Bolte School Professor Speaks at Conference in Rome

Alejandro Cañadas, Ph.D., associate professor of economics in the Richard J. Bolte Sr. School of Business at Mount St. Mary’s University, had the honor of presenting at the Expanded Reason Congress on September 24 in Rome.

The Congress showcases the work of university researchers who were recognized as winners of the second edition of the Expanded Reason Awards, designed to promote the university style proposed by Benedict XVI to widen the horizons of reason through the study of reality from different perspectives.

The four prizes were chosen from hundreds of works from multiple countries. While Cañadas’s submission, developed jointly with a colleague from the University of Valencia in Spain, was not chosen for the award, his submission impressed the judges, and he was among a select group of professors who were invited to present at the Congress. The Expanded Reason Awards were created by University Francisco de Vitoria in Spain and are endorsed by the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Foundation.

Cañadas presented on his current research that he plans to submit for the third edition of the Expanded Reason Awards next year. He is studying the work of Innovation Works, a Baltimore-based collaborative knowledge and support network, powered by Catholic values, that is bringing people out of poverty by identifying, training and developing them as social entrepreneurs. Through his research, he is developing a business model so that this approach to incubating entrepreneurial business ventures can be replicated across the country.

“The incubator was created by faithful lay people in the Church, following Ignatian values,” Cañadas said. “Combining faith and business knowledge goes back to Church thinking on reason to offer solutions for society.”

Cañadas and his son, Santiago, a seventh grader at Mother Seton School in Emmitsburg, were honored to be included in an audience with Pope Francis. Santiago also attended his father’s and other presentations and provided Cañadas with a summary of his talk based on his perspective.

The two-day Congress revealed that the presentations shared Catholic values across multiple disciplines, including physics, theology, philosophy, engineering, chemistry and business, noted Cañadas.