Santa Clara University

Bannan Visitors

Faculty, staff and students at Santa Clara University are encouraged to apply to the Ignatian Center's Bannan Institute for a grant when a visitor they would like to invite to campus fits the Center's criteria for funding.

Bannan Visitors come to Santa Clara for a brief period to engage the campus community on issues and activities that support its Jesuit and Catholic character. They may instruct classes, present their research to faculty and students, arrange exhibits or performances, bring their spiritual or practical expertise to the campus community, provide resources for student organizations, and help faculty and staff through retreats and workshops.

Santa clara University faculty, staff, and students may apply to the Ignatian Center’s Bannan Institute for a grant to sponsor or co-sponsor a visitor they wish to bring to campus who fits the criteria listed below. A particular application need not fulfill all criteria. However, the more criteria they fit the more competitive the application will be. Grants normally do not exceed $3,000. Applications will be reviewed and granted competitively.

Applications should be accompanied by an application cover page and contain a one or two-page description of the visitor and a CV if available. The description should contain information about how this visitor’s time at SCU will support its Jesuit and Catholic character, how their time on campus will fulfill the criteria listed below, how long the visitor will be on campus, and how the visitor’s time will be spent while on campus. A detailed budget should accompany the application, including such items as stipend, travel, housing, etc.

For a list of past Bannan Visitors see the Bannan Visitors Archives page.

Criteria for Bannan Visitors

The Ignatian ideal of "finding God in all things": For the founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola, all of reality was an arena of God's self-revelation.

Since all academic disciplines are media for God's work, the theme of the visit need not be explicitly religious. However, the process and/or product of the visitor's scholarship or life experience must be designed to offer others a chance to reflect on or appreciate how God or some other spiritual force is working through the phenomena in question. In addition, since finding God in all things is an ideal, consideration should be given by visitors to accommodating those at different points in their spiritual or moral journey.

The focus of the education of the whole person: The Jesuit educational tradition recognizes the full individuality of each person, and seeks to integrate all aspects of that individuality-including the intellectual, aesthetic, moral, spiritual, affective, physical, and social.

Contemporary academic life is prone to specialization, professionalism, and careerism. Visitors who can span disciplinary boundaries or elaborate liberating directions within a discipline are especially welcome.

The practical spirituality of The Spiritual Exercises: This way of Christian prayer, developed by Ignatius, is premised in the belief that one can discover God's presence in one's life and the freedom to respond to that presence through a series of prayer exercises and personal conversations.

Visitors who incorporate prayer, contemplation, or reflection satisfy this criterion. Additionally, explorations of the moral imagination through narrative, the arts, or the exercise of spiritual creativity are invited. Since religious text is the basis for The Spiritual Exercises, the study or incorporation of inspirational literature (broadly construed) are welcome.

The commitment to the faith that does justice in the world: The intellectual aspect of faith in God inevitably drives beyond itself. It necessarily seeks an engagement with persons prevented from fulfilling the divine purpose of full integration by oppressive social systems and unjust structural remedies.

Studies of the history, activities, and future prospects of institutions (e.g., The Catholic Church) that power this commitment are consistent with this criterion. Moreover, since the nature of injustices themselves are worthy of scholarly examination, visitors who explore the contemporary forms, systemic causes, and possible remedies of injustice in the world are encouraged. And, because injustice so often results in war and other forms of poverty and degradation, visitors who promote the advancement of peace are welcome.