Longtime faculty fellow of the Kroc Institute, Sandra M. Gustafson draws on key insights from the field of peace studies (including positive and negative peace, as well as direct and indirect violence) in a rich study of US literature and culture in her most recent volume, Peace in the US Republic of Letters, 1840-1900 (Oxford, 2023). Exploring the early peace movement, Gustafson's book charts the rise of the peace cause in the works of William Penn and John Woolman, through the founding of the first peace societies in 1815 and the mid-century peace congresses, to the postbellum movement's consequential emphasis on arbitration. With the Civil War as the central axis, the volume includes readings of novels by James Fenimore Cooper, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne spanning the period from 1840 to 1865. It also explores fiction engaged with problems that arose in the aftermath of that war, including novels by Henry Adams and John Hay on political corruption and class conflict; works on the failures of Reconstruction by Albion Tourgée and Charles Chesnutt; and the varied treatments of Indigenous experience in Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona and Simon Pokagon's Queen of the Woods. Each of these writers focused on issues related to the cause of peace, expanding its thematic reach and anticipating key insights of twentieth-century peace scholars. Lunch will be provided. Speakers:Sandra Gustafson, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English; Concurrent Professor, Department of American StudiesAzareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, the Dorothy G. Griffin College Professor of English; Concurrent Professor, Romance Languages & Literatures; Director, Literatures of Annihilation, Exile & ResistanceSpencer French, Graduate student, Department of EnglishGeorge Lopez, the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., Professor Emeritus of Peace StudiesOriginally published at kroc.nd.edu.

Frank Shovlin (University of Liverpool) will deliver the 2024 Hibernian Lecture, “Like a Prayer: The Novels of John McGahern.”  One of the most acclaimed Irish writers of the second half of the 20th century, John McGahern (1934–2006) authored six novels. His final novel, That They May Face the Rising Sun, was named the Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year in 2003 and adapted into a 2023 film of the same name. Shovlin’s lecture will contextualize the political and social networks into which McGahern was born and explore religious aspects of his work as a writer. The 2024 Hibernian Lecture is cosponsored by the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies.About the speaker Frank Shovlin is professor of Irish literature in English at the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies. A native of the west of Ireland, he is a graduate of University College Galway and the University of Oxford. Shovlin is the author of numerous articles and book chapters as well as four monographs: The Irish Literary Periodical 1923–1958 (2004); Journey Westward: Joyce, Dubliners and the Literary Revival (2012); Touchstones: John McGahern's Classical Style (2016); and John McGahern's Dublin (2021). He edited The Letters of John McGahern (2022), and is currently writing McGahern’s authorized biography.In 1978, the Ancient Order of Hibernians and Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians undertook a campaign to establish an endowment at the University of Notre Dame for illuminating the Irish heritage in America. Thanks to their support, since then the Cushwa Center has administered a variety of programs—including the Hibernian Research Award—supporting the study of the Irish experience in Ireland and America. Each year, the center invites a distinguished scholar or author to deliver the Hibernian Lecture at Notre Dame on some aspect of the Irish experience. Image: John McGahern and his siblings on the Feast of Corpus Christi, circa 1946. Note: Hasia Diner (New York University) had previously been scheduled to deliver the 2024 Hibernian Lecture on the subject of her latest book, Opening Doors: The Unlikely Alliance Between the Irish and the Jews in America. The Cushwa Center is working to reschedule Diner’s visit and lecture at Notre Dame. For updates on upcoming events and other news, sign up at cushwa.nd.edu/subscribe.   Originally published at cushwa.nd.edu.

