Saint Ignatius University Centre, Antwerp
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| Abbreviation | UCSIA |
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| Predecessor | Saint-Ignatius School for Higher Education in Commerce, 1852 |
| Formation | 2003 |
| Type | Think tank for Christian ethics and human development |
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Director
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Prof. Alex Vanneste |
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Academics
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Prof. Luc Braeckmans |
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Coordinators
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Barbara Segaert & Sara Mels |
| Affiliations | Jesuit, Catholic |
| Website | UCSIA |
| Remarks | UCSIA was formed when UFSIA joined two other universities in founding the University of Antwerp in 2003 |
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Formerly called
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Universitaire Faculteiten Sint-Ignatius Antwerpen (UFSIA) |
St. Ignatius University Centre, Antwerp (UCSIA) is the Jesuit effort to keep alive the distinctively Christian and Jesuit contribution to education after its predecessor the Universitaire Faculteiten Sint-Ignatius Antwerpen (UFSIA) joined two other universities to become the public University of Antwerp in 2003.
The roots of UCSIA go back to Sint-Ignatius Handelshogeschool (Saint-Ignatius School for Higher Education in Commerce) founded by the Jesuit (Society of Jesus) in Antwerp in 1852. This was one of the first European business schools to offer formal university degrees. It later opened a Faculty of Literature and Philosophy (including Law) and a Faculty of Political and Social Sciences. It was renamed Universitaire Faculteiten Sint-Ignatius Antwerpen (UFSIA) in the 1960s when the Belgian Government granted it university status. In the early 1970s UFSIA joined into a confederation with "Rijksuniversitair Centrum Antwerpen" (RUCA) and "Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen" (UIA), public institutions.
In 2003 UFSIA, RUCA, and UIA merged into the University of Antwerp to become the first explicitly pluralistic university in Belgium, offering philosophical, ethical, and spiritual discourse and openness towards religious and intercultural dialogue. It soon became the third largest university in Flanders with 20,000 students.
Since UFSIA became a part of a public university, the Jesuits have kept alive a think-tank that feeds into that university while maintaining its own programs. This offspring of UFSIA is the University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp (UCSIA), an independent, non-profit, international, and interdisciplinary organisation whose aim is to maintain the Jesuit tradition in higher education through research and public discourse, fostering Christian faith in efforts to produce a more just society.
UCSIA is best known for organizing international seminars and workshops and for its editing and contributions to books.
In 2003 UCSIA convened a seminar drawing scholars from throughout the world to discuss the topics of peace and conflict, gender, human rights, nationalism and ethnicity, religious minorities, secularization, religious identity, and globalization. Then in 2005 the Centre organized an interdisciplinary seminar to discuss faith-based terrorism. In 2006 UCSIA brought together Turkish and European scholars for a two-day workshop on the pros and cons of Turkey's joining the European Union. In 2007 the topic of a discussion organized by the Centre was "Christian and Muslim Minorities in Transition in Europe," including the topics of migration, conversion, virtual communication, European Islam, and feminine minority discourse. UCSIA also subsidizes visiting scholars at the University of Antwerp, subsidizing four in the academic year 2007-2008. A workshop in 2008 focused on the Church's social doctrine and economics and a conference topic was The Local Relevance of Human Rights with Palestine as a case study. The focus in 2009 was on The Redemptive Power of Humor in Religion, as well as on The Normative Dimension of Law. In 2011 the Centre sponsored a scholar to produce the book Conversions: Two Family Stories from the Reformation and Modern America. A workshop on Population Change and Europe in 2012 led to a book with coeditors Jaques Haers and Sara Mels from the centre. In 2012 also a book on Sports Governance, Development and Corporate Responsibility had Centre editors Barbara Segaert and Christiane Timmerman In 2013 Public Apology Betwen Ritual and Regret found Haers and Sageart as coeditors. In 2014 a seminar was held on Religion and Culture in a Globalized World. Haers and Mels joined together again in 2015 as coeditors of the book Religion and Volunteering, and three members of the staff were coeditors of Population Change in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. In 2016 Luc Braeckmans and Sara Mels from the staff were coeditors of Youth in Education: The Necessity of Valuing Ethnocultural Diversity and Segaert helped edit Changing Family Dynamics and Demographic Evolution. In 2016 the Center brought in an author of three books on the impact of divorce on the children, to give a lecture and keynote address on the topic. It also organized a workshop on the Critical Role of Religious Community Life in Europe.
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