Faculty Stories
Faculty at Notre Dame come from communities and cultures all over the world. They conduct research and scholarship on topics and issues that span numerous academic disciplines. They share with students not just their areas of expertise but also their questions and concerns about the enduring issues and latest developments that shape our times.
But their role in broadening and sharpening the lenses through which we understand ourselves and the world around us extend well beyond individual research projects, classroom lectures, course syllabi, or a list of academic programs.
The selection of stories below helps illustrate the many other ways Notre Dame faculty foster diversity, support inclusion, and enliven the entire Notre Dame community.
The University of Notre Dame will host a one-day diversity and inclusion conference on Sept. 6 (Friday) for faculty, staff and students titled “Open Minds, Loving Hearts & an Engaged Community.” Events include keynote addresses by Robin DiAngelo, author of “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism,” and Rev. Joseph Brown, S.J., social activist, artist and professor...
Africana Studies Professors Maria McKenna, Richard Pierce tapped to lead AnBryce Scholars Initiative
The AnBryce Scholars Initiative is a scholar leaders program supporting first-generation college students who demonstrate great promise in the face of challenging life circumstances.
Notre Dame Berlin Seminar explores the economics and culture of the German literary world
Conducted in German, this intensive two-week Seminar provides an opportunity for faculty and advanced graduate students of German literary and cultural studies to engage personally with representatives from different areas of Germany’s vibrant literary field.
Notre Dame launches BRITE Women Project to support women in nonprofit board service
The BRITE Women Project (Board Readiness Initiative to Empower Women Project), sponsored by Mendoza’s Nonprofit Professional Development department, seeks to equip women with the skills they need to provide transformational nonprofit board leadership that benefits their communities.
I am ND: Meet Michael Addo
Michael Addo, director of Notre Dame’s London Law Program, is a distinguished scholar in human rights. More than an expert on the subject, social justice is something he feels deeply.
Study finds Muslim-majority countries lack, but hold surprising potential for, religious freedom
In his newest research, Daniel Philpott, professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, examines conditions in 47 Muslim-majority countries and considers a question at the center of intense public debate: Is Islam hostile to religious freedom?
New initiative, With Voices True, to collect and archive narratives on race
The Klau Center for Civil and Human Rights has announced a new initiative, With Voices True, to collect and record the voices of the Notre Dame community on the topic of race.
Quesada and Robles strengthen Department of English’s expertise in global and multicultural literature
Sarah Quesada's research and teaching interests include 20th and 21st century Latinx and Latin American literatures, Francophone West African literature, decolonial and spatial theory, and heritage tourism of the African diaspora. Francisco Robles focuses on multiethnic American literature of the 20th century, particularly African American, Chicanx, Southwestern, postcolonial, and LGBTQ literature. Both have close ties to Notre Dame's Institute for Latino Studies.
Letras Latinas director participates in the Dodge Poetry Festival
As part of the Institute for Latino Studies’ academic program, the Letras Latinas initiative provides scholarly activities, brings emerging writers to campus to engage with students, and often partners with other Notre Dame departments and national organizations.
Video: Professor Mark Sanders on print culture in the Americas among the African diaspora
“African-American cultural experience is one that can't be bound by national boundaries,” said Mark A. Sanders, a professor of English and Africana studies at the University of Notre Dame.
Annual food drive to take place September 9-29
Nearly 17 percent of those living in northern Indiana do not know where they will find their next meal. One in four children in this area go to bed hungry each night. The goal of the Fighting Irish Fighting Hunger food drive is to ease that need.
Alex Hsu joins Liu Institute as academic advisor
Hsu will guide students who are enrolled in or seeking enrollment in the supplementary major in Asian studies, the minor in Asian studies, and the new supplementary major in global affairs with a concentration in Global Asia through the Keough School of Global Affairs.
Race and ragtime, gender and genre: Exploring the unexamined history of the American piano
For Rebecca McKenna, the piano’s history is about much more than just manufacturing or marketing — it’s about issues of race, class, and gender at the turn of the 20th century. McKenna, an assistant professor in the Department of History, is exploring all of these issues with support from a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship.
Employee Resource Groups assist in diversity recruitment, retention
Employee resource groups (ERGs) are voluntary, employee-led groups created by a shared characteristic, interest or life experience. Seven groups currently exist at Notre Dame: Adelante Hispanos, the Black Faculty and Staff Association, Notre Dame Staff of International Descent, Notre Dame Veterans Association, SPECTRUM (LGBTQ), THRIVE! Inspiring ND Women and Young Leaders of Notre Dame.
