Study plan

1. University identity and mission. University mission. Institutional culture. Christian identity and ideals. Identity and project of the university professor. Christian identity in teaching, research, and administration. Challenges of interdisciplinarity. University reputation: To be or to seem? Intellectual leadership of the university: reflecting on the major themes of each era. Identity and plurality in the university: the challenges of contemporary culture to Christian consciousness.
2. Contemporary anthropological debates. Human embodiment. Neuroscience and anthropology. Human, animal, and artificial intelligence. Personal identity. Vulnerability of human nature: death and suffering. Human nature and culture. Person and law. What does it mean to be free?
3. Contemporary ethical debates. Contemporary moral currents. Natural law, the law of practical reason. Ethical challenges of anthropotechnics. The corporation: A force for good? Ethics of communication. Issues of bioethics. Conscientious objection. Political ethics.
4. Knowledge and truth. Intellectual development at the university. Theories of truth. Communicating truth. Intellectual virtues in St. Thomas Aquinas. The epistemology of virtue. Intellectual virtues for everyday life. Teaching intellectual virtues. Intellectual virtues in research.
5. Religion and society. Religion as a universal phenomenon. Do all religions have the same value? Religious freedom. Relations between science and religion. Religious communication. Faith, belief, and rationality. The problem of evil. Natural knowledge of God.

The philosophical and theological seminars aim to deepen the specific disciplines taught at the university, fostering a closer relationship between philosophy, theology, and the experimental and social sciences. These seminars seek to create a space for study and discussion at the University of Alicante that can also serve as a seedbed for interdisciplinary research in the sciences, philosophy, and theology.

Each year, the program offers a variety of seminars designed to provide all professors with the opportunity to delve deeper into the philosophical foundations of their own teaching and research topics. The seminar content typically varies annually. This allows for not only enriching the training program but also addressing the specific needs or requirements of different faculties or groups of professors. Elective seminars within the philosophical and theological framework must always be registered within one of the following nineteen thematic areas:

• Philosophical bases of current thought
• Questions of the history of philosophy
• Foundations of philosophical anthropology
• Questions of anthropology
• Ethical issues
• Bioethics
• Philosophy of knowledge
• Questions of epistemology
• Philosophy and natural sciences
• Philosophy and cognitive sciences
• Philosophy and social sciences
• Philosophy of religion
• Fundamentals of Theology
• Questions of theology
• Holy Scriptures
• The Catholic Church
• Church history
• Issues of social doctrine

From the didactic-pedagogical perspective, the aim is for the teacher - as a mediator between the learner and knowledge - to illuminate their daily practice through the correct use of teaching strategies and techniques.

As with the seminars in the philosophical and theological track, the seminar offerings in this track are also variable. The elective seminars in this track of the program must always fall within one of the following eleven thematic areas:

• Pedagogical theories and contemporary debates
• Psychology of Learning
• Didactics and curriculum design
• Didactic issues
• Personalized academic advising
• New technologies applied to education
• Art and transmission of culture
• Education, family and society
• Family issues
• Education management
• Educational policy and legislation

Through the incorporation of curricular pathways related to research methodologies, the aim is to understand the methodological foundations of research work and provide tools that facilitate information retrieval and analysis, the writing of scientific articles, the formulation of research projects, and the communication of research results. The range of content offered in this area is also varied, and the seminars offered fall within the following eight thematic areas:

• Research methodology in the humanities
• Research methodology in engineering
• Methodology of legal research
• Research methodology in social sciences
• Research methodology in biomedical sciences
• Academic Writing
• Research project management
• Cross-disciplinary workshop for researchers
• Research communication