Join the Medieval Institute for a thrilling tailgate filled with fencing, excitement, and camaraderie! This gameday, the Medieval Institute is very excited to welcome perennial favorites Theatrica Gladiatoria  back to campus. Theatrica Gladiatoria’s professional performers and educators will offer dazzling swordplay alongside fascinating information about martial arts from the European Middle Ages both as historical practice and as living tradition! This is a hands-on event featuring basic instruction in medieval fencing for those who are interested. Complimentary food and drink will be provided. This event is free and open to the public—all people and all ages are welcome! Originally published at medieval.nd.edu.

Lotus Quartet is the 2024 Fischoff Competition Senior Wind Division Gold Medal winner. Formed in 2022 at Arizona State University, Giancarlo Lay, soprano saxophone; Johnathan Lee, alto saxophone; Keegan Ewan, tenor saxophone; and Jerick Meagher, baritone saxophone, perform various styles, including classical, jazz, and pop. "We want to show our versatility as musicians and what a saxophone quartet is capable of in areas that are not classical music," Meagher has said. Lotus makes its Presenting Series debut as part of Fischoff's Double Gold Tour. GET TICKETS  

© Robert Cross, 2024As part of the Keough-Naughton Institute's fall 2024 speaker series and in celebration of International Translation Day, Professor Marco Sonzogni will deliver a lecture titled, "Is this translation?: ‘Lightenings viii’ (‘The annals say…’) and The Translations of Seamus Heaney." Lecture Abstract As a poet and translator, Seamus Heaney (1939–2013) embraced the ‘liberating idea’ that ‘an original work exists not in order to be perfect but in order to engender itself repeatedly in new translations’ (Translations of Poetry and Poetic Prose: Proceedings of Nobel Symposium 110, 1999: 331). Heaney’s poem ‘1 Lightenings viii’ (Seeing Things, 1991: 62) exemplifies this idea. In this poem — known also as ‘The annals say…’ — Heaney relays to readers an extraordinary event recorded in Irish annals: the sighting of crewed ships in the sky. Reported, among other sources, in Lebor Laignech (‘Book of Leinster’), in Lebor Bretnach (Irish Nennius) and also in Konungs skuggsjá (‘The King’s Mirror’), the sighting reaches Heaney’s imagination through K.H. Jackson’s English translation, ‘The Air Ship’ (Celtic Miscellany. Translations from the Celtic Literatures, 1971: 165). In this lecture, Professor Marco Sonzogni reviews his conclusion that ‘Lightenings viii’ was an original poem and why, consequently, he did not include it in the edited collection, The Translations of Seamus Heaney (2022). Rather, Sonzogni singled the poem out in his ‘Introduction’ as an example of the evolutionary impact of translation as practiced by Heaney. While Sonzogni is now uncertain that he made the right decision, he remains convinced that this text too — like all the texts collected in The Translations — bears witness to Heaney’s ‘credo’ in ‘discovering what survives translation true’ (‘Remembered Columns,’ The Spirit Level, 1996: 45). Speaker Biography Marco Sonzogni (OMRI, Officer) is an award-winning scholar, literary translator, poet, editor, and cultural activist. He is a Professor of Translation Studies in the School of Languages and Cultures at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, where he teaches evolutionary translation and intercultural communication at undergraduate and postgraduate level and directs the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation. He is the editor of the critically acclaimed The Translations of Seamus Heaney (Faber 2022 and FSG 2023). He is also the editor of the definitive edition of Seamus Heaney’s poetry in Italian translation, Poesie (Mondadori 2016). This event is co-sponsored by the Creative Writing Program and the Center for Italian Studies. Originally published at irishstudies.nd.edu.

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.  Please plan to attend the session designated for your division. You are welcome to attend a different session if you have a conflict with your assigned time. For those unable to attend in person, a recording of the town hall will be available on the executive vice president’s website by Monday, October 7.TUESDAY, October 1Leighton Concert Hall, DeBartolo Performing Arts Center10:00–10:45 a.m. Athletics, General Counsel, Office of Mission Engagement and Church Affairs, Office of Public Affairs and Communications, Institutional Research, Innovation, and Strategy, Student Affairs, Undergraduate Enrollment, University Relations, all other units reporting to the Office of the President, Facilities Design and Operations, and NDHR1:00–1:45 p.m. Centers and Institutes, Colleges and Schools, Notre Dame Global, Notre Dame Research, all other units reporting to the Office of the Provost, Finance, Information Technology, Investment, and University Operations, Events, and SafetyCarey Auditorium, Hesburgh Library10:00-10:45 p.m. Facilities Design and Operations and University Operations, Events, and Safety

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.