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History major and Latino Studies Scholar wins Fulbright to attend summer technology, innovation, and creativity institute in Scotland

2023-07-25T11:54:00-04:00

Rising sophomore Connor Kaufmann has won a Fulbright U.K. Summer Institute award to attend a three-week academic and cultural program this month at the Glasgow School of Art and the University of Strathclyde in Scotland.

The history major, member of the Glynn Family Honors Program, and Latino Studies Scholar in the Institute for Latino Studies is one of just 39 college students from the United States to be selected for one of six summer institutes across the United Kingdom.

He learned via email that he’d won the award to attend the U.K. Summer Institute on the same day that he interviewed.

“I opened it expecting the worst and saw that I had been accepted,” he said. “I put my computer aside, jumped out of my chair and screamed, ‘Oh my gosh!’ before calling my dad to tell him the amazing news.”

At the Summer Institute on Technology, Innovation and Creativity, he’ll learn about Scotland’s development and the cultural roles of its institutions and museums, and he’ll get to explore the country known for its castles and dramatic landscapes.

Kaufmann, whose first name was inspired by a Scottish character in the movie Highlander, anticipates the experience will provide him with a fresh perspective about how he can better use his talents to help the world.

“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, give me the opportunity to best help my community's immigration issues in creative and innovative ways.”

The resident of El Paso, Texas, has been a long-time advocate for immigrant rights.

Growing up, some of his friends who lived in Mexico were applying for U.S. citizenship and crossing the border to attend school in Texas. And while working at a migrant shelter during his senior year of high school, Kaufmann taught himself basic Portuguese so he could help Brazilian migrants arriving in El Paso.

“I remember trying to guide a few families to their sleeping quarters using my limited knowledge of Portuguese,” he said, “and their gratitude for my help has stuck with me forever.”

“When times were difficult during the school year, I relied on my peers in the Latino Studies Scholars Program and the Institute for Latino Studies to keep on pushing through. My peers could and did rely on me, too, which created a beautiful support system between us all.”

Kaufmann and the other selected undergraduates hail from 22 states and 33 universities; 27 have not previously traveled outside of North America, and 15 are the first in their family to attend college. The US-UK Fulbright Commission seeks to invest in people’s potential and seeks to remove obstacles to learning, understanding, and collaboration.

Kaufmann’s selection was based on several factors, including 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.

He credits his mother, now deceased, with encouraging him to dream big and to pursue those dreams.

“The lessons she taught me, and her belief in me, has and will continue to stay with me forever,” he said. “She inspired me to put myself out there.”

He set his sights on attending Notre Dame as a youth after learning his maternal grandfather had wanted to attend Notre Dame, but was drafted to serve in the Korean War.

Kaufmann is grateful for the myriad experiences he’s already had at Notre Dame; he said the Institute for Latino Studies’ wilderness backpacking trip to Wyoming before his first semester got underway was a wonderful way to make friends who have become like family.

“When times were difficult during the school year, I relied on my peers in the Latino Studies Scholars Program and the Institute for Latino Studies to keep on pushing through,” he said. “My peers could and did rely on me, too, which created a beautiful support system between us all.”

Aside from his family and peers in the Latino Studies Scholars Program, Kaufmann credits many first-year professors and the ILS administration including Luis Fraga, director; Paloma Garcia-Lopez, associate director; Karen Richman, director of undergraduate studies; and Maribel Rodriguez, administrative coordinator, for helping to make his transition to Notre Dame a smooth and enjoyable process.

Kaufmann plans to eventually attend law school and become an immigration attorney.

“History is an enormous passion and interest of mine,” he said, “and is perfect to begin forming the mindset I will need to utilize in law school, which is my dream.”

Students interested in applying for the for the Fulbright U.K. Summer Institute can receive application feedback and assistance from Mathilda Nassar, national fellowships program manager at the Flatley Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement (CUSE), at mnassar@nd.edu.

Three A&L students awarded Naughton Fellowships to study in Ireland

2023-07-14T07:39:00-04:00

The University of Notre Dame’s Naughton Fellowship program has announced 31 faculty members and students — three of whom are connected with the College of Arts and Letters — as awardees in its 2023-2024 cohort.

Funded by a gift from the Naughton family in 2008, Naughton Fellowships foster leadership through international partnerships and stimulate collaborative research efforts. Fellows from Ireland have the opportunity to study and conduct research at the University of Notre Dame. Fellows from Notre Dame complete their fellowship at a leading Irish research university.

“We are delighted to see the growth of the Naughton Fellowship Program," said Brian M. Baker, the Coleman Professor of Life Sciences at Notre Dame. "By bringing deeper levels of collaboration and exchange between our University and Ireland’s finest research institutions, it is having a greater impact each year.

“We are grateful to the Naughton family for the ability to offer such a transformative opportunity to our students and faculty members, both at Notre Dame and in Ireland,” added Baker, the Naughton Fellowship Committee Chair.

Faculty members, graduate students, and undergraduate researchers from the University of Notre Dame, Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, Technological University Dublin, and the University of Galway are among the awardees.

Masters

From Notre Dame

Julia McKenna, a sociology major, will complete a master’s degree in smart and sustainable cities at Trinity College Dublin.

Undergraduate

Sixteen undergraduate students — two of whom are affiliated with Arts and Letters — have been awarded summer Naughton Fellowships as part of a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program.

From Notre Dame

Lauren Beede, a psychology and statistics major, will study at Trinity College Dublin with Vinny Cahill, a professor and chair in the Department of Computer Science. Beede’s project is titled “The ClearWay Project.”

Emma Laboe, a physics and gender studies major, will study at Trinity College Dublin with Michael Coey, a professor in the Department of Physics. Laboe’s project focuses on the influence of magnetic fields on the evaporation of water.

Applications for the Naughton Fellowships, including undergraduate, masters, and faculty fellowships, will open for submissions in fall 2023. To learn more, visit naughton.nd.edu.

Contact:

Brett Beasley / Writer and Editorial Program Manager

Notre Dame Research / University of Notre Dame

bbeasle1@nd.edu / +1 574-631-8183

research.nd.edu / @UNDResearch

Originally published by Brett Beasley at naughton.nd.edu on July 13, 2023.

Access to opportunity?: Researching experiences of the Windrush generation in the London urbanscape

2023-06-22T15:21:00-04:00

Ida Addo ’24 is an economics major with a minor in the Hesburgh Program in Public Service. In March 2023, during a week in London, supported by a Nanovic Institute for European Studies spring break research grant, she conducted research for her capstone project, “London Urbanscape and Policies: Their Effect on the Economic State of the Windrush Generation.” The project builds on her interest in the welfare of marginalized groups across the world and characteristics of the barriers they face. In London, Addo examined policies and urbanscapes that have contributed to the hindrance of economic progress among Afro-Caribbeans in the United Kingdom.

We have all met that kid, the one whose nosiness and curiosity about their neighbors and community residents calls for an automatic eye roll. With such kids, every drive or casual stroll provokes chatter, as they pester you with questions from, “Oh mom, why does their house look like that?” to “Why are the people who live there different from those that live here?” or “I don’t see her grandmother anymore, where did she go?”

The temptation to silence this kid rises with each question. But hear me out! What if I told you that their observations are not pointless?

I became that kid.

Is it not important that we challenge what has become normalized so we may overthrow the institutions that continue to marginalize certain people more than others? I became that kid when I discovered that accessibility, context, and economic mobility lie at the heart of human rights and the recognition of human dignity.

“Why are the people who live there different from those that live here?”

The article “Can You Move to Opportunity? Evidence from the Great Migration” (American Economic Review, February 2022), by American economist Ellora Derenoncourt, sparked my curiosity to explore the effects of migration and neighborhoods on intergenerational socioeconomic mobility. As I studied the intricate link between poverty and access to housing, employment, and education, I had the urge to challenge the normal. After reading Derenoncourt’s article, my next question was, “What are the parallels between the Great Migration and the Windrush generation?” I wanted to understand the similarities and differences between the experiences of the approximately 6 million African Americans who migrated north from the American South in the middle decades of the 20th century and those of Afro-Caribbean migrants to the U.K. during a similar era.

My research follows the seismic demographic change from 1948 to 1971 with the entry of Afro-Caribbeans to London and its key policy responses. I took the unsettling observations of the immigrant experience that I wrestled with a step further and turned them into research questions to understand the impact of the London urbanscape and its policies on the economic state of the Windrush generation and their descendants.

Derenoncourt drew some connections between place and the economic earnings of Black migrants who moved to northern American cities from the South during the Great Migration. I particularly focused on housing and employment as critical economic factors that reveal hindrances to the successful economic development of the Black British population at large. As I walked the alleyways of Hackney, the graffiti on the walls, the positioning of Brutalist social housing structures, and historic pictures of bombed-out homes that early West Indies immigrants occupied animated the plights of the Windrush generation. There, my questions like, “Who owns this house?” and “Did their grandparents live here too?” were not so odd. The multiplex answers to these questions do not solely tell an economic tale. They reveal pernicious colonial legacies and unfairness in the British rule of law, adding layers of complexity to the lives of these immigrants.

The dawn of the Windrush generation in the mid-20th century

HMT Empire Windrush. Royal Navy Official photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

From the 1940s through the ’60s, Britain endorsed open borders to allow Commonwealth citizens from the West Indies to fill the employment gap after World War II. These immigrants were invited to fill labor requirements in London's hospitals, transportation venues, and railway development. This arrangement conferred British citizenship and the right to settle in the U.K. to all people from the British colonies to help rebuild the country. The newly arrived Caribbean workers were subjected to low-quality housing in areas like Brixton and Hackney where they first settled. Afro-Caribbean immigrants in the ’50s could not purchase homes due to sale ads that read, “No Blacks, No Dogs, and No Irish.” They were either charged twice the market rent price by ruthless private landlords or subjected to deteriorating conditions in council estates. In the ’60s, the persistence of Black activists, who refused to be silenced, led to investigations into the Hackney Local Housing Authority, which proved the agency’s policies were discriminatory toward Black residents. Homeownership is a vital tool for wealth building, one from which Black Brits have been systemically excluded.

Exclusion from housing opportunities in earlier generations has led the median accumulation of wealth through homeownership in Black families over the past decade in Great Britain to be zero, a stark contrast to a net £115,000 for white British property owners. The sentiment toward the Windrush generation turned hostile as Britain grappled with its colonial legacies. Despite their contributions to British society, this hostility was reflected in the 1962 Commonwealth Immigration Act which restricted the entry of Commonwealth citizens into the U.K. for work.

