Yasmin Solomonescu, an assistant professor in Notre Dame’s Department of English, was recently awarded a residential fellowship at the National Humanities Center (NHC). The NHC is a leading independent institute for advanced study dedicated to the humanities. The North Carolina-based center selects 40 fellows annually from a pool of more than 500 applicants from around the world.
Notre Dame Historian Catherine Cangany’s first book, Frontier Seaport: Detroit’s Transformation into an Atlantic Entrepôt, posits that 18th-century Detroit—600 miles inland—could be seen as a coastal town. “Detroit was the seaport of the West, located in the heart of the Great Lakes,” said Cangany, assistant professor in the Department of History. “During the 18th century, it functioned in all the ways that a larger Atlantic seaport like Boston or Philadelphia did.”
During the summer of 2014, Notre Dame Spanish and pre-health major Nick Nissen traveled to Spain with finance and philosophy major Paul Grima to study the varied rates of cesarean sections across autonomous communities there.
Among the most noticeable features of the Campus Crossroads Project’s design to enhance and harmonize the University of Notre Dame’s academic, athletic, and student life programs will be the South Building, a six-level structure connected to the south side of Notre Dame Stadium, on which work will begin in November 2015. The building will make possible the relocation of Department of Music from its present quarters in Crowley Hall, bringing it under the same roof as the Sacred Music at Notre Dame program.
Joan Aldous, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology Emerita at the University of Notre Dame, died Wednesday, October 29, in the Kindred Transitional Care and Rehabilitation Center in South Bend, Indiana. She was 88 years old. Aldous joined the Notre Dame sociology faculty as the first female holder of an endowed professorship at a time when there were few women on the faculty. From 1976 until her retirement in 2012, she taught, studied, and wrote about family sociology, family policy, gender, work and families, and intergenerational relationships.
Sarah Ann Wells, assistant professor of Portuguese and Spanish in Notre Dame’s Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, has long been fascinated by film and media studies and by the modernist period. Her upcoming book, Media Laboratories: Late Modernism in South America, combines these two interests.
Richard Brodhead, president of Duke University, will explore “The Once and Future Liberal Arts” in a talk as part of the 2014-15 Notre Dame Forum from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, November 4 in the Hesburgh Center Auditorium on the University of Notre Dame’s campus. The 2014-15 Forum focuses on the question “What do Notre Dame graduates need to know?”
In recognition of their excellence in research, The National Science Foundation (NSF) has selected eight University of Notre Dame faculty members from the Colleges of Arts and Letters, Engineering, and Science to participate in the Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER). The CAREER program, which was established by the NSF in 1995, recognizes and supports outstanding junior faculty who exhibit a commitment to stimulating research while also providing educational opportunities for students. It is the NSF’s most prestigious award given to junior faculty.
Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Nobel laureate economist James J. Heckman will be among the speakers at the 15th annual fall conference of the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Ethics and Culture Oct. 30-Nov.1 (Thursday-Saturday). The conference, “Your Light Will Rise in Darkness: Responding to the Cry of the Poor,” will take as its theme an admonition made by Pope Francis in his address last year to the Archbishop of Canterbury. “Among our tasks as witnesses to the love of Christ,” Pope Francis said, “is that of giving a voice to the cry of the poor.”
During the summer of 2014, Notre Dame French and history major Curran Cross traveled to Paris to conduct research at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. His project examined the differing views of Arab and African immigrants in modern France. “My hypothesis is that the French have had centuries of experience racially mixing with people of African ancestry and this is why they view black and white race as a continuum,” said Cross, “whereas they haven’t had this kind of contact with Arabs, and so it’s viewed more starkly.”
On the second floor of West Lake Hall, a group of Notre Dame students is making big plans. They are focused on addressing the plight of those afflicted with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. They’re even planning a trip to Johannesburg next spring to offer hands-on assistance. But these are not biology or preprofessional studies majors. They are graphic design students exploring ways to use their talents to promote awareness and prevention of HIV/AIDS.
A two-day conference, “Gay in Christ: Dimensions of Fidelity,” co-sponsored by the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Church Life (ICL) and the Gender Relations Center, will convene Friday, October 31 to explore appropriate pastoral strategies for Catholic parishioners who regard themselves as non-heterosexual, but who accept Catholic Church teaching on marriage and sexuality.
Kate Marshall, Notre Dame’s Thomas J. and Robert T. Rolfs Assistant Professor of English, has been awarded the 2014 Dorothy Lee Award for Outstanding Scholarship in the Ecology of Culture for her book Corridor: Media Architectures in American Fiction. The award, presented by the Media Ecology Association, honors works that focus on the ethnographic or intercultural analysis of communication, perception, cognition, consciousness, media, technology, material culture, and/or the natural environment.
“The breadth of studies that I had at Notre Dame, whether it was in philosophy, or theology, or economics, or history, all developed a context for me and will for any liberal arts student,” said Bob Conway ’66. Conway is senior director for The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., in London, England. He feels that the writing and communication skills he gained as a government major were critical to his success and are essential in any career.
