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Political science courses, internships, NDISC prepared Madeline O’Mara '18 for data science career involving national security

"I was a science business major up until junior year. Everything changed when I studied abroad in London and interned for a member of Parliament. I loved both the internship and the accompanying British politics class, and I realized that if I wanted to study political science and pursue a career in that field, I needed to change my major immediately to graduate on time. I'm so glad I did." 

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Twenty Notre Dame students —16 in A&L — named 2023-24 Fulbright US Student Program finalists

“To win a Fulbright award is a badge of honor that is recognized and respected everywhere in the world," said Thomas Fuja, interim vice president, associate provost and dean of the Graduate School. We should all be proud that Notre Dame students can successfully compete in such a prestigious program — and even more proud that they are motivated to take their talents and training and go be a force for good throughout the world.”

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Eight A&L students earn 2023 Library Research Awards

Author: Tara O'Leary

Categories: Undergraduate News, Research, and Centers and Institutes

“The annual Library Research Award advances Notre Dame’s mission by recognizing two of the University’s primary goals: to offer a nurturing, unsurpassed undergraduate education and to advance human understanding through scholarship and research that heals, unifies and enlightens,” said K. Matthew Dames, the Edward H. Arnold Dean of Hesburgh Libraries and University of Notre Dame Press "Building these skills is critical to academic success on campus and in the world beyond graduation.”

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Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi earns Pforzheimr Fellowship; 'It Is What It Is' to be featured in Best American Short Stories 2023

At Harvard, Van der Vliet Oloomi plans to work on her next novel, a "work of speculative fiction about America's continuously evolving definitions of freedom as well as the corresponding shifts in constructions of American Identity in relation to nature and notions of the wild." 

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A&L faculty member and three students earn 2023 Graduate School awards

The Graduate School is honoring the following people from the College of Arts and Letters Arts: Robert Goulding with the Dick and Peggy Notebaert Award; Susanna De Stradis with the Shaheen Award in the Humanities; Luiz Vilaça with the Shaheen Award in the Social Sciences; and Ester E. Aguirre Alfaro with the Social Justice Award.

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In memoriam: Jay Patrick Dolan, 87, Cushwa Center founder

Author: Cushwa Center

Categories: General News, Faculty News, Centers and Institutes, and Catholicism

“Jay Dolan’s pathbreaking mix of social and religious history marked a turn of direction for both fields,” said John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost and Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History. “The same commitment to the lives of ordinary people marked many of his initiatives as the founding director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, long the country’s premier center for such scholarship. He inspired young scholars, mentored colleagues (very much including myself), and educated generations of lucky Notre Dame undergraduates and graduate students. All of us at Notre Dame were lucky to have him in our midst, and we will all mourn his death.”

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Economist Eva Dziadula and team develop tool for visualizing, predicting global migration

Author: Brett Beasley

Categories: Research, Graduate Students, Faculty News, and Centers and Institutes

In 2020, 281 million people migrated from their home country — a 62% increase from 20 years ago. “Global migration is one of the defining issues of our time," said Dziadula, whose open source tool for visualizing and predicting global migration could help researchers and policymakers prepare more proactively for migration.

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A Q&A with Roy Scranton about climate change, Notre Dame’s Environmental Humanities Initiative, and ‘ethical pessimism’

Author: Carrie Gates

Categories: Research, Q and A, General News, Faculty News, Centers and Institutes, and Catholicism

"We think homelessness is bad — but what about homelessness when there’s 5 inches of rain in one day? Or when it’s 108 degrees out? It exacerbates every problem," said Roy Scranton, the associate professor of English, director of the Creative Writing Program, and founding director of the University’s Environmental Humanities Initiative. "And if we don’t start thinking about it now, in forward-looking, adaptive ways, it’s going to be unmanageable. We need to be thinking now about how to live ethically in a world of catastrophe."

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Cummings concludes successful tenure leading Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism; Dochuk and Lantigua to become co-directors

Author: Beth Staples

Categories: Research, General News, Faculty News, Centers and Institutes, and Catholicism

American studies and history professor Kathleen Sprows Cummings, who has led the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism for the past 11 years, will step down from the position in June, with Notre Dame historian Darren Dochuk and theologian David Lantigua becoming co-directors. Cummings, the Rev. John A. O'Brien College Professor of History, has been associated with the center for nearly 30 years, starting when she arrived at the University as a doctoral student in history.

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Video: Student perspectives on Catholic intellectual life and the liberal arts education at Notre Dame

Author: Jon Hendricks

Categories: Centers and Institutes, Catholicism, and Alumni

For students at the University of Notre Dame, the unparalleled liberal arts education they receive is grounded in and enhanced by the Catholic intellectual life fostered on campus. Catholicism serves as a foundation for all fields of study — from analyzing the consequences of poverty in an economics class to studying Dante to using graphic design for social good. And it extends beyond the classroom to the development of the whole person, and serving those in need, and being a powerful force for good in the world.

