M.A. in Social Justice & Community Development

By Rebecca Little, Nic Riek, Kelli Wefenstette and Tim Fluhr Since our country’s founding, Americans have constantly been engaged in a tug-o-war of sorts between two seemingly incompatible ideas.  On the one hand, Americans have a profound sense of individualism, one that harkens back to the pioneering days of our country’s birth.  In this America [...]

Poverty is a reality of our society and has been a major problem for humanity for centuries. There have been so many efforts to fight poverty in order to provide a better life for all people. However, the problem of poverty is still not yet solved. The poor still suffer because they cannot meet their [...]

Africans have a rich culture of solidarity which by definition is very broad. Solidarity can be defined using various aspects and means, but in this reflection paper I will use notes of today’s class and my own personal experience in discussing solidarity.  Solidarity may refer to the ties in a society that bind people to [...]

This weekend, my community members and I spent 24 hours on retreat as part of the JVC Magis program through Loyola Chicago. Rooted in the values of spirituality, social justice, community, and simplicity that we all sought to foster as Jesuit Volunteers, our program allows us to continue living out the JVC mission as graduate students and [...]

This semester I’ve asked our Foundations of Social Justice students to blog each week about what they’re reading. The idea behind this is that we want students in our program to cultivate a public voice. We want what happens in the classroom to extend beyond the classroom – not just sometime in the future when [...]

The MA in Social Justice and Community Development has a new “promo video” that tells about our program. We’re excited that it features some of our wonderful students and alumni (who say some very smart and inspiring things!) Give it a look – and share it with others you know! Click here to watch the [...]

One of our IPS student, Katie Davis, has started a great new blog focusing on social justice called, “How Can I Keep From Singing?: Reflections on Spirituality, the Arts, and Social Justice.” Katie is an M.Div. student in IPS and is taking the Foundations of Social Justice class this fall. She’ll be blogging this semester [...]

Nothing brings the frailty and hope of human politics into focus quite like an election season. The Reverend Allan Boesak (Reformed theologian and veteran of the South African anti-apartheid struggle) is no stranger to the relationship between politics and the Christian faith. Dr. Boesak’s engagement in the struggle for a free South Africa brought him [...]

We’re glad you’re here! The MA in Social Justice and Community Development is a degree program in Loyola’s Institute of Pastoral Studies that trains students to transform their communities. This blog is a place for students and faculty in the MASJCD concentration to share their vision of justice. To get started, we should probably introduce [...]