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Notre Dame on iTunes U now available

2009-11-20T14:48:00-05:00

The University of Notre Dame has joined some 300 top institutions of higher education on iTunes U, a dedicated area within Apple’s iTunes Store that features lectures, lessons and other materials produced by colleges and universities.

Notre Dame on iTunes U contains more than 600 free, downloadable audio and video files representing academics, research, campus life, faith and service, as well as a variety of offerings from Notre Dame OpenCourseWare, a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners throughout the world. There also is a section dedicated to alumni, parents and friends.

“And we’re only beginning,” said Todd Woodward, associate vice president for marketing communications at Notre Dame. “From this initial launch phase, we will keep building our site into an even more robust collection of content to share the University’s stories and our vibrant intellectual community with the world.”

To access Notre Dame on iTunes U, visit http://itunes.nd.edu and click on the “Launch iTunes U” icon. The site also contains instructions for downloading the iTunes platform, which is required.

“The iTunes platform has had incredible success as a tool for sharing information,” Woodward said. “With strong participation from our colleges, schools and faculty, it is our hope that Notre Dame on iTunes U will grow into a destination where we can engage our audiences and share the University’s expertise with learners everywhere.”

Contact: Julie Hail Flory, Office of Public Affairs and Communications, 574-631-7031, jflory@nd.edu

Notre Dame team takes NASCAR checkered flag

2009-11-20T14:33:00-05:00

A team of four University of Notre Dame undergraduate students finished first in the NASCAR Kinetics: Marketing in Motion competition. Final results for the semester-long competition were announced Thursday (Nov. 19) in Miami, site of the NASCAR Ford Championship Weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The team included Enrique Gonzalez, a junior marketing major and captain of the team; Caitlin Hefele, a sophomore majoring in marketing and journalism; Nathan Durkes, a senior business and theology double major at Holy Cross College; and John Crowder, a senior economics and computer applications major.

“We have all worked on this competition all semester,” Hefele said. “And the three months of effort ended up really paying off.”

The original field of competing schools included Notre Dame, Winston-Salem State University, Howard University, Central Michigan University, Clark Atlanta University and Coastal Carolina University.

The purpose of the competition was to give students a hands-on marketing experience in the motorsports industry. The teams competed in four case studies that started in September, presenting them via phone conference to NASCAR representatives. After the preliminary rounds, the top three teams – Notre Dame, Howard and Coastal Carolina – continued to the final event in Miami.

The final case competition asked the teams to come up with a marketing plan for NASCAR to reach an audience demographic of people between the ages of 6 and 24 years. Hefele said the Notre Dame team broke the group into three age ranges – children, teens and young adults – and pitched marketing ideas that ranged from a NASCAR Web site for kids, to TV placements in popular teen shows such as Hannah Montana, to Facebook marketing. Their presentation lasted 15 minutes, followed by a question-and-answer session. The grand prize winner was selected based on case study performance throughout the semester, phone presentation, onsite presentation and creativity.

“We had to come down to the lobby for the announcement of the winner with our bags packed – very ‘Apprentice’ style,” Hefele said. “And two teams were sent home. But we stayed.”

Gonzalez estimated that the hours of work that went into the effort about equaled what they would devote to a three-credit-hour class. Even though he is not planning a career in sports marketing, the experience was definitely worth the effort, he said.

“You learn so many problem-solving skills,” Gonzalez said. “The competition provided the perfect opportunity to take novel ideas from all the team members, to brainstorm and come up with a plan. It was a great business experience, and definitely fun.”

As the winning team, the Notre Dame students received an expenses-paid, three-day trip to Homestead-Miami Speedway, where they had the opportunity to meet some of the drivers, ask questions of the NASCAR executives and experience behind-the-scenes activities of the final NASCAR event of the season.

“All along in the semester, I’ve kept updating my résumé,” Hefele said. “At first I said that I participated in the NASCAR Kinetics. Then I could say I was a finalist. Now, I can say, ‘winner.’”

