Research

Shakespeare is often heralded as evoking profound truths about what it means to be human; yet claims to his universal significance can also be the cause of profound harm for human beings who are marginalized by prevailing cultural norms.

This collaboration between the Von Hügel Institute, Shakespeare at Notre Dame, and Notre Dame London will convene scholars, students and practitioners to explore how Shakespeare both succeeds and fails to galvanize shared pursuits of the common good.

The project will result in academic publications, pedagogical materials and cultural initiatives that will help researchers, teachers, artists and social workers engage with Shakespeare as a resource for building communities that bring together ever more diverse arrays of voices and perspectives.

Disability is part of being human; yet too often people with disability still experience stigmatisation, discrimination and isolation.

This collaboration between the Von Hügel Institute, Lyn’s House, Notre Dame London and Rome, the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, and L’Arche Italy will bring together participants from among the disability community, academia, civic and religious institutions, carers, and artists to explore the nature of knowledge in the context of disability, and to expand understanding of the forms which human knowledge takes.

Through the production of academic publications, pastoral materials, community engagement and arts initiatives, the project will generate resources for scholars and practitioners for the greater participation and leadership by people with disability in academia, religion and society.

AI has massive potential to enhance human flourishing, yet it can equally exacerbate human fragility, by reinforcing suffering, injustice, and inequality, and by perpetuating various forms of blindness to our own and others’ vulnerability.

This initiative –developed by the Von Hügel Institute in connection with wider initiatives at St Edmund’s College and its affiliated institutes, as well as collaboration with partners at the University of Notre Dame – will generate a unique forum for the exploration of the ethics of AI from a wide variety of perspectives: religious, spiritual, medical, artistic, cultural, economic, political, technological.

The forum will convene challenging and impactful conversations between partners from across disciplines, professions and communities that would not otherwise have the opportunity of working together for human flourishing. Through academic research and public debate, this initiative will advocate and innovate for the benefit especially of the most vulnerable and marginalized in society.

Lent Term

• 25 November: Miscarriage: A Hidden Loss,  Dr Caterina Milo and Dr Thana de Campos-Rudinsky
• 29 November: Seminar Workshop on Fragility, Flourishing, and AI Ethics, Prof Maria Burke, Dr Gianmarco Contino, Prof Gill Goulding, CJ, Prof Jonathan Warner
• 24 February: Theology in a Monastic Key: The Superiority of the Monastery to the University, Revd Prof Greg Peters
• 10 March: The Love Hypothesis: Links Between Human Development and Moral Sentiments, Dr Flavio Comim
• 17 March: Secularism, Feminism and the Post-Secular Turn, Prof Heidemarie Winkel; Automation & Idolatry: Reading the Signs of Our Time with William Cavanaugh, Prof Johannes Hoff

Easter Term

• 12 May: Faith in Action: Church Responses to Ukrainian Refugees in Central and Eastern Europe, Dr Vlado Kmec
• 20 May: Reflections on Human Dignity and Algorithmic Technologies, Dr Paolo Carozza
• 2 June: Nature and the Polis: A Hylomorphic Perspective, Dr William Simpson
• 9 June (4.00–5.30pm): The AI Regulatory Landscape: A Story in Progress, Prof Maria Burke; Navigating Medical Uncertainty, Enhancing Patient Autonomy, and Fostering Hope Through AI-Driven Clinical Decision-Making, Dr Gianmarco Contino
• 16 June: [Title Forthcoming], Rev Dr Isidoros Charalampos Katsos; Poets on the Creation of Matter, Mr Peerawat Chiaranunt

• 13 May: Revd Dr John McCabe, Bonhoeffer – The Last Eight Days; Rupert Shortt, The Eclipse of Christianity and Why It Matters
• 21 May: Prof Philip Sheldrake, Civility: Cultivating Public Virtues; Dr Elif Çetin, The impact of the 2022 migration crises on the migratory discourses adopted by the European Parliament
• 3 June: Dr Caterina Milo, The de-medicalisation of abortion and its implications on patients’ right to informed consent in UK and Europe; Dr Nancy Michael, Exploring the fullness of reason: potential synergies between faith and neuroscience
• 12 June: Prof Gill Goulding CJ, Mediation and Authority: The Exercise of Spiritual Authority in Asymmetrical Relationships
• 17 June: Prof Wojciech Szczerba, In Search of Early Signs of Human Dignity: Human Dignity in Ancient Metaphors; Prof Clemens Sedmak, Moral Challenges for Catholic Institutions;
  Revd Dr Isidoros Katsos, What is Wrong with the History of Human Rights?
• 24 June: Rev Dr Chase Pepper CSC, Stronger than the Stars: Intercessory Prayer in Dante’s Theology of Beatitude; Mr Peerawat Chiaranunt, Universal Nature in Medieval Thought and Dante: Origins and Contexts