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Irish professor’s biography of novelist and satirist Flann O’Brien garners two awards prior to publication

Author: Beth Staples

Categories: Research, Faculty News, and Centers and Institutes

Brian Ó Conchubhair’s Irish language book about author Flann O’Brien has won two literary awards. And it’s not even on bookshelves yet. Based on its advanced copy, the Notre Dame faculty member’s The Poor Life was named winner of the Best Nonfiction and Best Overall Prose awards at Oireachtas na Gaeilge, an annual Irish arts and culture festival.

“I want to reconfigure how people view him and the tragedy that was his life,” said Brian Ó Conchubhair. “To understand Flann is to understand the social history of Ireland — from the famine to the 1960s — through tracing one family.”

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Historian Patrick Griffin named honorary member of Royal Irish Academy, Ireland’s highest academic honor

Author: Josh Weinhold

Categories: Research, Internationalism, General News, Faculty News, and Centers and Institutes

Patrick Griffin, the Madden-Hennebry Professor of History and director of the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, has been named an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy, considered the highest academic honor in Ireland. Membership is limited to residents of Ireland, but a small number of honorary non-Irish members are elected each year, a distinction typically reserved for academics who have made a major international contribution in their discipline.

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Foreign Language Week returns to Notre Dame from Feb. 11–19, celebrating language learning and cultural engagement

Author: Luke Van de Walle

Categories: Internationalism, General News, and Centers and Institutes

The LaFortune Ballroom came alive last year during Foreign Language Week 2022 with the smell of food, the beating of drums, the sound of music, and the grace of the dancers from different cultures. Events transported attendees  to different parts of the world, from graceful and elegant classical Chinese dance to the energetic and lively Irish jig performance. Foreign Language Week (FLW) is making a return this year, starting on Saturday, Feb. 11, with a special Chinese New Year celebration, and more than 90 other events across campus celebrating different languages and cultures from around the globe. 

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Ph.D. candidate from the UK takes road less traveled to ND, launches Medieval Institute podcast

Author: Eric Heath

Categories: Graduate Students and Centers and Institutes

When Will Beattie reflected on conversations he was having with his fellow cohort members about teamwork and collaboration, one day inspiration struck. He would launch a podcast about the work of his colleagues — scholars doing the meticulous, and sometimes invisible, work of medieval studies. His plan was to invite medievalists onto the show to tell listeners what it was like to track down a long-forgotten manuscript or to gain access to the world’s most restrictive libraries.

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Anthropology alumna Fauvé Liggans-Hubbard named 2023 Rangel Fellow

Author: Erin Blasko

Categories: Centers and Institutes and Alumni

“Living abroad for the past five years, I was often the first Black and/or American my foreign students met, so I believe it is important for U.S. diplomats abroad to reflect the diverse American population,” said Fauvé Liggans-Hubbard. “These experiences, along with many others, solidified my passion for cultural exchange, and I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of a program that aims to increase diversity in the U.S. Foreign Service.”

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de Nicola Center hosts expert roundtable discussion on caring for women and children in a post–Roe world

Author: Kenneth Hallenius

Categories: General News, Centers and Institutes, and Catholicism

The de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame will mark the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade in Washington, D.C., on Thursday with an expert roundtable discussion on how best to care for and protect mothers, babies, and families in the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision. “Building a Civilization of Love” will bring together experts in law, medicine, social science, public health, and social service to discuss the most important opportunities for and challenges to protecting the intrinsic equal dignity of every member of the human family following the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Dobbs

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Anthropologist wins prestigious NEH fellowship to explore toll of climate change in Sierra Leone

Author: Beth Staples

Categories: Research, Internationalism, General News, Faculty News, and Centers and Institutes

Notre Dame anthropologist Catherine “Cat” Bolten has been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship to support the writing of her book that examines links between food insecurity, human population growth and wildlife depletion, land politics and degradation, and climate change in Sierra Leone. The associate professor of anthropology and peace studies is one of 70 scholars — from among more than 1,030 applicants nationwide — to be awarded the competitive fellowships. 

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How majoring in political science and Arabic prepared Erin Hayes ’18 for a job in Egypt and grad school in England

Author: Shannon Rooney

Categories: Internationalism, Centers and Institutes, and Alumni

"I feel like Notre Dame helped me with seizing opportunities to go abroad," said Hayes, who now is attending Officer Candidate School and plans to join the U.S. Navy. "I had never left the country, other than to go to Canada. And then [at Notre Dame], I saw there were study abroad experiences and grants to go abroad. That really gave me the travel bug."

 

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Morrell, Berends again achieve Edu-Scholar ranking for doing most to shape educational practice, policy

Author: Theo Helm

Categories: Research, Faculty News, and Centers and Institutes

“Our selection shows the national impact that Notre Dame has on the K-12 education landscape in the United States,” Mark Berends said. “As we look to the new year, we and the talented faculty we represent at Notre Dame seek to continue to improve educational opportunities for all children.”

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Q&A: Three Notre Dame students share why they're majoring in psychology

Author: Shannon Rooney

Categories: Undergraduate News, Research, Q and A, and Centers and Institutes

Sophia Alvarez's favorite class is CogSci Goes to School, which examines how cognitive science informs educational practices; it includes tutoring in area schools. Ryan Van Kirk enjoyed Childhood Maltreatment Practicum, which involves mentoring a child in the foster care system. For Chris Walsh, Drunk on Film fostered meaningful discussions about the normalization of binge drinking in our culture.