Buried Treasure

2009-11-20T00:00:00-05:00

Notre Dame anthropologist Mark Schurr hosts visitors to his annual archeological dig on the grounds of the Collier Lodge, a 19th-century hunting lodge located on the banks of the Kankakee River. Schurr, with the help of Notre Dame anthropology students and volunteers from the Kankakee Valley Historical Society, have unearthed hundreds of clues to the area’s rich past, from a prehistoric tool dating to 7,000 B.C., to hand-blown glass from an early 19th-century European settlement. Learn More

Notre Dame theologian John Cavadini receives high papal honor

2009-11-19T14:19:00-05:00

John C. Cavadini, associate professor and chair of the theology department and McGrath-Cavadini Director of the Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, has been named by Pope Benedict XVI a member of the Order of the Knights of St. Gregory the Great.

Cavadini received the papal honor at the request of Bishop John M. D’Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend, who praised Cavadini “for his study of Catholic theology, his recruiting of outstanding theologians for the theology faculty at Notre Dame, and his assistance to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.”

Established in 1831, the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great honors its recipients for service to the church, support of the Holy See, and for witnessing to the Catholic faith in their country and communities.

As a theologian, Cavadini specializes in patristic and early medieval theology, the theology of Augustine and the history of biblical and patristic exegesis, but he has lectured and written about all aspects of religious belief in general and the Catholic Church in particular.

Often and widely consulted by Church leaders, ministers and teachers, Cavadini recently has become deeply interested in and active on behalf of the development of theological education in the Catholic Church of Africa. In September he was appointed by Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s president, as co-chair of a new campus Task Force on Supporting the Choice for Life.

Education in India

2009-11-19T00:00:00-05:00

Junior Carolyn Leary with students from Loreto Sealdah School in Kolkata, India. Leary was in India with other Notre Dame students as part of an Undergraduate Action Research Seminar studying child poverty and educational development. Learn More

ND sociologist Richard Williams discusses threats to minority home ownership

2009-11-18T15:43:00-05:00

On Nov. 20, 1962, President Kennedy signed an executive order prohibiting federally-funded housing agencies from denying mortgages on the basis of race, color, creed or national origin.

According to University of Notre Dame sociologist Richard Williams, the dramatic improvement of American family housing security thus begun is now jeopardized both by the current economic crisis and misconceptions of what caused it.

Williams marked the 47th anniversary of President Kennedy’s Executive Order 11063 by presenting a discussion paper titled “One Stroke of the Pen” to the Council on Contemporary Families, a national association of family scholars, mental health and social work practitioners, and clinicians.

In 2005, Williams observed, 56.2 percent of Hispanics and 49.4 percent of blacks owned their own homes. While well below the 76.1 percent home ownership rates for non-Hispanic whites, these rates indicated impressive progress for those historically disadvantaged groups. Williams attributed much of that progress “to heightened use of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which encouraged depository institutions to meet the needs of borrowers in all segments of their communities consistent with safe and sound banking practices.”

Acknowledging critics who blame the collapse of the housing market on CRA and other government efforts to promote minority home ownership, Williams argues that “it was not government regulation that paved the way for the current crisis in housing, but government deregulation, which increased the range of products and services that banks and other financial institutions could offer, eliminated interest rate ceilings, and greatly expanded the geographical areas in which individual companies could operate. As a result, the banking industry became far more competitive, attracting new investors, speculators, and financial institutions. There were some positive results of such competition, of course, but there were also some very negative ones. The proportion of loans that were subject to the requirements of the CRA and other regulatory safeguards decreased.”

Assessing the severity of current threats to family housing security, Williams concludes that “it would be tragic if the economic problems caused by irresponsible lending practices caused us to abandon efforts to end discrimination against minorities and to increase residential security for all Americans. New home ownership can still be encouraged by fair interest rates and by programs designed to help people manage their finances. For those who cannot or should not become homeowners, the provision of quality affordable rental housing should be a top priority. Children, families, and communities all fare better when neighborhoods have a stable core of residents who take pride in their homes and have hope for their future.”

Williams’ discussion paper is available on the council’s Web site at http://www.contemporaryfamilies.org/subtemplate.php?t=briefingPapers&ext=housingdiscrimination

Contact: Professor Williams at 574-631-6463, 574-289-5227 or Williams.5@nd.edu

New book focuses on reconciling societies shattered by violence

2009-11-18T15:31:00-05:00

How do you reconcile former enemies in a society shattered by war, genocide or violence?