The Windrush scandal and 21st-century outcomes

Addo visited the Black Cultural Archives on Windrush Square in Brixton. Third-party photo, stock.adobe.com.

The plight of the Windrush generation was revisited in British national discourse after the Windrush scandal emerged in 2017. Hundreds of Commonwealth citizens from this group had been wrongly detained, deported, and denied legal rights. Falsely considered “illegal immigrants” or “undocumented migrants,” they began to lose their access to housing, health care, bank accounts, and driving licenses.

The compounded impact of historical discrimination and policy failures exemplified in the Windrush scandal resulted in the persistence of intergenerational poverty. The economic state of Afro-Caribbean immigrants bears witness to this phenomenon. Their decline in economic well-being is evident, as for every £1 of white British wealth, Indian households have 90-95p; meanwhile, Black Caribbean households hold around 20p. This gap reflects the ramifications of the British Empire’s colonial legacies and policy failures toward a group that contributes tremendously to the British economy.

On the other hand, the bustling of the markets, the rhythm of the jazz restaurants, and a plethora of businesses tell a tale of the hopes that Afro-Caribbean settlers had. British citizens with Afro-Caribbean heritage continue to be leading figures in Britain’s public domain. Diane Abbott, the first Black woman to be elected to parliament, and Bernie Grant, who also served as an MP, are prominent examples of the resilience of the descendants of the Windrush generation.

Nonetheless, we cannot fail to acknowledge the inequities that persist today. The intergenerational drag hypothesis views contemporary disparities as the cumulative effects of macro-level systems interacting with one another in ways that generate and sustain racial inequalities.

The economic well-being of Afro-Caribbeans from the mid-20th century through contemporary times has always been stunted, in part, due to wage inequality. The 1944 Education Act wrongfully labeled Afro-Caribbean children as “educationally subnormal,” indicating a supposed limited intellectual capacity. This incorrect label affected their access to quality schools and educational achievement, which led to diminished employment opportunities.

Research applications and conclusions

By gaining a greater historical understanding of the structures that have constrained Black mobility in the U.K., I have started to consider comparisons with similar policies in the U.S., such as redlining, a discriminatory practice that limited Black homeownership.

Exhibition in the British Library calling attention to housing inequality. Photo by Ida Addo.

The residency of Afro-Caribbean migrants in the U.K. has been subject to instability, both historically and in recent years. The Hostile Environment legislation empowered the Home Office to wrongfully detain and deport many immigrants from the Windrush era. Without the necessary documents to prove their right to remain, many legal citizens of Afro-Caribbean descent from that period were inaccurately labeled “illegal immigrants.” This instability impacted subsequent generations of Black British folks descended from those migrants. The dispersal of communities, loss of employment, and lack of housing regressed the economic mobility of their progeny. Memoirs and collections from the Black Cultural Archives and the British Library disclose the gradual erosion of the social and economic rights of victims and their families during periods of inhumane treatment.

When your sources are derived only through a computer screen, the narrative uncovered by your research can be one-dimensional. Living out the research bridges the gap that exists where data has not caught up with the lived experiences of the people.

Every day, I lived my research by experiencing the city of London. The borough markets, ethnic enclaves, and interactions with Londoners who elaborated on their experiences gave me the language to express the outcomes of my research. My research focused on two key indicators of economic progress that are also foundational elements to the urban core: housing (homeownership) and employment. Observing the city provided a comprehensive view of the environment that allowed for the institutionalization of particular policies and the quality of life of contemporary immigrants. I also witnessed firsthand the engagement of local governments in the economic outcomes of Commonwealth citizens and their progeny.

My experience doing research in London helped me understand the importance of housing accessibility, the types of amenities that should be available in a neighborhood, and the policies that coalesce to determine the economic well-being of marginalized groups.

In addition, my time in London taught me not to silence the nosy kid within that prompted me to ask difficult questions. To engage in successful research with this caliber of question is to view the city as a living and breathing being. When your sources are derived only through a computer screen, the narrative uncovered by your research can be one-dimensional. Living out the research bridges the gap that exists where data has not caught up with the lived experiences of the people.

Originally published by Ida Addo at nanovicnavigator.nd.edu on June 22, 2023.

A Perilous Journey: Economics students witness the challenges of migration in Mexico

2023-06-15T14:05:05-04:00

A group of migrants at a shelter near Puebla, Mexico, sat in a circle of chairs and stared nervously across at five students from Eva Dziadula's Economics of Immigration class and a few other Notre Dame students studying abroad there.

The migrants were nearly all young men from Honduras. How could they describe the harrowing decision to leave their families and homes or the tortuous trip of thousands of miles on top of dangerous freight trains to get to the border of the United States?

Finally, one took the lead and spoke up.

José said he hopes to do carpentry and painting in the U.S. to provide money for his family. At home, he said, he can't make much money no matter how hard he works, and if he saves anything, it's usually stolen. He was making his third attempt without a “coyote” guide, which can cost thousands of dollars he doesn't have.

Asked about dangers on the trip, José shed some tears talking about the violence they face from Mexican authorities and gangs that often rob or beat the migrants. He said they just want to help their families and hope to be treated like human beings.

The students listened in empathetic silence. Then Jack Kelly, a junior studying pre-health and English, responded in his best Spanish.

“Thank you for sharing your story,” Kelly said. “You deserve respect, both as a person and as someone willing to do whatever it takes to help your family. I'm sorry for what you've had to go through.”

With little more solace to offer, the students stood and shook hands with each migrant in the circle. This kind of face-to-face interaction is exactly why Dziadula brings groups of Notre Dame students to Puebla and Mexico City to witness the journey at its midway point—in a course that focuses on the economic factors and outcomes at the start and end of the volatile subject of immigration.

Read the story.

Originally published by Office of Strategic Content at news.nd.edu on June 15, 2023.

16 Arts & Letters students named 2023-24 Fulbright US Student Program finalists

2023-06-05T10:13:00-04:00

Twenty University of Notre Dame students — three graduate students and 17 undergraduates — have been selected as Fulbright U.S. Student Program finalists for the 2023-24 academic year, contingent upon host country approvals, medical clearance and submission of all required grant documents. Sixteen of the students are affiliated with the College of Arts and Letters.

Another seven students — two graduate students and five undergraduates — have been selected as alternates for the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program.

In applying for the award, undergraduate students worked closely with the Flatley Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement (CUSE) and graduate students with the Office of Grants and Fellowships in the Graduate School.

Jeff Thibert is the Paul and Maureen Stefanick director of CUSE.

“We are thrilled to have had another successful year with the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, one that should place on the Top Producing list of U.S. institutions for the 10th consecutive year. Clearly we are doing something right!” Thibert said. “Much of the credit should go to those who prepare our students to be competitive Fulbright applicants by providing them with a truly global education, including the teams in Notre Dame International, the Keough School of Global Affairs, the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures, and all the other globally facing units at the University.

"Perhaps I’m biased, but in my view the most credit should go to the outstanding Fulbright advising team we have in CUSE: Elise Rudt-Moorthy and Mathilda Nassar, who work with our English teaching assistantship applicants, and Emily Hunt, who works with our study/research grant applicants. They put in long hours between March and October recruiting applicants, helping them to discern whether Fulbright is right for them and working with them to prepare the best possible applications.

"The University’s consistently outstanding performance with the Fulbright U.S. Student Program is a result of the excellent support that Notre Dame provides to our extraordinary students.”

Thomas Fuja, interim vice president, associate provost and dean of the Graduate School, said, “To win a Fulbright award is a badge of honor that is recognized and respected everywhere in the world. 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.”

The 20 finalists are:

Undergraduate

• Isabella Allen, class of 2023, chemical engineering, study and research grant to Jamaica.

• Michael Barrett, class of 2023, political science and history, English teaching assistantship to Germany.

• Britton Brindle, class of 2023, political science, English teaching assistantship to Serbia.

• Rachel Colligan, class of 2023, Program of Liberal Studies, study and research grant to Italy.

• Abigail Craff, class of 2023, German and economics, English teaching assistantship to Germany.

• Allison Doctor, class of 2023, honors Spanish and global affairs (supplementary), English teaching assistantship to Spain.

• Grace Ducat, class of 2023, preprofessional studies, English teaching assistantship to Vietnam.

• Joshua Gilchrist, class of 2023, Program of Liberal Studies and theology (supplementary), English teaching assistantship to South Korea.

• Mary Kate Godfrey, class of 2023, political science and global affairs (supplementary), English teaching assistantship to Morocco.

• Mireille Ibrahim, class of 2023, honors Spanish, English teaching assistantship to Andorra.

• Mitchell Johnson, class of 2023, accountancy and honors English, English teaching assistantship to Montenegro.

• Alexis Kelly, class of 2023, honors art history and psychology, English teaching assistantship to Germany.

• Claire Kloska, class of 2023, psychology and Spanish, English teaching assistantship to Spain.

• Quinn McKenna, class of 2023, Program of Liberal Studies, English teaching assistantship to Panama.

• Sofia Nakfoor, class of 2023, psychology and economics, English teaching assistantship to Spain.

• Carlondrea Petty, class of 2023, preprofessional studies and Spanish (supplementary), English teaching assistantship to Spain.

• Julia Schlueter, class of 2023, science-business and honors Spanish, English teaching assistantship to Spain.

Graduate

• Eric Budd, master’s student in education (Alliance for Catholic Education), English teaching assistantship to Bulgaria.

• Ella Baxter, master’s student in education (Alliance for Catholic Education), English teaching assistantship to Spain.

• Jacob Moniz, master’s student in creative writing, study and research grant to Portugal.

Established in 1946 and administered by the U.S. Department of State, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program supports and enables passionate and accomplished graduate and undergraduate students to pursue graduate study, conduct research or teach English abroad.

The application window for the 2024-25 Fulbright U.S. Student Program is currently open. For more information or to apply, visit cuse.nd.edu (undergraduate/ACE) or graduateschool.nd.edu/graduate-training/research-communication/the-office-of-grants-and-fellowships (graduate).

Originally published by Erin Blasko at news.nd.edu on June 02, 2023.

