International // Notre Dame News // Notre Dame News

Notre Dame to open three new international programs

2013-05-15T14:30:00-04:00

The University of Notre Dame’s International Studies office has announced that it will offer three new opportunities for study abroad in South Korea, Spain and Switzerland in spring 2014.

Notre Dame and Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, will begin a bilateral exchange program in the spring 2014 semester. Open to undergraduates in all majors, the program does not require knowledge of the Korean language, since its courses will be taught in English. Available courses will include Korean language, Korean studies, business and economics, politics, sociology, engineering, sciences and human ecology.

Notre Dame and the Polytechnic Institute of Valencia in Alcoy, Spain, will begin a bilateral exchange program in spring 2014. Designed for sophomore or junior engineering majors, particularly those in chemical, electrical and computer science engineering, the program will be offered to students who have completed at least two semesters of college-level Spanish or the equivalent.

Through Boston University’s Geneva-Physics program, Notre Dame students will have the opportunity to study at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland. The program, which combines coursework in quantum physics and electrodynamics at UNIGE and directed research at CERN, is open to physics majors who have completed at least two semesters of college-level French or the equivalent. Additionally, students will be required to complete a specially designed French-language tutorial before going to Geneva.

Applications for all these new programs are available online.

Contact: Kathleen Opel, director of international studies, 574-631-9525, kopel@nd.edu

China’s new leadership: Notre Dame examines what changes mean

2013-05-09T15:40:00-04:00

Assembled for the first time at an analytical forum at the University of Notre Dame, a distinguished group of journalists, activists and academics will move beyond conventional scholarly ways of framing debates and address the dramatic changes in China’s leadership in relation to the global community.

To explore what those changes mean for ordinary Chinese citizens and for people around the world connected to China through globalization, “China, the Chinese and the World: Trajectories of Change,” will be held May 13 and 14 (Monday and Tuesday) at Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute for International Studies.

Unlike most scholarly conferences, the forum will not include paper presentations by scholars. Instead, it will take the form of a wide-ranging “global conversation” focused on the rapid change currently taking place in China and subsequent analysis of potential future trends.

Gady Epstein, the China correspondent for The Economist since 2011 and former Beijing bureau chief for Forbes magazine; Xiao Qiang, founder and chief editor of China Digital Times, a bilingual China news website; and Elizabeth Perry, a Harvard University expert on popular protest in contemporary China and director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute, are among the participants. Both Xiao and John Kamm, the founder and executive director of the Dui Hua Foundation, have received MacArthur “genius” awards for their human rights work in China.

Areas of participant expertise include Chinese politics, history, culture and law; censorship and the Internet; the environment and geography; HIV/AIDS, human rights, international relations, military and security issues; and popular protest. A complete list of participants and their biographies is available here.

With China’s inequality skyrocketing and protests erupting in both urban and rural areas, participants in the forum will address issues such as the prospects for democracy 25 years after Tiananmen Square; what these dramatic changes in China’s leadership mean for the global community; and how the socioeconomic and environmental changes brought about by the country’s economic transformation are affecting its ordinary citizens.

Contact: Lionel Jensen, associate professor of East Asian languages and cultures, 574-360-0857, ljensen@nd.edu

Notre Dame to expand exchange with Chile’s Pontifical Catholic University

2013-04-30T08:00:00-04:00

Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., and Ignacio Sánchez Díaz

Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., president of the University of Notre Dame, and Ignacio Sánchez Díaz, president of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (PUC), have signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen scholarly engagement between their institutions, and to advance their mutual ambition to rank among the world’s greatest research universities.

The agreement, signed by both presidents in a ceremony in Notre Dame’s Main Building Monday (April 29), will establish an exchange program in which faculty, doctoral students and university representatives from Notre Dame will visit, work, study and collaborate with PUC colleagues over the next three years. Supported by gifts to Notre Dame and the PUC from Chilean benefactor Andrónico Luksic, the program will formalize and expand upon a long-standing relationship between the two universities and will further enhance the opportunities that both institutions have to engage their faculty and students internationally.

Even now, the PUC is host to Notre Dame’s undergraduate study abroad program in Santiago, Chile and the two universities’ engineering and law schools collaborate in a variety of research projects.

“The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile is one of the leading Catholic research universities in the world, and one with which Notre Dame and its founding religious order, the Congregation of Holy Cross, have enjoyed a long and mutually fruitful relationship, so of course we are delighted to expand our collaboration with them,” Father Jenkins said. “Internationality is not distinct from, but crucial to our Catholic mission, and Andrónico Luksic’s support of this growing relationship between PUC and Notre Dame has the potential to be transformative for both institutions.”

“Our desire is to build ties with great Catholic universities of North America, Europe and Australia, and in doing so to share our interest in improving the quality of innovative pedagogy and research that connects our shared missions and common identity,” Sánchez said. “I am very happy to be here, formalizing an agreement which promises to open up an even brighter future for both the PUC and Notre Dame.”

“We are enthusiastic to build on our existing agreements as well as create a whole range of new opportunities for the mutual benefit of both universities,” said J. Nicholas Entrikin, vice president and associate provost for internationalization at Notre Dame.

“This gift to Notre Dame will result in even greater faculty and graduate student exchange and collaboration with Chile. It is a remarkable opportunity for both PUC and Notre Dame,” said Steve Reifenberg, executive director of Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute for International Studies.