• Shortt, Rupert, The Eclipse of Christianity: and why it matters, Hodder & Stoughton, 2024.
• McCabe, John, Dietrich Bonhoeffer – The Last Eight Days, Waco: Baylor University Press, 2024.
• Sheldrake, Philip, Civility: Cultivating Public Virtues, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024.
• Comim, Flavio, “Beyond Capabilities?: Sen’s Social Choice Approach and the Generalizability Assumption”, in Flavio Comim, P. B. Anand, and Shailaja Fennell (eds), Social Choice, Agency, Inclusiveness and Capabilities, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024 42–61.
• McCrary, Lorraine, with Gamble, Parker, “Disability and Subsidiarity: Addressing Social and Political Inclusion”, in Intellectual Disabilities and Autism: Ethics and Practice, Springer, 2024: 165-175.
• Simpson, William M R., Hylomorphism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.
• Driessen, Michael, The Global Politics of Interreligious Dialogue, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023.
• Campos-Rudinsky, Thana, “Multilateralism and the Global Co-Responsibility of Care in Times of a Pandemic: The Legal Duty to Cooperate”, Ethics & International Affairs, 2023.
• Ravenscroft, Simon, “Humour, Transcendence, and Selfhood: An Essay on Lightness and Truth”, Modern Theology, 2025.
• McNair, M. D, “Shakespeare, Marston, and Getting to Moral Clarity through Comedy,” Shakespeare, 19(4), 2023: 465–490.

A 3-year interdisciplinary research project aiming to reach an adequate description of the relation between clericalism and sexuality, sufficient to focus attention on appropriate concerns, which is a condition for effective and humane responses and engagements.

An adequate description  requires interdisciplinary collaboration: theology of ordained ministry and ecclesiology; Canon Law and history, especially with regards to the discipline of compulsory celibacy; unbiased sociological and cultural analysis to illuminate the gap between the ideal and the reality of celibacy; psychological analyses of the practice of celibacy and of its difficulties and failures; a rich consideration of the spirituality of celibacy; moral theology, Catholic Social Teaching, and professional ethics; women’s gender, sexuality and queer studies. It also requires a healthy debate which includes the larger possible variety of viewpoints and avoids the polarized posturing of so-called “liberal” and “traditional” positions. This polarisation is overcome by committing to balanced, dispassionate, and objective dialogue.

A research workshop on the possible interconnections between clericalism and sexuality was held at Von Hügel Institute for Critical Catholic Inquiry, St Edmund’s College in September 2019. Participants included 25 scholars from many disciplines from theology, to gender theory, including history, sociology, psychology, ethics, spirituality, and queer theory.

While historically clericalism used to be a term of abuse hurled at the church from without, thanks to Pope Francis’ frequent focus on the theme it has become a term of ecclesial self-critique and self-analysis. Discussions among the 25 scholars who took part in the workshop embraced many disciplines from theology, to gender theory, but including history, sociology, psychology, ethics, spirituality, and queer theory. What became most clear was the complex and diverse nature of clericalism around the world: it manifests in different ways in different places and times. While clericalism in the West is most often linked to homosexuality (the conference discussed Frédéric Martel’s In the Closet of the Vatican with its author in a remarkable session) manifestations in the global South are more diverse.

See also:

• Syndicate/VHI Symposium on Frédéric Martel’s book In the Closet of the Vatican
• Catherine Osborne, A University of Cambridge research project takes a frank look at clericalism and sexuality, America Magazine, 9 Dec 2019.

For further details on this project please contact Dr Luigi Gioia.

This project, led by Professor Ralf Wüstenberg and co-sponsored by the DAAD/Cambridge Hub with the Europa-University Flensburg, brought together scholars and practitioners with expertise in different country-specific cases of political reconciliation post -1989 (with a particular focus on the German reunification, but also including the South African transition and the case of Ireland) to discuss key questions on both the conditions for political reconciliation and its perspectives for Palestine. The achievement of a measure of reconciliation (inter-personal, intra-personal, societal, national) needs to include framework conditions that cannot be quickly dispensed with (social justice, sharing truth(s) on contested narratives, considering the impact of religion). Several aspects of the German reunification and national solidarity are explored, as well as their potential for emulation in other contexts.

