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Whether they work with hospice patients in Uganda or study stone artifacts in Illinois, anthropology students like Elise Alonzi and Hanna O’Brien who pursue fieldwork can gain valuable experience and discover their personal passions within the discipline.
ND Grad Kyle Bocinsky Researches Mystery of Ancient Puebloans
From A.D. 550 to 1300, the ancient Puebloans inhabited the Four Corners region of the American Southwest, the place where four states—Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah—now meet. For more than 600 years of this time period, the Puebloans lived primarily on top of places such as Colorado’s Mesa Verde. They then began to build their now famous cliff dwellings, but barely 150 years later, they not only stopped building but also disappeared from the Four Corners region altogether.
Learning to Become Scholars and Teachers
Day-to-day life for graduate students is defined by the need to make a scholarly contribution to their chosen field of study. This intense focus drives these students to spend their days—and nights—doing research and analysis, writing and presenting papers, and, ultimately, submitting their work for publication in peer-reviewed journals. But at Notre Dame, these young scholars have another aspiration as well. As part of a University that values both research and undergraduate education, the graduate students in the Department of Sociology also strive to make a real contribution in the classroom.
13 Freshmen Earn 2009-10 Public Anthropology Awards
The Center for Public Anthropology (CPA) has recognized 13 first-year students for op-ed articles they submitted to its 2009–10 Community Action Project competition. More than 7,500 students from 28 U.S. colleges and universities submitted work to the CPA op-ed challenge this year. Only the top five percent of entrants are given awards.
Philosophy’s MacIntyre and van Inwagen Recognized With Honorary Degrees
Two philosophers from the University of Notre Dame are being recognized this commencement season with honorary degrees. Alasdair MacIntyre, Rev. John A. O’Brien Senior Research Professor of Philosophy, will receive an honorary degree from Duke University at its commencement ceremony on May 16, 2010. Peter van Inwagen, John Cardinal O’Hara Professor of Philosophy, will be given an honorary doctor of divinity by the University of St. Andrews at its 2011 convocation.
Dowd and Kollman Awarded $100,000 PCRI Grant to Study African Charismatic Movement
Two Notre Dame faculty—Robert Dowd, C.S.C, assistant professor of political science and director of the Ford Family Program in Human Development, and Paul Kollman, C.S.C, associate professor of theology—have been awarded a $100,000 grant from the Pentecostal and Charismatic Research Initiative (PCRI) of the University of Southern California (USC). Their project was one of only 21 to receive funding, selected from more than 500 applications. The grant will support Dowd and Kollman’s study of the Roman Catholic Charismatic Movement (RCCM) in sub-Saharan Africa.
Ava Preacher Honored by American Mock Trial Association
Ava Preacher, assistant dean for undergraduate studies in the College of Arts and Letters, has received the 2010 Congressman Neil Smith Award by the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) in recognition of her “outstanding and exemplary contributions to law-related education.” This is the first time that someone who has not previously served on the AMTA board of directors has been so honored. “Ava was selected not only for her work with AMTA but also for her national role in pre-law advising,” notes Sara Zeigler, AMTA president and professor of political science at Eastern Kentucky University.
Students Showcase Their Research at First-Ever Colloquium
In April 2010, the College of Arts and Letters’ _Journal of Undergraduate Research_ (_JUR_), _Beyond Politics_, _Sociological Voices_, and _Through Gendered Lenses_ joined the College of Science’s journal _Scientia_ to hold Notre Dame’s first student-organized celebration of undergraduate research and publication. The Undergraduate Research Publication Colloquium recognized the more than 100 undergraduate authors who this year submitted work for consideration by the student editors of these research journals. The event also launched the release the 2009-10 issues of _JUR_ and _Scientia_.
Senior Henderson Wins Asian Studies Distinguished Achievement Award
Courtney Henderson, a senior majoring in Chinese and the Program of Liberal Studies, has been named the winner of the 2010 Liu Family Distinguished Achievement Award in Asian Studies. The Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures bestows the award each year to the student whose character and undergraduate work best exemplifies the qualities of commitment, diligence, and imagination in the study of Asia.
Juniors Simpson and Parikh Named 2010 Truman Scholars
Elizabeth Simpson, a theology and peace studies major, and Puja Parikh, a political science and psychology major, have been named 2010 Truman Scholars. The Notre Dame juniors were among 60 students chosen from 576 candidates nationwide who applied to the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation this year.
Graduate Student Awarded Mellon/ACLS Fellowship
Shannon Drysdale Walsh, a doctoral candidate in Notre Dame’s Department of Political Science, has received an Andrew W. Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies. The fellowship provides a stipend and research fund and covers university fees in the final year of dissertation work. Walsh's dissertation, titled “Engendering State Institutions: State Response to Violence Against Women in Latin America,” explains variation in the development and practices of the policy agencies, police units, and courts that address violence against women in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.
Douthwaite’s Frankenstein Research Wins “Best Article” Award
The editorial board of the European Romantic Review and the executive committee of the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism have chosen an article by Julia Douthwaite, professor of French in Notre Dame’s Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, as the winner of their Best Article of 2009 award. “The Frankenstein of the French Revolution: Nogaret’s Automaton Tale of 1790,” written by Douthwaite with former graduate student Daniel Richter, was selected for the prize based on its merits in scholarship, originality, quality of writing, and significance for romantic era studies.