The Chilean delegation visited Notre Dame through the coordination of Notre Dame International and the Kellogg Institute.

Contact: Steve Reifenberg, executive director, Kellogg Institute, sreifenb@nd.edu

Apple executive lectures at Notre Dame’s London Global Gateway

2013-04-29T18:00:00-04:00

Len Rinaldi presents lecture in London

Len Rinaldi, Apple’s managing director for western Europe, delivered the fifth annual Notre Dame Alumni-Student Lecture at Notre Dame International ’s London Global Gateway on April 17.

Notre Dame International and the Notre Dame Club of London cosponsor the lecture series, which is intended to bring Notre Dame students and alumni together to engage with academic, business and governmental leaders from around the world.

In his talk titled “Success through Innovation: Breaking All of the Rules,” Rinaldi traced Apple’s rise to its position as the world’s most valuable company to a culture of innovation and a willingness to ignore conventional wisdom related to customer service, supply chain management, marketing and sales, and finance.

Washington Program packed with opportunity

2013-04-25T16:00:00-04:00

Students pose for a photo at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C.

For students participating in the University of Notre Dame’s Washington Program, the semester studying in our nation’s capital offers opportunities to combine coursework with internships in a range of areas, from Congress and advocacy groups to media and cultural institutions.

This semester, Notre Dame Washington Program students have visited the White House, the Capitol, the State Department, the Pentagon and the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), as part of their core seminar. Notre Dame’s President Emeritus, Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., served on the board of directors at USIP and a hall that houses the Institute’s Religion and Peacemaking Center was named after Father Hesburgh in 2010.

“Students have also met with Francis Rooney, former Ambassador to the Holy See, to discuss the papal conclave, and attended a briefing on human trafficking by Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca, who coordinates U.S. efforts to combat contemporary forms of slavery,” says Tom Kellenberg, executive director of the Washington Program.

“This semester, they also met privately with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., then toured the Supreme Court building. Chief Justice Roberts spent 30 minutes answering student questions regarding the history, traditions and constitutional role of the Supreme Court.”

GAIN Index moves to Notre Dame

2013-04-18T12:00:00-04:00

The Global Adaptation Index (GAIN) — the world’s leading Index showing which countries are best prepared to deal with the droughts, super-storms and other natural disasters that climate change can cause — is moving to the University of Notre Dame. GAIN, which ranks countries annually based on how vulnerable they are to climate change and how prepared they are to adapt, was formerly housed in the Global Adaptation Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.

GAIN is being given to the University by the Global Adaptation Institute with full support of its primary founding sponsor, NGP Energy Capital Management, a $13 billion investment fund based outside Dallas. To help draw attention to the importance of climate change adaptation, the chairman of the Global Adaptation Institute and NGP’s CEO and founder, Ken Hersh, said, “The era of climate change denial is over, the world is getting warmer, and numerous countries are not ready for the chaos that climate change will bring.” The gift includes a $2 million donation from the Natural Gas Partners Foundation.

“GAIN highlights those countries that urgently need help adapting to a warmer world,” Hersh said. “We are thrilled about our new partnership with Notre Dame and its ability to help us take GAIN to the next level.”

Notre Dame researchers will make GAIN more detailed by ranking the vulnerability of states within selected countries — as well as continuing to rank the countries themselves — making GAIN an even more important tool for disaster planning, infrastructure development and ecosystem management around the world.

GAIN Index map

“At Notre Dame, we want to be the researchers who help solve climate adaptation problems, rather than fiddling while people suffer,” said Professor David Lodge, director of the Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative (ND-ECI), where GAIN will be housed. “In just two years, GAIN has captured the attention of multinational corporations, NGOs and government agencies — including those concerned with intelligence and security — and we will continue to get GAIN into the hands of those who can make a difference.”

Recent climate statistics speak for themselves. In the United States, the 10 warmest years on record have all occurred since 1995. More than 34,000 high temperature records were broken last year alone. Similar issues have arisen overseas, from record-breaking heat waves in Australia, to dramatic sea ice losses in the Arctic.

Under the United Nations-led climate talks, billions of dollars have been pledged to help the world adapt to climate change. But key questions remain on where that money should be spent. GAIN is designed to help governments, NGOs and the private sector better target those and other investments. “When I worked at the World Bank, I was responsible for more than 100 countries. Adaptation is an urgent issue in the developing world, and people are fed up with politicians who care more about the next election than the next generation,” said Juan José Daboub, GAIN’s founding CEO, who was managing director of the Bank from 2006-10 and currently serves as chair of the World Economic Forum’s Council on Climate Change.

“Adaptation is a way to rapidly build consensus, take effective action, and produce immediate benefits, including life-saving benefits. Notre Dame is the best school to take GAIN closer to the people in need because of the University’s track record of putting the human being in the center of their actions.”

Key faculty working on GAIN include Professor Nitesh Chawla, a renowned big data scientist and director of the Notre Dame Interdisciplinary Center for Network Science and Applications, and Professor Jessica Hellmann, a leading climate expert, who directs ND-ECI’s Climate Adaptation Program.

“Adaptation is one of the greatest challenges of our time,” Hellmann said. “By combining the intellectual resources of GAIN with Notre Dame’s leading research capacity in adaptation, we can help decision-makers prepare for the challenges ahead.”

