Welcome from the Dean
Welcome to the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame. The College is an extraordinary place. It is Notre Dame’s oldest and largest college, at the core of the University’s distinctive mission. We believe that its students, faculty, and programs meld the best aspects of a residential liberal arts college, a major research university, and a Catholic institution of international standing.
Liberal Arts Tradition
The liberal arts ideal is evident in the intellectual passion that pulls students into majors as diverse as music, English, and economics. College is short; life is long. We believe that the most important decision a student can make is to pursue their intellectual interests while in college, using this rare opportunity to explore questions of great meaning and to develop the writing, analytical, and speaking skills nurtured especially well within the liberal arts. We know, too, that employers value exactly these skills, which enable graduates to flourish not just in their first job but well after graduation.
Research Focus
The research university ideal is initially animated by our faculty, scholars known across the world for their original contributions to knowledge. They bring to the classroom and to conversations with students the latest knowledge of their fields and the skills and passions of active researchers. They push our students to become researchers as well and to develop the intellectual and linguistic skills to advance knowledge—even as undergraduates—with their own essays, experiments, and performances. During the past six years, the National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded the College faculty 20 fellowships, more than any other college or university in the country. Overall, the number of Arts and Letters faculty members who have received major national fellowships in the arts, humanities, and social sciences over the past five years places us among the top six universities in the nation.
Catholic Mission
Arts and Letters is also a core part of a great Catholic institution. We believe Notre Dame’s distinctive mission is to be at once excellent—on par with the very best universities in the country—and seriously religious. This Catholic mission informs the College’s commitment to philosophy and theology for all students, and our excellence on topics as diverse as religious history, Dante and Shakespeare, and children’s emotional development within the family. Catholicism is the world’s most global and multilingual institution, and our Catholic identity also informs our commitment to language acquisition and study abroad, in locations ranging from Uganda to Dublin to Australia. Our Catholicism requires us to link faith and ideas in a university milieu that too often presumes their separation despite the yearning of the larger intellectual world for reflective discussion on exactly these subjects. And our Catholicism encourages us to study and better understand the texts and practices of all the world’s great religious and ethical traditions.
In short, the College embodies the qualities that make the University of Notre Dame the world’s preeminent Catholic university. We are a liberal arts college—focused on cultivating understanding of the arts, humanities, and social sciences. We are a research university—supportive of faculty and student efforts to be original, creative scholars. And we are deeply Catholic—embracing a distinct intellectual and moral tradition from which we build our vibrant and diverse community.
We hope you find the prospect of studying and working in the College as exciting as we do. Welcome.
John T. McGreevy
I.A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts and Letters
