Hypatia students also enjoyed dinners together in Chicago, an overnight stay at the beautiful Beaux-Arts style Palmer House hotel, and a midnight excursion to the Bean, where we began our Fall field trip.

Each year, the Reilly Center hosts a public lecture on or about the birthday of the Victorian critic John Ruskin (February 8), asking the question, "How can the arts and humanities address our current crisis?"

This year's Ruskin Lecture was given on February 12 by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Mona Chalabi. In recent years, she has devoted her attention to the ongoing human disasters in Gaza, Sudan, and the Congo, and has used her professional skills as a data journalist and visual artist to turn the terrible, but mind-numbing statistics of death and casualty, into vivid images that allow the humanity of the victims to be seen again. In this lecture, she gave the audience a sense of her work over the last few years; but also reflected frankly on the frustrations she feels as a journalist: in particular, to watch the continuing destruction of the Palestinian people even in the face of such vividly presented evidence.

Her lecture was followed by a lively discussion, led by

Notre Dame professor Atalia Omer. After the lecture, Mona was very generous with her time both to faculty and undergraduate students, continuing a fascinating and provocative conversation about the ways that writing and art can break through the noise, and remind us of our common humanity with those who suffer in distant places. The Center is very grateful to Mona for another very memorable installment in the Ruskin Birthday Lecture series.

"I started boxing in the third week of school this semester. My older sister is a manager for the boxing club and she recommended that I join. From my first practice, I found the community to be incredibly supportive and the practices super fun. Boxing became a huge part of my life and something I looked forward to doing almost every day. Sparring was unlike anything I had ever done before. I consider myself to be a civilized person, so being put in a situation where it is acceptable to punch someone as hard as I could was crazy to me. Then came the tournament, the most terrifying three nights of my life. Each round would bring a new level of nervousness and anticipation, and then a wave of joy after I won. Boxing has been one of the biggest but most rewarding challenges I have faced thus far. I am so proud to be a 2025 Baraka Bouts Champion, and I look forward to participating again in the coming years! I absolutely recommend anyone considering it to try it out, especially if they’ve never done anything like it before. Who knows, you might win the whole thing!" -Lucy Graceffo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kio6n9InDhs&t=9776s

At the beginning of November, the Hypatia Scholars took its first field trip to the Art Institute of Chicago, where the students engaged in the process of “slow looking” at works of art.

“Slow looking” is a term coined by Shari Tishman, a researcher at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, in which viewers “move beyond a first impression and create a more immersive experience.”

Each Hypatia Scholar was asked to choose two works from the Art Institute’s massive collection and sit with it for ten minutes, before answering a series of questions about what they see, think, and feel.

This kind of patient and deliberate approach to seeing and thinking is one that the Hypatia Scholars program seeks to engender in its scholars. It is a habit of mind that is a radical act in a world in which AI and other technologies present us with convenient time-saving shortcuts.

Fundamentally, Dr. Gamez inquires into what the prospects of AI are for human, or posthuman, liberation. Posthumanists tend to think that new and emerging technologies are valuable tools for escaping the constraints of our cultural, political, and evolutionary histories. To the contrary, Dr. Gamez argues that the use of AI in the practices of contemporary surveillance capitalism reveals a striking nihilism, raising deep questions about how we construe minds at all.

Published in the Palgrave Studies in the Future of Humanity and Its Successors series, this work is sure to spark debate about the limits of artificial intelligence and human self-understanding well into the future.

The Species Catalogue is an online database where members of the Notre Dame community can submit flora and fauna found across ND’s campuses. Beyond providing information on how to experience the various species around campus, the catalogue also features poems inspired by encounters with each species written by the Notre Dame community. 

Each species also includes a Resident Expert on campus and their contact information if one wants to learn more about them. 

Submissions are open for findings or poetry - all ages and abilities are welcome to submit. 

The Species Catalogue can be found here.

The Franco Institute Dissertation Fellows Program aims to help outstanding graduate students make significant progress on their dissertations.