“This story is all about data — translating big data into real solutions that have real societal and global impact,” Chawla said. “And Notre Dame has a long and successful track record of translating big data into action on behalf of the private sector and government agencies alike — data and network science for the common good. Now we look forward to doing just that with ND-GAIN.”

GAIN, which will now be called “ND-GAIN,” will continue to be an open-source tool that analyzes a number of sectors to make its calculations, including water, infrastructure, coastal protection, agriculture and energy.

ND-GAIN also will award annual prizes to results-oriented demonstration projects during an ND-GAIN annual meeting. Winners will be selected on criteria such as effectiveness, scalability, impact, marketability and relevance to the ND-GAIN Index. The awards are designed to spark sustainable change and present innovative solutions to adaptation challenges around the world.

Contact: Peter Annin, ND-ECI, pannin@nd.edu

New research reveals dangers to humanitarian workers in conflict zones

2013-04-17T15:00:00-04:00

Larissa Fast

Larissa Fast, assistant professor of conflict resolution at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, has co-authored three new research reports documenting and analyzing the dangers facing humanitarian aid staff working in conflict zones around the world. The reports, recently published in Insecurity Insight, have already been downloaded more than 2,000 times.

In recent years, the number of aid workers killed and injured by firearms, explosive weapons, bombs and other forms of severe violence has risen to unprecedented levels, said Fast.

“Aid workers are first and foremost civilians," said Fast, whose forthcoming book, “Aid in Danger,” also addresses this issue. “Protecting them is a critical part of the overall effort to protect civilians in armed conflict.”

Fast coauthored the reports with Christina Wille, director of Insecurity Insight, a Swiss organization that generates data on the impact of insecurity on people’s lives and helps organizations set up data-gathering systems on related topics.

The three new reports are:

“Operating in Insecurity. Shifting patterns of violence against humanitarian aid providers and their staff (1996-2010).” (download)

“Humanitarian staff security in armed conflict: Policy implications resulting from changes in the operating environment for humanitarian agencies.” (download)

“Security Facts for Humanitarian Agencies. Shifting patterns in security incidents affecting humanitarian aid workers and agencies: An analysis of fifteen years of data (1996-2010).” (download)

This research was funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland. The Kroc Institute and the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, both at the University of Notre Dame, provided additional support for data entry in the Security in Numbers database used for the analysis.

Contact: Larissa Fast, 574-631-7096, lfast@nd.edu

Documentary explores life and death of IRA icon Mairead Farrell

2013-04-17T14:20:00-04:00

Patriot, terrorist or victim? The life and death of Mairéad Farrell, one of Ireland’s most high-profile Irish Republican Army members, have intrigued University of Notre Dame Professor Bríona Nic Dhiarmada for years.

The documentary film “Mairéad Farrell — An Unfinished Conversation,” showing at 7:30 p.m. Thursday (April 18) in Notre Dame’s Browning Cinema, is based on the personal relationship Nic Dhiarmada had with Farrell. The two met several times and talked about Farrell’s life journey from the middle-class upbringing in Belfast to her rise as an iconic IRA figure once imprisoned then gunned down at age 31. At the time of Farrell’s death in 1988, Nic Dhiarmada had been working on a book about her.

“I spent a year and a half interviewing Mairéad Farrell after her release from prison. My last interview was a week before her death in one of the most controversial incidents of the Troubles. The recent Peace Process and the passage of time has allowed me to go back to those very dark days in recent Irish history and try to understand the motivations and the ultimately tragic story of Mairéad Farrell,” Nic Dhiarmada said.

A concurrent faculty member in the departments of Irish Language and Literature and Film, Television, and Theatre, Nic Dhiarmada is both an award-winning writer and documentarian. Serving as guide in the film, she offers insight into who Farrell was and offers context for the times in which she lived.

“I strongly believe that Mairéad Farrell was a product of her environment and a product of Irish history.”

Following the documentary screening will be a panel discussion with director Martina Durac, producer Vanessa Gildea and Nic Dhiarmada. The discussion will be moderated by Jim Collins, chair of Film, Television, and Theatre.

Nic Dhiarmada teaches “Screening the Irish Troubles” as a concurrent FTT and Irish Studies course. She has won numerous awards including the 2007 Best Documentary/Non Fiction Film Oireachtas Media Awards for “Ar Lorg Shorcha/Searching for Sorcha,” which she wrote and directed.

Honorable Hao Ping, China’s vice minister for education, leads delegation to Notre Dame

2013-04-09T16:40:00-04:00

Chinese Vice Minister for Education Hao Ping and Notre Dame Provost Thomas G. Burish

China’s Vice Minister for Education Hao Ping visited the Notre Dame campus Tuesday (April 9) at the head of an official delegation of Chinese government and educational leaders.

The principal reason for Vice Minister Hao’s visit, which was organized and hosted by Notre Dame International, was to sign and celebrate an agreement between the University of Notre Dame and the Ministry of Education’s China Scholarship Council (CSC), whose Secretary General, Liu Jinghui, was also a member of the delegation. The CSC already supports numerous graduate students from China pursuing doctoral degrees at Notre Dame, but the agreement signed today by Notre Dame’s provost, Thomas G. Burish, Vice Minister Hao and Secretary General Liu will provide scholarships enabling some 20 additional Chinese students to enroll in Notre Dame’s Graduate School.

While the CSC supports graduate students at other universities around the world, it has very few such exclusive agreements.

