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- Oct 287:00 PMFr. TED Talks: Ideas from the Catholic Social Tradition That We Find InspiringSponsored by the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative and the Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and the Common Good Honoring the legacy of legendary Notre Dame President Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., Fr. TED Talks is a two-night festival, October 28-29, on Notre Dame’s campus featuring short keynote talks from every corner of the Notre Dame community as we gather to consider all of the ways the pillars of Catholic social tradition animate our lives together. A “Fr. TED Talk” is a ten-minute address by members of the Notre Dame community (students, alumni, staff, and faculty) on one big idea from the Catholic social tradition that is worth exploring. Featuring stories, points of view, and personal flair – a great Fr. Ted talk inspires the audience to take a deeper look at the idea. Each evening, several Notre Dame community members–students, alumni, staff, and faculty–will give TED-style talks. Speakers will be chosen through an application process, which is open to all members of the campus community. If selected, speakers will receive support in preparation from a distinguished mentor on campus. A reception with live music from student-led bands will follow the speakers each evening. Speakers Monday, October 28Nathaniel (Nano) Burke ’23 Nathaniel Burke recently completed a post-graduate language program in Brazil funded by the David L. Boren Scholarship at the National Security Education Program.Cecilia Lucero ’84 Cecilia Lucero is an advising professor in the Center for University Advising.Toni Akintola, ’26 Toni Akintola is a junior majoring in computer science.Dr. Jim O’Connell ’70 Dr. Jim O’Connell is the President of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program.Tuesday, October 29Monica Caponigro ’25 Monica Caponigro is a senior majoring in film, television, and theater.Alex Sejdinaj ’15 Alex Sejdinaj is the founder of South Bend Code School, South Bend Code Works, and GiveGrove.Meera Bhakta ’26 Meera Bhakta is a junior science pre-professional studies majorRev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C. ’87 Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., is the 18th President of the University of Notre DameHostIliana Contreras ’19 Iliana Contreras is the Young Alumni and Current Student Program director for the Notre Dame Alumni Association. Originally published at forum2024.nd.edu.
- Oct 297:00 PMFr. TED Talks: Ideas from the Catholic Social Tradition That We Find InspiringSponsored by the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative and the Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and the Common Good Honoring the legacy of legendary Notre Dame President Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., Fr. TED Talks is a two-night festival, October 28-29, on Notre Dame’s campus featuring short keynote talks from every corner of the Notre Dame community as we gather to consider all of the ways the pillars of Catholic social tradition animate our lives together. A “Fr. TED Talk” is a ten-minute address by members of the Notre Dame community (students, alumni, staff, and faculty) on one big idea from the Catholic social tradition that is worth exploring. Featuring stories, points of view, and personal flair – a great Fr. Ted talk inspires the audience to take a deeper look at the idea. Each evening, several Notre Dame community members–students, alumni, staff, and faculty–will give TED-style talks. Speakers will be chosen through an application process, which is open to all members of the campus community. If selected, speakers will receive support in preparation from a distinguished mentor on campus. A reception with live music from student-led bands will follow the speakers each evening. Speakers Monday, October 28Nathaniel (Nano) Burke ’23 Nathaniel Burke recently completed a post-graduate language program in Brazil funded by the David L. Boren Scholarship at the National Security Education Program.Cecilia Lucero ’84 Cecilia Lucero is an advising professor in the Center for University Advising.Toni Akintola, ’26 Toni Akintola is a junior majoring in computer science.Dr. Jim O’Connell ’70 Dr. Jim O’Connell is the President of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program.Tuesday, October 29Monica Caponigro ’25 Monica Caponigro is a senior majoring in film, television, and theater.Alex Sejdinaj ’15 Alex Sejdinaj is the founder of South Bend Code School, South Bend Code Works, and GiveGrove.Meera Bhakta ’26 Meera Bhakta is a junior science pre-professional studies majorRev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C. ’87 Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., is the 18th President of the University of Notre DameHostIliana Contreras ’19 Iliana Contreras is the Young Alumni and Current Student Program director for the Notre Dame Alumni Association. Originally published at forum2024.nd.edu.