After retiring from the Air Force in 2006, Maj. Gen. Latiff - who also received his PhD in material science from Notre Dame - returned to the Reilly Center to develop the course in order to provide students with the resources to think carefully about the moral choices that armed conflict makes so difficult, but so necessary. Since its inception, it has been a cornerstone of the Reilly Center's course offerings, serving students, for example, in the Science, Technology, and Values program, the Notre Dame International Security Center, exploring how contemporary technologies should be viewed through the lens of Just War Theory. At the time, it was one of the only such courses in the country, and Dr. Latiff's work was noted by national media, which ultimately led to the publication of his first book, Future War: Preparing for the New Global Battlefield (Knopf, 2017); a later fellowship at the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study led to a second, Future Peace: Technology, Aggression, and the Rush to War (University of Notre Dame, 2022).

The conference featured keynote speeches from John R. Emery (University of Oklahoma), Claire Finkelstein (Penn Carey Law School), Christian Enemark (University of Southampton), covering issues from the continuing transformation of drone warfare in the Russia-Ukraine conflict to thorny issues around the assignment of responsibility for autonomous weapons. With closing reflections on a lifetime of service both military and academic from Maj. Gen. Latiff ending the event on a high note, the conference was not only a successful celebration,but a showcase of cutting edge research around contemporary challenges to Just War Theory and the Laws of Armed Conflict, and a lively occasion to develop and refine work in progress.

Just Future Wars was supported by the College of Arts & Letters, the Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good, the Notre Dame International Security Center, the Department of Physics, and the Department of Philosophy.

Joe Alcock MD

University of New Mexico, Department of Emergency Medicine

Did you know that the bacteria and microorganisms in our bodies are just as numerous—if not greater—than our own human cells? Or that modern, industrialized people sleep less than our ancestors? These are familiar facts, but the real question is: how do they connect?

Dr. Joe Alcock, an emergency medicine physician and researcher at the University of New Mexico, visited Notre Dame to explain how our microbiome and circadian rhythms are intertwined, and its associations with various health consequences.

These are some key takeaways:

1. Gut Microbiome and Human Health

• Our microbes equal or outnumber human cells and carry 100 times more genes.

• The gut microbiome has its own circadian rhythm, regulating digestion, immunity, and metabolism.

• Sleep and eating disruptions interfere with microbial cycles.

2. Sleep and Circadian Rhythms

• People today sleep 5–7 hours on average, less than pre-industrial humans.

• Compared to other primates, humans sleep less, on average. However, REM sleep makes up a greater share in humans than in other primates.

• Sleep supports immunity, metabolism, and microbial stability.

• Maybe we aren’t sleep deprived? Current hunter-gatherer communities sleep, on average, 5-7 hours (less than CDC recommended) and are healthy.

3. Consequences of Sleep Disruption

• Night shifts and late nights are linked to:

• Metabolic issues, weight gain, and pre-diabetes.

• Higher risks of breast and prostate cancer.

• Reduced sleep efficiency and chronic sleep deprivation.

• How does shift work impact microbial oscillations?

• Day-shift workers show strong microbial rhythms.

• Night-shift workers show weakened rhythms.

• Germ-free mice study suggest that disrupted microbial cycles promote weight gain.

4. Evolutionary Perspective – Gene–Environment Mismatch

• Humans evolved under natural light-dark cycles; artificial light and irregular schedules cause a mismatch between genes and environment.

• Group safety once influenced sleep architecture; difficulty sleeping in new places (“first night effect”)

• Falling asleep instantly may indicate sleep deprivation, not health.

• Eating at night worsens circadian misalignment; microbes may even drive food cravings via satiety hormones.

• GLP1 drugs (i.e Ozempic) have an interesting association with sleep apnea, sleep quality.

In the paper, Dr. Evans challenges what qualifies a condition of the mind to be considered a "mental disorder" by examining the current theoretical approaches used to define mental disorders - naturalism, normativism, and hybridism.

Evans raises the following questions: 

"Are biological and social norms the only sorts of norms relevant to mental disorder?  Should addressing norm deviations continue to be a major focus of mental healthcare?"

Link to the full article can be found here.

