoming year.