This project has enabled the creation of a time-limited research network focused on specific themes within these chosen contexts. Further outcomes will consist in an edited volume, as well as several policy papers.

For details please contact Professor Ralf Wüstenberg.

The Early Detection Program based at the CRUK/Cambridge Cancer Centre, University of Cambridge, and the Von Hügel Institute (VHI) are hosting an interdisciplinary workshop to explore methodological, bioethical and societal Impasses of early detection of cancer

Early detection of cancer is considered one of the most promising approaches to reduce cancer mortality. The general consensus states that an early detection would allow to intervene when the disease is more likely to be effectively cured, with less invasive and costly therapies. Biomedical research has actively responded to this challenge, pushing our ability to detect early stages of disease and intervene with therapies, procedures or surveillance. As data accumulate, early detection has led to disappointing and conflicting results: over diagnosis, over treatment and iatrogenic complications, increase in healthcare costs and negligible impact in overall survival. Despite this, there is such a profound faith in the paradigm of early detection that failure have been seen an impulse to push the boundaries of diagnosis even further taking advantages of improvements of the current diagnostic technologies, molecular biomarkers discovery and a network of distributed points of care including massive data collection. In absence of a critical analysis of the idea of early screening, such effort carries a considerable risk of failure and harm to society.

The VHI is hosting a one-day workshop to discuss problems related to early detection of cancer, its methodological and epistemological challenges and bioethical consequences, individual and medical responsibility, socio-economic impact and sustainability of early detection program, and the broader relationships between early detection of cancer and the scope of medicine. The workshop is scheduled to take place at St Edmund’s College on 15th March 2018 (attendance by invitation only).

The daytime event will be followed by an open PANEL DISCUSSION (St Edmund’s College, 6-7.30 pm) part of the Cambridge Science Festival: The sixth sense of the oncologist: How doctors can find cancer earlier and why you may not necessarily want to know.

A panel of experts will answer some of the important questions arising from the rapid evolution of early cancer detection. This is the second of three workshops on philosophical and ethical issues around cancer to be held Cambridge during 2017-2018 organised with the support of:

• CRUK Cambridge Centre Cambridge Early detection program
• The Von Hügel Institute at St Edmund College
• CRASSH
• Cambridge Philosophy and Medicine group

For further details regarding this project please contact Dr Gianmarco Contino

This project focussed on issues arising from current legislation on medically assisted suicide for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities, and mental illnesses.

The contentious issues surrounding the debate on consent and physician-assisted suicide reach difficult impasses when applied to people suffering with mental health problems and disabilities. Should euthanasia be granted on the grounds of mental health suffering? What are the challenges and risks of this practice for policy making? How are the views of disability rights movements affecting assisted suicide laws? How is the general perception of disabled lives (in terms of value, dignity, agency) affecting this debate and what consequences does it have for our society?

The project took off with a one-day workshop on 8 December 2017. Participants presented their papers in a unique setting bringing together divergent, often conflicting, perspectives (legal, medical, ethical, anthropological, philosophical, and theological) with the aim of rethinking and reimagining some of the key concepts involved in the discussion, such as quality of life, dignified death, autonomy/dependency, mental capacity, unbearable suffering, cultural and social attitudes toward disability.

The project was co-sponsored by the Terrence J. Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law, and Public Policy (University of St. Thomas, Minnesota, USA), with the support of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights (Rome, Italy).

• SPECIAL WORKSHOP ISSUE: selected papers from this workshop have been published as a special issue of the Journal of Disability and Religion (Taylor & Francis).

For any questions please contact the project coordinators: Dr Thana Campos; Dr Lidia Ripamonti.

Contemporary development theories emphasise the importance of increasing ‘individual freedoms’ without giving enough emphasis to what substantively means to have a good life. These theories, inspired by economics and liberal political philosophy, ignore the importance of common good and human values in shaping social policy and development strategies. The project, carried out by Dr Flavio Comim, explores the limitations of current development discourses and puts forward a framework for thinking of common good as a social objective. This project provides an umbrella for several research activities, such as reading groups (at St Edmund’s College and at the Centre of Development Studies), and publications.

Cambridge Capability Conferences (CCC): In 2016 Dr Comim launched a series of annual conferences in Cambridge (Centre of Development Studies). Early ‘capability conferences’ in Cambridge initiated in 2001 and were characterised by in-depth discussions, time for exchanges and an intimate intellectual atmosphere where the participants were all part of the same conversation. This setting provides a vibrant and stimulating environment for lectures, conferences, PhD theses and research on human development from a capability perspective.

For further details please contact Dr Flavio Comim (PI).