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.

Ilyon Woo is the New York Times best-selling author of Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom, which won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Biography. She has received support for her research from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Antiquarian Society, among other institutions. Ilyon is also the author of The Great Divorce: A Nineteenth-Century Mother’s Extraordinary Fight Against Her Husband, the Shakers, and Her Times, her writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, and The New York Times. Ilyon has traveled the country to speak at bookstores, museums, schools, and book festivals, and she has been featured on such programs as NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and CBS Sunday Morning. She holds a BA in the Humanities from Yale College and a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University. Co-sponsors: Creative Writing Program, Department of American Studies, Department of History, Program of Liberal Studies — Join the Center for Social Concerns on Friday afternoons of home football weekends for MVP Fridays: lectures by national leaders, journalists, and writers on questions of meaning, values, and purpose. Reception and book signing to follow.Learn more

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