Center for the Study of Social Movements Presents McCarthy Award
Doug McAdam, professor of sociology, director of urban studies, and director emeritus of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University is the 2010 recipient of the John D. McCarthy Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Scholarship of Social Movement and Collective Behavior. The award ceremony will take place in conjunction with CSSM’s Young Scholars in Social Movements Conference, a gathering of distinguished graduate students and recent Ph.D.s from around the country.
Stuart Greene to Be Honored With 2010 Ganey Award
Stuart Greene, associate dean for undergraduate studies in the College of Arts and Letters and associate professor in the Department of English, will be honored with the 2010 Rodney F. Ganey, Ph.D., Faculty Community-Based Research Award at an award ceremony set for April 7, 2010. The Center for Social Concerns award recognizes his latest project, No Parent Left Behind (NPLB), a parent-centered research initiative that springs both from Greene’s theoretical work in literacy learning and his many years of community-based research in South Bend’s schools.
Kerby-Fulton Wins 2010 Haskins Gold Medal for Books Under Suspicion
Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, Notre Dame Professor of English, has received the 2010 Haskins Gold Medal from the Medieval Academy of America for her work, _Books Under Suspicion: Censorship and Tolerance of Revelatory Writing in Late Medieval England_. The committee announced in presenting the award, “Kerby-Fulton’s magnum opus presents a fresh panorama of theology, literature, and history in the age of Chaucer with an originality that promises to have an impact across numerous disciplines within and beyond medieval studies for years to come.”
Sean Kelly Examines Teaching Strategies in Segregated Schools
Do teachers in urban, racially segregated schools experience more behavioral challenges in their classrooms and, as a result, modify their teaching strategies to cope with these challenges in ways that limit students’ engagement? That is the question addressed by Sean Kelly, assistant professor in Notre Dame’s Department of Sociology, in his recently published article, “A Crisis of Authority in Predominantly Black Schools?” in _Teachers College Record_.
Student Wins Women in French 2010 Best Essay Award
Claire Reising, a Notre Dame junior majoring in French and English, has won a 2010 Prix Du Meilleur Essai award from Women In French (WIF) for best undergraduate essay written in French by a non-native speaker. In her paper, titled “‘Cette Condition de Sans-Famille’: Le Rejet du Rôle Maternel Chez les Jeunes Femmes,” she explores three books by Muslim and Muslim-born writers in which young female protagonists contest traditional female roles in their societies.
Michael Zuckert Receives ASFI Award for Distinguished Scholarship
Michael Zuckert, Nancy Reeves Dreux Professor of Political Science and former chair of Notre Dame’s Department of Political Science, will receive the Association for the Study of Free Institutions (ASFI) Award for Distinguished Scholarship on the Nature of a Free Society at the association’s annual conference in May 2010 at Princeton University.
Senior Ryan Lash to Receive Gates Cambridge Scholarship
Ryan Lash, a senior majoring in medieval studies and anthropology, has been awarded a Gates Scholarship to pursue a master’s degree at the University of Cambridge. He is one of only 29 American students who will become new Gates Scholars in 2010–2011. More than 800 U.S. students applied for this honor in the 2009 competition.
History Professor Wins John Gilmary Shea and Philip Schaff Prizes
John Van Engen, Andrew V. Tackes Professor of History, has been awarded both the John Gilmary Shea Prize from the American Catholic Historical Association (ACHA) and the Philip Schaff Prize from the American Society for Church History (ACSH) for his book _Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life: The Devotio Moderna and the World of the Later Middle Ages_.
Political Science Professor Wins Three Awards for Book on Plato’s Dialogues
_Plato’s Philosophers: The Coherence of the Dialogues_ by Catherine Zuckert, Nancy Reeves Dreux Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, received three 2009 American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE Awards), including the top prize, the _R.R. Hawkins Award_.
All Art is Propaganda
Sophomore Kelly Fallon’s eyes light up when she talks about her visit to Ditchling, the small village in East Sussex, England, where, in 1921, Eric Gill founded the Guild of St. Joseph and St. Dominic. The guild was a Roman Catholic community of artists and craftsmen, inspired by medieval guilds. “I’d never heard of Gill before,” she says, “but going to Ditchling and seeing so many people who knew Gill and the guild really brought home to me how important he was to English art.”
Three Professors Win 2010 Christianity Today Book Awards
Notre Dame professors Gary Anderson, Christian Smith, and Mark Noll have each earned a 2010 Book Award from _Christianity Today_ magazine. Outstanding books in 12 categories were selected from of field of nearly 500 works as publications that “best shed light on the people, events, and ideas that shape evangelical life, thought, and mission.”
Notre Dame to Host Conference on Beauty
Seventeen international scholars will be featured at the University of Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study (NDIAS) conference on "Beauty," to be held Jan. 21 to 23 (Thursday to Saturday) in McKenna Hall.
Book Explores Impact of Marital Conflict on Child Development
All families have disagreements—but when does parental conflict become harmful to children? A new book co-authored by a Notre Dame psychologist offers insight into how growing up in a discordant family affects child development.