In a new book, “Unchopping a Tree: Reconciliation in the Aftermath of Political Violence,” published by Temple University Press, Ernesto Verdeja answers this question by examining reconciliation efforts in post-conflict regions from Chile to South Africa to Bosnia and Herzegovina. He proposes a new theory of reconciliation — one focused on a process of public truth-telling, accountability for perpetrators, recognition of victims, commitment to the rule of law and, most importantly, cultivation of moral respect and dignity.

“After war or genocide, former enemies must reach some form of morally acceptable coexistence, even though they have great political differences and disagreements,” says Verdeja, assistant professor of political science and peace studies at the University of Notre Dame. “The key to reconciliation is not forgiveness or social harmony, but respect for each other’s moral worth.”

The book analyzes reconciliation at four levels: among political leaders, through legal and institutional actors (trials and truth commissions), within civil society and among individuals. As the title suggests, the process is often disjointed and may occur differently among political elites and regular people, Verdeja says.

“True reconciliation is achieved in a society only when the conflict-era identities — black/white, left/right, Hutu/Tutsi, Muslim/Christian — are no longer the primary cleavages in politics, and people acquire new identities that cut across those earlier fault lines.”

“‘Unchopping a Tree’ . . . offers a sustained and clarifying analysis of respect and thus moves beyond forgiveness as the key to personal and political reconstruction after mass atrocities,” writes Martha Minow of Harvard University. “The integration of personal narratives into the conceptual analysis makes this an especially valuable treatment of the daunting and demanding challenges for societies recovering from violence.”

Verdeja “does an excellent job of presenting what he finds to be the strengths and weaknesses of the competing major approaches to this topic on the way to constructing and defending his alternative,” writes Ron Eyerman of Yale University. “His style is both pedagogic and clear-sighted. I think this will be an important work that makes a clear contribution to the literature.”

Verdeja earned his doctoral degree in political science from the New School for Social Research in New York City. His research focuses on large-scale political violence, transitional justice, forgiveness and reconciliation, and trials, truth commissions and reparations. He has published articles in Constellations, Res Publica, Metaphilosophy, Contemporary Political Theory, The European Journal of Political Theory, and Contemporary Politics, and a book chapter in “Genocide War Crimes and the West.” He also has co-edited a book on transitional justice and a book on civil society in Cuba.

Verdeja previously taught at Wesleyan University, where he received two awards for his research and teaching. In 2008, he joined Notre Dame’s faculty in the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and the Department of Political Science. He also is a core faculty member of Notre Dame’s Center for the Study of Social Movements and Social Change.

Contact: Ernesto Verdeja, 574-631-8533, everdeja@nd.edu

Islam in Literature

2009-11-18T00:00:00-05:00

(left to right) Alek Baylee Toumi, Ismaël Ferroukhi and Hafid Gafaïti, participants in the symposium “The Place of Islam in Contemporary European Literature,” at a reception with Rev. Paul Kollman, C.S.C., Notre Dame president emeritus Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., and R. Scott Appleby, John M. Regan Jr. Director of the Kroc Institute.

Notre Dame to unveil multi-wavelength NASA images

2009-11-17T13:57:00-05:00

In commemoration of the International Year of Astronomy, the University of Notre Dame will unveil new mural-sized images from NASA’s great observatories Thursday (Nov. 19) during two shows in the Digital Visualization Theater in the Jordan Hall of Science.

The shows, which are free and open to the public, will begin at 7 and 8 p.m. Free tickets, which are required for the show, are available at the LaFortune Student Center box office.

The Digital Visualization Theater will take viewers on a journey to the center of our galaxy and unveil unprecedented mural-sized images of the Milky Way’s core as seen by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Notre Dame also will unveil a matched trio of Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra images of the Milky Way’s center on a large 3-by-4-foot panel. Each image shows the telescope’s different wavelength view of the central region of our galaxy that illustrates not only the unique science each observatory conducts, but also how far astronomy has come since Galileo.

The stunning photographs of the central region of our galaxy commemorate the International Year of Astronomy 2009, which is the 400th anniversary of Galileo turning a telescope to the heavens. Since Galileo’s spyglass, telescopes have grown ever larger and better, and have moved to mountaintops and into space. NASA’s Great Observatories represent the crowning achievements of astronomy four centuries later and are honoring this legacy with a national image unveiling.