- Oct 303:30 PMSoc(AI)ety Seminars Series: “Can LLMs Reason and Plan?”Join the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society for the first session of the second cohort of the Soc(AI)ety Seminars, where we will host Subbarao Kambhampati, a professor of computer science at Arizona State University. Large Language Models (LLMs) are on track to reverse what seemed like an inexorable shift of AI from explicit to tacit knowledge tasks. Trained as they are on everything ever written on the web, LLMs exhibit “approximate omniscience”—they can provide answers to all sorts of queries, but with nary a guarantee. This could herald a new era for knowledge-based AI systems—with LLMs taking the role of (blowhard?) experts. But first, we have to stop confusing the impressive form of the generated knowledge for correct content, and resist the temptation to ascribe reasoning, planning, self-critiquing etc. powers to approximate retrieval by these n-gram models on steroids. We have to focus instead on LLM-Modulo techniques that complement the unfettered idea generation of LLMs with careful vetting by model-based AI systems. In this talk, Kambhampati will reify this vision and attendant caveats in the context of the role of LLMs in planning tasks. Light refreshments will be provided for attendees. RSVP is not required but it is encouraged. RSVP Here! Guest Speaker Bio: Subbarao Kambhampati is a professor of computer science at Arizona State University. Kambhampati studies fundamental problems in planning and decision making, motivated in particular by the challenges of human-aware AI systems. He is a fellow of Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Association for Computing machinery. He served as the president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, a trustee of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, the chair of AAAS Section T (Information, Communication and Computation), and a founding board member of Partnership on AI. Kambhampati’s research as well as his views on the progress and societal impacts of AI have been featured in multiple national and international media outlets. He can be followed on Twitter @rao2z. Originally published at lucyinstitute.nd.edu
- Oct 307:00 PMReading by Martina Evans, poet and novelistMartina Evans is the author of 13 books of poetry and prose. American Mules (Carcanet 2021) won the Pigott Poetry Prize in 2022. Her latest narrative poem, The Coming Thing, was published by Carcanet in September 2023 and is shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry. She is an Irish Times poetry critic and fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. This event is co-sponsored by the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, the Creative Writing Program, and the Center for Social Concerns. Originally published at irishstudies.nd.edu.
- Oct 315:00 PM2024 Mathews Byzantine Lecture: "'Upon whom the ends of the ages have come': Byzantine Perspectives on the Theology of History"About the Talk This lecture will tackle the theological understanding of history through the prism of Byzantine historiography and theology. Particular attention will be paid to a selection of historians and to the work of St. Maximus the Confessor and St. Gregory Palamas. The lecture will also consider some modern Orthodox contributions to the theology of history (Fr. Georges Florovsky, Fr. Sergius Bukgakov) and ask what specific contribution the Byzantine tradition can make to the broader field of the theology of history which has been shaped up to this point largely by Western figures and themes. The lecture will be followed by a reception. About the Speaker Marcus Plested (D.Phil., University of Oxford, 1999) is professor of Greek Patristic and Byzantine Theology at Marquette University. Schooled in London, he studied modern history followed by theology at Merton College, Oxford, completing his doctorate under the supervision of Metropolitan Kallistos Ware. He taught for many years at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies and the Faculty of Divinity in Cambridge. He has been a member of the Center of Theological Inquiry and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and has taught, lectured, and published widely in patristic, Byzantine, and modern Orthodox theology. He is the author or editor of five books to date, the most recent being The Master Builder: Demetrios Koutroubis and the Renewal of Theology in Modern Greece (Limni: Harvey, 2024). About the Series The Mathews Byzantine Lectures, begun in the 2021–22 academic year, bring a distinguished scholar of Byzantine studies to campus each year to deliver a talk, supported by the Rev. Constantine Mathews Endowment for Excellence in Byzantine Christianity in the Medieval Institute. Originally published at medieval.nd.edu.
