Sergio FaustoExecutive Director, Fernando Henrique Cardoso (FHC) FoundationCo-Director, "Plataforma Democrática" ProjectCo-Director, "The State of Democracy in America" Collection In his talk, Fausto will discuss a set of data shedding light on structural changes that are making the so-called Bible, Beef and Bullets coalition a key factor in Brazilian politics and delve into the characteristics of each of the three main actors of this coalition. He analyzes the mutually reinforcing conservative-progressive polarization in Brazil, to what extent has it crystallized, and how it affects the Brazilian political system. His talk also will explore similarities and differences between socio and political polarization in the US and Brazil, then conclude with comments on the challenges to democracy in both countries, having the global context in the backdrop. For more information, click here. Sponsored by the Kellogg Institute for International Studies.

"Pieces of Me" is an autobiographical play that exposes the devastating emotional cost of living secretly as a mixed-race family under the vicious racist apartheid regime and the legacy it bore. Bo Petersen's father, Benjamin “Benny” Johannes Petersen, made a fateful decision in 1944 that would change his life forever. After meeting and falling in love with Bo's mother, who was white, he decided to pass as white. Until then, he had been classified by the South African Government as "Colored." A Colored person was a person of mixed European ("white") and African ("black") or Asian ancestry, as officially defined by the South African government from 1950 to 1991. Petersen’s parents had five children and were happily married for 62 years. They lived as a white family. Benny never told his wife or any of his children about his true identity. It was a secret that, if uncovered, would have had dire consequences for all of them. Benny could have faced 10 years' imprisonment, his marriage would have been annulled and his children taken away, reclassified and made wards of the State. "Pieces of Me" explores how Bo's father's torturous decision to pass as white has shaped her life. The play captures universal themes of exclusion, threat, and silences experienced by marginalized people throughout the world. "Pieces of Me" is Bo's renegotiation. Speakers:Welcome: Josefina Echavarría Alvarez, Professor of the Practice, Director of the Peace Accords Matrix (PAM)Actor: Bo Petersen, South African actor, writer, directorQ&A: moderated by Laurie Nathan, Professor of the Practice of Mediation, Mediation Program DirectorOriginally published at kroc.nd.edu.

Exploring Environmental Violence: Perspectives, Experience, Expression, and Engagement invites communities to explore violence on the environment as both a concept and phenomena. The contributors to this book represent a wide breadth of scholarly approaches, including law, social and environmental science, engineering, as well as from the arts and humanities. The chapters explore what environmental violence is and does, and the variety of ways in which it affects different communities. The authors draw on empirical data from around the globe, including Ukraine, French Polynesia, Latin America, and the Arctic. Varying responses to environmental violence by different communities, whether through active resistance or the creative arts, are also discussed, providing the foundation on which to build alternatives to the potentially damaging trajectory on which humans currently find themselves. Speakers:Drew Marcantonio, assistant professor of environment, peace, and global affairs, Kroc Institute for International Peace StudiesJohn Paul Lederach, Senior Fellow, Humanity United, and Professor Emeritus, Kroc Institute for International Peace StudiesAgustín Fuentes, professor of anthropology, Princeton University (joining virtually)Maiah Jaskoski, professor of politics and international affairs, Northern Arizona UniversityJohn Mulrow, adjunct assistant professor of environmental and ecological engineering, Purdue University Originally published at kroc.nd.edu.