A giant 6-by-3-foot image presents a unique view that showcases the galaxy in near-infrared light observed by Hubble, infrared light observed by Spitzer, and X-ray light observed by Chandra. This combined image was carefully assembled from mosaic photo surveys of the core by each telescope. It provides the most wide-ranging view ever of our galaxy’s mysterious hub.

Within these images one can trace the spectacle of stellar evolution: from vibrant regions of star birth, to young hot stars, to old cool stars, to seething remnants of stellar death called black holes. This activity occurs against a vivid backdrop in the crowded, hostile environment of the galaxy’s core, the center of which is dominated by a supermassive black hole millions of times more massive than our sun.

These multi-wavelength views provide both stunning beauty and a wealth of scientific information that could not have been dreamed of by Galileo.
More information is available at http://www.science.nd.edu/nasa on the Web.

Contact: Keith Davis, director, Digital Visualization Theater, dvt_info@nd.edu, 574-631-3952

Renewing the Campus: Sustainability and the Catholic University

2009-11-17T13:44:00-05:00

Watch Video

Renewing the Campus, a national conference hosted by the University of Notre Dame in mid-October, was the first symposium dedicated to enhancing understanding, activism and cooperation among Catholic universities in the area of sustainability.

The conference—which included faculty, administrators and students from 45 universities across the country—was structured to encompass many approaches to environmental issues, including those of theologians, scientists, sustainability practitioners, student activists and clergy.

The aim was to address the theological and ethical implications of climate change as viewed through the lens of Catholic social teaching—with a focus on the opportunities for Catholic universities to assume a leadership role on this issue within both the academic and Catholic communities.

Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., in his greeting to the conference participants, wrote that “sustainability has emerged in the context of public debate surrounding a host of issues from global climate change to dwindling natural resources to international energy security, but there is a dimension that has been all too often overlooked—a human dimension.”

Father Jenkins added that Pope Benedict XVI observed in his latest encyclical Caritas in Veritate, “The environment is God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole.”

“We were blessed to be able to host this and provide a context for faculty, administrators and students from all these universities to come together as a community," said Rachel Novick, education and outreach coordinator for the Office of Sustainability. "What a lot of people said about the weekend was that they felt we were becoming closer, getting to know one another and forming bonds that can help us all to become more sustainable going forward.”

Novick indicated that the goal wasn’t just to hold a conference, but to build community—adding that what she hopes to do is to help participants remain connected to one another and to share resources.

“I think it’s important to emphasize that this conference placed a human face on the environmental crisis," said Colleen Kelly, a Notre Dame student who works as an intern in the Office of Sustainability and also is president of student organization GreeND, which played a significant role in planning and participating in the conference. “Oftentimes, environmental discussions are relegated to science or politics; however, this conference had a distinct approach of social justice and solidarity.”

More information about the Renewing the Campus conference is available here.

Helping Veterans

2009-11-17T00:00:00-05:00

Notre Dame anthropologist Dan Lende at a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder group meeting for U.S. military veterans in South Bend’s Colfax Cultural Center. Learn More

Notre Dame’s Neal being briefed on water findings from lunar-impact mission

2009-11-16T15:13:00-05:00

NASA announced Nov. 13 that its LCROSS lunar-impact probe mission found significant quantities of water in the plume of material the crash produced.

“We are ecstatic,” said Anthony Colaprete, project scientist for the LCROSS, a sentiment which is shared by Clive Neal, professor of civil engineering and geological sciences at the University of Notre Dame and a leading planetary geologist.

LCROSS, an empty stage rocket, crashed into the moon Oct. 9 while a small trailing satellite took chemical measurements of what was kicked up.

“The fact that they found water and other things in the spectra that they gathered shows us that we know less than we thought about our moon,” Neal said. “Combine these results with those of the Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument results on the Indian Chnadryaan-1 that found water on the lunar surface outside of the permanently shadowed regions of the moon and we now have confirmation that sites that Apollo visited were not representative of the entire moon. It is like sending six landers to California and saying we now know everything there is to know about North America.”

Neal currently is in Houston for the annual meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG), which will receive a briefing from Colaprete on the results of the LCROSS mission impact. Neal is chair of LEAG and also sits on the Planetary Science Subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council.