During a signing ceremony in Notre Dame’s Carole Sandner Hall, Burish praised Notre Dame’s Chinese students and noted that their participation in the life of the University enriched and strengthened its mission. “Notre Dame’s philosophy is to educate the whole person and to develop leaders,” he said. “A university is best evaluated by the success of its graduates, and our Chinese students stimulate and challenge their peers as they themselves have become the leaders we are so proud to graduate.”

“I have long believed that Notre Dame is a world class university,” Hao said in translated remarks, “and I’ve always wanted to visit here. It was difficult to do so during our American visit, but after enjoying its hospitality and touring the university and meeting its students, I know it was worth it.”

Upon arriving on campus, the Chinese officials were greeted at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center by J. Nicholas Entrikin, vice president and associate provost for internationalization; Don Pope-Davis, vice president and associate provost; and a group of Notre Dame faculty members and students. After a welcome and brief tour of the center, they toured the campus, visited the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and heard the Notre Dame Handbell Choir give a performance of Chinese music in their honor.

Following the signing ceremony, the visit was concluded with a luncheon hosted by Burish and an exchange of gifts.

Contact: Jonathan Noble, assistant provost for Asia, Notre Dame International, jnoble@nd.edu

Nanovic Forum welcomes award-winning German university president

2013-04-09T08:00:00-04:00

Wolfgang A. Herrmann

Wolfgang A. Herrmann, president of the Technical University of Munich, will present the Nanovic Forum at 5 p.m. April 9 (Tuesday) in the Jordan Hall of Science at the University of Notre Dame. The lecture, titled “What is an Entrepreneurial University? A Case Study,” is free and open to the public. Gregory Crawford, William K. Warren Foundation Dean of Notre Dame’s College of Science and professor of physics, will present the introduction.

Under the direction of Herrmann, the Technical University of Munich has dramatically increased student enrollment, the number of full-time female professors and the levels of external funding. Germany’s Excellence Initiative has recognized the Technical University of Munich twice in the last decade as a University of Excellence.

Herrmann studied chemistry at the Technical University of Munich. After obtaining his doctorate at the University of Regensburg and following professorships in Regensburg and Frankfurt, he took over the TUM Chair of Inorganic Chemistry in 1985. His awards include the Leibniz Prize, the Max Planck Research Prize, the Bavarian Order of Merit, the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art, and the Order of the Legion of Honor of the President of France. He has also received eleven honorary doctorates from German and international universities.

Appointed as president of the Technical University of Munich in 1995, Herrmann was unanimously re-elected as president in 2013. He is now the longest-serving president of a German university. In recognition of his significant achievements, Herrmann was honored as “President of the Year” from the German Association of University Professors and Lecturers in 2012.

The Nanovic Institute for European Studies established the Nanovic Forum through the generosity of Robert and Elizabeth Nanovic, in order to continue to deepen Notre Dame’s rich tradition of connections to Europe by bringing prominent figures to campus in a wide range of fields to explore, discuss and debate the most pressing questions about Europe today.

Past speakers have included Lord Patten of Barnes, Chancellor of the University of Oxford and the last British Governor of Hong Kong; Horst Koehler, former president of Germany; and Bernhard Schlink, a German novelist and constitutional court justice.

Contact: Jennifer Lechtanski, Nanovic Institute for European Studies, 574-631-3548

Abdolkarim Soroush, Muslim intellectual and reformer, to address Notre Dame’s Qur’an Seminar

2013-04-08T16:00:00-04:00

Abdolkarim Soroush, the Iranian scholar, human rights advocate and religious reformer, will give a lecture on “The Qur’an, Philosophy and Law” Thursday (April 11) at 7:30 p.m. in Room 1140 of the Eck Hall of Law at the University of Notre Dame.

Soroush’s lecture is the last of a series sponsored by the Qur’an Seminar, an academic project hosted by Notre Dame to advance Qur’anic scholarship, encourage collaboration among international scholars and present public lectures by leading Muslim intellectuals.

Soroush, a former professor of the University of Tehran and now a visiting scholar at Yale, Princeton, Harvard and the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin, is widely considered the most influential figure in religious intellectual movements in Iran. He was named by Time magazine in 2005 as one of the world’s 100 most influential people, and both his supporters and critics have compared his role in arguing for the reform of Islam with that of Martin Luther in reforming Christianity.

“Abdolkarim Soroush was counted among Time magazine’s 100 most influential people because of his fearless campaign for liberty and human dignity in Iran,” according to Gabriel Said Reynolds, Tisch Family Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and Theology at Notre Dame and co-director of the Qur’an Seminar.

“What Time magazine missed, however, is the profound influence that Dr. Soroush has had on a generation of thinkers in both the Islamic world and the West. Dr. Soroush is an intellectual who presents a case for human rights that is meaningful to believers of various religious traditions. Moreover, as an intellectual he has always maintained that the insights of rigorous academic studies are, far from a threat, an important resource to people of faith. In his lecture at Notre Dame, as part of the Qurʾan Seminar, he will reflect on the latest advances in our knowledge of the Qurʾan in the light of Muslim belief.”

Contact: Gabriel Reynolds, 574-631-5138, reynolds@nd.edu

Education research center to build global scholarly network

2013-04-08T15:00:00-04:00

Mark Berends

The University of Notre Dame’s Center for Research on Educational Opportunity (CREO) has been designated an “international research network” by the World Education Research Association (WERA). This recognition of CREO’s leadership in the sociology of education will open new doors for international scholarly collaborations in research on educational inequality.