A leap of faith: How two Christian and two Muslim young women went from Nigeria to Notre Dame, overcoming tragedy and trauma to show the world-changing power of knowledge

2023-05-31T08:00:00-04:00

Laila Ibrahim, Dinah Lawan, Maijidda Haruna, and Godiya Simon

Five years ago, on a frigid January morning, a nearly indescribable journey began for four young women from Nigeria. They came to Notre Dame after being carefully selected by their government, shepherded by senior leaders from the United Nations and the Catholic Church, and anxiously but quietly awaited by a tight circle of supporters on campus.

For a country torn apart by religious violence and where the value of educating girls was constantly questioned, sending this group to a Catholic university on an unfamiliar continent was a gamble, but a risk many felt was worth taking. There were two Christians — Dinah Lawan and Godiya Simon — who had been kidnapped by Muslim terrorists as schoolgirls and endured a harrowing path back to freedom. And there were two Muslims — Maijidda Haruna and Laila Ibrahim — who had encountered devastating violence at the hands of Christians.

They arrived with the chance to pursue an education that could transform their lives, but also, their country hoped, be an example that could help heal their homeland. Maybe, just maybe, if this quartet could go to America and thrive, they could demonstrate all that is possible when strength is built through knowledge and community is founded on forgiveness.

“The symbolism of this was breathtaking,” said Sara Sievers, a former Notre Dame faculty member who served as a host mother to all four. “They had lost all you really can, short of their own lives. But if they could learn to love one another as sisters, then anyone can.”

To read more, click or tap here or on the photo above.

“The symbolism of this was breathtaking. They had lost all you really can, short of their own lives. But if they could learn to love one another as sisters, then anyone can.”

Eight A&L students earn 2023 Library Research Awards

2023-05-26T07:36:00-04:00

Students affiliated with the College of Arts and Letters won eight of the 11 University of Notre Dame Library Research Awards given to students across diverse disciplines. These annual awards, sponsored by the Hesburgh Libraries, are earned by undergraduates who demonstrate excellence in research skills by using a breadth of library resources and services for their course assignments, research projects and creative endeavors.

Students from across campus were invited to submit a brief essay describing the many ways in which they used library resources for a project or assignment completed during summer or fall 2022 or spring 2023.

“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.”

Congratulations to the 2023 Library Research Award winners.

First place — Charles House, Romance languages and literatures

Charles House won first prize for his extensive use of library resources while conducting research for his honors senior thesis, “Coproducing Fascism: How Italy and Spain’s Cinematic Cooperation Demonstrates International Fascist Values.” Advised by Charles Leavitt, associate professor in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, House was tasked with comparing the similar fascist histories of Italy and Spain during the 1940s through cinema.

“By leveraging the knowledge of subject librarians and the rare and extensive collections of the Hesburgh Libraries, I was able to shed light on an international fascist movement in the cinema industry that has been largely understudied,” said House.

Second place — Tia Williams, management consulting

Tia Williams earned second prize for her substantial use of library resources for her senior thesis, “That Which Cannot be Washed Away: A Critical Systematic Review of New Orleans Public Education Post-Katrina.” Williams was advised by Maria McKenna, professor of the practice in the Department of Africana Studies and the senior associate director of the Education, Schooling and Society minor. Williams’ thesis focused on the educational landscape in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.

“Beyond this work, these library resources helped me navigate a new methodological approach that will be invaluable in my future, especially as I pursue my Ph.D. in educational research and policy in the fall,” said Williams, a supplementary major in in Education, Schooling and Society.

Sophomore, Junior or Senior Award Category

First place — Michael Donelan, history

Sophomore Michael Donelan won first prize for his use of library resources to support his research, “Historically Conceiving the Irrationality of ‘Moby-Dick’ through Antebellum America, or: the Apotheosis of Paradox,” which looked at Herman Melville’s landmark work through a historical lens. He was advised by Jake Lundberg, associate professor of the practice and director of undergraduate studies for the Department of History.

“My story and those of others show that, through enabling students, the library is nourishing a love for learning across the nation. It is a force for good in the world,” he said.

Second place — Connor Patrick, history

Senior Connor Patrick won second prize for his use of library resources to support his research paper, “Fr. Sorin’s Liturgical Crown Jewel: The Basilica of the Sacred Heart High Altar,” which explored the origins of the religious object. He was advised by Heather Hyde Minor, professor in the Department of Art, Art History and Design.

“Without the resources of the Hesburgh Libraries, primarily those in the Notre Dame Archives but also additional print resources, the discoveries of my final paper simply would not have been possible,” Patrick said.

Group Project Award Category

Rachel Salamone, political science
Piper Shine, psychology

Seniors Rachel Salamone and Piper Shine won honors for demonstrating excellence in their use of library resources and services for their project, “Women’s Boxing at Notre Dame,” which focused on Baraka Bouts, a women’s boxing club that has existed for more than 20 years but has little written history. They were advised by Katherine Walden, assistant teaching professor in the Department of American Studies.

“The Hesburgh Libraries archivists were incredibly helpful; their knowledge, support and excitement for our project proved to us that scholarship can take many different forms, exist over several platforms and can be far more wide-reaching than it may seem at first glance,” the pair said.

Digital Scholarship Award Category

The Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship (NFCDS) Award is a specialty category of the Library Research Award. This award recognizes excellence in leveraging digital scholarship resources, tools and methodologies in research and projects. Students can win the NFCDS Award in addition to another category or as a stand-alone recognition.

Joseph Jegier, philosophy

Joseph Jegier earned an NFCDS Award for his use of digital scholarship resources in his senior thesis, “Exploring, Deciding, Becoming; Discernment at the University of Notre Dame,” which looked at student reflections from the Moreau First Year Experience. He was advised by Maria McKenna, associate professor of the practice for the Department of Africana Studies and Education, Schooling and Society.

“The library’s resources, collections, spaces and staff make the library a truly remarkable place. I am grateful for all that the Hesburgh Libraries has done to enhance my intellectual development, and I am particularly appreciative of the role it has played in creating an informative senior thesis,” Jegier said.

Kayle Liao, economics

Senior Kayle Liao earned an NFCDS Award for her use of digital scholarship services and resources while working on her honors senior thesis, “Does Political Pressure Affect Monetary Policy?” Advised by Eric Sims, professor and chair of the Department of Economics, Liao’s research focused on evaluating the effect of political pressure on the Federal Reserve.

“My thesis journey was not only a demonstration of my intellectual curiosity and interdisciplinary understanding but also a testament to the Hesburgh Libraries’ excellent staff and services,” Liao said.

Read the full story.

Originally published by Tara O'Leary at news.nd.edu on May 25, 2023.

‘I knew at that moment my life was about to change’: 2023 graduates reflect on how a liberal arts education shaped their minds — and their futures

2023-05-25T08:00:00-04:00

Development — as scholars and people — was a common theme for seven members of the Class of 2023 as they reflected on the significance of their College of Arts & Letters education.

Connor Tsikitas knew growing up that he wanted to attend Notre Dame. And when he realized his dream, the political science major made the most of it, also exploring anthropology, gender studies, and languages.

“I think I've become a more understanding person and more open in terms of understanding people's perspectives and different backgrounds,” he said.

The first time Isabella Byler saw the Golden Dome, she knew her life would change. Through courses and travel, the art history and Program of Liberal Studies major examined fascinating topics with professors and peers, as well as Aristotle and Nietzsche.

For Hattie Meehan, the College was a unique and ideal fit, where she could use both her left brain and right brain.

“It has allowed me to study two things, two very different things, that I am very passionate about,” said the Spanish and Arts & Letters pre-health major.

Abby Urban’s values are represented at Notre Dame, and she’s proud to call the University home. The film, television, and theatre major — who was an on-air host at a TV station as a senior — is thrilled with her academic progress and career connections.

Neuroscience and behavior major Liana Bigaud has found a supportive family at Notre Dame, one that has encouraged her to examine larger-than-life questions, embrace solidarity and the common good, and use her voice to impact positive change.

Aidan Creeron thinks about how he can utilize what he’s learned in classes to benefit others. The economics and history major said whatever career he chooses, his liberal arts background has provided him with skills and framework to be successful.

Victor Gomez thinks critically and with a set of values in mind. The political science, theology, and Latino studies major said he’s deeply appreciative of professors and friends.

“I think what I'll remember most about my time in Notre Dame is the impact that I've been able to make here as a member of this community in campus ministry, in the College of Arts and Letters, in the Latino community, as well feel the impact that all those communities had on me.”

Through studying five languages, researching in Italy, and interning at a Ukrainian-American museum, anthropology major discovers the value of taking surprising paths

2023-05-19T08:00:00-04:00

Senior Emma Ackerley canoeing in Lago di Braies in the Italian Dolomites. A member of the Globally Engaged Citizens program, she is fluent in Italian, reads and speaks Portuguese and French, can read Spanish, and took a Russian course.

Someone once remarked to Emma Ackerley that her college transcript was all over the map.

The anthropology major, who has a supplementary major in global affairs (with a concentration in transnational European studies), and a minor in journalism, ethics, and democracy — takes that as a compliment.

After all, the comment is accurate, literally and figuratively.

Ackerley, who grew up in Arizona and graduated high school in Colorado, has spent summers in Australia and Finland, traveled to Italy three times in the last two years, and participated in an internship in Cleveland (after her summer trip to France was canceled due to COVID-19).

“I’ve explored my interests and what I wanted to do,” she said. “I’m not afraid of not being on the most traditional path.”

Wherever that path leads, there’s a good chance Ackerley can communicate with locals when she arrives. She’s fluent in Italian, reads and speaks Portuguese and French, and can read Spanish. One semester, she took a one-credit Russian course because she wanted to explore yet another language.

With her travels and impressive language skills, Ackerley easily completed the requirements of the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures’ Globally Engaged Citizens program — which encourages deeply engaging with languages and cultures.

“I am happy to see Notre Dame recognize the value of global experiences through the GEC program,” she said. “Filling out the online portfolio was a really wonderful chance to reflect on mine.”

“Honestly, the things I didn't expect, or anticipate, have been most valuable. They weren't necessarily what I had planned, or what everyone would have done or thought would be the best thing for me. But with the amount of opportunities and experiences available, Notre Dame has been even more valuable than I ever could have expected.”

Embracing the unexpected

Anthropology courses have enabled Ackerley to study people and cultures worldwide, and Notre Dame’s numerous resources and funding opportunities have guaranteed that her path is well-traveled.