Jennifer Jones, Institute for Latino Studies faculty fellow and assistant professor in Notre Dame’s Department of Sociology, will convene a conference on Afro-Latinos in Movement: Critical Approaches to Blackness and Transnationalism in the Americas on October 31, 2014. The conference and an accompanying volume, for which Professor Jones will serve as co-editor, explore broad questions of black identity and representation, transnationalism and diaspora, with a particular interest in research on Afro-Latinos in the United States.
The notorious activities of the Ku Klux Klan nearly a half-century ago continue to exert an influence on contemporary American politics, according to Rory McVeigh, professor and chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame.
“Imagine a kind of live, national GRE exam where students audition in open competition against one another, evaluated by representatives from the best graduate theatre programs,” said Professor Jim Collins, chair of the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre (FTT). Notre Dame had record success in 2014 at the national auditions organized by the University/Resident Theatre organization (URTA), with six of the seven FTT students who auditioned receiving offers from graduate programs in attendance.
“I am more than glad that I chose Africana studies. It’s a major that helps you form a way of going about life,” said Olivia Furman, a senior in the College of Arts and Letters. Africana studies at the University of Notre Dame centers on Africans and the African Diaspora—the global dispersion of peoples of African descent—and examines their historical, sociological, political, and economic contexts around the world.
If you want to land a job in the political realm, it is very useful to have an internship first, said Adam Newman ’14. And he should know. Newman, a political science major and business economics minor, completed a total of six internships, from private sector roles with the American Medical Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers to federal government positions with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and most recently—the White House.
The John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values has expanded its menu of training options for University of Notre Dame graduate students. Since August 2013, three supplementary training and degree programs have been added and are open for graduate student enrollment. The new offerings advance understanding of the connections between science, technology, and society while broadening a traditional Ph.D. or Master’s degree program of study.
“The capacity to project into the future is an essential component of our agency as human beings. It’s in our imaginations, yet it has a real impact upon what we do. It draws us forward in different ways,” said Ann Mische, an associate professor in Notre Dame’s Department of Sociology and the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
University of Notre Dame graduates Jimmy Bettcher ’07 and Emily Dore Yuhas ’10 are just two examples of the many ways history majors can thrive in the business world. Yuhas works for a startup technology company developing e-learning courses, while Bettcher manages corporate social responsibility initiatives at Cummins, Inc. Notre Dame history majors pursue myriad career paths, from business and investment banking to law, journalism, medicine, and politics, said Dan Graff, director of undergraduate studies in the department.
Washington Post national writer Wil Haygood, whose feature story provided the basis for the movie The Butler, will discuss his career as a journalist and author Tuesday, October 28, at the University of Notre Dame.
Janna Hunter-Bowman, a Notre Dame doctoral student in theology and peace studies, has been named the first recipient of the Steven D. Pepe Ph.D. Fellowship in Peace Studies. Hunter-Bowman, whose research integrates moral theology and peace studies, is the first student in the Kroc Institute’s joint theology and peace studies Ph.D. program. She has published the results of her research on grassroots movements and human rights in several journals and edited volumes.
The 2014 Paul P. Weinstein Memorial Lecture presented by the Eck Institute for Global Health featured alumnus Dr. Bernard Nahlen ’75, deputy coordinator of the President’s Malaria Initiative for USAID’s Bureau for Global Health. After graduating from Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Arts degree in American studies, Nahlen went on to receive his medical degree from the University of Arkansas in Little Rock.
For most religious believers, it is an article of faith that it is more blessed to give than to receive. For at least two University of Notre Dame sociologists, it is an article of fact as well. In their recently published book, The Paradox of Generosity: Giving We Receive, Grasping We Lose, Christian Smith, Notre Dame’s William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology, and sociology doctoral candidate Hilary Davidson provide empirical evidence in support of the biblical admonition. According to their analysis of measurable data, people who are generous with their money, time, and associations are happier, healthier, and more resilient than their less generous counterparts.
Three faculty members from Notre Dame’s Department of Music embarked today, October 7, on a 12-day tour to Asia, building scholarly and cultural connections with universities in China and South Korea. Professor Peter Smith, chair of the department, Professor John Blacklow, an award-winning pianist, and Assistant Professional Specialist Tricia Park, a critically acclaimed violinist, will travel to Shanghai, Beijing, and Seoul. The trio will present lectures and performances, including one at Beijing’s Capital Library, in conjunction with the U.S. Embassy.
Notre Dame Philosopher Grant Ramsey’s laboratory has produced a Big Data search-and-analysis tool to explore questions of definition, revolution, and trending in science. The application, evoText, already has access to a half-million articles, and pending agreements will add millions more. Ramsey, an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and a fellow at the Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values, came to Notre Dame in 2007.
Chris Dekker, an organist in Sacred Music at Notre Dame’s Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) program, has been awarded a scholarship from the Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts. The scholarship recognizes an undergraduate or graduate music student who intends to pursue a career in sacred music and who demonstrates “evidence of exceptional musical or artistic talent, effective leadership ability, and outstanding promise of future usefulness to the Church.”
The University of Notre Dame announced on Wednesday, October 1, the creation of the first new college or school at the University in nearly a century—the Donald R. Keough School of Global Affairs. R. Scott Appleby, a scholar of global religion and a member of Notre Dame’s faculty since 1994, will serve as the Marilyn Keough Dean of the school.