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| CENTERS FOR EXCELLENCE |
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Center for Business Ethics
The Center for Business Ethics at the University of St. Thomas strives to help business people and students make good choices that benefit themselves, their businesses and their community. The Center offers ethical leadership education programs and symposia, public lectures, conferences on business ethics, co-hosts the Ethical Leadership in Action Award and participates with the Greater Houston Business Ethics Roundtable whose annual scholarship award recognizes student contributions to the field of business ethics and leadership. We seek collaborative projects with the University of St. Thomas community and the Houston community at-large in our commitment to ethics in all things.
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Center for Faculty Excellence
The Center for Faculty Excellence is the newest Center at the University of St. Thomas established to provide faculty with services and resources to support their professional development. As a Center “of the faculty and for the faculty,” its strength lies in active participation and contribution of the university’s academic community. An Advisory Group comprised of faculty and staff help identify programs and initiatives that support the CFE mission to develop a community of teachers and scholars to work collaboratively. On-going activities and services of the Center include providing support to the new faculty orientation program, identifying professional development programs and speakers on teaching effectiveness, engaging a dialogue with chairs and deans, providing faculty consultations and working with the Faculty Senate to design a Faculty Center. |
Center for Faith and Culture
The Center for Faith and Culture seeks to understand and affect the relationship between the Gospel and the American way of life in relation to God’s ongoing encounter with humanity in the light of faith. Through dialogue it assists participants to live as faith-full citizens of our democratic republic. It brings the Catholic voice to the ongoing conversation about the meaning of life, and the liberty and pursuit of happiness we hold in common as Americans. In its activities it also seeks to relate the Gospel to various American subcultures, e.g., Hispanics/Latinos, African-American, and Asian.
In its programmatic offerings the Center incorporates both theory and practice, giving special emphasis to the formation of community leadership that will be capable of integrating faith and culture through ongoing reflection and action. Since we believe that holistic spiritual development is at the very core of all cultural development, this too, constitutes an essential dimension of the Center's work.
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Center for International Studies
The Center for International Studies fosters education in world affairs for graduates and undergraduates, provides professional development opportunities for students, alumni, faculty and the community and is the University’s agent for consortial and international relations. International Studies prepares students for careers in international business, law, politics and public service. In addition, it promotes understanding of international relations, cultural differences and the benefits that come from cooperation within the human family. It directs the interdisciplinary undergraduate major in international studies and develops international courses uniquely designed for the Master in Liberal Arts program. It houses the geography program, Study Abroad office and the Southwestern International Studies Association. It supports Fulbright and comparable funded overseas graduate study and post-doctoral research program advising. The Center’s director represents the University in the Houston Inter-University Consortium for International Studies.
Students may complete either an academic major or minor in International Studies, or a joint major with Business Administration, Communication, Political Science, Spanish, Romance Languages, Environmental Studies or Economics. |
Center for Irish Studies
One of the newest of the University of St. Thomas’ Centers for Excellence, the William J. Flynn Center for Irish Studies is also one of the most active. The Center serves as a focal point for the study of Irish history, politics, literature, language and culture. Leading Irish scholars from Ireland and elsewhere speak to well-attended audiences on a wide range of issues. Irish storytellers, musicians and other performance artists complete the offering of diverse cultural experiences.
The William J. Flynn Center for Irish Studies enhances the academic mission of the University by concentrating on a broad and coherent study of Ireland and Northern Ireland within an integrating framework of many academic departments and community organizations. Building on the international dimension of the University’s educational mission, the Center affirms the historic and contemporary connections among Ireland, Northern Ireland, the Irish American community and the University. The Center encourages intellectual examination of the Irish experience in the United States and the Southwest.
Course offerings include undergraduate and graduate courses in history, literature, political and social science, law, theology, music and culture. The University offers an Irish Studies minor in the undergraduate program and a concentration in the master's in liberal arts graduate program. Students also may study abroad during the semester on an exchange program with Mary Immaculate College, which is linked with the University of Limerick, and earn credit toward their degree at the University. Students also may participate in study abroad summer programs to Ireland and Northern Ireland. Similarly, students from Ireland and Northern Ireland study at the University. The Center for Irish Studies offers scholarships to support its own students and those from Ireland and Northern Ireland. |
Center for Thomistic Studies
The Center for Thomistic Studies is the only graduate philosophy program in the United States uniquely focused on the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. The Center is founded upon the Church’s insistence on the perennial value of the thought of Aquinas as the new millennium opens, with a commitment to meet the challenges and realize the opportunities pointed out by Pope John Paul II as the dawn of a new age in philosophy and intellectual culture. The model of constructive cross-cultural dialogue that Aquinas presents in his writings we take as a model for the pursuit of truth across the ages. In our Center, a living Thomism is studied, both steeped in historical knowledge of tradition and engaged with contemporary culture in shaping the future.
Beyond its graduate programs in philosophy, the Center also provides a venue for distinguished visiting scholars to offer lectures and courses. The Center’s publications program promotes research in Thomistic studies, as well as providing classroom texts which represent a Thomistic viewpoint on a variety of topics. The Center is the home of the Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy programs at St. Thomas.
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