The Keough-Naughton Institute and the Department of Irish Language and Literature invite you to a talk by visiting speaker Davis Sandefur. Lecture Abstract Sa gcaint seo, pléifidh mé an aistear a bhí agam le Gaeilge, ag tosaí ag Ollscoil Notre Dame (’14) agus ag críochnú agus mé i m’Oifigeach Pleanála Teanga in Inis Oírr, Árainn. Pléifear polasaí Rialtas na hÉireann i leith na Gaeilge (Plean 20 Bliain, Acht na Gaeltachta 2012) chomh maith le coincheap na pleanála teanga. Beidh béim ar leith ar an teanga agus ar an bpleanáil teanga in Inis Oírr. In this talk, Sandefur will share his journey with Irish, starting at the University of Notre Dame (class of 2014) and culminating with working as the Oifigeach Pleanála Teanga (Language Planning Officer) on Inis Oírr, in the Aran Islands. The government’s Irish language policy (20 year plan, Gaeltacht Act 2012) as well as the concept of language planning will be discussed. Specific focus will be given to the status of the language and language planning on Inis Oírr. Speaker Biography Originally from Beaver Dam, Kentucky, Davis Sandefur started learning Irish at the University of Notre Dame (class of 2014). After a period working as a secondary school teacher, he moved to Ireland in 2021 to pursue further education. He then spent two years working with Fiontar agus Scoil na Gaeilge at Dublin City University, between research and teaching. He’s been working as the Oifigeach Pleanála Teanga on Inis Oírr since 2024.     Originally published at irishstudies.nd.edu.

Nicole M. LaVoi, director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota, will discuss the Center’s efforts to catalyze change towards gender equity in sports. She will address research on media portrayals of women athletes, gender bias in sport leadership, and the benefits of sports and physical activity for girls. She will also discuss ways the Center uses that data to affect change through their Women in College Coaching Report Card and the CoachingHER program. This talk is open to the public: students, advocates, researchers, administrators, coaches, fans, and anyone interested in the rapidly changing landscape of women’s sport are welcome! Reception to follow.Co-Sponsors University of Notre Dame's College of Arts and Letters, the John J. Reilly Center, the Departments  of American Studies and Film, Television, and Theatre, the Programs in Gender Studies and Education, Schooling, and Society, and Notre Dame Athletics Nicole M. LaVoi, Ph.D. is a senior lecturer of social and behavioral sciences in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Minnesota and the director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. Through action-oriented collaborative research, she translates data and answers critical questions that can make a difference in the lives of girls and women. As a leading scholar on gender, leadership and women coaches, LaVoi has published 100+ book chapters, research reports and peer-reviewed articles in top-rated journals. Her Outstanding Academic Title award-winning book Women in Sports Coaching, the annual Women in College Coaching Report Card™ and Emmy-nominated documentaryGAME ON: Women Can Coach help inform countless stakeholders who changing the system for women sport coaches. She is the founder of Coaching HER®, and co-creator of Body Confident Sport, free tools to upskill coaches to more effectively coach girls. As a public scholar she consults with a variety of stakeholder groups, works with industry partners, speaks around the world, fields media requests, provides thought leadership, and serves on mission-driven advisory boards such as her third term on the Gatorade Women’s Advisory Board. She is an award-winning athlete, coach, scholar, and distinguished teacher, 2013 regional Emmy winner for Best Sport Documentary, two-time Hall of Fame inductee and was named a 2023 USTA Champion of Equality. LaVoi played collegiate tennis at Gustavus Adolphus College winning a NCAA-III National Team Championship where she currently serves on the Board of Trustees. Prior to her career in higher education, she was a USPTA Teaching Pro and head tennis coach at Wellesley College. In her free time, she enjoys being outdoors, biking, hiking, golf, painting andsoaking up the sun. Originally published at smacminor.nd.edu.

Rebecca HansonAssistant Professor of Crime, Law, and Governance, University of FloridaKellogg Institute Visiting Fellow Discussants:Abby CórdovaAssociate Professor of Global AffairsKellogg Faculty FellowRachel SweetAssistant Professor of Politics and Global AffairsKellogg Faculty FellowErnesto VerdejaAssociate Professor of Political Science and Peace StudiesKellogg Faculty FellowSince the mid-2000s Venezuela has been ranked one of the most violent countries in the world as homicides and police violence skyrocketed. Much has been written about the country’s turn to Chavismo but scholarship has ignored what will perhaps be the revolution’s most important legacy: how Chavista policies transformed coercive power and the security landscape. This panel will discuss the Rebecca Hanson's book of the same name, which provides the first in-depth analysis of policing and security policies during the left turn in Latin America by focusing on the experiences of three groups: police officers, police reformers, and residents of neighborhoods most affected by violence. Drawing on ethnographic, interview, and survey research collected over ten years, she analyzes how security policies within the context of the pink tide and later turn to authoritarianism contributed to the expansion of lateral violence and the pluralization of non-state violent actors. Far from the always-already authoritarian project proposed by many scholars and pundits, Hanson shows that the Bolivarian Revolution was defined by highly contested and contrasting visions of security that resulted in a fragmented and inconsistent ordering of state and society. Moreover, by pairing the vantage point of street-level police officers with that of ordinary barrio residents, she provides a unique analysis of how insecurity during revolution was experienced “from below.”Click here for more information   

We invite you to join us for an insightful lecture by Ph.D. candidate Diego Felipe Lopez-Aguirre, exploring the intersections of archaeology, history, and colonial narratives. In 1691 several archeological items came to light during an extirpation of idolatry made in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Colombia). This talk examines how the objects became part of a series of transatlantic collection networks and were used by several lettered Creole historians in the invention of the past of the new Granada kingdom.  Don't miss this engaging discussion on the politics of history and the construction of the past. Originally published at artdept.nd.edu.

The Office of Institutional Transformation, in partnership with the Initiative on Race and Resilience, invites students, faculty, and staff to gather weekly for support and fellowship. Wellsprings: A Time for Connection and Care provides a safe space for members of the campus community to discuss fears and concerns related to social divisiveness. Some sessions may feature presentations or information from campus resources. To suggest a topic, please contact Eve Kelly at ekelly11@nd.edu. Originally published at diversity.nd.edu.

Jonathan Blitzer, a staff writer at The New Yorker and author of “Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here,” will speak at the University in an event hosted by the Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights. Drawing on his work as a journalist, Blitzer will discuss how immigration became a political crisis. “Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis” is an epic, heartbreaking, and deeply reported book about the disastrous humanitarian crisis at the US-Mexico border. Blitzer tells this history through the lives of the migrants forced to risk everything and the policymakers who determine their fate. The book has received widespread praise and was named one of the best books of 2024 by the New York Times and several other publications. The event is free and open to the public. A reception with book sales and a book signing will follow the lecture. Blitzer’s lecture ties in with the Klau Institute’s Migration Initiative, which launched last year through collaboration with other experts from across the Keough School of Global Affairs and the University as a whole. This event is co-sponsored by the Institute for Latino Studies, the Institute for Social Concerns, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, and the Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics, and Democracy. Originally published at klau.nd.edu.