The Peace Accords Matrix at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies has released a new special report outlining the current implementation status of the gender approach within the 2016 Colombian Peace Accord. The implementation of the gender approach has been fundamental to guaranteeing the protection and promotion of the rights of women and LGBTQ+ people.

As Ireland contemplates its energy future, a Notre Dame student works to restore its ecological past. On a typical gray, rainy day along Ireland’s west coast, Tom Nee leads a group of Notre Dame students around the grounds of his sheep farm along the Killary Fjord. On the far side of the inlet are steep hills, with hints of jagged stone peeking out through a blanket of green. On the near side, the students watch as Nee leads a sheepherding demonstration. He gently vocalizes commands to his sheepdog, Holly, who in turn jogs on either side of the herd, moving and coaxing the animals into the desired position.…

  In this episode, we chat with Dean Shepherd, the Ray and Milann Siegfried Professor of Entrepreneurship in Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. Professor Shepherd recently published research into the organization of sex work and human trafficking in India. The study draws from interviews with girls and women forced into the sex industry, human traffickers, brothel managers, doctors, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and police officers, in an effort to better understand the cycle and ultimately invoke change.…

Notre Dame International has announced that Maria Mercedes Salmon has been appointed director of the University of Notre Dame’s Global Center in Mexico.

Students in Notre Dame’s Master of Divinity program cited a visit to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe as the emotional highlight of their pilgrimage to Mexico City. Seminarian Johnny Ryan, C.S.C., said getting to experience Mary’s maternal love for everyone was more powerful than he expected even though he was familiar with the story of Mary’s appearance before Juan Diego in a vision in 1531. He brought back prayer cards with the iconic image that thrilled his Latino students at Saint Adalbert…

Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, visited California last week to meet with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, which prompted China to send warships and warplanes to surround the island and simulate bombing raids and military drills. Notre Dame experts consider this attention turned toward Taiwan and what it means for U.S.-China relations from legal, strategic, militaristic, tactical and political standpoints.

A new policy brief, released April 11 by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame and Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs, offers insight on how sustainable peacebuilding can be practiced. 

A new study from Dean Shepherd, the Ray and Milann Siegfried Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business considers meaning-making in the face of difficult dirty work by examining the “ragpickers” in Mumbai, India. These members of the lowest caste in Indian society live in the slums and dig through trash for food and necessities. And yet, they manage to embrace hope, destiny and survival.

Notre Dame Law Professor Paolo Carozza testified last week in a landmark human rights case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica. The plaintiffs in the high-profile case, Beatriz et al. v. El Salvador, are asking the court to declare the right to an abortion to be an internationally recognized human right.

We round out our time in Ireland by exploring Dublin, from its familiar sounds to its famous Georgian homes. One such home is the first stop for Notre Dame students studying here: O'Connell House, the former residence of Daniel O'Connell, known as "The Liberator."

University of Notre Dame experts look back on this 20-year anniversary and discuss whether those objectives were adequately met, and the aftermaths of war and peace on the Iraqi people and on the U.S. 

Notre Dame International welcomed two fellows from African universities as part of the IREX University Administration Sponsorship program. IREX is an international development organization based in Washington, D.C., that helps build research management capacity of African administrators and faculty.

In episode two, we explore Notre Dame students' work on environmental issues in Ireland. None is more pressing than the role of bogs, a quintessential feature of the Irish landscape. They've been plowed over for generations to harvest the underlying peat for fuel. As the practice is phased out, one Notre Dame graduate student is studying how to restore these crucial pieces of carbon-storing habitat.

Between Dublin and Kylemore, Notre Dame is able to offer a singular breadth of experience on the Emerald Isle that redefines the traditional meaning of a study abroad program to include cultural fluency, a way of understanding another way of life that leads to global thinking and global citizenship. 

There’s a traditional Irish blessing that begins, “May the road rise up to meet you.” It’s meant to convey well-wishes for a smooth journey…both literally and figuratively. But yet, there’s something to be said for choosing to go off the beaten path. For intentionally taking the road less traveled. In the first part of our look at Notre Dame's relationship with Ireland, we focus on Kylemore Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in the Connemara region. Students and scholars from every academic discipline come to Kylemore for the space they need to focus on their work and experience the cultural heart of Ireland.…

Nobel Peace Prize recipient Juan Manuel Santos, the president of Colombia from 2010 to 2018, will be the principal speaker and receive an honorary degree at the University of Notre Dame’s 178th University Commencement Ceremony on May 21.

Maria Ressa, a Filipino and American journalist who won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for reporting on abuses of power and fake news, will be the distinguished speaker for the Asia Leadership Forum at Notre Dame on March 21, sponsored by the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies.

Growing up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Katherine Pardy wasn’t one of those young people whose college plans began and ended with the University of Notre Dame. She was, however, sure of her career plan: to follow in her parents’ footsteps and become a doctor.