- Nov 112:30 PMPanel Discussion/GODZILLA FEST— "Godzilla and Climate Change: A Monstrous Warning of Nature's Revenge"Panelists Jeffery Angles, Brooke McCorkle, Jessica McManus Warnell, and Yuki Miyamoto will discuss environmental messages in the Godzilla films and books. Professor Amanda Kennell will moderate.Godzilla is a perfect metaphor for what is happening now in the Anthropocene: humankind has wounded nature so seriously that nature has no choice but to fight back. Jeffrey Angles, Interview with Toho KingdomYuki Miyamoto, Professor of Religious Studies and Global Asian Studies, DePaul University Jeffrey Angles, Professor of Japanese, Western Michigan University Brooke McCorkle Okazaki, Assistant Professor of Music, Carleton College Jessica McManus Warnell, the Rex and Alice A. Martin Faculty Director of the Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership, University of Notre Dame Moderated by Amanda Kennell, Assistant Professor of Japanese, East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Notre Dame Godzilla Fest is a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the 1954 release of the film "Godzilla" by Toho Studios in Tokyo. The giant monster, who attacked Japan after being awakened by hydrogen bomb testing, went on to become a global icon. Godzilla has starred in 38 films and has appeared in comic books, games, novelizations, advertisements, toys, and more. The king of the monsters has also been interpreted widely as a symbol for the destructive nature of humankind—from nuclear war to climate change. Godzilla Fest is organized by the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies at the University of Notre Dame, the St. Joseph County Public Library, and the Browning Cinema at Notre Dame's DeBartolo Performing Arts Center. More information is available at asia.nd.edu/godzilla. 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 own water bottles or to drink from nearby water fountains. Thank you for your understanding. Originally published at asia.nd.edu.
- Nov 412:00 PMWebinar: "Generosity & Medicine"Register here The Center for Social Concerns hopes you will join it each month for the Virtues & Vocations lunchtime webinar series, Conversations on Character & the Common Good. There is always time for audience questions. Sneha Mantri, MD, MS, is a physician and director of Medical Humanities at Duke University School of Medicine. Abraham Nussbaum, MD, is a physician, chief education officer at Denver Health, and an author of several books, including the recently released Progress Notes. Mantri and Nussbaum wrote essays on generosity for the fall issue of the Virtues & Vocations magazine. We will discuss their essays and others from the issue, American healthcare, and medical education. Virtues & Vocations is a national forum for scholars and practitioners across disciplines to consider how best to cultivate character in pre-professional and professional education. Virtues & Vocations hosts faculty workshops, an annual conference, and monthly webinars, and engages issues of character, professional identity, and moral purpose through our publications.
- Nov 83:30 PMThomas H. Quinn Lecture: "Unpacking the Election -- Where Do We Go From Here?"Unpacking the Election: Where Do We Go From Here? is presented by Gerry Baker, editor-at-large of The Wall Street Journal, as part of the Thomas H. Quinn Lecture Series. Widely recognized for his sharp political commentary, Baker writes and speaks on U.S. and global politics, economics and business trends. His weekly column for the WSJ editorial page, “Free Expression,” features some of the world's leading writers, influencers and thinkers about various subjects.Matthew E.K. Hall, the David A. Potenziani Memorial College Professor of Constitutional Studies and director of the Notre Dame Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy, will serve as moderator. Hall specializes in interdisciplinary research that spans the fields of American politics, law and society, and organizational behavior. His current research examines popular support for democratic norms in the United States, political psychology and the role of politics in the workplace. The talk is free and open to the public. No registration is required. The Quinn Lecture is sponsored by Notre Dame alumnus and trustee John W. “Jay” Jordan II (BBA ’69) in memory of Quinn (ND ’69), who was Jordan’s college roommate, longtime friend and business partner.