Ackerley with friends while studying abroad in Bologna, Italy.

This spring, for instance, the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts and Nanovic Institute for European Studies funded her trip to Naples, Italy, to take photographs for her senior thesis in anthropology — a visual ethnography about soccer star Diego Maradona.

Ackerley also spent her junior year abroad in Italy — in Bologna, where she immersed herself in the culture and took most of her classes and tests in Italian.

“I really, really improved my language skills and was able to travel a lot throughout Italy,” she said. “I made great friends and took some interesting classes, like Archeological Sites around Vesuvius.”

Ackerley was slated to study in France the summer after her sophomore year, but the pandemic derailed those plans. So she opted for a six-week internship at the Ukrainian Museum-Archives in Cleveland, where she worked on an exhibit about Ukrainian-American political involvement.

While she initially wondered whether Cleveland might be a bit of a letdown compared to her plans in France, her doubts soon evaporated.

“It was such an incredible experience, especially in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It gave me an interesting perspective,” she said. “I couldn't speak more highly of it. Now, every time I'm skeptical about something, I know I should just embrace things.”

Valuing the unanticipated

Travel and languages have been welcome constants in Ackerley’s life.

Ackerley — whose mother is from Italy — grew up speaking Italian, and she frequently visited family members there. She also has visited family who reside in Australia, and she lived there one summer in high school. During another high school summer, she lived in Finland thanks to an exchange program.

Ackerley along the Mediterranean coastline in Liguria, Italy.

With her fascination with travel and languages, Ackerley said the global affairs supplementary major was a natural fit. She added the journalism minor because of her love of writing. This spring, Ackerley took a multimedia class and interned with Notre Dame Magazine. During her year in Italy, she penned pieces for the online tourism blog Turisti per Caso, which included writing about Liguria during a four-day, all-expenses paid tour.

In the future, she’s considering pursuing journalism or graduate school — but first, she’s going to take time to explore, professionally and geographically. She plans to travel, including a return trip to Italy, as she gains work experience.

For Ackerley, her Notre Dame liberal arts education has helped her grow, learn, serve, and explore — and, most importantly, be open to the possibility of surprise.

“Honestly, the things I didn't expect, or anticipate, have been most valuable,” she said. “They weren't necessarily what I had planned, or what everyone would have done or thought would be the best thing for me. But with the amount of opportunities and experiences available, Notre Dame has been even more valuable than I ever could have expected.”

Inspired by childhood experiences, theology and FTT major’s stage adaptation of A Little Princess portrays ‘beautiful, integral’ differences of neurodivergence

2023-05-18T11:00:00-04:00

Notre Dame senior Grace Gasper (front right) and The Not-So-Royal Shakespeare Co. members in the cast of A Little Princess after a March performance.

Growing up, Grace Gasper sometimes felt like everybody else was playing a game for which she didn’t have the rules.

Then, one day in third grade when she was helping the school librarian reshelve books at lunch, she spied an old, pretty book on the top shelf: A Little Princess. Gasper fell in love with Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1905 book about Sara, an exceedingly kind girl who becomes penniless when her father dies.

Grace Gasper

“I think there's something really timeless and timely about the story,” said Gasper ’23, a theology and film, television, and theatre major. “I saw a lot of myself in Sara, but I also saw what I wanted to be. There is this boundless kindness about her.”

Over the years, that novel continued to be a source of comfort and encouragement for Gasper, who re-read it again and again. And in high school, when she was diagnosed with a learning disability, she began a journey that included figuring out why it seemed she didn’t have access to the rules of the game.

“Neurodivergence means that someone else's brain functions differently than yours does, and there are a lot of ways that someone can be neurodivergent,” she said. “And the chance that you know somebody who is neurodivergent is almost 100 percent.”

At Notre Dame, when the time came to do a senior thesis project, Gasper was eager to write a stage adaptation of her favorite book that re-examined Sara through a neurodivergent lens. She drew inspiration for the play from her own childhood experiences.

“My hope in creating this piece was to show Sara’s differences not as obstacles to overcome, but as beautiful, integral parts of who she is,” she said.

“My hope in creating this piece was to show Sara’s differences not as obstacles to overcome, but as beautiful, integral parts of who she is.”

‘I found that I had a lot to say’

In A Little Princess, Sara’s difficulties with social cues allow her to ignore constructed social hierarchies that can prevent friendships from forming.

Natalie Allton (left, who played the protagonist, Sara) and Corinne Niezgodzki (who played Becky) perform a scene in the staged reading of Gasper's A Little Princess.

“Her neurodivergence gives her more of an ease with being kind beyond and through social boundaries to be friends with people who are of a lower social standing than her,” Gasper said. “As a role model, she doesn't seem to care about the consequences of it. This has always been something that has struck me deeply.”

For her play, Gasper also elected to change the book’s happily-ever-after ending to a more nuanced outcome that gives space for youth to experience both grief and joy.

The start of her senior project began with an assignment in a children's theatre course her sophomore year at Notre Dame: Write a scene based on any children’s literature that she liked.

She didn’t have any difficulty choosing the book — and she felt compelled to write more than one scene. When she turned that in, her professor, Carys Kresny, posited: What if you just kept writing?

So Gasper did.

“She gave me a lot of good encouragement and feedback. I found that I had a lot to say about this in a way that I wasn't expecting,” said Gasper, who in March held a staged reading of the play with members of the Not-So-Royal Shakespeare Company.

Choosing kindness and love

Gasper has been a theater kid since age 5, when her parents enrolled her in The Sound of Music at a local recreation center in her hometown of Los Angeles.

Catholicism also is a foundational piece of her identity, and her father is a Domer, so Notre Dame has been a constant presence throughout her life. During a campus visit on a football weekend her sophomore year of high school, she knew it was where she wanted to be, too.

Since she was admitted to the Gateway Program and spent her first year at Holy Cross College before transferring, she has viewed each moment at Notre Dame as a gift.

“Every time I walk by the Dome,” she said, “I take a moment and look and go, ‘Wow, I’m here.’”

She credits her experiences as a theology major with teaching her to both speak and listen respectfully and kindly. And her experiences in FTT have demonstrated that theatre can be an inclusive place that tells interesting stories that haven't necessarily been told before.

After Commencement, Gasper will work in Chicago as a live-in assistant at L’Arche, a community in which people with intellectual disabilities and people without intellectual disabilities live together. After that, she said, a Master of Divinity or graduate degree in another field are likely possibilities.

Wherever she goes, Gasper will have the copy of A Little Princess that reassured her so many times as a child — when her elementary school library was remodeled, she got to keep the book.

She also has an important takeaway from her adapted play.

“We all have the power to disrupt the status quo in favor of kindness and love,” she said, “and every day, we can choose to do so.”

“We all have the power to disrupt the status quo in favor of kindness and love — and every day, we can choose to do so.”

Celebrating the A&L Class of 2023: Three stories of student preparation and purpose

2023-05-17T14:00:00-04:00

These three Arts and Letters students are among the 3,200 students who will earn degrees Commencement weekend at the University of Notre Dame. The complete stories of these scholars, as well as other outstanding members of the Class of 2023, are featured on ND.edu.

Abigail Jorgensen

While pursuing her doctorate in sociology — studying women’s transition to motherhood and how it shapes their identities and political views — Abigail Jorgensen took home her newborn in the midst of the pandemic. A few months later she contracted COVID-19 and sustained months of debilitating and terrifying symptoms, but she never lost her sense of purpose or her passion for her research. Her dissertation project, “Becoming the Mommy Politic,” examines the political behavior of three groups of women: mothers, those seeking or intending to become mothers, and those who do not wish to become mothers. Jorgensen will continue the longitudinal study at Saint Louis University, where she’ll be an assistant professor of sociology and health care ethics.

Austin Wyman

Austin Wyman came to Notre Dame knowing he wanted to pursue a career in mental health and reduce the stigma associated with mental illness. The psychology major and theology minor didn’t have to wait until he entered the workforce to make an impact. He worked in two University psychology labs, completed a senior thesis researching what makes people more likely to seek help for mental health issues and served as president of Active Minds at Notre Dame, a student group dedicated to changing the conversation around mental health. Wyman will continue at Notre Dame as a doctoral student in quantitative psychology, with plans to develop a screening assessment to predict police misconduct in incoming police candidates.

Blake Ziegler

Blake Ziegler wanted to be at a university that invested in him to grow spiritually, personally, and socially into a holistic person — one who could do good things for the world and find personal fulfillment. The double honors major in political science and philosophy pursued research interests in constitutional law concerning religious liberty and the relationship between politics and religion. He also was on the teaching team for God and the Good Life, an introductory philosophy course taught to more than 600 students per semester that explains the role of philosophy in everyday life through dialogue-based instruction and digital technology. Following graduation, Ziegler will teach social studies at the Delores Taylor Arthur School for Young Men.

Sociologist Anna Haskins studies impact of criminal legal system on racial disparities in educational outcomes

2023-05-17T07:05:00-04:00

Anna Haskins initially chose a career as an elementary school teacher to address racial disparities in educational outcomes.

Now, the Andrew V. Tackes Associate Professor of Sociology and associate director of the Notre Dame Initiative on Race and Resilience approaches the issue on a broader research scale.

“There’s a lot of research in the sociology of education that has really tried to look at the persistence of racial disparities, despite these sort of more direct ways to eliminate racial differences, Brown v. Board of Education and beyond,” Haskins said.

“Some researchers look at neighborhoods; some research looks at wealth. Very few studies had started looking at another sort of social institution that has racial disparities, and that was the criminal legal system.”

So that’s where Haskins directed her attention. Through her research, she learned that fathers who were formerly incarcerated engaged less with their children’s school than parents who haven’t been detained.

She and a team of undergraduate and graduate students are now examining why that’s the case, with a goal of creating interventions that address needs of both families and schools.

In the three-pronged study, the team is interviewing previously incarcerated parents to determine if their exposure to the criminal legal system led to decreased involvement in their children's education because of a fear of schools.

The researchers also are interviewing education personnel to learn how school environments support system-involved families, and they’re examining whether school facilities — with resource officers, metal detectors, and bullet-proof glass — are becoming more like prisons.

Haskins said she’s excited to be exploring these important questions at Notre Dame and engaging in service work through the Notre Dame Programs for Education in Prison. “It is just a fantastic place to be involved in studying education.”

