Fall 2025 Staff Town HallAll staff members are invited to attend the Fall 2025 Staff Town Hall on Wednesday, October 29, and Thursday, October 30. University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., Charles and Jill Fischer Provost John McGreevy, Executive Vice President Shannon Cullinan, and Vice President for Human Resources Heather Christophersen will share important campus updates. If you’d like to submit a question to help inform the sessions, you can do so by using this form. Session Schedule WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29 10:00-10:45 a.m. | Washington Hall Athletics; Audit and Advisory Services; Finance; General Counsel; Institutional Research, Innovation, and Strategy; the Investment Office; Human Resources; Office of Belonging, Engagement, and Mission; Office of Information Technology; Office of Mission Engagement and Church Affairs; Office of Public Affairs and Communications; Undergraduate Enrollment THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30 10:00-10:45 a.m. | Washington Hall Facilities Design and Operations; Office of the President; Student Affairs; University Operations, Events, and Safety; University Relations 1:00-1:45 p.m. | Washington Hall Centers and Institutes; Colleges and Schools; Hesburgh Libraries; Notre Dame Global; Notre Dame Press; Notre Dame Research; all other units reporting to the Office of the Provost 10:00-10:45 p.m. | Carey Auditorium, Hesburgh Library Facilities Design and Operations; University Operations, Events, and Safety Please plan to attend the session designated for your division. Offices may be listed multiple times to accomodate staff who work different shifts.

So much art, so little time! Join in for this 15-minute lunchtime program, where a member of the Raclin Murphy Museum's education staff will facilitate a brief, interactive conversation focused on a work in the current temporary exhibition Homecoming: Walter Osborne’s Portraits of Dublin, 1880–1900. This week's selection will be In Galway Town. Take a brief moment during your lunch break to engage with others in a relaxed discussion to explore new perspectives on a piece through a close look. After our brief conversation, participants can explore other works in the Museum or enjoy a 10% discount at Ivan’s Cafe.    Walter Frederick Osborne (Irish, 1859–1903), In Galway Town, ca. 1894, Oil on board, 7 3/4 × 11 1/2 in. (19.5 × 29 cm) unframed, Private Collection, Connemara, West of IrelandOriginally published at raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

Global experience of past 25 years shows that while mass movements succeed in toppling dictators, most countries do not succeed in establishing a democratic system. The vexing question is will Bangladesh, which has embarked on a democratic journey after experiencing sixteen years of Sheikh Hasina’s personalistic autocracy, succeed? Hasina was toppled in a popular uprising in July–August 2024 and fled the country. The country experienced unprecedented atrocities perpetrated by the members of the law enforcement agencies and the activists of the ruling Bangladesh Awami League in the wake of the movement. More than 1,400 people were killed and thousands have been injured. The country is currently being governed by an interim government, and an election is scheduled for February 2026. This presentation examines the challenges for the country drawing on the lessons of democratic transition and the country’s political dynamics involving a wide array of political forces and weak institutions.  Ali Riaz is a distinguished professor of political science at Illinois State University, a non-resident fellow of the Atlantic Council and the president of the American Institute of Bangladesh Studies (AIBS). He has served as the head of the Constitution Reform Commission in Bangladesh appointed by the Bangladesh’s interim government and is currently serving as the vice-chair of the National Consensus Commission. His recent publications include Charade: Bangladesh’s 2024 Election (2024), and Pathways of Autocratization: The Tumultuous Journey of Bangladeshi Politics (2023). He also co-authored How Autocrats Rise: Sequences of Democratic Backsliding (2023). Presented by the Liu Institute's South Asia Working Group and cosponsored with the McKenna Center for Human Development and Global Business, the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, and the Kellogg Institute for International Studies.Lunch Provided - Please Bring Beverages In support of the Liu Institute’s growing commitment to sustainability, we will no longer be offering drinks at our public lectures and panels. We encourage audience members to bring their water bottles or to drink from nearby water fountains.  Originally published at asia.nd.edu.

Please join the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies and its Clingen Center for the Study of Modern Ireland for a lecture and public conversation with the Honorable Geraldine Byrne Nason, Ambassador of Ireland to the United States. This event will be the inaugural lecture that will launch the Keough-Naughton Institute's annual Jim Kelly Diplomacy Speaker Series.  On Wednesday, October 29, Ambassador Byrne Nason will deliver a public lecture that addresses Ireland’s foreign policy, Ireland-US relations and Ireland’s plans for marking the Irish dimensions of the 250th anniversary of foundation of the US. She will also be joined in conversation with the Honorable Claire Cronin, former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland. A reception will follow the event in the McKenna Hall auditorium gallery. About Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason assumed her role as Ireland’s 19th Ambassador to the United States in August 2022. Geraldine was Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations in New York (2017–22). Previously, she served as Ambassador to France (2014–17), Second Secretary General in the Department of the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) (2011–14), Ambassador and Ireland’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the EU (2005–11)), and Director of the National Forum on Europe (2004–05). During her career, Ambassador Byrne Nason has served in Brussels, New York, Paris, Vienna and Helsinki. As Second Secretary-General in the Department of the Taoiseach from 2011–14, she was the highest ranking female public servant in Ireland. During that period, she also was Secretary General of Ireland’s Economic Management Council. On her arrival in New York, Ambassador Byrne Nason led Ireland’s successful campaign for a seat on the United Nations Security Council, and led the New York Security Council team for the 2021–22 term. Geraldine was Chair of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) for 2018 and 2019. She has also co-chaired high-level political negotiations on the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Nelson Mandela and on the ‘Samoa pathway’ for Small Island Developing States. A native of County Louth, in 2020 Ambassador Byrne Nason was awarded the Freedom of Drogheda, the town’s highest honour and was the third woman to receive the award of its 35 recipients. In 2014, Geraldine was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, Ireland’s highest academic honour. Ambassador Byrne Nason holds an honorary doctorate of Law from Maynooth University as well as master’s and bachelor’s degrees in literature from Saint Patrick’s College in Maynooth (NUIM). Ambassador Byrne Nason is married and has one son. About the Jim Kelly Diplomacy Speaker Series Named in memory of Ireland’s former deputy permanent representative to the UN and ambassador to Canada, the Speaker Series will bring to Notre Dame members of the diplomatic corps of Ireland who have served in ambassadorial roles around the world. The late Ambassador Jim Kelly was serving as Ireland’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations on his untimely death in March 2022. Among other roles he had served as Ireland’s Ambassador to Canada from 2016 to 2020. Read more here: Statement by Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney on the passing of Ambassador Jim Kelly.    Originally published at irishstudies.nd.edu.