Congratulations Josh Tonkel, the 2025 HPS Sloan Prize recipient. The Sloan Prize is presented to an advanced HPS graduate student who is thought to embody the values of scholarship and service exemplified by one of the founders of our Program, emeritus professor Phil Sloan.

Faeze Fazeli was awarded the 2025 G. Margaret Porter Gender Studies Writing Award for the best article or dissertation chapter. Fafa was awarded for her work "Reassessing Biological Sex: Competing Models, Epistemic Values and the Contextualist Approach."

As a co-founder of Routora, a startup focused on route optimization, I often work on technical
problems. STV reminds me to ask deeper questions.

“Who is this helping? Why are we building it? What values are driving our choices?”

The idea of "choosing hard," which inspired the panel event I helped organize, is something I first encountered through faith. Father Nate Wills once preached that the more difficult paths often offer the most virtue. I felt this firsthand when launching Routora during a challenging time in my life, and it's a theme we brought to the forefront of our panel discussion at the IDEA Center.

STV gave me the framework to articulate why this mattered not only personally, but societally.

At the event, Chris Murphy, CEO of First Source Bank, shared a line that stayed with me:

“Most success is measured by the things you have—the house, the car, the toys. But when you die, all those are gone. What you want is significance. The way you get significance is through the people you touch, the lives you affect, and the goodness you've done that is left behind when you're gone.”

That line struck a chord because it echoed everything we talked about in STV. The long-term ethical implications of our work matter. That doing something impactful and meaningful should outweigh any material gain.

It’s also an idea I revisit every Friday in my direct readings course with Professor Anna Geltzer. Her mentorship has taught me to zoom out and view my entrepreneurial path not only through a lens of execution but also one of purpose.

Professor Gamez's course, Science, Technology, and Society, helped me step back and understand how science and technology are shaped by human choices. These fields are not just driven by raw data or invention. We explored questions about objectivity, risk, and power that challenged me to think beyond business outcomes. The course gave me tools to see how even the technologies we take for granted are built on values.

One of the most moving parts of the panel came from Alessandro DiSanto. He spoke about a line from the Lord’s Prayer.

“Give us this day our daily bread,” Alessandro DiSanto reflected during the event. “Not tomorrow’s bread, not yesterday’s worries. Just today’s portion.”

That moment beautifully captured what STV teaches. Act with purpose today. Care for the future. Do the work that matters.

Faith was a steady theme throughout the panel. Luke and I both come from Christian backgrounds, and our faith has helped guide us through difficult times. When Luke faced a serious autoimmune disease and had to take some time off school, his belief that there was purpose in the struggle helped him keep going. For me, faith has shaped how I view my own journey. I came to the United States as an immigrant and spent years in ESL and speech therapy learning how to speak English. Those early challenges taught me to see adversity as preparation rather than a setback.

Chris Murphy shared that prayer has shaped many of his biggest decisions. He spoke about asking for guidance and

learning to let go of what is outside your control. Tracy Graham reflected on how prayer gave him clarity and strength throughout his career. Alessandro DiSanto shared how learning to pray helped him discover his calling and commit fully to it. Each story made it clear that faith is not separate from the entrepreneurial path. It gives it depth and direction.

The STV minor didn’t just prepare me to be a better entrepreneur. It has prepared me to be a
more reflective, responsible, and grounded human being. For that, I am profoundly grateful.

One such collaborative is lead by Patrick Gamez, Director of the Reilly Dual Degree Program in Arts & Letters and Engineering, and Tom Stapleford, Department Chair of the Program of Liberal Studies as well as a faculty member of the Reilly Program in History & Philosophy of Science. 