- Nov 910:30 AM(Part of Saturdays with the Saints Lecture Series)—"St. Carlo Acutis and the Many Miracles of the Eucharist"Saturdays with the Saints has established itself as a popular Notre Dame football pregame ritual that combines the University's rich traditions of Catholic faith and spirited game days. In this lecture, Timothy O'Malley, Professor of the Practice in theology, will present on St. Carlo Acutis. The lectures take place in the Andrews Auditorium on the lower level of Geddes Hall adjacent to Hesburgh Library. The talks are free and open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to arrive early as the events tend to fill to capacity. Come and grab a free T-shirt! Originally published at mcgrath.nd.edu.
- Nov 912:00 PMPanel Discussion—"Seeds of Compassion: Nurturing Early Childhood Development Globally in Catholic Communities"This conversation will provide a forum for rich dialogue about evidence-based solutions to some of the most pressing issues facing today's vulnerable youth. Hosted by the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC), this panel conversation features professor and director of the GC-DWC, Neil Boothby, in conversation with Dr. Carrie Quinn, pediatrician and executive director of the Mount Sinai Parenting Center and co-chair of the University of Notre Dame’s (UND) For Good Initiative, and Wendy Angst, professor and director of the Powerful Means Initiative and Impact Consulting Minor at UND’s Mendoza College of Business. All three panelists serve children and their families in different vocational capacities, but their work is aligned by the science of early childhood development (ECD) and how it complements Catholic social teaching. The conversation will touch on various themes such as Notre Dame’s unique position to be a strong agent of global change in unifying scientific knowledge with the wisdom of the church, strategies to bolster ECD programs for children enduring crisis, and how Catholic Social Teaching underscores the imperative to cater to marginalized children, while scientific insights guide the methodologies to achieve this. The event’s conversation will provide a forum for rich dialogue about evidence-based solutions to some of the most pressing issues facing today’s vulnerable youth. Immediately following the panel, please join us for fellowship, refreshments, and conversation. Moderated by Nicole McNeil, director of the Center for Educational Research and Action (ERA); professor of psychology. Review the poster. Questions? Contact the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC); bparker2@nd.edu.
- Nov 1312:30 PMArtwork: "A Fable of Tomorrows" (2024) by Sarah Edmands Martin (Part of "The Art and Scholarship of Academic Storytelling")As a part of the ongoing series on how art and scholarship combine in academic storytelling, the Nanovic Institute is pleased to host a lunch presentation with Sarah Edmands Martin, assistant professor of design and a Nanovic Institute faculty fellow. Martin produced recently released A Fable of Tomorrows (2024), an artwork consisting of video projection, interactive sculpture, and video game design at the center of which is a fable from the future. It is experienced through multiple media forms. Created while on a 2024 research Fulbright in Norway, the work materializes how human memory, digital computation, and temporality are revealed through fables, riddles, and archives. As a phantasmagoric video panorama immerses viewers in visions of different temporalities (from deep time to a lifetime), a mysterious artifact poses Old English-inspired riddles, which take more than one human generation to solve. Curated into a solo exhibition in Manchester’s MediaCity which reached over 30,000 people on opening weekend, the work travels to South Korea in 2025 for a solo exhibition at the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of State, Notre Dame's Department of Art, Art History & Design, Nanovic Institute for European Studies, and the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts. Join the Nanovic Institute as well as Notre Dame students, faculty, staff, and the general public to learn more about this work, experience the interactive elements of this art, ask questions, and enjoy experiencing an innovative example of the art of academic storytelling. Lunch for participants will be provided beginning at 12:00 p.m., while supplies last. About the SeriesThe Art and Scholarship of Academic Storytelling series explores the connections between “The Arts” (music, theater, dance, poetry/creative writing, filmmaking, drawing, painting, photography, and sculpting) and “Scholarship” on the topic of storytelling. Story and narrative are critical in the transmission of human ideas and culture. Thus, the institute and its partners across campus seek to understand how these methods of transmitting ideas may be practiced within an academic context. To do so, it seeks out the expertise of practitioners of the arts who do this type of storytelling in their work. Students, faculty, staff, and the general public are all invited to join these events, which are sometimes scheduled in tandem with performances on campus or in the local community, to consider this fascinating topic that cuts across disciplinary lines and appeals to academic and general audiences alike. Originally published at nanovic.nd.edu.
