AJCU-North-America nominates Dean Nancy Tuchman and Professor Mike Schuck for the inaugural IAJU Saint Peter Canisius award, for their profound contributions to environmental stewardship and care for our common home, using a distinctly Jesuit framework.
As a Professor of environment sustainability, Dr. Nancy Tuchman is a prolific scholar. With her academic partner, theologian Dr. Michael Schuck, Dr. Tuchman organized the creation of the first free, on-line textbook for students and colleagues alike. Their co-edited textbook, "Healing Earth", combines the study of the environment with serious reflections on the ethical and moral challenges that confront humanity and all natural systems. Their work, involving the collaboration of over eighty scholars, relied upon the interdisciplinary approaches that are essential to understand the complex systems that impact "Our Common Home", and, by extension, the poor and marginalized members of our human family who suffer the most from a warming planet. This interdisciplinary textbook has been translated into several languages, including Chinese.
In addition, Dr. Tuchman is the Founding Dean of the first Jesuit School of Environmental Sustainability. Her passion for environmental stewardship along with her depth of scientific knowledge of biological systems and ecology translated into a powerful network of serious environmental science basic and applied research. But Professor Tuchman moves well beyond the laboratory or even the classroom; in fact, she endeavors to integrate her research with the theological underpinnings required to mitigate the impacts of climate change with alacrity and sense of purpose.
Besides launching the “Healing Earth” textbook, Professor Schuck has been THE force behind promotion of the “Laudato Si” University movement, working closely with and for the Decastery for Integral Human Development. Currently, he shepherds a committee representing close to 100 Catholic institutions. Dr. Schuck has brought his passion for heeding and implementing “Laudato Si” to Jesuit Education globally. By carefully explaining the relationship between Pope Francis’s ideals and commitment to preserving our environment and its impact on the poor and the powerless, he has been a champion of Jesuit higher education’s shift toward ecological justice.
Both of these scholars have exemplified the Society of Jesus’s preference for care for our common home. They are powerful examples of "contemplatives in action" for our students, as well as "women and men for and with others." “Their work is cutting-edge, collaborative, engaging, timely, and even prayerful.”