Design professor helps coordinate project celebrating underrepresented baseball teams from South Bend’s past

2023-05-10T15:37:00-04:00

Thomas “Detour” Evans working on a mural at Foundry Field.

A groundbreaking ceremony will be held 4-6 p.m. Friday, May 12, for Foundry Field, a proposed public-access baseball field designed to celebrate the Foundry Giants and other underrepresented baseball teams from South Bend’s past. The event at Southeast Park in South Bend will feature free food, games and prizes for the public.

Foundry Field is a collaborative community project led by the Sappy Moffitt Field Foundation, the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns, the Indiana University South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center and the City of South Bend Venues Parks and Arts.

The project’s four primary objectives are to increase interest in baseball through programming, history, art and public access; increase access to baseball through partnerships with the Boys and Girls Clubs of St. Joseph County and the South Bend Community School Corp.; revitalize the Southeast Neighborhood, a largely working-class neighborhood south of downtown; and preserve and promote underrepresented teams and individuals from South Bend’s baseball and softball history.

“In collaboration with our community partners, we want to make this more than just a baseball field. We want this to be a living museum and a place of advocacy,” said Clinton Carlson, an associate professor of design at Notre Dame who is helping to coordinate the project. “It’s not just about the history of these teams. Ultimately, our goal is that these histories become powerful stories that impact our community to be more inclusive, more equitable and more accessible for everyone.”

As proposed, the field will feature a full-size diamond bordered by the elevated railroad tracks at the southeast corner of Southeast Park. It will include a grass infield, dirt base paths, a net-and-steel-pole backstop, an irrigation system and a living hedge outfield fence. Future additions may include a covered vintage grandstand, covered dugouts, a scorebooth with a PA system and a public pavilion. The field will be home to the South Bend-based Sappy Moffitt Baseball League, an adult recreational league, and will also be used for youth baseball through the school corporation and the Boys & Girls Clubs.

Thomas “Detour” Evans at Foundry Field

In addition to the field, the project calls for a series of murals and historical markers along the left and center field walls (technically, the retaining wall on the south side of the elevated tracks) that tell the story of the Foundry Giants and other teams and individuals important to South Bend baseball and softball history. Additional information and materials will be available on the Foundry Field website.

Students in Assistant Teaching Professor Katherine Walden’s fall 2022 Baseball and America course led historical research on the Giants.

“Learning is most impactful when students are able to put the conversations we’re having into context, and research is going to be most transformative when it’s done in community,” Walden said. “This class and this project represent the best of all those worlds in so many ways. It was deeply moving to see students recognize that and make those connections through their work.”

The murals will be completed as part of a series of one-week artist residencies, starting with Denver-based artist, innovator and educator Thomas “Detour” Evans, whose work includes a Jackie Robinson mural in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and a Baltimore Orioles mural in Baltimore.

Evans will be working at the site this week to complete the Foundry Giants mural and to interact with students from the Boys & Girls Clubs, Riley High School and the Notre Dame design program, who will be contributing to sections of the mural adorning part of the center field wall. Evans will also be on-hand at the groundbreaking to visit with organizers, students and community members.

Active during the 1920s, the Giants were a predominantly Black baseball team whose players typically worked in the Studebaker Foundry. The team included several players who went on to play in the Negro Leagues.

The Sappy Moffitt Field Foundation is a nonprofit organization established to develop Foundry Field with support from the Notre Dame Center for Social Concerns; Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority; South Bend Venues, Parks and Arts; South Bend Community School Corp.; Indiana University South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center; Southeast Organized Area Residents; and The History Museum. It is associated with the Sappy Moffitt Baseball League, an adult, wood-bat baseball league established in 2013.

For more information, visit foundryfield.org.

Originally published by Erin Blasko and Carrie Gates at news.nd.edu on May 10, 2023.

A&L neuroscience and behavior major Miguel Coste selected salutatorian

2023-05-09T09:27:00-04:00

Kristen Friday of Pittsburgh has been named valedictorian and Miguel Coste from Tampa has been selected salutatorian of the 2023 University of Notre Dame graduating class.

The 178th University Commencement Ceremony will be held Sunday, May 21, in Notre Dame Stadium for graduates and guests. During the ceremony, Friday will present the valedictory address, and as the salutatorian, Coste will offer the invocation.

Friday is a computer science and engineering major with a minor in engineering corporate practice in the College of Engineering where she has accumulated a 4.00 grade point average and has been a member of the Dean’s List each semester. During her time at Notre Dame, she was involved in a project funded by Ford

2023 Valedictorian

Motor Co., which focused on real-time notifications to enhance driver and pedestrian safety measures by assessing user intentions at road intersections. She played an integral role on the project collecting user data to train the machine learning model performance and in automating alerts for vehicles in high-traffic areas.

She completed several internships over the past four years, including as an associate automation engineer intern with Hitachi Rail STS, a software engineer intern at IBM in the Research Triangle in North Carolina and a software engineer intern with Microsoft Corp. in Seattle. She also worked as an undergraduate teaching assistant with computer science and engineering faculty Matthew Morrison teaching Data Structures and Peter Bui teaching both Programming Challenges and Systems Programming.

Outside of the classroom, Friday was co-founder of the Notre Dame Women in Computer Science club, where she served as co-president. Together with her co-president, she was driven to support women in technology majors by hosting career panels, mentorship programs and outreach events paired with Habitat for Humanity. Friday was a two-year member of the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society, and also received the college’s Steiner Award for academic excellence. In the spring of 2022, she studied abroad in London. Friday is also a self-described “avid member of Lewis Hall interhall sports” and was a four-year member of the University’s club tennis team. She also served as a volunteer at a ministry for the homeless in her hometown.

After graduation, Friday plans to work at Palantir Technologies as a software engineer in Washington, D.C. She hopes to continue building innovative technological solutions that will empower users, promote the greater good and improve the human experience.

Coste, a neuroscience and behavior major in the College of Arts and Letters, has compiled a 3.972 grade point average and has been a member of the Dean’s List every semester. A member of the Phi Beta Kappa liberal arts and sciences honor society, he was selected from nearly 900 national applicants in 2022 as one of the organization’s 20 recipients for the Key into Public Service Scholarship for his academic excellence, leadership and commitment to public service. He was also inducted into the Nu Rho Psi neuroscience national honor society.

2023 Salutatorian

In 2021, he worked as an undergraduate research assistant at MIT’s summer research program in biology, where he developed experiments in systems neuroscience. He also served as an undergraduate research assistant with sociology professor Mark Berends studying Indiana schools’ responses to COVID-19. He also spent a semester in Ireland at Trinity College Dublin.

Coste’s honors include being awarded a Gilman Scholarship in 2021 and being named a Notre Dame AnBryce Scholar and QuestBridge Scholar. He was on the advisory board and served as president of First Gen Careers, which is part of the Meruelo Family Center for Career Development. He served as president of 1stG ND and as a sophomore was head mentor of the University’s QuestBridge chapter. He is also a former member of the University’s cheer team, a University Relations intern involved with Cavanaugh Council and the President’s Circle and a member of the National Name Exchange since 2020.

After graduation, Coste will work for Epic Systems as a technical solutions engineer in Madison, Wisconsin. He hopes to work in the public health field to promote and protect the health of people and communities, particularly the marginalized.

As salutatorian, he will be prepared to deliver a valedictory address should the valedictorian be unable to do so.

The Notre Dame valedictorian and salutatorian selection process begins by identifying the top four students among those with the highest grade point averages in each college or school. Those students are then invited to complete an application that includes letters of recommendation from faculty members and a draft of their commencement speech. A selection committee, coordinated by the division of Undergraduate Education in the Provost’s Office, interviews finalists and chooses a valedictorian and salutatorian who are approved by University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.

Originally published by Sue Ryan at news.nd.edu on May 05, 2023.

Theology professor Jean Porter, inaugural Graduate Student Mentorship Award winner, takes positive, personal approach to transforming students into scholars

2023-04-25T08:00:00-04:00

Jean Porter

Jean Porter finds it difficult to describe her approach to mentoring graduate students, because it changes with each and every one.

As a mentor, the John A. O’Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame has been described as providing candid and clarifying advice while also offering patience, support, and generosity. She has guided and encouraged 28 doctoral students as they finished their dissertations, then written recommendation letters for them and given further advice as they launched their own careers.

“It’s just about forming a personal relationship with the student,” Porter said. “In my experience, there’s no substitute for that.”

In recognition of the time and attention she has dedicated to her students, helping them grow intellectually and find their scholarly voices, Porter has been selected as the inaugural winner of the College of Arts & Letters Graduate Student Mentorship Award.

The honor recognizes a tenured faculty member who has demonstrated outstanding scholarly mentorship and care for doctoral or MFA students, and will be presented to Porter at the A&L spring faculty meeting at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 2, in McKenna Hall. E. Mark Cummings, the William J. Shaw Center for Children and Families Professor of Psychology, will receive the inaugural Arts & Letters Research Achievement Award at the event as well.

‘A special charism’

Elisabeth Rain Kincaid, now the Legendre-Soulé Chair in Business Ethics and director of the Center for Ethics and Economic Justice at Loyola University New Orleans, completed her dissertation under Porter in 2018. She credits Porter for continually giving doctoral students care and attention as they forge their way through years of research and writing.

“All her students believe that she has a special charism as an advisor of helping us figure out the best and clearest way to say what we had always wanted to say but couldn’t figure out how to express or communicate,” Kincaid wrote in recommending Porter for the award. “Whereas some dissertation directors may seek to impose their own personality, ideas, or style, Jean’s goal is always to make each of us better scholars in the way most appropriate to each of our scholarly natures — rather than making us into mini-images of herself.”

“Jean’s goal is always to make each of us better scholars in the way most appropriate to each of our scholarly natures — rather than making us into mini-images of herself.”

A member of the Notre Dame faculty since 1990, Porter earned her Ph.D. from Yale University and holds an M.Div. from the Weston School of Theology and a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin. She is considered a leading scholar in moral theology and Christian ethics, and in 2012 she was inducted into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has published widely, including six books — including her most recent, Justice as a Virtue: A Thomistic Perspective (2016), and Ministers of the Law: A Natural Law Theology of Legal Authority, which won the Catholic Press Association Book Award in 2011.

