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Robert Audi, John A. O’Brien Professor of Philosophy, has been awarded the American Philosophical Association’s 2016 Quinn Prize, its highest honor for service to the profession. The author of 20 books and numerous articles on ethics, the theory of knowledge, and the philosophy of religion, Audi’s teaching, public lectures, and research focus primarily on fields including moral and political philosophy, theory of knowledge and justification, and philosophy and religion. His work has applications for topics ranging from business ethics to the separation of church and state.

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Therese Cory, an assistant professor in Notre Dame’s Department of Philosophy, is analyzing theories crafted hundreds of years ago about how people interact with their surroundings. She wants to understand more about the original theories and whether they’ve been interpreted correctly over time. Recently, Cory wrote an essay based on her research that won the American Catholic Philosophical Association’s Rising Scholar Award.

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Sarah Childress ’03 didn’t come to Notre Dame planning to become an international journalist. As a freshman, she was unsure what career path she wanted to follow, but she knew she loved to write. Since majoring in English and minoring in the Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics, and Democracy, however, she's found her calling. Childress has covered Iraq for Newsweek, sub-Saharan Africa for the Wall Street Journal, been an editor for the GlobalPost, and written for The New York Times and The Washington Post. She’s now with PBS’s Frontline as a senior digital reporter. 

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The public has lots of questions about refugees, and William Evans and Danny Fitzgerald have come up with some answers. Evans, chair and Keough-Hesburgh Professor in Notre Dame’s Department of Economics, and Fitzgerald, a senior economics and mathematics major, have been analyzing a quarter-century of data to determine the economic impact of refugees who enter the United States. They will present their findings to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday (Nov. 15).

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Adam Frisch ’07 sat across from a four-star admiral, trying to talk his way onto a nuclear submarine. Specifically, Frisch had to explain to the senior officer how a Program of Liberal Studies major could succeed studying nuclear propulsion. The simplest answer was the best one.

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A documentary by two Notre Dame student filmmakers has been featured in 12 film festivals across the country and won numerous awards. It's the latest success story for documentarians from Notre Dame, a line that extends from How to Die in Oregon director Peter Richardson to The Great Alone’s Greg Kohs to Wordplay director Patrick Creadon. That tradition of excellence extends to 2015 graduate Dylan Parent, whose short documentary on a Holocaust survivor screened at the St. Louis International Film Festival, and Erin Zacek ’11 and Dan Moore ’11, whose film was chosen for the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival.

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Notre Dame’s Department of History adds three new faculty members this fall, strengthening its scholarship in 19th century American history, 20th century American history, and 18th and 19th century French history. Katie Jarvis and Emily Remus join the department as assistant professors, while James “Jake” Lundberg will be director of undergraduate studies.

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p(image-right). !/assets/23415/ois_globe_icon.jpg(the_globe)! About 28 percent of recent Notre Dame sociology majors go on to graduate or professional school, according to data from The Career Center’s First Destination reports. Some pursue advanced degrees in law or medicine, but others—like Annalise Loehr ’09 (Indiana University) and Maryann Erigha ’07 (University of Pennsylvania)—enroll in prestigious sociology Ph.D. programs. It’s a trend that continues with the Class of 2016, as sociology majors Shannon Sheehan (University of Michigan) and Nicolette Bardele (Harvard University) plan to begin graduate programs in sociology this fall.

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p(image-right). !/assets/196589/kara_donnelly_icon.jpg(Kara Donnelly)! Kara Donnelly wants to know why you read what you read. Many people pick up a book because they heard it was great, either from a friend or through the media. But how did they know? Who is it that makes the decisions about which books are worth our time?Donnelly, a post-doctoral fellow in Notre Dame’s Department of English who completed her Ph.D. in 2015, has researched British literature from the 1950s to the present trying to find answers to those questions. Her scholarship has focused largely on the Man Booker Prize, which recognizes excellence in fiction writing published in Britain.

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p(image-right). !/assets/193684/li_guo_icon.jpg(Li Guo)! Before Li Guo could tell the story of one of Islam’s most impactful artists, he spent nearly 15 years translating and studying the man’s work. A professor of Arabic and director of Notre Dame’s Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies Program, Guo is the author of _The Performing Arts of Medieval Islam: Shadow Play and Popular Poetry in Ibn Daniyal's Mamluk Cairo_, which won the 2015 Prize for Research from the Institut International De La Marionnette (IIM) in northern France. Guo’s book details the life and work of Ibn Daniyal, a 13th-century eye doctor who wrote a number of shadow plays—an ancient storytelling form involving flat puppets—depicting life in medieval Cairo.

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p(image-right). !/assets/187768/chris_dant_wpa_icon.jpg(Chris Dant WPA photos icon)! When University of Notre Dame graduate student Chris Dant takes a picture, he expects to come away with more than just a photograph. The third-year MFA student wants you to relate to and learn more about whatever you’re looking at. Be it an old Naval armory, or a group of skateboarders in South Bend. Dant’s ability to find those connections earned him a recent commission from the South Bend Museum of Art to document Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects across the state. His project, titled “WPA in Indiana,” was featured at the museum throughout December and January and commemorates Indiana’s bicentennial in 2016.

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p(image-right). !/assets/187594/pols_new_hires_icon.jpg(Karrie Koesel and Susanne Wengle)! As students read news about China’s turbulent economy or about Russia flexing political muscle, two new professors in Notre Dame’s Department of Political Science can provide them with context about what’s happening. Associate Professor Karrie Koesel and Assistant Professor Susanne Wengle have both lived in Russia and studied its culture and politics for years. Koesel has also worked and researched in China. The two new faculty members expand the breadth of Notre Dame’s international research and scholarship in political science.

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p(image-right). !/assets/186070/david_watson_icon.jpg(David Watson)! When you help create two dozen psychological assessment instruments—including one cited more than 19,000 times—the world takes notice. David Watson, the Andrew J. McKenna Family Professor of Psychology, was honored for those accomplishments and many others when the Society for Personality and Social Psychology presented him with the 2015 Jack Block Award for Distinguished Research in Personality. The award recognizes the lifetime achievements of senior-level researchers and is the organization’s top honor for research accomplishments in personality psychology.

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p(image-right). !/assets/175627/greg_kohs_icon.jpg(Greg Kohs)! Greg Kohs ’88 will wait as long as it takes to earn the trust of his film’s subjects. Kohs, who majored in American studies in the College of Arts and Letters, makes his living directing television commercials and independent documentaries. His newest film, _The Great Alone_, about four-time Iditarod champion and cancer survivor Lance Mackey, won the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at the Seattle International Film Festival this summer.

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p(image-right). !/assets/175628/first_time_fans_icon.jpg(First Time Fans)! Justin Mitchell ’95, Greg Kohs ’88, and Mike Canzoniero ’93—three Notre Dame alumni who became professional filmmakers—were invited back to campus last year to create short films about fans’ first time attending games at Notre Dame Stadium. Producing “First Time Fans” with Fighting Irish Digital Media, Ted Mandell of the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre wanted to give the alumni full access to a Notre Dame football game. But he also wanted to make existing students part of the project, so they could see what it actually means to be “on set.”

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p(image-right). !/assets/170464/ftt_special_effects_course_icon.jpg(FTT special effects course icon)! In a new course, Special Effects for Studio and Stage, associate professional faculty member Ken Cole taught Department of Film, Television, and Theatre students how to brainstorm and design a wide range of practical illusions for use in creative productions. The group of about 10 students simulated explosions, used makeup to create realistic-looking wounds, built props out of scraps and spare parts, and conjured up a realistic rainstorm.

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