A panel appointed by the Obama administration stated in October that NASA’s budget is not large enough for its current plan to fly astronauts to both the moon and, eventually, Mars. The administration is reviewing the panel’s recommendations, but Neal is clear on the direction in which he feels NASA should move.

“The LCROSS results also demonstrate that there are resources available on the moon that can support human return to the moon to establish a permanent habitat,” he said. “Just imagine if NASA had kept the focus on the moon after Apollo — where would we have been now?

“Right now, the only place we can safely send humans outside of low Earth orbit is the moon. NASA needs to stay the course this time and not flip-flop around the solar system. We need to go to the moon to learn to live and work successfully off-planet and then move on to Mars. It is an excellent way to stimulate private industry by involving the private sector in this endeavor.”

Neal also is a member of NASA’s recently formed Lunar Science Institute (LSI), which is a select team of scientists tasked with growing the nation’s technical capabilities in lunar science and developing educational opportunities in space science.

In addition to studying the origin and evolution of the moon, Neal also focuses on the geochemical and environmental consequences of plate interactions and petrogenesis of Large Igneous Provinces, as well as the environmental effects of heavy pollution.

Contact: Clive R. Neal, 574-631-8328, neal.1@nd.edu

San Antonio Mass

2009-11-16T00:00:00-05:00

Rev. Virgilio Elizondo greets the standing-room-only crowd at San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio for Mass celebrated by Notre Dame president Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., before the “home-away-from-home” Notre Dame-Washington State football game. Learn More about Father Elizondo

Statement from Father Jenkins on the appointment of Bishop Kevin Rhoades as bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne/South Bend

2009-11-14T14:31:00-05:00

“On behalf of the University of Notre Dame and her family, I am delighted to welcome Bishop Kevin Rhoades as our new bishop.

“Bishop Rhoades is well recognized for his intellect and discernment. For institutions of higher learning in this diocese, it is especially significant that he had many years of experience on the faculty, in the administration and on the board of Mount St. Mary’s University. In addition, the large Latino population in our diocese will be genuinely blessed by Bishop Rhoades’ commitment to serving that community.

“We are confident that the ministry of Bishop Rhoades will be a blessing for Notre Dame and the Diocese of Fort Wayne/South Bend, as was the ministry of Bishop John D’Arcy, and we look forward both to his apostolate and to our friendship for many years to come.”

New paper describes connections between Circadian and metabolic systems

2009-11-13T16:40:00-05:00

A paper by University of Notre Dame biologist Giles Duffield and a team of researchers offers new insights into a gene that plays a key role in modulating the body’s Circadian system and may also simultaneously modulate its metabolic system.

The relationship between circadian and metabolic systems the researchers describe could have important implications for understanding the higher incidence of cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes among shift workers.

The master circadian clock in the human resides within the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamic brain and receives direct input from the retina (eye) through which the clock can be reset or synchronized on a daily basis to the prevailing light-dark cycle. This provides both time of day and also time of year information to the brain and body. Things can go wrong with the internal clocks when either the clock system or its light input pathway is disrupted.

Duffield notes that in addition to the master circadian clock in the brain, many tissues throughout the body harbor circadian clocks.

“These peripheral clocks, such as in the liver and heart, regulate local rhythms of biochemistry and physiology, but are kept in a normal synchronized state with the external environment through a combination of signals, including hormonal and nerve signals from the brain clock, and in the case of the liver, from nutrients that fluctuate with the daily rhythm of feeding,” he said. “The local tissue clocks are very important as they impart rhythmic control over as much as 10 percent of local gene activity.”

In a paper published earlier this year in the journal Current Biology, Duffield in collaboration with researchers from the Dartmouth Medical School and Norris Cotton Cancer Center described how they used DNA microarray techniques to identify an important gene called the “Inhibitor of DNA-binding 2” (Id2) as rhythmically expressed in various tissues including the suprachiasmatic nucleus.

The researchers produced “knockout” mice that did not express the Id2 gene. They then exposed the mice to a time-zone change in their light-dark cycle and were able to examine the effect of artificial jet lag (or shift-work adjustment). They discovered that the knockout mice took only one or two days to recover from jet lag, while unaltered mice took four or five days to fully adjust.

In the new paper published today in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Duffield and his colleagues describe how they examined liver collected from Id2 knockout mice.

