Vulnerability: A Strength, Not A Weakness, Regarding Values and Ethical Choices
Albertus Magnus College’s 10th Annual St. Thomas Aquinas Lecture Series Goes Virtual For First Time
New Haven, Conn., January 13, 2021 Albertus Magnus College kicks off the 10th Annual St. Thomas Aquinas Lecture Series with a livestream discussion on vulnerability. By definition, the word vulnerable can mean endangered or susceptible; or perhaps a person in need. But more often, vulnerability is being used to describe the human capacity to respond to others – how very 2021. This lecture, Re-examining Vulnerability as Capacious, will be presented by Fr. James F. Keenan, S.J., who will explore how such an understanding of vulnerability might be foundational when talking about leadership, civil and church reform, and even sexual ethics.
Who: Father James F. Keenan, S.J. of Boston College, Albertus President Marc M. Camille, Sr. Anne Kilbride, OP, Assistant to the President for Dominican Mission
What: Re-examining Vulnerability as Capacious, Albertus Magnus College’s 10th Annual St. Thomas Aquinas Lecture Series
Where: Livestreaming at www.albertus.edu/lectureseries; please RSVP at rsvp@albertus.edu
When: Wednesday, January 20, 2021 at 5:30PM
James F. Keenan, S.J., is the Canisius Chair and Director of the Jesuit Institute at Boston College and Vice-Provost for Global Engagement. A Jesuit priest since 1982, he received a licentiate and a doctorate from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He has edited or written 25 books and published more than 400 essays, articles, and reviews. As the founder of Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church (www.catholicethics.com), he chaired the international conferences in Padua (2006), Trento (2010), and Sarajevo (2018). In addition to Boston College, he has taught at Fordham University, John Carroll University, the Ateneo de Manila, and Dharmaram College in Bangalore. Recently he wrote University Ethics: How Colleges Can Build and Benefit from a Culture of Ethics and has edited two books, Building Bridges in Sarajevo: The Plenary Papers of Sarajevo 2018 and Street Homelessness and Catholic Theological Ethics. His newest manuscript, A Brief History of Catholic Ethics, is due out this summer.
The St. Thomas Aquinas Lecture Series is named after the scholar and member of the Dominican order, who challenged individuals to seek truth and knowledge. For 95 years, Albertus Magnus College has cherished its Dominican tradition and Catholic heritage through the pursuit of truth in all its dimensions. The College continues to use this lecture series as a lens to which it responds to the academic needs and ethical challenges of its students and society. The annual series is made possible through the generosity of the Marie Louise Bianchi ’31 Fund.
About Albertus Magnus College
Founded in 1925, Albertus is a coeducational Catholic College in the Dominican tradition. Albertus' values- and liberal arts-based education is recognized by external rankings such as US News & World Report, Money, and The New York Times, and has been named a Top 10 Military Friendly School. For ten consecutive years, at least 95% of Albertus graduates have attained employment or gone on to graduate studies within six months of completing their degrees. The College has an enrollment of approximately 1,300 students across its traditional undergraduate, accelerated adult undergraduate, and graduate program levels. Proud to enroll a student body where nearly half of its undergraduate students receive Federal Pell Grants and are first-generation college goers, Albertus is known for its innovative curricular offerings, recently launching new Bachelor's degree programs in Nursing, including BSN and Connecticut's first LPN-to-BSN; General Health Sciences; Interdisciplinary Studies; and Public Health.
Among its graduate offerings is the State of Connecticut's only Master of Arts in Art Therapy and Counseling program, and it is just one of three schools to offer a Master of Science in Human Services. In 2025-26, Albertus is celebrating its historic 100th Anniversary and completing implementation of the Albertus 2025: Lighting the Way to a Second Century strategic plan, with a bold vision to "be a destination liberal arts-based college, distinguished in its interdisciplinary and experiential approach to education, rooted in Dominican values, that prepares students for lifelong civic engagement and success." To learn more, please visit albertus.edu.