Veritas Roundtable
Veritas Roundtable
The Veritas Roundtable is a faculty initiative dedicated to cultivating the integration of faith and reason at Providence College. Over the course of the academic year, OMM hosts multiple standalone roundtables with faculty from across the disciplines who engage a guiding paper written by a colleague, examining how their training, teaching, and research can enter into conversation with the Catholic intellectual tradition. For each roundtable, a guiding paper is circulated in advance and the discussion opens with a prepared written response from a faculty colleague.
The Veritas Roundtable is a structured opportunity for sustained intellectual engagement among colleagues across the disciplines. While each discipline scrutinizes reality with its own methods, the roundtable engages them around questions and sources arising from the Catholic intellectual tradition. It is a pursuit of the “higher synthesis of knowledge” to which Ex Corde Ecclesiae calls the Catholic university.
2025-26 Roundtables
The Veritas Roundtable was launched in 2025-26 with the support of a grant from the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities and continues in 2026-27 as an ongoing program of the College. Past Roundtables include:
The Art of Nursing, the Call to Truth: A Thematic Analysis of Student Reflections on Faith, Service, and Human Dignity in France
Guiding Paper: Amy Delaney, Ph.D., RN, CPNP, Department of Nursing
Respondent: Dana Dillon, Ph.D., Department of Theology
Mathematical Certainty: How Studying Mathematics Prepares the Mind for God
Guiding Paper: Fr. Humbert Kilanowski, O.P., Ph.D., Department of Mathematics & Computer Science
Respondent: Joseph Cosgrove, Ph.D., Department of Philosophy
“They Were Promised This Was Paradise”: Structural Violence and the Presence of God at the United States Southern Border
Guiding Paper: Robert Hasson, Ph.D., Department of Social Work
Respondent: Terrence McGoldrick, Ph.D., Department of Theology
Inhabiting the Truth: Genesis 22 and the Value of Interdisciplinary Inquiry
Guiding Paper: Travis Lacy, Ph.D., Department of Theology
Respondent: Robert Miner, Ph.D., Department of Philosophy
2026-27 Veritas Roundtable Call for Papers
Due August 7
Central to the mission of Providence College is the commitment to pursuing the fullness of truth—veritas. The College “is a place of research, where scholars scrutinize reality with the methods proper to each academic discipline, and so contribute to the treasury of human knowledge” (Ex Corde Ecclesiae, no. 15). At the same time, Providence College is called to “work towards a higher synthesis of knowledge,” integrating diverse disciplinary perspectives into a unified vision of truth, where faith and reason are in illuminating collaboration.
The Catholic intellectual tradition offers a rich and living resource for this task of integration. Drawing on scripture and Catholic teaching, the wisdom of the early Church fathers, Catholic social teaching, and centuries of engagements with the arts, sciences, and humanities, this tradition has wrestled with profound questions of justice, beauty, truth, God, and the meaning of the human person. As a roundtable paper writer, you are invited to join this integrative conversation with your training and research.
Distinctive avenues of approach you might find illuminating (though not exhaustive), could be:
– How your disciplinary training and research can engage in meaningful dialogue with the Catholic intellectual tradition, particularly through exploring intersections of faith and reason, ethical concerns, and theological perspectives.
– Challenges and opportunities you identify in bridging your discipline with broader faith-based or philosophical inquiries central to Catholic higher education.
– An examination of fundamental assumptions/frameworks that define and guide your discipline through engagement with the Catholic tradition.
– Practical implications for teaching and scholarly work arising from these integrative considerations, especially in the context of Providence College’s identity as a Catholic institution.
As a paper writer for the Veritas Roundtable, you will be asked to prepare a 2,500-3,000 word paper that thoughtfully explores how your current research or disciplinary interests intersect meaningfully with the Catholic intellectual tradition. Your paper should aim to provoke reflective dialogue among colleagues across diverse disciplines, while deliberately engaging the Catholic intellectual tradition and encouraging collective insight into how the college’s mission can enrich both scholarship and teaching at Providence College. For those selected by the Veritas Roundtable selection committee, roundtables will be scheduled according to the availability of the guiding paper writer during the 2026-27 academic year.