Father Jenkins announces Columbus murals committee
The committee will deliberate and advise on the display of the mural images in the appropriate context, as well as on related issues, in accord with the framework set out in his Jan. 20 letter to the University of Notre Dame community.
Events planned to celebrate Black History Month
Notre Dame will celebrate Black History Month with events including lectures, discussions and performances throughout February.
Anthropologist’s exploration of migration, music, and poetics wins trio of book awards
Notre Dame anthropologist Alex Chávez’s first book, Sounds of Crossing: Music, Migration, and the Aural Poetics of Huapango Arribeño, has earned three prestigious awards in the fields of anthropology and ethnomusicology.
Scholars of Spanish and Italian culture and literature join Arts and Letters faculty
The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures has added expertise in modern Spanish and Italian culture and literature this year with two new faculty hires — Pedro Aguilera-Mellado and Charles Leavitt IV. Aguilera-Mellado, who comes to Notre Dame from the University of Michigan, focuses on modern and contemporary Spain. Leavitt, who received a Ph.D. from Notre Dame in 2010, returns to...
Potawatomi Language and Culture Night
Zada Ballew, a Potawatomi citizen and a senior in the College of Arts and Letters, said, “As both a member of the Pokagon Band of the Potawatomi and a student at the University of Notre Dame, I am honored to have the chance to share my culture with my classmates.
I am ND: Meet Alex Ambrose
Alex Ambrose grew up in New Jersey, in a middle-class suburb across the Hudson River from Manhattan. While New York City is cosmopolitan, his hometown was not.
“I didn’t look like most of my peers, and I remember being very resistant to labels and boxes and simple reads on me and my ability,” he says.
New book explores development of Jewish solidarity with Palestinians
In “Days of Awe: Reimagining Jewishness in Solidarity with Palestinians," Atalia Omer traces the development of American Jewish solidarity with Palestinians and the diverse social movements that have shaped this advocacy.
New application cycle for the Keough-Naughton Library Research Award in Irish Studies: Applications due Sept. 20, 2019
The Keough-Naughton Library Research Award in Irish Studies provides grant funding to assist scholars who travel to use the collections of the Hesburgh Libraries for research in all aspects of Irish studies.
Notre Dame’s Nanovic Institute and Ukrainian Catholic University to study the role of religion in building civil society
“We will pose with exemplary academic rigor a whole set of questions about the role of various religious groups — Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish and others — in Central and Eastern European societies,” said William Donahue, director of the Nanovic Institute. “We will launch an academic study into the ways contemporary religious actors affect civil society.”
International Summer Undergraduate Research Experience program connects international scholars to Notre Dame faculty
The International Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (iSURE) program is expanding to include even more university partners around the world. Last spring, Notre Dame International entered…
Lost voices of slaves, sung and spoken, to be featured during London panel
Sophie White, associate professor of American studies at Notre Dame, together with a group of musicians, activists and academics, including the composer Odaline de la Martinez, will participate in a panel discussion at the London Global Gateway titled “Voices of the Enslaved: Tales of Love and Longing."
Rita Moreno, legend of stage and screen, to discuss her career and issues facing Latinos in entertainment
Moreno — an American actress, dancer and singer of Puerto Rican descent — is the first and only Latina to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony (EGOT), and she will be the special guest of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies next month as part of its Transformative Latino Leadership Lecture Series.
I am ND: Meet Kyle Sturges
Kyle Sturges works in Undergraduate Admissions as senior assistant director of international admissions.
For faculty and staff, he founded Spectrum, the University’s LGBTQ and Ally Employee Resource Group.
Statement by Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., on mass shooting of worshipers at Pittsburgh synagogue
“In the days ahead, Notre Dame will look for ways to mourn in solidarity with our friends and to address the venomous hatred directed at them because of their faith and identity,” Jenkins said.
Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion announces inaugural events
"Religions engage people where they live, affecting their sensibilities and attitudes toward migrants, the poor, politics, health, the family and more,” notes Scott Appleby, Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough School of Global Affairs.
Tashi Kyil monks return to Notre Dame to create peace mandala
The visit continues "the ecumenical monastic tradition begun between Thomas Merton and the Dalai Lama,” said Dominic Vachon, director of the Ruth M. Hillebrand Center for Compassionate Care in Medicine.