Celebrate the launch of Virtue in Virtual Spaces: Catholic Social Teaching and Technology — the latest book in the Center for Social Concerns’ Enacting Catholic Social Tradition series published by Liturgical Press. About the book At its best, the internet channels the world into a global village of sorts, where digital citizens learn from each other, explore new modes of creation, and help others work through dilemmas in both physical and virtual spaces. Virtue in Virtual Spaces argues that the internet doesn’t have to be the cultural wasteland of click-bait, partisan politics, and vulgar content that we see too often today. Technology has tremendous potential for good because of the inherent goodness of human creation and creativity which can be achieved through the development and use of technology. The authors draw from writing on virtue ethics and Catholic Social Teaching to demonstrate this potential goodness of technology. Eight of the main themes of Catholic Social Teaching are used to build a framework for designing technology to promote human flourishing. In this book, readers will engage with the philosophies behind their favorite social media platforms, examine how the design features in these platforms shape habits and imagination, and gain dialogue-based skills to bring virtue back into virtual spaces. About the authors Louisa Conwill is a Ph.D. student in computer science and engineering at Notre Dame. Her research focuses include computer vision, human-computer interaction, and technology ethics. She has a particular interest in how the teachings of the Catholic Church can inform technology ethics. Megan Levis Scheirer is an assistant professor of the practice with the Center for Social Concerns and Notre Dame’s College of Engineering. She holds a Ph.D. in bioengineering from Notre Dame. Her research interests relate to questions concerning how technology shapes the cultural understanding of what it means to be human and how technology can be designed to encourage virtue and the common good. She’s also working to bring character formation into engineering curricula. Walter Scheirer is the Dennis O. Doughty Collegiate Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Notre Dame. He is a global technology leader, serving as the chair of the IEEE Computer Society Technical Community on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence and as a board member of the Computer Vision Foundation. Scheirer is also a cultural critic and historian, commenting on the social context of emerging technologies from the realistic perspective of a technologist, and promoting technology development informed by Catholic social teaching that upholds the common good. About the series Enacting Catholic Social Tradition is a series dedicated to the systematic application of Catholic social teaching to real-world problems and issues. Written for both academics and pastoral practitioners who want to draw on and learn more about the rich resources of Catholic social tradition for the practical work of justice, the series aims to strengthen the capacity of the Church to respond lovingly and well to the demands of the Gospel.

Join in for an insightful and dynamic panel discussion on the upcoming 2024 U.S. election, featuring prominent voices in journalism and politics. This event will offer diverse perspectives on the key issues, candidates, and potential outcomes that will shape the future of the United States. Panelists:Gerard Baker, Editor-at-Large, The Wall Street Journal: With decades of experience in political journalism, Baker will provide an in-depth analysis of the electoral landscape, drawing from his extensive knowledge of American and global politics.Carlos Lozada, Opinion Writer, The New York Times: Lozada, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, will bring his sharp analytical skills to the discussion, offering a critical examination of the candidates' platforms and the broader political climate.Dianne Pinderhughes, Presidential Faculty Fellow, and the Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C. Professor of Africana Studies and Political Science, The University of Notre Dame: Pinderhughes holds a concurrent faculty appointment in American Studies, is a Faculty Fellow at the Kellogg Institute, and is a Research Faculty member in Gender Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Her research addresses inequality with a focus on racial, ethnic, and gender politics and public policy in the Americas, explores the creation of American civil society institutions in the twentieth century, and analyzes their influence on the formation of voting rights policy.Francis Rooney, Former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See: Rooney, with his rich background in diplomacy and politics, will provide a unique perspective on the international implications of the U.S. election and insights into the intersection of faith and politics.Moderator:Dean Marcus Cole, Notre Dame Law School: As the moderator, Dean Cole will guide the conversation, ensuring a balanced and engaging dialogue. His expertise in law and education will help frame the discussion in a broader societal context.Don't miss this opportunity to hear from esteemed experts as they dissect the 2024 election and its potential impact on the United States and the world. The Rooney Center thanks the Notre Dame Law School and the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative for co-sponsoring this event.Originally published at rooneycenter.nd.edu.

Ethnomusicologist Shayna Silverstein discusses her monograph, Fraught Balance: The Embodied Politics of Dabke Dance Music in Syria, which draws on ethnographic, archival, and digital research. She talks about how dabke—one of Syria's most beloved dance music traditions—embodies the dynamics of gender, class, ethnicity, and nationhood in an authoritarian state.   Originally published at music.nd.edu.

As part of the Keough-Naughton Institute's fall 2024 speaker series, Clair Wills, the King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at the University of Cambridge, will deliver the lecture, "Making Sense of the Missing: The Family, the Church and 'the Home' in Twentieth-century Irish society." Lecture Abstract In this lecture, Clair Wills considers the following questions: How do we approach the aftermath of the scandals of institutional abuse in Ireland? What questions should we be asking about guilt, blame and responsibility? The lecture will trace a history of sexual secrecy in Ireland from the post-famine period to the 1950s and beyond, asking how and why did families consent to the institutional care and control of unmarried mothers and their children. Why did the system make sense to ordinary families, and how can we make sense of it now?   Copies of Clair Wills' new book, Missing Persons, Or My Grandmother’s Secrets (FSG, April 2024), will be available for purchase after the lecture. Speaker Biography Clair Wills is regius professor of English Literature at the University of Cambridge, and a critic and cultural historian of Britain and Ireland. She has written prize-winning books on the history of Ireland during the Second World War, on post-war immigrant Britain, and her essays on contemporary fiction, poetry and cultural institutions appear regularly in the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books. Her most recent book, Missing Persons, Or My Grandmother’s Secrets, published by FSG in April 2024, is a study of four generations of unmarried mothers in her own family, set in the context of the intertwined histories of Britain and Ireland from the 1890s to the 1980s. Originally published at irishstudies.nd.edu.