When mentoring her doctoral students, Porter said, she gets to know her students “really, really, really well.” She learns how their minds work and what their interests are along with something about their personal circumstances and their lives outside of graduate school. She listens to them, reads what they write, and always offers guidance whenever they ask, whether during a formal meeting in her office or a quick chat on a campus sidewalk.

“There’s no substitute for taking time with them,” she said, “talking to them about where they want to go, and getting a feeling for what they can do and what they can do well.”

‘She has made all the difference’

Writing is central to doctoral work, and Porter keeps her students focused by reminding them to sit down and do it. Although she now writes more quickly, progressing on drafts of articles and chapters whenever she gets a few moments in the day, she once labored over her writing, agonizingly crafting one sentence at a time.

Because of the strong relationships she develops with her students, she knows they trust her as she critiques their drafts with positive suggestions instead of negative criticism.

“Feedback on students’ writing can be all kinds of things,” Porter said. “I can help them be more scholarly, if that’s needed — and at the beginning, it usually is, even for the best students. But I can also help them try to figure out what it is exactly they want to say, and that involves usually going back and talking about what got them interested in the project in the first place.”

Mary Hirschfeld

Former student Mary Hirschfeld began pursuing a Ph.D. in theology at Notre Dame after already completing a Ph.D. in economics at Harvard and working as an economist for 15 years. She struggled with finding the focus of her new dissertation until Porter suggested she build on her previous career by integrating economics with theology.

Hirschfeld began “painstaking scholarly excavation” by concentrating on the conversations of 18th- and 19th-century theologians about political economy. Her progress was slow, however, so to prove she was being productive, she showed Porter a paper she had written for an academic conference.

A few days later, Porter called to point out that the paper integrating Aquinas’s thought and economics was Hirschfeld’s dissertation proposal.

“I owe Jean a lot for having the wisdom to see clearly what skills I have and what contributions I might make,” Hirschfeld, now an associate professor of theology at Notre Dame, wrote in her letter of recommendation. “She has made all the difference for me.”

“I owe Jean a lot for having the wisdom to see clearly what skills I have and what contributions I might make. She has made all the difference for me.”

‘I watch them turn into scholars’

After more than three decades at Notre Dame, Porter continues to value the University’s commitment to teaching — she fills her class schedule not only with graduate courses, but also routinely teaches undergraduates in Foundations of Theology.

After being named to Notre Dame’s All-Faculty Team, Porter was honored on the field at a football game and featured in this ad in the gameday program.

Teaching, she said with a shrug, is what she was born to do, tracing her love for the classroom to her mother, who was a high school forensics speech and debate teacher.

“It’s the best life I could imagine,” Porter said. “There’s something really powerful about this kind of involvement in another person’s mind. I watch them make connections. I watch them turn into scholars.”

She’s played a part in that transformation for many, especially ones who go on to teach at Catholic universities or seminaries. In recommending Porter for the award, Timothy Matovina, chair of the Department of Theology, and Joseph Wawrykow, a professor of theology and former director of graduate studies, noted that of the six most recent hires in moral theology at The Catholic University of America, four were Porter’s students. And many more hold tenured or tenure-track appointments at other major universities.

“Brilliant and no-nonsense, Jean is also caring and compassionate, utterly dedicated to her students,” Wawrykow wrote in their joint letter. “Jean Porter has set the standard for graduate mentoring in her long and distinguished time at our University, and her example has been inspirational for us all.”

Classes for the Curious: Theories of Media and Technology

2023-04-17T08:00:00-04:00

The class: Theories of Media and Technology

The professor: Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal, the Ruth and Paul Idzik Assistant Professor in Digital Scholarship and English

The focus: A multidisciplinary introduction to an array of theoretical approaches to understanding media and technology, including film, TV, video games, the internet, and social media. Critical theoretical understandings of media and culture are also used to help understand other topics such as politics, philosophy, language, and literature.

The syllabus: Assignments include academic essays, journalism, and book chapters on a range of media and technology topics from clocks to video games; Ursula Le Guin’s The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction; Ted Chiang’s science fiction short story “Exhalation,” John Berger's BBC TV series Ways of Seeing, the film The Matrix; recorded talks and lectures, and more.

Kaylee Kern

Junior Kaylee Kern took Theories of Media and Technology in the spring of her sophomore year, and she credits the course for changing how she consumes and understands all forms of media, from books to movies to memes.

An English major with a minor in Irish language and literature, Kern took the course to fulfill an English requirement, but appreciated how the class was also crosslisted in film, television, and theatre (FTT); computing and digital technologies; science, technology, and values; and history and philosophy of science. She said that allowed the class, taught in a seminar style, to tackle various types of media properly by approaching course material from a diverse set of perspectives.

The following Q&A has been edited for clarity and brevity.

What’s the most important concept you have learned in Theories of Media and Technology?

The most eye-opening concept was the main idea of the entire class — that it’s not only the content and the information that you consume, but it’s the form in which you consume it that matters and carries a message all of its own. That’s really been eye-opening, both in the class and since then, because now I look at all the media that I consume differently.

How is it that you look at the information you consume differently?

Well, my mindset has changed. Instead of just picking up a book and thinking about the words that are in it, now I look at the design of the book and think about why they designed it the way they did. I look at which edition it might be, how many versions came before it, what materials it’s made out of, even thinking about the production of paper and what it means that they decided to print physically, instead of putting it online or releasing it in installments. Every decision about the production of that piece matters, not just the words that are in it, and I wouldn’t have thought about that before this class.

How did Professor Dhaliwal’s teaching style and course content help you understand these concepts?

The teaching style was great because it was discussion-based. Everyone would have a large conversation together about primary source materials that we encountered. We read lots of essays by philosophers and theorists about different types of media, then we came together. It was a really open and inviting environment because Professor Dhaliwal acknowledged to us immediately that it could be difficult material to read, but we weren’t made to feel as though we could never understand it. He really walked us through the process of reading texts and made sure we knew the most important parts.

I was intimidated going in at first, and very quickly, I realized that he was going to help us every step of the way. It’s also really cool because the class involves a lot of cross-listed subjects, so I took it as an English class. But there were also people from computer science, FTT, and a couple of other majors, so you had a lot of different perspectives around you. If there was a type of media that wasn’t familiar — I know books well, but movies aren’t always my forte — but there are people in the room who know those things. Bringing in all of those different voices, he allowed those voices to speak, so we all helped each other.

What course material were you assigned to do for each class session?

I would call the class reading heavy, but I don’t think that that should scare anybody away. It would take a lot of time and effort to get there, so Professor Dhaliwal really encourages you to just read and get what you can out of it. Then, we will work together to understand the rest, so it’s not as scary as it might seem initially.

There were also assignments where we would respond to the readings with our own personal impressions, or how we could personally connect our lives to something that we read. For example, if we did a reading on how photographs affect us, we could connect it to pictures that we’ve seen, or think about pictures that we’ve taken ourselves and identify those elements in the pictures and how those might speak to other people. It was really cool, then, to put out our own thoughts on some of these abstract theoretical concepts, and see other people’s thoughts on them, and then have a really grounded understanding of how they work.

“(This class) has really broadened my mind of what English is. Because a lot of people think of English as ‘it’s just reading books and analyzing books and writing about books.’ And it’s so much more than that. Analyzing words and analyzing meaning in written material, that can be anywhere.”

How has this course been beneficial in applying your knowledge to the real world as well as preparing you for future courses in your academic career?

It had a lot to do with learning to look at every aspect of information and how a body of work is produced, not just regarding the words themselves, and taking into account the form and the media. And going into other classes, I have borne this in mind by thinking about where a novel comes from, not just how it’s sitting in front of me right now.

But then thinking about even the future in the fields I study, it has really broadened my mind of what English is. Because a lot of people think of English as “it’s just reading books and analyzing books and writing about books.” And it’s so much more than that. Analyzing words and analyzing meaning in written material, that can be anywhere.

Even right now, I’m considering looking into library science after I graduate, and to look into library science fully, you have to think about more than just books. It’s about the organization of materials and how things are presented digitally now. There are lots of different ways to access things, and I wouldn’t be as prepared for that if I hadn’t taken this course.

What advice would you give to incoming students looking to take this course?

Take the leap. Be brave. Be prepared for a challenge, but know that it’s going to be worth it and it’s not supposed to be scary. Do the work to the best of your ability and ask for help when you need help, because Professor Dhaliwal is always available to answer questions. He was really approachable and available all the time to help, so all you have to do is ask. It’s just helpful to go into the class knowing that you’re gonna have a professor who understands already that the material is difficult, so you’re not working with somebody who’s expecting anything that you’re not already capable of doing.

Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal leads a discussion during class.

What has been the most enjoyable aspect of this course?

The broad range of materials that we covered. Theory classes can sound really intimidating. It’s one of the requirements for English majors, and we’re all afraid of it. And then I get to this class, and I see that we’re looking at the history of paper all the way to memes. We’re covering a huge range of media and how it affects us, and we get to analyze newspapers, books, movies, simulations, simulacra, and photographs. Your entire life becomes encompassed in what you’re studying and you start to notice these things everywhere. Walking around campus and seeing things in a completely new way because of something you just talked about in class — that was fascinating.

Talk about your unique final paper for this class. What was that experience like?

Yeah, so our final project was really open for creative interpretation in general. There were a lot of different avenues that people could go down. They could write a regular paper, there was the option to create a video game if you wanted to, you could come up with your own project and present it to him.

He was really open to all ideas, and a medium that I use all the time is lists. I live off of lists — everything I do is in list form, and that helps me stay organized, but I never even considered it as a medium before. I brought the idea to Professor Dhaliwal, and he said, “Well, only a few people have done research on that, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t.” I was nervous about it, but I had multiple conversations with him throughout the process and it really gave me a lot of confidence.

I ended up writing a really long paper, with the page number probably in the 40s, about lists — and the whole thing was in the form of a list. I compared lists that I made to other kinds of lists, how people make them, what making lists does to them and their ideas, what format lists are written in, and what material they’re written on. Then I analyzed why it matters that lists are a different form of writing than an essay or letter. It was so introspective and I really didn’t know how much it was going to affect me personally until I had done it.

It was kind of an emotional process to dive that deeply into the way that I think on a daily basis. It was a big idea and I wasn’t sure how to tackle it, but I can look back now and say that one of the things I’m most proud of doing in college is that project. Professor Dhaliwal encouraged me to step outside of my box and try something that I might not have otherwise.

