Selected works of art from the Crucifix Initiative will be on display in an exhibit on view starting Thursday (Aug. 10) at The History Museum in South Bend, Indiana. Launched in 2019, the initiative seeks to highlight the globalism of Catholicism — and to represent the diversity and internationalism of the University and its community — by building and displaying a collection of crucifixes from around the world.

Connor Kaufmann was selected for the program based on academic excellence (3.7 minimum GPA), a focused application, extracurricular and community activities, ambassadorial skills and a plan to give back to his home country. “I strongly felt that it would give me the opportunity to foster my creativity in a unique, robust and international way,” he said. “This would, in turn, give me the opportunity to best help my community’s immigration issues in creative and innovative ways.”

In June, the University’s Rome Global Gateway co-hosted the first edition of the Rome Summer Seminars on Religion and Global Politics. The two-week program welcomed 17 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows working at the intersection of religious studies and international affairs for a full schedule of writing workshops, graduate seminars and public events.

‘The object of art is to give life a shape.’ — William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream It’s a brisk Thursday morning in October, and a group of Notre Dame students is out for a stroll along the River Thames in central London. They move along the South Bank as their guide, adjunct art history professor Lois Oliver, points out spots of historical and cultural significance. She takes note of a mother and child combing the bank near the river’s edge. The Thames is tidal, Oliver explains, and when the water recedes one can often find bits of pottery or other materials, some of which can date back to the medieval period. More than a few students are wide-eyed at this.…

The University of Notre Dame (USA) in England (UNDE) announces the appointment of Vittorio Montemaggi as its new academic director. In this role, Montemaggi will provide academic leadership for UNDE’s teaching, research and scholarship in conjunction with Notre Dame International’s London Global Gateway.

A new report from the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and its Peace Accords Matrix (PAM) Barometer Initiative in Colombia presents the status of peace accord implementation as of November. The sixth year of implementation of the Colombian Final Accord was marked by minor variations in implementation levels.  

A group of migrants at a shelter near Puebla, Mexico, sat in a circle of chairs and stared nervously across at five students from Eva Dziadula's Economics of Immigration class and a few other Notre Dame students studying abroad there. The migrants were nearly all young men from Honduras. How could they describe the harrowing decision to leave their families and homes or the tortuous trip of thousands of miles on top of dangerous freight trains to get to the border of the United States?…

The University of Notre Dame’s Medieval Institute, Center for Italian Studies and Rome Global Gateway have co-sponsored three planning grants of up to $20,000 per award to support research projects in Rome and specifically the development of research networks. These grants are meant to engage Notre Dame faculty and graduate students with researchers working at a variety of institutions in Italy, especially in national, international and pontifical academies, universities, libraries, museums and archives based in Rome.

Patrick Griffin, the Thomas Moore and Judy Livingston Director of the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies in the Keough School of Global Affairs and the Madden-Hennebry Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, was admitted to the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) as an honorary member in a ceremony in Dublin on Friday (May 26).

In recognition for its support of Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU), the University of Notre Dame has been awarded the 2023 Institute of International Education (IIE) Heiskell Award for Strategic Partnerships.

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.