Topics
Care for the Common Home
Both in its funding policy and in its various thematic debates, KAAD promotes an awareness of the Care for Our Common Home and advocates for a global socio-ecological transformation.
This topic represents a focus of KAAD's worldwide alumni activities and is reflected in interdisciplinary and transregional expert groups (such as the expert group on water).
The global significance of this topic is reflected in the study, doctoral and research projects. Scholarships are awarded particularly frequently in the fields of ecology, sustainability, environmental engineering, ecological agriculture and nutrition. KAAD scholarship holders from the Global South see the ecological necessity of such research for the future of the planet and return to their home countries as alumni with relevant expertise.
In addition, this thematic area shapes KAAD's educational programe, the publications of its networks as well as conferences in Germany and abroad.
Participation in the Laudato si' Action Platform
In May 2021, Pope Francis officially launched the "7-Year Action Plan Laudato si'" (also called "The 7-Years Journey towards Integral Ecology"), which the Dicastery for Integral Human Development will lead and guide. The aim is to strengthen the presence of the content of the encyclical Laudato si' in all areas of the Church and to bring the idea of integral development closer to people. KAAD is particularly active in the "Universities working group", which is coordinated by Loyola University in Chicago (USA). The group works to motivate universities around the world to join the aforementioned journey by engaging with Laudato si' at various levels, reflecting on the content of the encyclical in teaching and research, and implementing it in everyday university life. On the part of KAAD, the Head of the Latin America Department, Dr. Thomas Krüggeler, and alumni from Latin America are members of the working group. KAAD will raise awareness of the action plan among its alumni networks and work to ensure that as many of its partner universities as possible commit to joining the action of the Dicastery for Integral Development. The coordinator of the Universities Working Group, Prof. Michael Schuck (Loyola University, Chicago) is counting on the multiplying effect that the KAAD network can offer to the work of the Laudato si' Platform.
KAAD also reflects on questions of the care of creation and the guidelines of the encyclical Laudato si' in various expert groups and alumni associations on different continents.
Expert Group Water
Since the Annual Convention 2009 ("Water: Resource - Merchandise - Source of Life"), this interdisciplinary expert group, in cooperation with Prof. em. Dr. Franz Nestmann (University of Karlsruhe), has offered a platform for scientific exchange on the global water problem - a problem that reflects both conflicts and opportunities for cooperation in our world. The expert group is to explore ways of joint action.
Contact person:
Martina May
E-mail
We also deal with this complex of topics in our seminar programme, for example in 2021 in a seminar on Agriculture and Rural life - Structure and Culture in Rural Areas or on German-Asian Cooperation in the field of Renewable Energies.
The Asia seminar on "German-Asian Cooperation in the field of Renewable Energies" was based on the wish of the Asian scholarship holders to bring together the ongoing research projects in this field and, in particular, to take a look at KAAD's cooperation with KIT in Karlsruhe via the BMBF-funded projects on karst regions in northern Vietnam and water management issues in the Mekong Delta (projects: KaWaTech Solutions Vietnam, 2016-2021 and ViWaT Engineering - Water, Energy and Construction Technologies, 2018-2021). In the past years, KAAD supported Vietnamese scholarship holders within the framework of these two collaborative projects who were particularly dedicated to water management issues.
Publications
The Archdiocese of Santa Fe, the Catholic University of Santa Fe and KAAD jointly publish a series on pandemic and socio-ecological transformation.
When the Archbishop of Santa Fe (Argentina), Mons. Jorge Fenoy, commissioned the Catholic University to deal with the pandemic situation from a social science and humanities perspective, KAAD alumna Dr. Ana Maria Bonet, a legal expert, took on the coordination of the work and asked the KAAD community in Latin America for support. In the meantime, 8 articles have been published at UCSF. KAAD has financially supported the printing costs of the book series.