“It was a big idea and I wasn’t sure how to tackle it, but I can look back now and say that one of the things I’m most proud of doing in college is that project. Professor Dhaliwal encouraged me to step outside of my box and try something that I might not have otherwise.”

‘You’re Probably OK’: Beyond the Dome career development program propels A&L majors

2023-04-13T08:00:00-04:00

This story was originally published in The Observer, Notre Dame’s student-run print and online newspaper.

Arts & Letters majors network with representatives from McKinsey & Co. at the kickoff event for BTDx in Foley’s at O'Neill Hall.

If students in the College of Arts and Letters haven’t tuned in to Beyond the Dome’s (BTD) new podcast, YouTube channel or LinkedIn page, they may have noticed 40-plus emails from the “bespoke” career development program since Aug. 2022.

Branded as a toolkit to guide Arts and Letters students through career discernment, BTD — an endowed initiative of the Arts and Letters dean’s office — was first introduced over two years ago.

But under Arts and Letters career program manager Jared Mrozinske, who assumed his role in December 2021 after years of working on startups, BTD has ramped up programming.

“Its big coming out party was definitely kicked off this fall,” Mrozinske said.

A partner of undergraduate career services but not another career center, BTD functions a mechanism to “de-stress” the career development process for Arts and Letters students, Mrozinske said.

“We empower Arts and Letters students to understand the inherent skills that they have and how to break into whatever career path they want with those skills,” he said.

The core of the original BTD was its peer-mentoring program called Peers to Careers (P2C) — a network of “up to 90” Arts and Letters students trained to navigate career resources — in every dorm on campus.

The first thing Mrozinske did as BTD’s director, he explained, was create the P2C Board of Creators — a biweekly-convening body of “innovative” Arts and Letters students with titles like ”chief buzz ambassador” or ”chief data alchemist.”

Board director, or chief inspiration officer, Lucy Langholz said as a first-year in Arts and Letters wanting to go into business, she was faced with a common Notre Dame conundrum.

“A huge decision for me was whether or not to transfer into Mendoza,” Langholz said.

After choosing to stay as an anthropology and global affairs major, Langholz said she is grateful for the chance to “study everything and do anything.”

“I’ve really tried to embody that [tagline],” Langholz said. “I feel like Arts and Letters has given me the opportunity to gain as much from my college experience as I can.”

“These programs aren’t designed to test you — they’re there to help you. We’re hoping that everything we’re doing is, again, de-stressing (the career discernment) process a little bit and showing that it’s not that scary.”

Throughout this year, Langholz and the P2C board have generated “buy-in” from their peers by hosting an Imagine A World case competitions with Teach for America and Accenture in the fall and spring semesters, respectively, setting up a networking session with the CIA and launching BTDx — a business and consulting initiative with McKinsey & Co.

Jared Mrozinske

“Most of these event ideas came from conversations with [the P2C board] about what we wished we had as students, with the end goal of boosting career readiness and overall confidence in Arts and Letters degrees,” Langholz said.

Senior Jack Loesch, a P2C career community leader for healthcare who advises peers preparing for medical school or interested in fields like healthcare consulting, said BTD’s networking opportunities have been so enticing as to attract students outside of Arts and Letters.

“There’s been a lot of Mendoza students or other students that have tried to enter these competitions or come to these events,” Loesch said. “We have to tell them ‘no’ because it’s just for Arts and Letters.”

BTD newsletter alumni spotlight columnist, junior Caitlyn McHenry, who also connects peers with industry leaders in media, said BTD is more rewarding because it’s all done by student volunteers.

“I don’t get paid or anything like that, and I almost prefer that because there’s integrity and authenticity in that,” McHenry said. “I absolutely have loved meeting all the students that I’ve helped and knowing that I can help them ease the fear of trying to find a career, trying to find that internship and not really knowing who to go to or what they really want to do — helping clarify that for them.”

Loesch said initiatives like BTD and P2C are necessary because while Arts and Letters majors can enter any field and be very successful, the track is not as “cut-and-dried.”

“As opposed to the more direct routes that you might find in the Mendoza College of Business or in engineering, you have to be a little bit more driven as an Arts and Letters major with your degree in terms of figuring out what career path is best for you,” Loesch said.

Arts and Letters students come in with “incredibly thoughtful reasons” for picking their major, Mrozinske said. But over the course of four years, pressure stacks up — self-pressure, peer-pressure, family-pressure and student loan debt — and students feel pushed to “just get a job,” he said.

“These programs aren’t designed to test you — they’re there to help you,” Mrozinske said. “We’re hoping that everything we’re doing is, again, de-stressing that process a little bit and showing that it’s not that scary. It’s not that scary to talk to a partner at McKinsey or the exec at Atlantic Records. They’re just regular people just like you were at one point. They didn’t know what they were doing either.”

The Peers2Careers board and career program manager Jared Mrozinske pose at this semester’s Imagine A World competition with Accenture.

Mrozinske said the very name of BTD’s podcast — co-hosted by him and Langholz — “You’re Probably Okay,” affirms to Arts and Letters students that graduates can be “just about anything” they want after they “retire from college.”

An alum of Purdue University, Mrozinske explained when he came to Notre Dame, he was struck by how many people would go for runs around campus.

“I was thinking — a three-mile run — it’s probably 30 to 45 minutes,” Mrozinske said. “Beyond the Dome is trying to reach everybody. We can’t drag students to the events. We can’t force them to even read the newsletter emails. Why don’t we just put an episode in the air? They can listen to it on their own time.”

Through the five episodes of “You’re Probably Okay” season one, Mrozinske and Langholz take in stories from a selection of “Notre Dame’s finest” Arts and Letters outputs, including the founder of campus’s Apple Computer club who became CIO of Coca-Cola and a medieval ecclesiology scholar turned salesman.

“The ladder of success is not always up,” Langholtz recites in the podcast’s introductory loop. “At times it’s sideways or even down, but it always leads where you’re supposed to be.”

“The ladder of success is not always up. At times it’s sideways or even down, but it always leads where you’re supposed to be.”

From Dublin to London to D.C., American studies major pursues research, internships, and coursework focused on improving affordable housing for urban communities

2023-04-10T08:00:00-04:00

In just the past year, Notre Dame junior Jasmine Mitchell has studied in Dublin, London, and Washington, D.C.

“Notre Dame has pushed me to expand my horizons, and given me the opportunity to push beyond my own context,” Mitchell said.

In each location she’s traveled to, Mitchell has studied how localities are addressing affordable housing, and she hopes to eventually bring innovative solutions back to urban communities in the United States. Because no matter how far her travels have taken her, she’s never lost sight of the problems facing her home community of Atlanta.

By using her diverse academic interests — American studies, business economics, and public policy — to study this pressing issue, she’s striving to make the difference that others have failed to.

“Being raised in Georgia, seeing the issues of gentrification, food insecurity, things like that, I've always been like, ‘This is wrong, this is not OK,’” she said. “No one's addressing it now, but give me some time — I'll get there.”

“Being raised in Georgia, seeing the issues of gentrification, food insecurity, things like that, I've always been like, ‘This is wrong, this is not OK.’ No one's addressing it now, but give me some time — I'll get there.”

The draw of community

Mitchell first heard about Notre Dame while browsing through the list of institutions partnering with QuestBridge, a scholarship program that matches low-income and first-generation students with universities. As Mitchell began to research the culture at Notre Dame, the strong community became evident almost immediately.

“As a first-generation student, I knew I wouldn't know anything about college, and I knew I needed that strong backbone,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell (front row, right) with students and faculty at an AnBryce Scholars Initiative holiday gathering.

She found support in the QuestBridge community and the AnBryce Scholars Initiative, a program offering mentorship to first-generation students. Eventually, Mitchell became part of this backbone for others — she served on the board of 1stGND, a community for first-generation students, and she performed in Show Some Skin, an annual production of student monologues highlighting marginalized voices and experiences on campus.

Mitchell was also drawn to Notre Dame’s commitment to being a force for good in the world — and though her academic passions evolved over time, she always kept this mindset at the center. She entered her first year as an intended finance major, inspired by the importance of financial literacy and a few high school internships in consulting and finance at The Intersect Group, FTI Consulting, and the USPS. Mitchell registered for Introduction to American Studies solely to satisfy the university’s history requirement, but the class with Associate Professor Jason Ruiz quickly sparked a deep love for the discipline.

“Every class, I was super excited to get there,” Mitchell said. “I loved the discussions, our readings. I found myself talking to my friends like every day about what we learned, what we talked about, and all the readings that we did.”

Mitchell was fascinated by American studies’ exploration of how identity shapes perceptions and realities, delving enthusiastically into the breadth of the department’s course offerings.

“American studies pushed me to think about identity in a different way,” she said, “and it's also helped me to consider the certain systems within society and how they're structured, and how we can change them and make them better for everyone.”

Opening doors to the world

Growing up in Atlanta, Mitchell had seen how these systems of power affected urban communities, particularly regarding the lack of affordable housing. Mitchell’s passion for this issue led her to add minors in the Hesburgh Program in Public Service and business economics, building practical skills needed to confront this problem.

Then, she turned her knowledge and skillset into action when she went abroad. After taking a trip to Ireland over spring break with her fellow AnBryce students, she was inspired to return to the country for a longer exploration. She applied for Notre Dame’s Irish Internship Program, which connects students with summer internships and research opportunities in Ireland.

Mitchell (front row, center) while abroad in Ireland.

Mitchell spent eight weeks in Dublin researching how affordable housing for single individuals is impacted by financialization (how housing is seen as an economic opportunity rather than a right).

“Notre Dame has impacted me by opening doors to the world,” Mitchell said. “Coming to Notre Dame, I didn't know that I was going to study abroad. It was always a dream.”

Mitchell utilized research databases at the National Library of Ireland and spoke with professors at University College Dublin and Trinity College to learn about how the country was addressing its housing crisis. On top of the academic resources, some of the best research came from the everyday conversations Mitchell had by living amongst the people of Dublin.

“Just being able to walk up to people in Ireland and ask them what they think — it was a really personal experience to talk to people about the issues that they care about, the current housing crisis, and how they're affected,” Mitchell said.

She’s planning to expand this analysis into her senior thesis next year, applying lessons from Ireland to the situation in the United States.

