Cultural educational path
Prof. Ambrogio Pisoni
The work aims to show how the "religious" is not a category capable of describing a particular condition of the human but capable of identifying the ultimate nature of the human itself, its ontological character.
According to the dominant opinion, the category of "religious" serves to qualify a type of experience that rather deserves the note of the "confessional".
A condition, therefore, that enjoys the typical dimensions of any religion: a complex of truths to be believed, moral norms to be obeyed, rites to be celebrated regularly. Religion as a historical emergence of the original religiosity of the human being.
I believe it is necessary to restore to the "religious" all its original irreducibility. In order to be able to enjoy a correct understanding of the mystery of man, especially in a time like the present marked by a confusion that generates a bewilderment harbinger of despair.
Structure and timetable
This program will be carried out in four meetings from February 2026. The course will be carried out in dual mode:
- Wednesday 21 January from 11.00 to 12.30 - Structure of the religious experience. - The metaphysical warp.
- Wednesday 28 January from 11.00 to 12.30 - Religiosity: its nature
- Wednesday 4 February from 11.00 to 12.30 - The negation of the "religious": its consequences
- Wednesday 25 February from 11.00 to 12.30 - The irreducible tension of the "religious"
Prof. Julián Carrón
Prof Alessandro Gamba
The Ph.D. is the highest degree in the Italian Republic. It is a human and academic experience reserved for a few, an experience with its own particular identity and with a high expectation.
Common to all doctoral courses is the centrality of the subject being researched. This is made up of needs and evidences that shape cognitive energy when it delves into the secrets of things around us. For this reason, it is a great privilege to be able to invest one's time in the study of the meaning of reality, starting from that shred of reality to which every researcher turns moved by an indomitable passion to understand it.
Research is a path that involves the whole human being: reason, freedom, affectivity. As such, during it a change of self takes place, a maturation of one's self-awareness, capable of revealing us more and more to ourselves, and of making our "solitary" research enter into relationship with all the others in order to discover the community factor implicit in human wisdom.
"Isn't it an exciting adventure? Yes, it is because, moving within this horizon of meaning, one discovers the intrinsic unity that links the different branches of knowledge: theology, philosophy, medicine, economics, every discipline, right up to the most specialized technologies, because everything is connected" (Benedict XVI, Inauguration of the Academic Year of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore [25.11.2005]).
Structure and timetable
The course will be held in dual mode on the four Wednesdays of March 2026:
- Wednesday 4 March from 11.00 am to 1.00 pm - The challenge of research: the prevalence of the object and the setting-in motion of the process of knowledge
- Wednesday 11 March from 11.00 am to 1.00 pm - The tool of knowledge: reason and its methods
- Wednesday 18 March from 11.00 to 13.00 - The knot of freedom: between the implication of the subject and the ideal of objectivity
- Wednesday 25 March from 11.00 am to 1.00 pm - The experience of research as a trigger for a renewed self-awareness
Prof Claudia Manzi
Stereotypes are beliefs that the culture of a given social context attributes to members belonging to certain social categories or groups. Stereotypes are distortions of reality, but even if we recognize that they are not true, they can somehow condition, in an unconscious way (unconscious bias), our attitudes, our motivations and our behaviors.
Gender stereotypes are among the most widespread and their pernicious effect is largely responsible for the gender inequalities that are observed in the workplace, including in the academic one. Stereotypical beliefs that women are not suitable for studying certain subjects (e.g. STEM) or that men are not suitable for certain professions (e.g. child education) leads to a strong gender imbalance in some disciplines. In addition, the career paths of men and women in academia can often be influenced by different stereotypical beliefs relating to the very nature of the academic profession.
Objectives:
- to increase awareness among those who undertake the academic profession on the role that stereotypes can have on professional choices and career paths.
- Reflect on the stereotypical beliefs with respect to gender of the different scientific professional sectors.
The first part of the course aims to provide participants with basic notions on stereotypes and their influence on people's choices and professional lives, with the aim of increasing awareness of these unconscious mechanisms and thus limiting their impact. The second part of the course aims to specifically analyze the stereotypic beliefs related to the academic profession in its different disciplinary fields to provide an overview of the obstacles that those who undertake the academic profession may face in a specific field.
Structure and timetable
The course includes two face-to-face meetings in which the topic of stereotypes in the academic world will be analyzed in its theoretical aspects and practical implications.
- 22 April from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm - Knowing stereotypes to counter them
- 23 April from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm - Gender stereotypes in the different scientific-disciplinary areas
