"How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" John Kerry posed this question in 1971 while testifying before Congress about Vietnam. The question keeps returning to haunt us in other theaters of war. Twenty years ago, America invaded Iraq. As this year's Notre Dame Forum reflects on the aftermaths of that war, this forum invites us into a spiritual space of remembrance and healing. How can we appropriately recognize those who struggled to act with compassion amidst conflict, those who worked toward repair amidst catastrophe? What wisdom do the Abrahamic traditions offer? Join the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion to hear three Abrahamic voices of prayerful reflection.  Light breakfast will be provided. Note: tables will be available for those fasting for Ramadan.  Register Here PanelistsRoy Scranton (Welcome) Roy Scranton is an essayist, novelist, literary critic, and climate philosopher, best known for his work on war, war literature, and the Anthropocene. He is the author of five books, and has written widely for publications such as the New York Times, Rolling Stone, MIT Technology Review, the Yale Review, and elsewhere.Rabbi Karen Companez (Jewish)Rabbi Karen Companez is pleased to be Temple Beth-El’s rabbi.  Her passion for community-building fuels her rabbinate and she relishes the opportunity of leading Temple Beth-El into its next phase, welcoming new people through its doors, and accompanying its members, whether relatively new or long-time, along life’s path with all the attendant joys and trials that life brings, and doing this within the sheltering and nurturing tent of Judaism.Mahan Mirza (Muslim)An Islamic studies scholar and expert on religious literacy, Mirza brings extensive pedagogical and administrative experience to his role, including serving as dean of faculty at Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, America’s first accredited Muslim liberal arts college. Immediately before his appointment to the Ansari Institute, Mirza served as the lead faculty member for Notre Dame's Madrasa Discourses project, which equips Islamic religious leaders in India and Pakistan with the tools to confidently engage with pluralism, modern science, and new philosophies. Charles Powell (Catholic)Charles W. Powell, a practical theologian, earned his Ecumenical Doctor of Ministry degree at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. He specializes in interreligious dialogue between Christians and Muslims and multifaith engagement. Powell travels extensively throughout the Levant and Gulf States and Europe engaging in conversations with Muslim scholars and practitioners of Islam in order to have a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Islamic milieu. He is a Visiting Academic Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, University of Oxford, UK. Additionally, Powell serves as an adjunct professor of Muslim-Christian relations at Holy Cross College. Originally published at ansari.nd.edu.

“COVID-19 and the Future of Health Care” is presented by Bernard Nahlen, director, Eck Institute for Global Health in the College of Science. His career has been spent working to address the many diseases that disproportionately impact people in low- and middle-income countries. This is the sixth of eight lectures in the Ten Years Hence speaker series that will discuss Is Globalism Dead? Visit the Ten Years Hence website for additional lecture dates.  Ten Years Hence is sponsored by the Eugene Clark Distinguished Lecture Series endowment. Free and open to students, faculty, staff and the Notre Dame community. No registration is required.

Click here to watch the livestream »  Twenty years ago the United States invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq, a country of 44 million people that was, at the time, one of the most secular nations in the Middle East. By the time U.S. forces left in 2011, more than 100,000 people had been killed, thousands more had fled, and fundamentalist militias ruled the streets. For the Iraqis who lived through it, nothing would ever be the same. How does such a calamity reverberate through time? How does war live within us, even when we are at peace? Iraqi and Iranian authors join writers and members of the Notre Dame community to discuss the aftermaths of war and peace, and explore how the invasion of Iraq subsists in the present.  This is the second of two events examining the history and legacy of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Join us for Aftermaths I on Thursday, March 30 »   Panelists:Salar Abdoh Salar Abdoh is an Iranian novelist and essayist. He is the author of the novels Out of Mesopotamia, The Poet Game, Opium, and Tehran At Twilight, and the editor and translator of the anthology Tehran Noir. He is also a director of the graduate program in Creative Writing at the City College of New York.Amal Al-Jubouri Amal Al-Jubouri is an Iraqi writer, poet, translator, journalist and publisher. She published her first collection of poems, Wine from Wounds, at the age of 19. After studying English literature at the University of Baghdad, she worked as a journalist and translator, and founded East-West Publishing, whose mission is to introduce works of international literature to the Iraqi literary scene. In 1997, seeking political asylum, Al-Jubouri immigrated to Germany where she launched Al-Diwan, the first and only Arab-German literary magazine. Al-Jubouri is the author of seven collections, translated into 12 languages, and has published 14 books. Her book 99 Veils received the award for best Arabic from the Paris Arabic Literature Society.Mortada Gzar Mortada Gzar is an Iraqi novelist, filmmaker, and visual artist. Born in Kuwait in 1982, he has an engineering degree from the University of Baghdad, and has been a resident at the Iowa International Writers’ Workshop. He has written, directed, and produced several films that have screened at international festivals. His animated short film Language won the Doha Film Award. He is the author of three novels: Broom of Paradise, Sayyid Asghar Akbar, and My Beautiful Cult.Dunya Mikhail Dunya Mikhail is an Iraqi American poet and writer. She is a laureate of the UNESCO Sharja Prize for Arab Culture and has received fellowships from the United States Artists, the Guggenheim, and Kresge. Her honors also include Arab American Book Award, and UN Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing. After graduating from the University of Baghdad, she worked as a journalist and translator for The Baghdad Observer. Facing censorship and interrogation, she left Iraq in 1995, first to Jordan and then to America, settling in Detroit. She earned a Master's degree from Wayne State University and she currently teaches Arabic at Oakland University in Michigan.Watch the Livestream:   Originally published at forum2022.nd.edu.