CREO, directed by distinguished sociologist Mark Berends, will now have WERA support in building a global community of scholarship on educational equity issues as they relate to education policy.

As one of the newly established international research networks, called WERA-IRNs, CREO will examine the state of research, synthesize knowledge and stimulate collaborations, with a goal of identifying promising research directions in the field of educational inequality around the world.

“We’re privileged to accept this leading role from WERA in order to build an interactive, real-time, accessible platform for scholars to discuss contemporary issues in education research and data at the national, regional and global level,” said Berends, who is a faculty fellow of Notre Dame’s Institute for Educational Initiatives (IEI).

Heather Price, a Notre Dame sociologist who serves as assistant director for the Center for the Study of Religion and Society, will work closely with Berends and with Bill Carbonaro, associate professor and assistant director of CREO, representing the research synergy that already exists among units of the University.

“When its WERA-IRN status takes full effect during fall 2013, CREO will build upon its strong reputation with an ambitious agenda to be a world-class resource for education researchers,” Price said.

Plans include a global series of interactive lecture webcasts, a hosted blog space and discussion board for international participants, and archived videos and other materials, all to support research in CREO’s designated field: “sociology of education on educational inequality.”

These plans are meant to build an international network of scholars among graduate students, young scholars and globally recognized researchers alike — with CREO at the hub of the network.

Other WERA-IRN networks have been announced in this new initiative, designated to build global collaborations in such areas as “teacher education for the 21st century,” “global ethics in higher education” and “pedagogical design for learning in digital classrooms.”

WERA, based in Washington, D.C., is an organization of major national, regional and specialty education research associations dedicated to sharing scholarship, developing networks and mutually supporting capacity building.

CREO conducts basic and applied research on schools and the learning process. The research explores the formal and informal organization of schools, the curriculum, teacher practices and student social relationships to determine how these factors interact with student background and ability to affect student learning. Special attention is given to less privileged students and Catholic schools.

The IEI advances Notre Dame’s commitment to the future of children and schools. Directed by Rev. Timothy Scully, C.S.C., the institute supports interdisciplinary research, programs and projects involving more than 60 faculty fellows across the campus.

Contact: Bill Schmitt, communications and media specialist, 574-631-3893, wschmitt@nd.edu

Notre Dame and Ireland: Strengthening our connection

2013-04-08T06:00:00-04:00

The close connection between the University of Notre Dame and Ireland was proudly represented when the Fighting Irish played Navy on the football field in Dublin in September 2012. Notre Dame’s president, John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., and Enda Kenny, prime minister – or taoiseach – of Ireland, join together in encouraging Irish-Americans to carry on the spirit of collaboration to celebrate their Irish roots in a meaningful way.

Catherine Reidy named a Clarendon Scholar

2013-04-04T12:00:00-04:00

Catherine Reidy, a University of Notre Dame senior majoring in psychology with a minor in anthropology, has been awarded a Clarendon Scholarship for graduate study at the University of Oxford.

Reidy, a Rhodes Scholar finalist, will use the scholarship to study for her master’s degree in African Studies starting in October.

The highly selective scholarship awards full tuition, fees and a stipend to students studying at Oxford. These scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic excellence and potential across all subjects at graduate level at Oxford. In 2012-13, more than 300 Clarendon scholars from more than 50 different countries are attending Oxford.

Since her freshman year at Notre Dame, Reidy has focused her academic work on international research. In the spring of her first year, she was awarded a Kellogg Institute for International Studies internship in India. She was accepted into the Kellogg International Scholars Program, which allowed her to begin undergraduate research as a sophomore.

At the end of her sophomore year, Reidy received a Kellogg Experiencing the World Fellowship and spent the summer in Makeni, Sierra Leone, where she began a research project studying politics and youth in Makeni. She returned to Sierra Leone in her junior year after winning a Kellogg/Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies research grant to study the effects of violence and civil war on the future orientations and goals of the youth. Reidy also studied in Dublin during her junior year in fall 2011.

Reidy became involved in a psychology lab in her senior year that centers on ethnic tensions between Croatian and Serbian children in integrated schools in post-conflict Croatia. She traveled to Croatia in the spring of her senior year to conduct research for her senior thesis, which focuses on this issue.

An officer in the International Development Research Council during her first three years on campus, Reidy is currently the student coordinator of the Kellogg Institute’s Africa Working Group. She is research assistant to Catherine Bolten, assistant professor of anthropology and peace Studies, through Kellogg’s International Scholars Program.

Reidy’s Clarendon Scholarship was made possible in part through her participation in Notre Dame’s Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement (CUSE). CUSE provides undergraduate students in all the University’s colleges opportunities for research, scholarship, and creative projects. The center also assists them in finding faculty mentors, funding and venues for the publication or presentation of their work, and promotes applications to national Fellowship programs and prepares them in their application process.

More information on CUSE is available online at cuse.nd.edu.

Carnegie Endowment president to deliver Hesburgh Lecture in Ethics and Public Policy

2013-03-26T11:25:00-04:00

Jessica Tuchman Mathews

Jessica Tuchman Mathews, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, will deliver the 19th annual Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., Lecture in Ethics and Public Policy at 4 p.m. April 16 (Tuesday) in the Hesburgh Center Auditorium at the University of Notre Dame.