“We looked at livers at different times across the 24-hour day and compared gene activity between normal and the knockout mice,” Duffield said. “We again used DNA microarray analysis, which allowed us to examine each and every gene that is switched on in the mouse liver (screening about 30,000 genes).

“We discovered that about 2 to 3 percent of genes normally expressed in the liver are abnormally regulated, and many of these genes are rhythmically active. We call genes that are rhythmic with a 24-hour period clock controlled genes or ‘ccgs.’ Because a majority of these abnormally related genes were found to be ccgs, it is clear that an important role for Id2 in the adult liver is to regulate output from the clock and help generate rhythms in a variety of biological processes within the liver.”

Given that the liver is a key organ associated with energy metabolism, the researchers were not surprised that several biological pathways associated with the daily rhythm in lipid and glucose homeostasis were affected by the absence of Id2. In particular were genes associated with the regulation of lipid storage and biochemical processes favoring energy generation from fat.

“It has been known for some time that glucose and fat metabolism follow a daily pattern of activity,” Duffield said. “This makes sense. Why produce an enzyme to assimilate and store certain fat molecules in the liver in the middle of the night when our bodies are primed for sleep and not for feeding and absorbing nutrients into our blood-stream? This fact bears upon the long-term health implications of chronic jet lag and shift work.”
Not only did the knockout mice have abnormal time-of-day specific changes in the pattern of gene activity, they also exhibited profound physiological changes. The mutant mice were lean, had smaller quantities of white fat stored in their abdomen and far less fat droplets in the liver itself.

Duffield notes that mice bearing a mutant form of a transcription factor gene related to Id2 and an important circadian clock component called “Clock” is associated with obesity. And polymorphisms in the gene encoding Clock have been linked to human metabolic orders. Duffield’s earlier paper provided evidence for the ability of Id2 protein to interfere with the activity of Clock and BMAL1 (Clock’s binding partner), suggesting a possible mechanism through which Id2 may be simultaneously modulating both the circadian and metabolic systems.

“We think that Id2 also is regulating Circadian clock output downstream of the core clock components (i.e. separately from its possible interaction with Clock and BMAL1) by binding to other transcription factors, thereby acting as a messenger boy of sorts,” Duffield said. “Id2 is rhythmic at the gene and protein levels so that it can impart rhythmic information simply by its daily cycling from high to low levels. Id2 is a transcription factor, so its primary function is to regulate when genes are switched on or off. And, as this process changes on a 24-hour basis, it thereby has the capacity to shape our daily cycles of biochemistry and physiology.”

“We are very excited by the recent results, as they more firmly cement a role for Id2 in modulating the circadian system, at both the input and output ends of the molecular clock,” Duffield added. “The connection between the circadian clock and metabolic control is becoming very apparent. And the relationship between the circadian and metabolic systems has implications for cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes. It is noteworthy that the incidence of such diseases is elevated in shift workers.”

Tim Hou and Sarah Ward of Notre Dame and Nathan Watson, Joana Murad and Mark Israel of Norris Cancer Center participated in the study, which was supported by Notre Dame, the Royal Society and the Theodora B. Betz Foundation.

Contact: Giles E. Duffield, 574-631-1834, Duffield.2@nd.edu

Discussing Latin American Democracy

2009-11-13T00:00:00-05:00

A Kellogg Institute-sponsored roundtable titled “Latin American Democracy: Under Fire?” featured (from left to right) Allert Brown-Gort, Kellogg faculty fellow and associate director of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies; Scott Mainwaring, director of the Kellogg Institute; Daniel Brinks, associate professor of political science and Kellogg fellow; Luis Cosenza, Kellogg’s Hewlett Visiting Fellow for Public Policy and former minister of the presidency in Honduras; and Luis Ernesto Derbez Bautista, president of the University of the Americas in Puebla, Mexico, and the country’s former minister of the economy.

Performance will mark 150th anniversary of “Origin of Species”

2009-11-12T14:37:00-05:00

A pair of University of Notre Dame professors will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s “Origin of Species” with a performance of a fictionalized dialogue between Darwin and one of his harshest scientific critics at 8 p.m. Tuesday (Nov. 17) in the Jordan Hall of Science. The event is free and open to the public.