Laurent Dubois is the John L. Nau III Bicentennial Professor in the History & Principles of Democracy and Director for Academic Affairs of the Democracy Initiative in the Department of French at the University of Virginia. A specialist on the history and culture of the Atlantic world who studies the Caribbean (particularly Haiti), North America, and France, Dubois joined the University of Virginia in January 2021, and will also serve as the Democracy Initiative’s new co-director for academic affairs. In this role, Dubois will spearhead the Democracy Initiative’s research and pedagogical missions and will serve as the director and lead research convener of the John L. Nau III History and Principles of Democracy Lab—the permanent core lab of the Initiative which will operate as the connecting hub for the entire project. Before coming to UVA, Dubois spent a decade at Duke University, where he founded the Forum for Scholars & Publics and taught as a professor of romance studies and history. Dubois also served as co-director of Duke’s Franklin Humanities Center Haiti Laboratory for three years. About the Series The Nanovic Institute, with its strategic emphasis on “peripheries” and de-centering the center, is committed to fostering research and teaching that presents European studies in a new light. The Nanovic Institute is pleased to announce our spring 2023 lecture series, Decolonizing Scholarship. This series will feature scholars from various academic disciplines at the top of their fields engaging issues in disciplines including philosophy, theology, French and francophone studies, and ethnic studies.  View/Download the Poster  Originally published at nanovic.nd.edu.

Aiming to balance interdisciplinarity with integrated scholarship, the discipline of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) is characterized by its willingness and ability to engage in a variety of interdisciplinary conversations in its pursuit of creating new images of science. In an effort to better articulate an integrated approach to the History and Philosophy of Science, many groups such as the Committee for Integrated HPS and their &HPS conference series have focused on sorting out the relationship between historical and philosophical methodologies within HPS. In an effort to build upon this work, the graduate students of the University of Notre Dame’s History and Philosophy of Science Ph.D. program, administered by the John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values, will convene a two day conference on March 31 – April 1, 2023 around the theme of HPS and interdisciplinarity. The conference aims to step beyond conversations of integrated HPS and to explore how HPS scholars can interact with scholars from neighboring fields outside of HPS to promote interdisciplinary research into the place of science and technology in society. The Fourth Annual Notre Dame History and Philosophy of Science, Technology, and Values (ND HPSTV) Graduate Conference therefore aims to address such theoretical and methodological questions as: How can the historical and philosophical scholarship of HPS influence and be influenced by disciplines such as theology, literature, media studies, or education? Without sacrificing the core of HPS (whatever that might be), what insights can be gained through a study of science that aims to integrate HPS with the humanities more broadly? How can this scholarly interaction help us better understand the place of science and technology in society? Rather than being “passive/neutral observers” of scientific practice, how can HPS scholars more actively engage with practicing scientists to promote the benefits of HPS perspectives?Catherine K Poster  Julia B Poster Andre D Poster Originally published at reilly.nd.edu.

The Labor Café convenes the Notre Dame community for casual conversation on contemporary questions about work, workers, and workplaces. What rights and protections should those who work for others have? What's the proper role for government in the economy? How should we address enduring problems of inequality, poverty, and lack of opportunity? And what does Catholic Social Teaching have to say about these labor questions? Participants choose the concrete topics, all people are welcome, and all opinions are entertained. In March, we are excited to welcome human rights attorney, Monalisa. Monalisa is a visiting practitioner fellow for the Center for Social Concerns.  Learn More