The Institute of Anthropology is born

Interdisciplinary studies on Human Dignity and Care (IADC)

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MEGHAN ALLEN - ANNALISA PISU |

by MEGHAN ALLEN - ANNALISA PISU

Founded in 2012, the Centre for Child Protection changes

its academic physiognomy to respond to the cry for justice and healing

of those injured by abuse and to study the factors that threaten

human dignity, with an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach

On April 15 of this year, the Congregation for Catholic Education approved the Statutes of the new Institute of Anthropology. Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care (IADC), a transformation of the Centre for Child Protection (CCP). This conversion – proposed by the CCP, approved by the Consiglio Direttivo following the Senate hearing, and now confirmed by the Congregation for Catholic Education – creates a new institutional framework for the work the CCP has done so far. Growing demand for CCP programmes and requests for its involvement in local and international academic and formative events attest to the fact that the CCP has become a leading authority in its area of expertise. This recognition requires a different institutional and academic approach that exceeds the capacity of a centre.

Furthermore, the new Institute will be able to have its own faculty and award, in addition to the diploma, the academic degrees of Licentiate in Safeguarding and Doctorate in Anthropology. «At this time of transformation», wrote Fr. Nuno da Silva Gonçalves, Rector of the Gregoriana, « I would like to thank Fr. Hans Zollner S.J. and the current CCP team for their work since the founding of the Centre in 2012, and wish the best of luck to the future Institute of Anthropology that will take its place. I take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank the many donors and partners who, with their generosity, make the CCP’s daily work possible. They also deserve recognition for their contribution to this important event of transformation that represents a new beginning».

 

The path of the Centre for Child Protection

The new Institute will officially begin its activities on September 1, 2021, managing all activities entrusted currently to the Centre for Child Protection, providing a proactive, positive approach to such sensitive subjects as sexual abuse prevention, intervention, and safeguarding.

Care for victim-survivors of child abuse has been the focus of the CCP since its establishment in 2012 as part of the Pontifical Gregorian University’s Institute of Psychology. Its initial purpose was to educate and provide resources for research in the area of the prevention of child sexual abuse based on a collective, philosophical, theological, and psychological theoretical proposal for the integration of the anthropological perspectives. This was first implemented from 2012-2014 through a blended learning programme that subsequently led to the creation of a broader blended learning programme and two onsite programmes: the Diploma in Safeguarding and Licentiate in Safeguarding. While still largely centred on child abuse, the CCP’s work progressively began to include discussion on the abuse of vulnerable persons. It has gradually widened its focus to confront and develop this focus within the broader concept of human dignity.

 

At the centre, human dignity

The academic discipline of Anthropology, with its variety of subdisciplines, will allow the IADC to broaden the breadth of its engagement in scientific dialogue and research. It will thus be able to expand the CCP’s endeavours by identifying and studying the anthropological, social, and systemic factors that jeopardise human dignity. It can therefore promote the effective care and protection of every person – primarily children, who are the most vulnerable. Thus, the IADC hopes to respond to the cry for justice and healing, to develop empowerment strategies to help people wounded by abuse to effectively and constructively cope with it, and to promote the creation of healthy and safe environments for integral human growth and well-being.

Contemporary anthropological inquiry requires an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach. A consequence of an interdisciplinary approach is the exponential aggregation of knowledge derived from individual sciences and their consequent specialisation which thus fosters a multidimensional scientific exploration of human dignity. In the different disciplines addressed, studied, and taught in the Gregoriana’s academic units, there are overlapping points that can only be combined through this interdisciplinary work. Lastly, an intercultural approach will incorporate the contributions of globalisation and the constant exchange between cultures — crossing borders and contexts. These are indispensable considerations for any anthropological inquiry today, even more so for the topic of safeguarding human life and dignity.