Ronald Hellenthal, professor of biological sciences, will portray Darwin and Phillip Sloan, professor in the Program of Liberal Studies, will portray Sir Richard Owen, founder of the British Museum of Natural History and a harsh scientific critic of Darwin. Edward Manier, professor emeritus of philosophy, will introduce the speakers.

The dialogue will be preceded by a 6 p.m. open house in Jordan Hall’s Museum of Biodiversity.

At 7 p.m., there will be a performance of the sound recording “Time Will Tell,” a comic operetta in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan that depicts Darwin’s life. The piece, written and produced by Robert Pollak and Robert Ashenhurst, was developed for the centennial celebration of the publication of “Origin of Species” in Chicago in 1959. A presentation of the National Film Board of Canada’s 1971 animated short film “Evolution” will follow.

At 9 p.m., there will be a presentation of the Mirage IIID Fulldome production “The Origin of Life” in Jordan Hall’s Digital Visualization Theater.

The anniversary celebration is sponsored by the Department of Biological Sciences, Program of Liberal Studies, College of Science, Digital Visualization Theater and the Museum of Biodiversity.

Vatican Official Archbishop

2009-11-12T00:00:00-05:00

Archbishop Angelo Amato (left) visited Notre Dame and delivered a lecture titled “Catholicism and Secularism in Contemporary Europe.” Learn More

Schmuhl to deliver keynote address at Dublin conference

2009-11-11T16:14:00-05:00

Robert Schmuhl, the University of Notre Dame’s Walter H. Annenberg-Edmund P. Joyce Professor of American Studies and Journalism, will deliver the keynote address at the conference of the Newspaper and Periodical History Forum of Ireland on Nov. 21 (Saturday) in Dublin.

The theme of the two-day conference, involving scholars and journalists, is “History and the Headlines: Contemporary Coverage and the Reassessment of Historical Events in Newspapers and Periodicals.” In his address, titled “Peering through the Fog: American Newspapers and the Easter Rising,” Schmuhl will analyze American news about Ireland in 1916.

The director of Notre Dame’s John W. Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics and Democracy, Schmuhl currently is working on a book titled “The ‘Exiled Children’ and Easter 1916: America and Irish Freedom.” Last spring, he served as the inaugural John Hume Visiting Research Fellow in the Hume Institute for Global Irish Studies at University College Dublin.

Schmuhl joined the Notre Dame faculty in 1980. His edited volume, “Making Words Dance: Reflections on Red Smith, Journalism, and Writing,” which collects all the Red Smith Lectures delivered at Notre Dame since 1983, will be published by Andrews McMeel Publishing in the spring.

Contact: Robert Schmuhl, 574-631-5128, rschmuhl@nd.edu

Notre Dame hosts Haiti’s only 2008–09 Fulbright scholar

2009-11-11T16:08:00-05:00

The University of Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute for International Studies is hosting the only Fulbright visiting scholar selected from Haiti this academic year in the newly re-launched Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program for Central America and the Caribbean.

Gerald Telfort, the director of research for Haiti’s Ministry of Agriculture, will spend two months at the Kellogg Institute, where Rev. Robert Dowd, C.S.C., director of the institute’s Ford Family Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity, is serving as his faculty associate. To facilitate Telfort’s research, Father Dowd has connected him with researchers at Purdue University’s International Programs in Agriculture, a Ford Program partner.

Haiti has lost more than 40 percent of its vegetative coverage in the last two decades, as wood is cut for fuel or income generation. With the goal of making conservation of trees economically viable in Haiti, Telfort is studying the measurement of carbon sequestered by trees and the international carbon concept. Other interests include the environmental consequences of disposable plastics, which have contributed to devastating flooding in Haiti.

At Notre Dame, Telfort joins Dr. Marie Denise Milord, the former coordinator of the Haitian government’s malaria and filariasis elimination effort, who previously was awarded a Fulbright fellowship for postdoctoral study. She currently is undertaking research in Notre Dame’s College of Science on a Dorvil fellowship awarded by Notre Dame’s Haiti Program.

Fulbright programs are sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.

Contact: Elizabeth Rankin, 574-631-9184, erankin3@nd.edu; or Denise Wright, visiting fellows program coordinator, Kellogg Institute, 574-631-8523, dwright1@nd.edu