Venice, BNM, Lat. Z 399, c. 98v. Courtesy of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice.The Center for Italian Studies is pleased to host a lecture by Dr. Giovanna Corazza (Cà Foscari) titled:Dante’s Chorographies. From the territory to the Comedy   Between the 13th and 14th centuries, medieval Italian culture witnessed the emergence of regional and local territorial representations more prominently than in the rest of Europe. This detailed chorography, which developed both in the visual language of cartography and the verbal language of writing, evidently corresponds to the new practices of urban society, playing a central role in the conquest of rural areas and the increase in mobility, thereby engaging in a process of conceptual appropriation of space. Despite the diversity of expressive tools, the graphic and verbal chorography of the early 14th century reflect similar forms of territorial knowledge, based on an odological perspective and the need to reproduce the actual spatial and proportional relationships between the geographical objects represented. Moreover, Dante’s Comedy contains important chorography, composed in the formalized language of poetry. The analysis of these passages reveals construction methods perfectly integrated into the knowledge practices and the culture of territorial representation characteristic of his time. Giovanna Corazza è Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow presso il Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici dell’Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia con il progetto GEODETIC – Geography and Cartography in Dante’s Comedy (GA 101110048), che coinvolge il Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche, Geografiche e dell’Antichità dell’Università di Padova e il Center for Italian Studies della University of Notre Dame. Si interessa principalmente del rapporto tra geografia e letteratura nell’opera di Dante e nella produzione letteraria del XIV secolo, di cultura topografica e cartografica medievale, di interpretazione e ricezione dantesca.      HORIZON EUROPE Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. This event is part of the MSCA Project GEODETIC – 101110048 by Giovanna CorazzaThe Italian Research Seminar, a core event of the Center for Italian Studies, aims to provide a regular forum for faculty, postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and colleagues from other universities to present and discuss their current research. The Seminar is vigorously interdisciplinary, and embraces all areas of Italian literature, language, and culture, as well as perceptions of Italy, its achievements and its peoples in other national and international cultures. The Seminar constitutes an important element in the effort by Notre Dame's Center for Italian Studies to promote the study of Italy and to serve as a strategic point of contact for scholarly exchange.Originally published at italianstudies.nd.edu.

The Nanovic Institute welcomes Rory Finnin, author of Blood of Others: Stalin's Crimean Atrocity and the Poetics of Solidarity (University of Toronto Press, 2022), the recipient of the 2024 Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies. Finnin will join the Nanovic Institute to receive the prize and deliver a public lecture to faculty, students, staff, and the general public on October 3, 2024. In the words of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, “this Russian war against Ukraine and against all of free Europe began with Crimea. And it will end with Crimea — with its liberation.” Zelensky’s bold prediction is an urgent reminder. Crimea is the ground zero of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the largest and most dangerous armed conflict in Europe since the Second World War. In February 2014, Russia’s war began with the military seizure of Crimea; in February 2022 it escalated with a full-scale invasion launched in part from Crimea. In the 2024 Laura Shannon Prize Lecture, Professor Rory Finnin (University of Cambridge) explains the profound significance of Crimea and shares untold stories of local resistance to Russian colonialism, past and present. Through literary and archival sources, he sheds light on the remarkable history and culture of Crimea’s indigenous Sunni Muslim people, the Crimean Tatars. His lecture argues that Ukrainian-Crimean Tatar relations are a key to understanding contemporary Ukraine and its vibrant civic national identity, which may be the most powerful force defending liberal democracy today. About the speaker Rory Finnin is professor of Ukrainian studies at the University of Cambridge. He launched the Cambridge Ukrainian Studies program in 2008. Finnin’s primary research interest is the interplay of culture and identity in Ukraine. His broader research interests include nationalism studies, solidarity studies, and cultural memory in the region of the Black Sea. Finnin is a graduate of St Ignatius High School (Cleveland), Georgetown University (B.A.), and Columbia University (Ph.D.). In 1995-97 he served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine. Originally published at nanovic.nd.edu.

As part of the Keough-Naughton Institute's fall 2024 speaker series, Ciaran Brady, emeritus professor of early modern history and historiography at Trinity College Dublin, will deliver a lecture based on his forthcoming book about Sir Thomas Cusack. Lecture Abstract Thomas Cusack was at the forefront of Irish politics from the 1530s to the early 1570s. Closely associated with every initiative of Tudor policy in Ireland from the Reformation, the conciliatory policy of surrender, and regrant to the introduction of provincial presidencies, he was the only Irish-born official in the years after 1534 to hold the office of chief governor. Yet he remains one of those elusive figures who appear, positively but fleetingly, in historical studies of sixteenth century Ireland. No monograph devoted to Cusack has ever been attempted, and he has not even been the recipient of a single scholarly article. In this lecture, Ciaran Brady seeks to redress this neglect, but more importantly to question the underlying interpretative assumptions from which it arose. Speaker Biography Ciaran Brady, MRIA, is emeritus professor of early modern history and historiography, and Fellow Emeritus, at Trinity College Dublin. The author of several books, including The chief governors: the rise and fall of reform government in Tudor Ireland (Cambridge, 1994) and James Anthony Froude : an intellectual biography of a Victorian prophet (Oxford, 2013), his latest book, Sir Thomas Cusack: a Tudor career in sixteenth century Ireland, is currently being prepared for publication. Originally published at irishstudies.nd.edu.