Mathews’ lecture, “Can America Still Answer to History? What’s Gone Missing and How to Get It Back,” is free and open to the public.

Mathews will address the growing weakness of the United States in the international community, discuss the costs of its diminished role and offer recommendations for strengthening the U.S. government’s position abroad.

Before her 1997 appointment to the Carnegie Endowment, a global think tank with offices in Washington, D.C., Moscow, Beijing, Brussels and Beirut, Mathews served in the executive and legislative branches of government, management and research in the nonprofit arena, and journalism and science policy.

“There is no one more qualified than Jessica Mathews to assess the rapidly shifting international landscape, and to analyze the opportunities as well as the perils confronting the United States in the context of the new globalization,” said Scott Appleby, the John M. Regan Jr. Director of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.

“Peacebuilders, of course, are hoping that the Obama administration will seize the moment to upgrade the diplomatic corps, strengthen alliances with emerging democracies and engage civil society in devising nonviolent campaigns for constructive social change. Drawing on wide-ranging policy expertise and experience, Dr. Mathews will help us identify the possibilities for renewal of America’s global leadership in these and related areas.”

Mathews was director of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Washington program and a senior fellow from 1994 to 1997. While there, she published her seminal 1997 Foreign Affairs article, “Power Shift,” which chronicles a shift of power away from the state and into the hands of international organizations, businesses and nongovernmental organizations. The article was chosen by the editors as one of the most influential in the journal’s 75 years.

From 1982 to 1993, she was founding vice president and director of research of the World Resources Institute, a center for policy research on environmental and natural resource management issues. She served on the editorial board of the Washington Post from 1980 to 1982, covering arms control, energy, environment, science and technology. Later, Mathews wrote a weekly column for the Washington Post and for the International Herald Tribune.

From 1977 to 1979, Mathews was director of the Office of Global Issues at the National Security Council, covering nuclear proliferation, conventional arms sales and human rights. In 1993, she returned to government as deputy to the undersecretary of state for global affairs. Earlier, she served on the staff of the Committee on Energy and the Environment of the Interior Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Mathews has published widely in newspapers and in scientific and foreign policy journals, and she has co-authored and co-edited three books. She holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the California Institute of Technology.

Past Hesburgh Lecturers have included:

Amartya Sen (2012), 1998 Nobel Laureate in Economics, Thomas W. Lamont University professor and professor of economics and philosophy at Harvard University.

Francis Deng (2011), Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities.

Martha Minow (2010), The Dean and Jeremiah Smith Jr. Professor, Harvard Law School.

Shirin Ebadi (2009), 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, lawyer and human rights advocate in Iran.

Rev. Bryan Hehir (2008), Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Shashi Tharoor (2007), author and former Under-Secretary-General, United Nations.

Mary Kaldor (2006), professor of global governance and director of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London School of Economics.

U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton (2005), former vice-chair of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks and former chairman/ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Kenneth Roth (2004), executive director, Human Rights Watch.

Michael Walzer (2003), professor emeritus, School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University.

Freeman Dyson (2002), professor emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University.

Anthony Lake (2001), Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy, Georgetown University, and former Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.

Saskia Sassen (2000), professor of sociology and the Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University.

Martha Nussbaum (1999), Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, University of Chicago Law School.

Michael Ignatieff (1998), member of Canadian Parliament and former director of the Carr Centre for Human Rights and Policy, Harvard University.

Richard Falk (1997), Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University.

Jean Bethke Elshtain (1996), Laura Spellman Rockefeller Professor of Social Political Ethics, University of Chicago Divinity School.

Stanley Hoffmann (1995), Paul and Catherine Buttenwieser University Professor, Harvard University.

The annual Hesburgh Lecture in Ethics and Public Policy, established by the Kroc Institute in 1995, honors the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., president emeritus of Notre Dame, a global champion of peace and justice and the founder of the Kroc Institute.

Each year a distinguished scholar, policymaker and/or peace advocate is invited by the Kroc Institute director to deliver a major lecture on an issue related to ethics and public policy in the context of peace and justice.

Contact: Joan Fallon, 574-631-8819, jfallon2@nd.edu

Notre Dame scientists announce new results on the Higgs boson

2013-03-14T15:00:00-04:00

Notre Dame high energy physicists, left to right, Mitch Wayne, Kevin Lannon, Colin Jessop, Randy Ruchti, Mike Hildreth and Nancy Marinelli (not pictured) worked with a number of international collaborators on the search for the Higgs boson

On Thursday (March 14), at the Rencontres de Moriond conference in La Thuile, Italy, the ATLAS and CMS (compact muon solenoid) collaborations at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) presented preliminary new results that further elucidate the particle discovered last summer.

“In July of last year, we presented compelling evidence for the discovery of the Higgs boson, observing its decays to vector bosons, but had insufficient data to confirm that it behaved exactly as we thought it should and to measure all of its possible decays,” says Colin Jessop, professor of physics and team leader of the Notre Dame group that is part of the CMS collaboration. “Now we have two and a half times more data, which has allowed us to confirm the existence of predicted decays to fermions, and to measure the spin and parity of the Higgs. We can now say with some surety that the new particle behaves exactly as a Higgs boson should.”

