Building together for a more just society

Welcome to UCSIA!

UCSIA, the University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp, is an independent non-profit organization. We build bridges for a more just world.

A just society

We reflect on current social and spiritual issues. From climate issues to poverty, social exclusion and migration. How can we make sense of these challenges and contribute to a solution?

Dialogue and connection

We connect knowledge and science with real life. We establish an open dialogue between academia, civil society organisations, policy makers, business and citizens.

Our programme

We organise workshops, conferences, lectures and webinars on religion and society, Europe and solidarity, economics and ethics, service-learning and education, and Jesuit heritage.

For scholars

In our academic workshops and seminars, PhD students, researchers and professors from different fields and universities address a single topic.

For professionals

During our professional seminars, we analyse a problem from different perspectives and with all parties involved.

For engaged citizens

In the lectures and webinars, researchers and experts share their knowledge and insights with the broad audience.

Solidarity Academy

UCSIA is putting a new multi-year theme forward: solidarity. In the coming years, we will critically examine old and new forms of solidarity.

Events

Discover all our workshops, conferences, lectures and webinars!

Ruusbroec Day 2024: kicking off a year of celebration

6 December 2024

14:00-

17:00

University of Antwerp, Frederik de Tassis Hall (Hof van Liere), Prinsstraat 13, Antwerp, Belgium

Religion & SocietyJesuit Heritage

Ruusbroec Day 2024: kicking off a year of celebration

The Ruusbroec Society will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2025! The kick-off of this festive year will be given during a special edition of the annual Ruusbroec Day. Instead of a traditional lecture series around a theme in mysticism, we are taking this opportunity to look to the future. We therefore invited representatives of partner institutions that preserve important religious heritage collections to briefly introduce their operations. They will then discuss the opportunities and challenges related to collecting, managing and valorising religious heritage anno 2025.

The Role of Indigenous African Environmental Ethics in Combatting the Climate Crisis

12 December 2024

14:00-

18:00

UCSIA - Manresa Room, Koningstraat 2, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Europe & SolidarityEthics & Economy

The Role of Indigenous African Environmental Ethics in Combatting the Climate Crisis

Can the way African indigenous peoples interact with nature contribute to a solution to climate change? African environmental ethics can inspire enriching research and public debate on environmental sustainability, restoration and management.

Dignity Amidst Despair: Migration Challenging European Solidarity

7 February 2025

09:00-

19:00

UCSIA - Manresa Room, Koningstraat 2, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Europe & Solidarity

Dignity Amidst Despair: Migration Challenging European Solidarity

What does European solidarity stand for in a world of international migration? Find out during the UCSIA winter school for master's and doctoral students. The programme is a collaboration with Antwerp Summer & Winter University.

Projects in the spotlight

Europe & Solidarity

Compassion in Context

Feeling or showing compassion is typically human and has many sides. The expo ‘COMPASSION’ in Museum MAS shows how we portray this in different times, cultures and worldviews. And also, what its abrasive sides are.

UCSIA is taking the expo as a starting point to explore the concept of ‘compassion’ more deeply in this lecture series (in English). Internationally renowned experts share their view on compassion from a religious, political, psychological and neurological angle.

Delve into the many contradictory faces of compassion with us! Registrations will open soon!

Religion & SocietyEurope & SolidarityEducation & Service-LearningEthics & EconomyJesuit Heritage

The Solidarity Academy

In the Solidarity Academy, we reflect on old and new forms of solidarity and sustainable solutions to contemporary issues. We look for ways to strengthen local forms of solidarity. The substantive focus is on the just transition and the migration and refugee issue.

Europe & Solidarity

UCSIA Winter School

Interdisciplinary winter school on European solidarity at the University of Antwerp for master's and doctoral students in collaboration with the Antwerp Summer & Winter School.

News

28 November 2024

Throwback to the opening of the UCSIA House

On 14 November, we celebrated the opening of the new UCSIA House with you, a milestone we look back on with great pride.

The event was festively kicked off and interwoven with music by the Antwerp-based socio-artistic company Tutti Fratelli. This was followed by a warm welcome by deputy director Erik De Bom, who also presented the new corporate identity. President Bea Cantillon introduced the new UCSIA flagship project: ‘The Solidarity Academy’.

Religion as a language to express fear and frustration

4 September 2024

Religion & Society

Religion as a language to express fear and frustration

Religion is back from never being gone in the political realm. That was the subject of the UCSIA Summer School’s public panel debate. The panel included international religion scholars and summer school tutors Jayeel Cornelio, Jennifer Eggert and Vlad Naumescu. Read all about it in the article (in Dutch) in Tertio!

Taye Birhanu Taressa is the 2024 Fund Bruyns Scholar

30 June 2024

Europe & Solidarity

Taye Birhanu Taressa is the 2024 Fund Bruyns Scholar

Taye Birhanu Taressa is a young researcher from Ethiopia. He is researching the role of indigenous Oromo environmental ethics in relation to sustainable development. Thanks to the Fund Bruyns, he is a research student at the Centre for European Philosophy at the University of Antwerp for the next few months.

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