On March 3rd, 2025, over 30 graduate students from 5 universities across Indiana attended the Science Policy Initiative at Notre Dame’s 6th Annual Indiana Science Communication Day (INSciCommDay) to help minimize this gap one lawmaker at a time. The goal of INSciCommDay was to allot graduate students across Indiana the chance to engage with the policy-relevance of their work, and to do so they dedicated several hours in workshops and preparatory meetings to ensure the message they distill to legislators is clear, concise, and powerful. Graduate students arrived at the Statehouse in Indianapolis, IN ready to share their work with state legislators from the Senate and the House, representatives from our Indiana federal Senators, and interested community members. They spoke to these legislators about topics ranging from science education and outreach in schools and community, supporting global health efforts, and wastewater-based epidemiology. This opportunity allowed graduate students to gain experience engaging a non-scientific audience and to communicate their research directly to policymakers in our state while connecting with fellow researchers within the state.

Back in 2019, the very first INSciCommDay only had 15 participants and 2 posters. Witnessing the growth of this event through graduate students in the state has been astounding, and we commend them all for attending to advance their communication and networking skills. Since its inception, some students have even formed connections with policymakers who are truly interested in making a change and have gone on to pursue internships and careers in science policy, industry, government, and academic research. INSciCommDay is unique because it is not just a “day” - it is a professional development experience that attendees take time to practice and prepare for. By signing up for INSciCommDay, participants are able to attend a Science Communication and a Poster and Pitch Workshop hosted by professionals who provide guidance on how to translate their research so they can discuss science with lawmakers. Historically, Science Communication Day has encompassed a poster session and potential meetings with lawmakers. This year, participants heard from lawmakers who encouraged and welcomed us into the science-policy space (Representative Garcia and Senator Qaddoura), introduced lawmakers and staff to their research through a poster session in the main atrium, and attended a legislative session to witness policy making. Some attendees also had one-on-one meetings with their representatives throughout the day. Around 10-15 lawmakers, and many other legislative assistants, attended the event and held meaningful conversations with the attendees. By making INSciCommDay a multifaceted event, it offered the opportunity for witnessing and interacting with lawmaking and governance on multiple levels.

The Science Policy Initiative is so grateful for the generous support of the University of Notre Dame’s Colleges of Sciences and Engineering as well as the Union of Concerned Scientists to put on the 6th Annual INSciCommDay free of charge to graduate students across Indiana. The extensive support and guidance makes this event accessible for all participants. Additionally, SPI continued its extensive partnership with Indiana’s School of Medicine’s Initiative for Mobilizing Public Health Advocacy, Care, and Translational research for Alzheimer's Disease in Indiana (IMPACT) to help expand INSciCommDay’s reach across Indiana and ensure that the event is beneficial to all. In partnership with GLOBES and the Association for Women in Science, Notre Dame, SPI brought Dr. Deborah Stine from the Science & Technology Policy Academy to campus for an all-day in-person Science Policy and Science Pitch workshop to offer to all individuals who registered for INSciCommDay that was focused on distilling research to a general audience and policy makers. The workshop began with science policy background and instruction from Dr. Stine. Participants practiced by constructively analyzing last year’s Indiana Science Communication Day posters and developing and delivering their own science policy pitches that were judged by Drs. Katharine Biberdorf, Amy Hixon, Anna Geltzer, and Diego Gómez-Zará. Participants gained insights for explaining their science and work to lawmakers and the community and developed their own policy pitches for the event, taking knowledge and skills with them that they will utilize throughout their scientific careers.

Now, more than ever as science is being defunded across the country, we scientists have a responsibility to communicate our work, engage with our local communities, and work to rebuild the trust in our field that has broken down across the United States. We know that science and research and development (R&D) play a pivotal role in advancing human knowledge, driving innovation, and addressing global challenges. Through scientific inquiry, we gain insights into the workings of the natural world, leading to technological breakthroughs that improve our quality of life, enhance healthcare, boost economic growth, and protect the environment. But, our job does not end there. We must ensure that we effectively communicate our science to promote informed decision-making, encourage critical thinking, and build trust between scientists and society. We are looking forward to more INSciCommDays to come - so keep an eye out for information about the 7th INSciCommDay next spring, and please reach out to the Science Policy Initiative at Notre Dame (scipol@nd.edu) if you are interested in helping us to make it happen!

Check out our website and follow us on social media!

X (Formerly known as twitter): @SciPolND

Bluesky: @scipolnotredame.bsky.social

Facebook