Our Stories
For Ashlee Bird, digital culture scholar and Native American video game designer, better representation on screen fosters brighter future
For decades, video game players have sat in front of TV and computer screens and used controllers and keyboards to kill Indigenous characters, regardless of their objective or importance to the story. While horrifying, it’s not surprising to Ashlee Bird, an assistant professor of American studies at Notre Dame. Indigenous characters have historically been represented throughout popular culture as a bloodthirsty...
Political scientist Rachel Porter earns award for best doctoral dissertation about American government
The assistant professor analyzed text from more than 5,000 congressional candidates’ campaign websites in 2018 and 2020, and learned that while much of today’s politics is polarized and nationally oriented, theories of strategic candidate behavior also need to reflect locally oriented campaigning. “So, for instance, I find that candidates are a lot more likely to talk about local issues, district...
Family guy: Notre Dame anthropologist Lee Gettler broadens perspectives on fatherhood, raising healthy children
In his Hormones, Health, and Human Behavior Laboratory inside Corbett Family Hall, Lee Gettler has freezers full of saliva samples (as well as fingernail clippings) from people from around the world. By studying the chemical composition of these specimens, the associate professor of anthropology has developed several groundbreaking studies that have focused attention on — and reframed perspectives about —...
Q&A: History Ph.D. student Grace Song Swihart examines visual culture to better understand U.S.-Korea relations
For Grace Song Swihart, learning helps her understand life’s complexities. She’s used photographs, flags, and other visual sources in her research, teaching, and an internship at Notre Dame’s Snite Museum of Art to show how cultural representations have impacted foreign relations between the U.S. and Korea, as well as Americans’ understanding of Koreans. Comprehending the cultural history of the U.S-Korea...
Assistant professor Tarryn Chun chosen for public intellectuals program focused on US-China relations
“I think there's a lot of concern in the general public right now about China, especially over issues like military buildup and cyber security,” said Chun. “And that means that those of us who have expertise in China, and Chinese culture, have all the more responsibility to contribute to knowledge and understanding on both sides.”
A&L language majors, minors flip for fully funded Foreign Language Internship Program
Victoria Gordon-Brown, a junior Italian and biochemistry major from London, studied climate change in Italy. Reid Ragsdale, a junior Spanish and Arts & Letters pre-health major from Nashville, Tennessee, interned with a physician in Costa Rica. Through the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures' inaugural Foreign Language Internship Program (FLIP), they and nine of their Notre Dame peers...
History major and Latino Studies Scholar wins Fulbright to attend summer technology, innovation, and creativity institute in Scotland
Connor Kaufmann was selected for the program based on academic excellence (3.7 minimum GPA), a focused application, extracurricular and community activities, ambassadorial skills, and a plan to give back to his home country. “I strongly felt that it would give me the opportunity to foster my creativity in a unique, robust, and international way,” he said. “This would, in turn,...
Africana studies professor’s book, detailing how slavery’s influence survived emancipation, wins Paul E. Lovejoy Prize
Zach Sell’s book Trouble of the World: Slavery and Empire in the Age of Capital has won the 2022 Paul E. Lovejoy Prize from the Journal of Global Slavery for its excellence and originality in a major work related to global slavery. The panel of judges unanimously awarded the prize to the assistant professor in Notre Dame’s Department of Africana...
Spanish professor's research about food and feminism and women’s accounts of war earns accolades
Women contributed to Paraguay’s economy and military during the war, said Miseres, an affiliated faculty member in the Gender Studies Program. And they were vital to reconstruction after the war, during which 70% of Paraguay’s males — adults and children — were killed.
Theology professor Jeremy Brown wins Kingdon Fellowship to research 13th-century Jewish theological movement
“I hope the award will underscore the promise of rigorous academic research into the heart of medieval Judaism and, likewise, testify to the strength of Jewish studies at Notre Dame,” Brown said.
Romance languages and literatures professor’s book about undocumented migration wins Caribbean Studies Association’s most prestigious prize
Notre Dame professor Marisel Moreno’s book about the largely unknown and dangerous phenomenon of undocumented sea migration within the Caribbean region has won the Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis Book Award, the Caribbean Studies Association’s most prestigious prize. In Crossing Waters: Undocumented Migration in Hispanophone Caribbean and Latinx Literature & Art, Moreno seeks to lift the veil of invisibility around...
Notre Dame economist Jing Cynthia Wu wins Richard Stone Prize in Applied Econometrics
Notre Dame economist Jing Cynthia Wu’s paper that details a new model to examine economic effects of unconventional monetary policy in the Euro area has won the Richard Stone Prize in Applied Econometrics from the Journal of Applied Econometrics. The journal awards the prize every two years for the best paper with substantive econometric applications. Econometrics uses economic theory, mathematics,...