After the support she received from the University’s Dublin Global Gateway, Mitchell was eager to take advantage of the opportunities at another of the Global Gateways, leading her to study abroad in London in the fall of 2022. She built on her past research experiences by taking a class called At Home with the Victorians, which focused on housing in London throughout history.

“It was really interesting seeing how housing changed and how support for affordable housing kind of evolved,” Mitchell said. “So that really gave me another perspective in the context of the UK.”

A foundation for every path

Mitchell is now gathering a new point of view through the Washington Program, where she’s spent the semester interning at the Neighborhood Development Company, a real estate development company that focuses on creating affordable housing for the D.C. community. Mitchell has been assisting with researching, grant-writing, and more for the organization, giving her hands-on experience to complement her research and academic exploration of housing solutions.

“Coming to Notre Dame, I didn't know that I was going to study abroad,” Mitchell said. “It was always a dream.”

Her exposure to D.C. has been invaluable, she said, as she plans to work in real estate development, urban planning, or public policy with the goal of creating affordable housing and helping agencies engage with the communities they serve.

To Mitchell, her liberal arts education — specifically the exploration of identity through the humanities — is integral to her future career destinations.

“It's embedded in the business, it's embedded in policy,” Mitchell said. “In business, you use identity to decide how you advertise yourself, what your brand is, and what your values are. In policy, you’re asking questions about how you make policies that support the identities in your community.”

No matter which sectors she enters across her career, the College of Arts and Letters has prepared Mitchell with a spread of transferable skills — from critical thinking, communication, and more — that she can leverage across every opportunity.

“A liberal arts education,” she said, “allows you to build very foundational skills that can really be applicable to anything that you want to do.”

“A liberal arts education allows you to build very foundational skills that can really be applicable to anything that you want to do.”

Art history major Kendra Lyimo named 2023 Beinecke Scholar

2023-04-06T08:36:00-04:00

Kendra Lyimo

Since Kendra Lyimo was a child, her father has regularly traveled to his native Tanzania and returned with beaded necklaces, carved figurines and other items of sentimental and cultural value, fostering a lifelong interest in East African art and identity for the University of Notre Dame junior.

“By making art an integral part of my everyday life, my father spurred my interest in the value and history of art — an interest I have chosen to continue at the post-secondary level,” Lyimo said.

Now, the art history major, who is pursuing a supplementary major in global affairs, will have the opportunity to pursue her passion for art and art history even further — as one of 19 Beinecke Scholars in the 2023 cohort.

Emily Hunt is student engagement program manager with the Flatley Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement (CUSE), which promotes the intellectual development of Notre Dame undergraduates through scholarly engagement, research, creative endeavors and the pursuit of fellowships.

“I am thrilled that Kendra was named a 2023 Beinecke Scholar, which signals her extraordinary potential as a scholar of East African art,” Hunt said. “Throughout her three years at Notre Dame, she has taken advantage of grant funding opportunities, research training through the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study, professional development through her work with the Snite Museum of Art, and meaningful mentorship from faculty and staff. Coupled with her genuine personal motivation, this preparation made her an ideal candidate for the highly selective application process.”

Established in 1971 by the board of directors of the Sperry and Hutchinson Co., the Beinecke Scholarship seeks to encourage and enable highly motivated students to “be courageous in the selection of a graduate course of study in the arts, humanities and social sciences.”

Scholars receive $5,000 upfront, for application and other expenses, plus $30,000 while attending graduate school.

“I seek to conduct research that enriches the art history canon, sharing ideas with fellow scholars and curious students in hopes that my efforts may inspire future research in the field. “It is equally, if not more, important to me that I devote myself to carrying out this research in a way that uplifts the communities about which I speak and shares ideas in an accessible yet thought-provoking way.”

A first-generation college student from a working-class background, Lyimo, a native of Minnesota, has distinguished herself as a serious scholar of East African art and identity and the art of the African diaspora during her time at Notre Dame.

She assisted Tatiana Reinoza, assistant professor of art history, with the creation and curation of “All My Ancestors: The Spiritual in Afro-Latinx Art” at the Brandywine Workshop and archives in Philadelphia. She also served as a research assistant in the Department of Art, Art History and Design and at the Snite Museum of Art and as an undergraduate research fellow with the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study, where she assisted with a biography of Black activist and educator Ericka Huggins.

Last summer, she researched art in Kenya and Tanzania with support from a Gero Family Travel Grant from the Department of Art, Art History and Design. She also traveled to Ireland, where she researched contemporary Irish designers through the Notre Dame Dublin Global Gateway.

Currently, she is researching expressions of multicultural identity in the work of contemporary Afro-Italian artists as a Rome International Scholar working out of the Notre Dame Rome Global Gateway.

As a Beinecke Scholar, Lyimo plans to study art and art history with the goal of advancing scholarship around East African art and its ideas and expanding access to East African art through teaching and outreach.

“I seek to conduct research that enriches the art history canon, sharing ideas with fellow scholars and curious students in hopes that my efforts may inspire future research in the field,” Lyimo said. “It is equally, if not more, important to me that I devote myself to carrying out this research in a way that uplifts the communities about which I speak and shares ideas in an accessible yet thought-provoking way.”

For more on this and other scholarship opportunities, visit cuse.nd.edu.

Originally published at news.nd.edu.

Team effort: Through new Rome Fellows Program, sociologist and students take on pressing research question, present findings to Vatican officials

2023-04-05T08:00:00-04:00

Christian Smith (right), the inaugural Pizzo Family Rome Senior Research Fellow, with his students outside Notre Dame’s Rome Global Gateway.

Fewer Americans have identified as a member of a religion over the last 30 years, and Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith is working to explain why.

With the help of five undergraduates and one graduate student, this research is the centerpiece of a first-of-its-kind class at the University’s Rome Global Gateway that is culminating with a two-day symposium in April with Vatican officials and European scholars.

“We know from survey data and other studies that younger adults in the United States have become detached from traditional religion — even in ways Baby Boomers have not,” said Smith, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology. “This project tries to understand what happened.”

The research effort to examine contributing factors of this new religious reality is supported by the inaugural year of the Rome Fellows Program, a College of Arts & Letters initiative designed to pair intense undergraduate research experience with an ongoing question a faculty member is interested in exploring further.

The 12-month program, led by the Pizzo Family Rome Senior Research Fellow, will annually give students the chance to work collaboratively on a significant research question, spending time in a class on campus in the fall and advancing research in Rome in the spring.

“Much of what undergrads usually consume is the final results of research. Here, they’re getting thrown in from the beginning to see the process unfold over time,” Smith said. “Very few undergraduates in the country get this big-picture, long-term experience.”

“Much of what undergrads usually consume is the final results of research. Here, they’re getting thrown in from the beginning to see the process unfold over time. Very few undergraduates in the country get this big-picture, long-term experience.”

‘A huge phenomenon’

The research effort began last year on campus, with students conducting 200 in-person interviews focused on the human side of what people believe and how the world shapes religion through politics, families, and communities.

For the historical perspective of this trend, the team has been analyzing 30 sociological developments. The early 1990s is a key starting point, as that timeframe covers the post-Cold War world and the rise of the internet. Another focal point is the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 — a time when religion and violence intersected in news coverage, and the mass casualties and subsequent overseas conflicts shaped beliefs.

Smith’s research effort began last year on campus, with students conducting 200 in-person interviews focused on the human side of what people believe and how the world shapes religion.

“Traditional religion started to bomb out with younger adults — beginning with Gen Xers and Millennials and continuing with Gen Z,” Smith said. “This involved the growth of Americans identifying as ‘not religious.’ That’s grown since 1991, and especially in young Americans. The growth of ‘spiritual but not religious’ has become a huge phenomenon.”

To explain the drop-off, Smith and the students are examining music, pop culture, and the public fascination with vampires, werewolves, witchcraft, and UFOs. The growing interest in mindfulness, which is now part of corporate culture and mental-health support, will also be explored.

The team is also considering how the internet’s creation and rapid growth changed the way people think about authority, communication, news, information, and what it means to have a community.

“Nobody has put it all together, but I hope our research and its findings will help the Church come to grips with the profundity of the situation, the dire straits it’s in,” Smith said. “There is a pope right now who seems to have some sense that things need to change. As a sociologist, I’m not here to tell the Church what it needs to do. I’m just trying to provide fact-based information on what’s going on in the world.”

‘The more brains … the better’

Smith has especially enjoyed the opportunity that serving as the inaugural Pizzo Family Rome Senior Research Fellow has provided to work with the same group of students over a 12-month period.

“They’re just so good,” he said. “It’s fun to teach in a class for 14 weeks, but then the semester is over, and we have a whole new class of students. That’s university life. But this is a great opportunity to get to know undergrads, and they see what a professor’s life is like. The Rome program is already amazing as it is. This just adds a whole other dimension and layer.”

The research team at one of its favorite restaurants in Rome.

Sociology Ph.D. student Matt Coetzee described the program as an unparalleled opportunity for students to be involved in a project that is this expansive in scope.

“It’s really unique for undergrad exposure,” said Coetzee, a native of South Africa who appreciates that his daily commute in Rome leads him past the Colosseum. “It’s so great for critical thinking and their engagement in really tackling bigger sociological and life questions. This is how knowledge gets generated. It’s a messy process and a creative process that gets filtered. And the more brains you have working on it, the better.”

For sophomore Mary Grace Walsh, the project has been a perfect blend of her theology and sociology majors and reshaped the way she thinks about research. The experience has helped her develop many valuable skills and build strong relationships with mentors and friends, and she’s now already planning her senior thesis on disability and religion.

“I didn’t realize that academic research could be so formative, even for a student who has little interest in a future career in academia,” Walsh said. “This program has profoundly shaped my academic life and my Notre Dame experience for the better.”

The research project will vary every year, based on the research question the Pizzo fellow chooses to explore. As designed, it will conclude with a symposium that brings together Church officials, journalists, and scholars throughout Rome and the rest of Italy and Europe.

“We’re engaging people in the Church — especially in the Vatican — for a day to have a big conversation about what the research project is about,” Smith said. “If this succeeds, Notre Dame faculty, as scholars, are learning things that can contribute to the knowledge of leaders in the Church — things they should know and be interested in learning about and hearing about.”

“If this succeeds, Notre Dame faculty, as scholars, are learning things that can contribute to the knowledge of leaders in the Church — things they should know and be interested in learning about and hearing about.”