- Nov 1610:30 AMPart of Saturdays with the Saints Lecture Series: "Explaining the Miracles with St. Thomas Aquinas"Saturdays with the Saints has established itself as a popular Notre Dame football pregame ritual that combines the university's rich traditions of Catholic faith and spirited game days. In this lecture, Therese Cory, associate professor of Thomistic studies, will present. The lectures take place in the Andrews Auditorium on the lower level of Geddes Hall adjacent to Hesburgh Library. The talks are free and open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to arrive early as the events tend to fill to capacity. Come and grab a free T-shirt! Originally published at mcgrath.nd.edu.
- Dec 55:00 PMLecture: "A Reckless and Scandalous Doctrine: Matthias Ferchius, a Franciscan in the Index"The Center for Italian Studies is pleased to host a lecture by Professor Eva Del Soldato (University of Pennsylvania) titled: A Reckless and Scandalous Doctrine: Matthias Ferchius, a Franciscan in the Index This paper delves into the intriguing journey of a forgotten booklet by the Franciscan Matthias Ferchius (1583-1669), drawing from recently unearthed material. It uncovers a fascinating blend of Biblical exegesis, poison expertise, medical reasoning, and rhetorical balancing acts, all in an audacious attempt by Ferchius to present no less than a revisionist account of the death of Jesus Christ. The paper will engage in the dialectic between Ferchius and the Holy Office censors, shedding light on the aspects of Ferchius’s text that raised particular concerns. It will also demonstrate how the pursuit of “new” outlooks in philosophy and theology always necessitated a firm reliance on tradition, a fact exemplified by other episodes of Ferchius’ intellectual career. Lastly, it will bring to the fore the paradoxical outcomes of this form of “conspiracy” philology. Eva Del Soldato is associate professor of Italian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where she directs the FIGS Graduate Program and serves as interim director of the Center for Italian Studies. She was trained in philosophy and intellectual history at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Her research is primarily devoted to Renaissance thought and culture, particularly the Aristotelian and Platonic traditions. Her current project is focused on lovesickness treatises in the Counterreformation period. She is the author of the monographs Simone Porzio (2010) and Early Modern Aristotle. On the Making and Unmaking of Authority (2020). She has also published several articles and editions, including the Italian translation of Bessarion's In calumniatorem Platonis. She has co-edited several volumes (the most recent is Plato in the Italian Universities, 2024). She received— among others — fellowships from the Scuola Normale Superiore, Villa I Tatti, the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbuettel, the Huntington Library in Pasadena, and she has been a Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Warwick, UK. She has been a visiting professor at the University of Milan, the University of Bergamo, and the 2022/2023 Charles Speroni Chair at UCLA. She has been the interim director (2019/2020) of the Global Medieval Studies Program at Penn, and she is currently the executive secretary of the American Association for Italian Studies (AAIS). The lecture is co-sponsored by the Medieval Institute.The 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.
- Dec 1612:00 PMWebinar: "Character, Leadership & Professional Education"Register here We hope you will join us each month for the Virtues & Vocations lunchtime webinar series, Conversations on Character & the Common Good. There is always time for audience questions. Sanford “Sandy” Shugart served from 2000 to 2021 as the fourth president of Valencia College in greater Orlando, Florida. He is a senior fellow with the Aspen Institute and the author of Leadership in the Crucible of Work: Discovering the Interior Life of an Authentic Leader. Our conversation will consider the broad landscape of higher education — and particularly pre-professional and professional education for flourishing within community colleges — along with issues of leadership and character. Virtues & Vocations is a national forum for scholars and practitioners across disciplines to consider how best to cultivate character in pre-professional and professional education. Virtues & Vocations hosts faculty workshops, an annual conference, and monthly webinars, and engages issues of character, professional identity, and moral purpose through our publications.