Saturday Scholar Series
A different game plan for autumn weekends
Fall 2011 Schedule
Come back to campus! You are invited to experience an intimate discussion with Notre Dame’s most engaging faculty speakers on some of the most pressing and fascinating issues of our times.
Each lecture and Q&A is presented in the Snite Museum’s Annenberg Auditorium at 12 noon (unless otherwise noted) on “home game” Saturdays. All lectures are free and open to the public.
More information about other “home game” events on campus is available on the GameDay website.
9.3.11 (vs. University of South Florida)
“Missal Alert: Preparation and Implementation of the New Translation of the Roman Missal”
Fr. Michael Driscoll, Associate Professor, Department of Theology
On the first Sunday of Advent, a new translation of the Roman Missal (3rd edition) will be introduced in the English-speaking world. Some are expecting this to usher in the beatific vision while others think it will unleash Armageddon. This talk will explore what we can expect.
9.17.11 (vs. Michigan State University)
“Bridging the Atlantic: The Struggles of an Abandoned 19th Century Irish Village”
Ian Kuijt, Professor, Department of Anthropology
Abandoned in 1960, life on the remote island of Inishark was characterized by adversity, challenges, and remarkable personal histories. Drawing upon archaeological research, oral history, and historical records from the 1830s to 1960, this presentation will outline how these sources help us understand how island life and village organization changed with the famine and emigration.
10.8.11 (vs. United States Air Force Academy)
“Building Peace in a Violent World: What I’ve Learned in Five Decades as a Peace Scholar”
Robert C. Johansen, Senior Fellow, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies; Professor, Department of Political Science
If the insights of peace research would be employed wisely, the human species could prevent most wars and build sustainable peace and justice. What are those insights? How can we contribute to these goals?
10.22.11 (vs. University of Southern California)
Game at 7:30 p.m.; lecture at 4:00 p.m.
“The Poetic Curve of Nature: Connecting Literature and Science”
Laura Dassow Walls, Professor, Department of English
Do science and literature have anything useful to say to each other—or do they form “two cultures” with nothing in common? For decades the argument has raged, but the answer is clear: Writers are fascinated by science, and scientists need metaphor and imagination to communicate at all. Let’s listen in to what they are saying to each other, and why it matters so much today.
10.29.11 (vs. United States Naval Academy)
“The Apartment Plot: Fantasies of Urban Living in American Movies”
Pamela Wojcik, Professor, Department of Film, Television, and Theatre
So many movies are not just set in apartments but have plots that revolve around the apartment. Think of Rear Window, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Rosemary’s Baby, Barefoot in the Park, and more. This lecture considers the apartment plot as a key genre of mid 20th century American film and looks at the ways in which movies shape our fantasies about urban living.
11.19.11 (vs. Boston College)
“Change: Why It Happens, Why It Accelerates, and What Might Happen Next”
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Professor, Department of History
Change is universal, unstoppable, and apparently uncontrollable, but we don’t know why it happens—or why the changes transforming our world seem to accelerate. The lecturer offers solutions to these previously baffling problems and predicts how, in the future, change itself might change.
Arts and Letters News
History Major Explores Work of Missionaries in Colonial Peru
It is widely known that Spanish missionaries played a significant role in introducing Catholicism to the peoples of the Andes throughout the colonial period. Notre Dame senior history major Joseph VanderZee traveled to archives in Lima and Rome to dig a little deeper and find out what these early missionaries thought of the indigenous population—and how their attitudes affected the development of the Peruvian Church. Read More >
Theologian Gary Anderson Elected to American Academy of Jewish Research
Gary Anderson, Hesburgh Professor of Catholic Theology at the University of Notre Dame, has been named a fellow of the American Academy of Jewish Research (AAJR). The AAJR is the oldest organization of Judaic scholars in North America, and fellows are nominated and elected by their peers. The group has approximately 100 members in the United States—and Anderson is one of a select few who are not Jewish. Read More >
Solving a Fascinating Puzzle
Robert Goulding, an associate professor in the University of Notre Dame’s Program of Liberal Studies, was recently awarded a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) to support a research project that combines mathematics, philosophy, and Renaissance science. Goulding, who also teaches in the History and Philosophy of Science graduate program, says his work focuses on English scientist and mathematician Thomas Harriot (1560–1621), whom he calls “a really unusual figure” in intellectual history. Read More >
Microfinance Yields Mixed Results in Thailand, Economist Joseph Kaboski Finds
Large-scale microfinance programs are widely used as a tool to fight poverty in developing countries, but a recent study by University of Notre Dame economist Joseph Kaboski and MIT colleague Robert Townsend suggests that microfinancing can have varying results for participants and may not be the most cost-effective use of funds for many situations. The study was published in a recent issue of Econometrica. Kaboski and Townsend used the Thai Million Baht Village Fund, one of the largest government microfinance initiatives of its kind, to evaluate and understand the benefits and disadvantages of microfinance interventions. Read More >
