By: Lauren Campbell, Staff Writer
Originally Published April 9, 2024
On March 23, 2024, the annual Examined Life Conference: An Undergraduate Conference in the Liberal Arts was held at our very own Saint Vincent College (SVC) campus. The conference rotates its host schools every year, and this year, SVC was the host.
This year’s theme was “Listening with the Ear of the Heart,” which emphasized listening across disciplines, from humanities and social sciences to natural sciences and creative arts. Keynote speaker Kenneth Parker, Chair of the Catholic Studies Department at Duquesne University, spoke on March 23rd about the three listening elements of a faith-filled life. Parker used stages of a person’s life to describe these elements, calling them the “Child’s Way,” the “Youth’s Way,” and the “Mature Person’s Way.”
“It’s not about following an authority. It’s not about using your reason,” Parker said during the talk. “What are you doing when you experience a conversion of life as a way of life? You’re internalizing an experience of faith. You’re making it your own, you’re allowing it to shape who you are as a person.”
Other speakers included students from SVC, Saint Francis, Duquesne, and Carnegie Mellon Universities. These students presented their academic essays, literary presentations, various creative art projects, and poster presentations. Theology and English major Sarah Morgan Burger presented her paper “The Lord Confused the Language of the Whole World,” which discussed how the Judeo-Christian tradition affected human language.
In between these student presentations was a round-table discussion headlined by Dr. Melinda Farrington, Fr. Shawn Anderson, and Dr. Jerome Foss.
Overall, this year’s Examined Life Conference was a success thanks to the students and academics, not just from SVC but also from the visiting schools.