All of the particles that comprise the visible matter of the entire universe can be broadly classified into two types: fermions and bosons. Fermions include the quarks that make up the atomic nucleus and the electrons that orbit it, while bosons are the messenger particles that communicate the forces in the universe at the subatomic level, such as the photon, which is the quanta of visible light. All of them are given mass via their interaction with the Higgs boson, which is thereby responsible for the mass of the universe. It is thus of central importance to confirm that the Higgs boson interacts with fermions as it should.

The Notre Dame team includes physics faculty members Jessop, Mike Hildreth, Kevin Lannon, Nancy Marinelli, Randy Ruchti, Mitch Wayne and a number of postdoctoral researchers, engineers, graduate students and undergraduate students. “We work within a broader collaboration of scientists, but our focus within the collaboration on Higgs physics and the detectors and software needed to observe the Higgs has been very successful and has allowed us to make many significant contributions and to be at the heart of the Higgs data analysis,” says Jessop. “For example, three of our graduate students, Doug Berry, Nil Valls and Wuming Luo, will defend their Ph.D. thesis on the recent Higgs results in the next few months, and undergraduate Kevin McDermott is working with us on the next round of results due this summer.”

The team is planning to continue its detailed study of the Higgs for the next several years, further confirming its properties and searching for new exotic decays that may be a sign of new unexpected interactions. The experiment will continue to collect and analyze data until 2020 in its first phase. The Notre Dame team is now working on an upgraded detector to run from 2023 to 2035. “The discovery of the Higgs boson has opened up an enormous number of possible avenues of research both at CMS and elsewhere, and we view this as the beginning of a new era in which Notre Dame will continue to play a central role,” says Jessop.

Contact: Colin Jessop, 574-631-5657, cjessop@nd.edu

Alumnus astronaut Kevin Ford returns from space

2013-03-14T02:15:00-04:00

After 144 days in space, University of Notre Dame alumnus and NASA astronaut Kevin Ford returned to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) Friday night (March 15).

Ford and two Russian cosmonauts were scheduled to depart the ISS on March 14, but bad weather delayed the return.

Ford arrived Oct. 25, 2012, at the International Space Station (ISS) to begin a five-month tour of duty as commander of the station. He brought a variety of Notre Dame memorabilia with him into space, including a sign that reads “Explore Like a Champion Today.” He spoke with Dennis Brown, Notre Dame’s spokesman, from the ISS in December.

During Ford’s time on the ISS, the first-ever arrival of “Cygnus,” a commercial cargo vehicle from the Orbital Sciences Corp., of Dulles, Va., occurred in December, and another two commercial SpaceX Dragon craft and an additional four Russian Progress resupply vehicles also were expected.

Ford previously served as pilot on Space Shuttle Mission STS-128 to the ISS, which launched just prior to midnight on Aug. 28, 2009, from the Kennedy Space Center and landed on Sept. 11, 2009, at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

Kevin A. Ford

Ford, who was born in Portland, Ind., and considers Montpelier, Ind., his hometown, graduated through Notre Dame’s ROTC program in 1982 with a degree in aerospace engineering. In 1989, he earned a master of science degree in international relations from Troy State University and, in 1994, a master of science in aerospace engineering from the University of Florida. He earned his doctorate in astronautical engineering in 1997 at the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

Ford joined NASA as a pilot in 2000 and has had a variety of assignments, including technical duties, advanced exploration issues, and avionics and testing.

In 2004, Ford was director of operations at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. Between 2005 and 2008, he was capsule communicator in the mission control center for six shuttle missions.

A retired U.S. Air Force colonel, Ford has 4,700 flying hours and Federal Aviation Administration commercial certificates for planes, helicopters and gliders.

Notre Dame alumnus Michael T. Good flew as a mission specialist on Space Shuttle Atlantis Mission STS-125 in May 2009 and flew on STS-132 Atlantis in May 2010.

Alumnus and astronaut James D. Wetherbee, who retired from NASA in 2005, flew six times aboard the space shuttle and is the only U.S. astronaut to command five space flights.

W. Michael Hawes, a 1978 graduate, is associate administrator for program analysis and evaluation in NASA’s Office of the Administrator.

Annette P. Hasbrook, a 1985 graduate, served as a lead space station flight director at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Peace scholars explore religion and nationalism

2013-03-08T15:00:00-05:00

Jason Springs and Atalia Omer

Peace scholars Atalia Omer and Jason Springs examine the interplay of religion and nationalism around the globe in a newly published reference book.

“Religious Nationalism: A Reference Handbook,” recently released by ABC-CLIO, is the latest volume in the publisher’s Contemporary World Issues series.

Geared toward students of religious studies, sociology, political science and peace studies, the book challenges a commonly held assumption that secular nationalism is “good” nationalism (or not “nationalism” at all), while religious nationalism — typically blending religion and politics — leads to explosive conflict, says Springs, assistant professor of religion, ethics and peace studies at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.

“Religion informing politics does not necessarily result in destructive forms of conflict and violence,” he said. “It can intervene in ways that promote peace and justice.”

Often even political figures and institutions that profess to be wholly secular bear the signs of religious motifs, said Omer, assistant professor of religion, conflict and peace studies at the Kroc Institute. “It’s misleading to think of secular and religious nationalism as easily separable.”

Though scholarly interest in religious nationalism had been steadily increasing since the end of the Cold War, Springs said, the 9/11 terrorist attacks added a renewed sense of urgency to examining the issues it raises.

