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  1. Indiana Catholic bishops call for 'ecological citizenship' in letter

    April 10, 2026

    Rev. Terry Ehrman, C.S.C., an assistant teaching professor at the University of Notre Dame's theology department, closely collaborated with the Indiana Catholic Conference on the pastoral letter. 

  2. Finding normalcy and dignity - Rahul Oka on life in refugee camps

    April 10, 2026

    Rahul Oka is an economic anthropologist and trained archeologist originally from India. He is now working at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana at the Department of Anthropology.

  3. What to Know About the Bab El-Mandeb Strait as Iran Threatens to Restrict Other Key Trade Passage

    April 10, 2026

    Iran’s direct ability to act in the region is limited, notes Eugene Gholz, an associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. 

  4. Notre Dame launches neuroimaging research center

    April 09, 2026

    The University of Notre Dame’s College of Arts & Letters is launching the Human Neuroimaging Center, a new research hub led by psychologist Aron Barbey aimed at studying how brain networks shape human intelligence, health and behavior.

  5. The Hidden Danger of Democratic Neutrality in America

    April 01, 2026

    A groundbreaking study, soon to be published in Nature Human Behaviour, authored by Matthew Hall, B. Tyler Leigh, and Brittany Solomon, sheds light on this overlooked but critical aspect of American democracy. Their research argues that democratic neutrality—often perceived as impartiality or disengagement from political partisanship—poses a formidable threat to the functioning and health of democracy in the United States.

  6. How meat became a measure of manhood

    March 31, 2026

    But some scholars have been poking holes in this widely accepted theory. Two of the most prominent critics of the “man the hunter” theory today are Sarah Lacy, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Delaware, and Cara Ocobock, an associate professor of human biology at the University of Notre Dame, who’ve published papers together on the issue.

  7. Pope Leo names US Catholics to Vatican's social justice office

    March 30, 2026

    Among the 11 new members are Holy Cross Fr. Daniel Groody, vice president and an associate provost for undergraduate education at the University of Notre Dame ... For Groody, the appointment signals continuity with longstanding efforts to link theology and global concerns. A professor at the University of Notre Dame, Groody has written extensively on migration and refugee issues and has worked with policymakers and international bodies.

  8. Rethinking Thoreau: We’ve Been Mispronouncing His Name for Centuries

    March 28, 2026

    Thoreau got his name from his grandfather Jean Thoreau, a French Huguenot who was shipwrecked off the coast of New England just before the American Revolution and decided to stay put, settling in Boston and then Concord, Mass. Jean’s surname was duly New England-ified by his neighbors, said Laura Dassow Walls, a professor emerita at the University of Notre Dame and the author of “Henry David Thoreau: A Life.”

  9. A new homelessness strategy is sweeping California

    March 26, 2026

    “The risk is you give out a lot of precious resources to people who otherwise would be able to prevent homelessness on their own, and that takes away from things like emergency shelters or transitional shelters or permanent supportive housing,” said Jim Sullivan, director of the University of Notre Dame’s Lab for Economic Opportunities.

  10. Why It's So Hard to Reopen the Strait of Hormuz

    March 24, 2026

    Sending in warships to fend off drone and missile attacks brings its own risks.
    “The destroyer’s defensive systems are really designed for something different than the close-in knife fight of the strait,” said Eugene Gholz, an associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. “Every part of the destroyer is sensitive to being attacked.”

  11. America Depends Less on Oil Than Ever

    March 16, 2026

    “I don’t see much happening from the production side in order to mitigate the effects for the U.S. economy,” said Christiane Baumeister, an economics professor at the University of Notre Dame who studies oil markets.

  12. Christianity and the Culture Wars

    March 16, 2026

    In this podcast episode, American studies associate professor Anthony Petro discusses the role of artists in the culture wars of the '80s and '90s and the ongoing relevance of material religion in contemporary art. He also shared thoughts on how artists today continue to engage with religious themes, challenge traditional narratives, and address issues of race, sexuality, and power through their work.

  13. Young Latinos – and their commitment to social justice – are shaping the future of the Catholic Church

    March 13, 2026

    By Timothy Matovina, Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame.

  14. America at 250: celebrating a unique history of religious liberty

    March 12, 2026

    “From the beginning, we’ve had this quarrel — that’s why I call it the Founders Quarrel — which is, on the one hand, there was agreement that we should have religious liberty. But what that actually meant — was what?” Linda Przybyszewski, associate professor of history at the University of Notre Dame, told OSV News. “They argued about it,” she said of the Founding Fathers, “because so many of them believed that some form of belief in God was necessary to teaching people virtue and morality — since we need virtue and morality in order to be a self-governing republic. The question then became, ‘Who’s going to teach the religion?’ … And I don’t think that has ever gone away.”

  15. Intelligence resides not in specific areas of the brain, but in the connections that connect it all

    March 10, 2026

    "Neuroscience has had some success in explaining the role of specific networks, but it has not been able to explain how their interactions emerge into a single intelligence," explains Aaron Barbey, a professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame. "So the fundamental question remains: how do distributed networks communicate and collectively process information?"

  16. Iran’s Chokehold on Persian Gulf Waterway Strains Shipping

    March 06, 2026

    “We’re five days into it, and that’s approaching the longest pauses that happened,” said Eugene Gholz, an associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame and an expert on the Strait of Hormuz.

  17. Shipping companies reroute, add fees amid Middle East conflict

    March 03, 2026

    Global shipping likes to pass cargo through the most direct route to minimize costs and time, said Eugene Gholz, a political science professor at University of Notre Dame.

  18. The Birthrate Is Plunging. Why Some Say That’s a Good Thing.

    March 02, 2026

    Drops among Hispanic, white and Black teenagers accounted for 37 percent of the national birthrate decline between 2007, when the rate started to go down, and 2019, according to calculations by Melissa Kearney, an economist at the University of Notre Dame, and her colleagues.

    Researchers have pointed to several possible explanations. The decline coincided with the introduction of the smartphone, which rapidly became a tool for both social connection and isolation, even a substitute for sex, said Kasey Buckles, an economist at Notre Dame.

  19. Biological changes help men prepare for fatherhood

    February 24, 2026

    By Lee Gettler, Director of the Hormones, Health, and Human Behavior Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame, USA, and a faculty affiliate of the Eck Institute for Global Health.

  20. Colorado faith communities rally around state’s immigrants in face of ICE deportation push

    February 22, 2026

    Congregations have the resources social movements depend on: people, meeting spaces, donations and networks, said Kraig Beyerlein, director of the University of Notre Dame’s Center for the Study of Religion and Society and a professor of religion and social movements. Some of that mobilization is directed toward conservative causes — overturning Roe v. Wade, for example — and some toward progressive issues, Beyerlein said.