 

 

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Notre Dame faculty experts reflect on life, legacy of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

Author: Carrie Gates

Categories: Centers and Institutes and Catholicism

“Joseph Ratzinger’s death in some ways marks the end of the post-Vatican II era,” said John McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost. “He was the last living major figure from the council, which is now sliding from living memory into history. Working with his friend and patron, Pope John Paul II — his predecessor — before his own election in 2005, he helped set the agenda within the Church and sometimes within the wider world for a full 35 years.”

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Camping in Wyoming: Merit scholars connect with nature, and each other, before beginning classes at Notre Dame

Author: Oliver Ortega

Categories: Undergraduate News and Centers and Institutes

In Bridger-Teton National Forest last summer, nine incoming Notre Dame merit scholars camped for four nights as part of an excursion sponsored by the Institute for Latino Studies. The newest group of Latino Studies merit scholars, also known as LSSP 6, hiked 3-6 miles a day. "Overall, it was the bonding experiences between my fellow scholars that I most appreciated," said Johanna Jimenez, a pre-health major from Minneapolis.

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Rethinking Scrooge: Could Dickens’ most famous character be neurodivergent?

Author: Carrie Gates

Categories: Research, Faculty News, and Centers and Institutes

“He eats the same melancholy meal each day at the same melancholy tavern — and we have to join the dots on that one and say ‘because he’s mean.’ But it may well be that we shouldn’t infer that at all, and we should just say ‘because he has to, because that’s his routine and that’s what he needs,'" said Essaka Joshua. The associate professor of English argues that many of Scrooge’s behaviors can be seen as cognitive and behavioral coping strategies commonly used by neurodivergent individuals to reduce anxiety, by avoiding social interactions, sticking to routines and using verification rituals to calm himself.

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Center for Social Concerns launches new prison education initiative with lunch, panel discussion

Author: Erin Blasko

Categories: General News, Faculty News, and Centers and Institutes

In collaboration with Saint Mary’s and Holy Cross Colleges, Marian University, the Bard Prison Initiative and the Indiana Department of Correction, Notre Dame Programs for Education in Prison reorganizes a number of new and existing education programs under a single umbrella within the Center for Social Concerns.

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Fair or fraudulent?: Notre Dame political scientist examines public confidence in the 2022 midterm elections

Author: Brett Beasley

Categories: Research, Faculty News, and Centers and Institutes

“We hope to do more than just to contribute to scholarship on understanding the election fraud information environment," said Brian Fogarty, director of the Center for Social Science Research. "We also want to provide insight and solutions that can reverse the deterioration of democratic norms in contemporary American society.”

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‘On the brink of a new civil war’: Rooney Center survey highlights fragility of American democracy, stark partisan divides

Author: Carrie Gates

Categories: Centers and Institutes

“Is it really as bad as it seems? The answer is yes,” said Matthew Hall, the David A. Potenziani Memorial Professor of Constitutional Studies. “The key is not that what happens in the midterm elections will be inherently anti-democratic — it’s that they may put in place officials who could then undermine our democracy in 2024. Although other poll questions showed that very few participants said they’re willing to engage in political violence or support the use of it, it seems that everyone is expecting it. It’s an interesting, if worrisome, juxtaposition.”

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In memoriam: L. John Roos, professor emeritus of political science

Author: Dennis Brown

Categories: Faculty News, Centers and Institutes, and Alumni

Roos received the Sheedy Award, the Joyce and Dockweiler Awards for undergraduate teaching and mentorship, and a Notre Dame Presidential Award for service to the campus community. The Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy annually presents the John Roos Award to students with the best senior honors thesis in American politics.

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Sen. Tim Scott to speak at Notre Dame about restoring hope and unity in America

Author: Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government

Categories: Centers and Institutes

Sen. Scott, who grew up in poverty in a single-family household, has been an advocate for creating more opportunities for families living paycheck-to-paycheck and helping children from impoverished communities have access to quality education. He has represented South Carolina in the U.S. Senate since 2013.

 

 

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Medieval studies helped prepare Alex Miller '92 to be a strategic business executive

Author: Lucy Grinnan

Categories: Q and A, Centers and Institutes, and Alumni

"We must decide the type of world that we want to live in and make sacrifices and changes to achieve that outcome," said Miller. "Leaders that can grasp just how much has changed between the Middle Ages and the present day will find it easier to find that 'true north' moral conviction to be passionate stewards for change."

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New prison education initiative unites Notre Dame efforts to offer opportunities for liberal arts education to incarcerated individuals

Author: JP Shortall

Categories: General News and Centers and Institutes

A new prison education initiative will bring five local, state and national prison education programs together in one effort to be housed at the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns. Notre Dame Programs for Education in Prisons (NDPEP) will offer opportunities for liberal arts education to people incarcerated in Indiana, create the infrastructure to support NDPEP participants as they re-enter their home communities, and provide faculty and student opportunities for education and research on issues related to incarceration.

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