The book includes a number of case studies — Sinhala Buddhist nationalism in Sri Lanka, Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) in India, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Orthodox Christianity and Serbian nationalism in the Balkans, interaction between secular and religious nationalism in Israel, and religious nationalist dimensions of U.S. patriotism and civil religion — to illustrate the ways in which religion and national identities interact.

The two scholars, who happen to be married, met while earning doctoral degrees in the Study of Religion at Harvard University. They came to Notre Dame together in 2008 to join the core faculty of the Kroc Institute.

“Since our early days of graduate school, we have been trained in highly compatible and complementary ways,” Springs said. “This was our first time to write at length together, and we expect it won’t be the last.”

Contact: Atalia Omer, 574-631-7121, atalia.omer.3@nd.edu; Jason Springs, 574-631-0931, jspring1@nd.edu

NDIGD partners with Eck Institute for evaluation of cholera in Haiti

2013-03-06T13:45:00-05:00

Haiti

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Haiti has asked the University of Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development (NDIGD) to assist in conducting the Year 2 final evaluation for its cholera prevention and treatment program in Haiti. NDIGD will partner with Notre Dame’s Eck Institute for Global Health to conduct the final evaluation of the program that will draw on the initial evaluation that was conducted by NDIGD Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist Juan Carlos Guzman.

CRS is operating a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded program in Haiti in an effort to halt the spread of cholera. Cholera is an infectious and often fatal bacterial disease of the small intestine. Typically contracted from contaminated water supplies, it can cause severe vomiting and diarrhea that can lead to dehydration, and tends to be most deadly for children and elderly people. The Haitian epidemic has affected more than 639,000 people and claimed more than 7,900 lives. Cholera can be halted with improved hygiene, sanitation and drinking water.

Prior evaluations of the CRS post-earthquake cholera education programming in Haiti were conducted in June 2011 and May 2012 to evaluate the efficacy of its social marketing efforts for cholera prevention. CRS conducted a Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) survey to the areas where the program was implemented in Haiti. The KAP survey provided information about the knowledge of the community about how to prevent and treat cholera, and the hygiene practices that reduce the spread of the disease.

Master of Science in Global Health students

Guzman works with students from Notre Dame’s Master of Science in Global Health program, administered by the Eck Institute. This academic program has provided students the opportunity to help conduct the initial baseline and midline evaluations in Haiti.

In 2013, Guzman will again assist CRS to understand how its efforts are impacting the people of Haiti. The Year 2 final evaluation will draw on the experience of the CRS team and the Year 1 evaluation.

Guzman will be the project lead for the Year 2 evaluation and will again work with Master of Science in Global Health students to help determine whether field workers are effective in reaching the people.

“NDIGD offers monitoring and evaluation expertise to determine the impact of global development projects,” says Robert Bernhard, vice president for research at Notre Dame. “They specialize in working with development practitioners such as Catholic Relief Services to measure and evaluate the effectiveness that programs have on communities in developing countries.”

“The Year 2 final evaluation will assist CRS in knowing whether their prevention program and education campaign was successful,” Guzman says. “We have worked with students to support the analysis of the data obtained from community members to ascertain how much they now know about cholera, and the ways cholera can be prevented and treated."

The Year 2 survey will be conducted in spring 2013.

Contact: Michael Sweikar, managing director, NDIGD, msweikar@nd.edu

Malawian inventor brings inspirational story to Notre Dame

2013-03-04T14:00:00-05:00

William Kamkwamba

William Kamkwamba, author of “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope,” will be speaking at 7 p.m. March 18 (Monday) at the University of Notre Dame Conference Center, following a special performance from African singing troupe Voices of Mercy. The event is free and open to the public.

Kamkwamba was born in Malawi, a country where modern science was a mystery in a land withered by drought and hunger. After being forced to drop out of school because his family could not afford tuition, he regularly visited his village’s library. There, he found the book “Using Energy,” and discovered an explanation of windmills. Kamkwamba dreamed of building a windmill that would bring his small village a set of luxuries that only 2 percent of Malawians could enjoy: electricity and running water. His neighbors called him “misala” — crazy — but Kamkwamba refused to let go of his dreams. With a small pile of science textbooks, some scrap metal, tractor parts and bicycle halves, and an armory of curiosity and determination, he embarked on a daring plan to forge an unlikely contraption and small miracle that would change the lives around him.

In 2002, he gained fame in his country when he built a windmill to power a few electrical appliances in his family’s home. Since then, he has also built a solar-powered water pump that supplies the first drinking water in his village.

Kamkwamba is currently a student at Dartmouth College. He is a 2007 TED Global Fellow and one of four recipients of the 2010 GO Ingenuity Award, a prize awarded to inventors, artists and makers to promote the sharing of their innovations and skills with marginalized youth in developing nations. His book is a remarkable true story about human inventiveness and its power to overcome adversity.

A book signing and reception with Kamkwamba featuring displays from the Malawian culture and other partner organizations will be held after the lecture. Public parking will be available on the south side of Legends on the Notre Dame campus.

The event is sponsored by Notre Dame’s Center for Sustainable Energy at Notre Dame, Lynch Lecture Series in the College of Science, Edison Lecture Fund in the College of Engineering, Center for Social Concerns, Reilly Center for Science, Technology and Values, Office of Sustainability and the College of Arts and Letters in partnership with Malawi Matters and Better World Books.

Contact: Jenny Frech, 574-631-9106, jfrech1@nd.edu