Prof. CHEN Jian will discuss his book “Zhou Enlai: A Life” (Harvard University Press, 2024), which is being called the definitive biography of the first premier and preeminent diplomat of the People’s Republic of China, who protected his country against the excesses of his boss—Chairman Mao. Zhou Enlai spent twenty-seven years as premier of the People’s Republic of China and ten as its foreign minister. He was the architect of the country’s administrative apparatus and its relationship to the world, as well as its legendary spymaster. Richard Nixon proclaimed him “the greatest statesman of our era.” Yet Zhou has always been overshadowed by Chairman Mao. CHEN brings Zhou into the light, offering a nuanced portrait of his complex life as a revolutionary, a master diplomat, and a man with his own vision and aspirations who did much to make China, as well as the larger world, what it is today. CHEN Jian is the Director of the NYU Shanghai-ECNU Center on Global History, Economy, and Culture, a Distinguished Global Network Professor of History at NYU Shanghai, and a Global Network Professor in the Department of History at NYU. He is also Zijiang Distinguished Visiting Professor at East China Normal University. Prior to joining NYU Shanghai, he was the Michael J. Zak Professor of History for US-China Relations at Cornell University, Global Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Center, the Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at the London School of Economics, and visiting research professor at the University of Hong Kong (2009-2013). He holds a PhD from Southern Illinois University and an MA from Fudan University and East China Normal University in Shanghai. Sponsored by the Liu Institute's Chinese Working Group. Professor Chen has graciously donated free copies of his book to be distributed at his talk while supplies last.Lunch Provided - Please Bring Beverages In support of the Liu Institute’s growing commitment to sustainability, we will no longer be offering drinks at our public lectures and panels. We encourage audience members to bring their water bottles or to drink from nearby water fountains. Originally published at asia.nd.edu.

The Center for Social Concerns presents the 2024 Annual Rev. Bernie Clark, C.S.C., Lecture: An evening with Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. Welcome from University President Rev. Robert Dowd, C.S.C. Part of Notre Dame Forum 2024-25 Free, no ticket required. Doors open at 5:00 p.m. Interested in taking a free shuttle from the Notre Dame campus? Shuttle Interest Form Co-sponsors: Department of American Studies, Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights, Initiative on Race and Resilience, The Law School, Office of the President --- Bryan Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a human rights organization in Montgomery, Alabama. He is the author of the bestselling book Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, which has been adapted into a feature film. Under his leadership, EJI has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aiding children prosecuted as adults. Stevenson has argued and won multiple cases at the United States Supreme Court, including a 2019 ruling protecting condemned prisoners who suffer from dementia and a landmark 2012 ruling that banned mandatory life-imprisonment-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger. Stevenson and his staff have won reversals, relief, or release from prison for over 140 wrongly condemned prisoners on death row and won relief for hundreds of others wrongly convicted or unfairly sentenced. Stevenson has initiated major new anti-poverty and anti-discrimination efforts that challenge inequality in America. He led the creation of EJI’s highly acclaimed Legacy Sites, including the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. These new national landmark institutions chronicle the legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation, and the connection to mass incarceration and contemporary issues of racial bias.

As part of an album release tour, Cornelia Sommer, along with Dror Baitel, present a magical evening of original arrangements of classic fairy tale music, as well as newly commissioned works. This concert is free and not ticketed.  Originally published at music.nd.edu.

Pulling from the abuse suffered by First Nations people at residential schools, director Jeff Barnaby weaves together horror genre tropes with history in a singular fashion that defined his sadly short career that largely predated the recent push toward social thrillers. Set in 1976 on the fictional-yet-familiar Red Crow Mi'kmaq reservation (also the site of Barnbay's Blood Quantum screened last year at the Browning Cinema), children and teenagers are required to attend residential schools per governmental decree. Despite her efforts to avoid it, Aila (Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs) is forced to attend St. Dymphna's residential school and the full breadth of generational abuse becomes clear. With nods to revenge genre films, Aila and her friends hatch a plot to right the wrongs of their world, both past and present. GET TICKETS!  

Schola Musicorum, an early vocal music vocal ensemble, presents Gregorian chant from medieval manuscripts, early polyphony, and early organ works. For tickets, call 574-631-2800 or visit performingarts.nd.edu. Originally published at music.nd.edu.

Please join the Alliance for Catholic Education as they welcome Sr. Draru Mary Cecilia, executive director of the African Sisters Education Collaborative, and 2024 winner of the Notre Dame Award for Outstanding Contributions to Catholic Education. Join the conversation as she shares her story and insights about the role of the Catholic Church and its schools in Africa, where Catholic schooling is experiencing historic expansion and growth.  A reception will follow the conversation.  Open to all Notre Dame students, faculty, and staff members. RSVPs are requested, but not required. Originally published at forum2024.nd.edu.

Letras Latinas’ 20th anniversary celebration continues. For this seventh installment of our yearlong celebration, we welcome Presidential Inaugural Poet and National Humanities Medal recipient, RICHARD BLANCO. He will be joined by RIGOBERTO GONZÁLEZ, award-winning writer, editor, and critic, whose most recent book, Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology, we will also be celebrating. Special guest SUSANA PLOTTS-PINEDA, from the Library of America, will be on hand to speak about this ground-breaking volume. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Reception to follow at the conclusion of the event. Free and open to the public. Co-sponsors: Creative Writing Program, the Center for Social Concerns, Department of Romance Languages and Literature, Initiative on Race and Resilience, the Poetry Foundation,  the St. Joe County Public Library (South Bend, Indiana), and José E. Fernández Hispanic Caribbean Studies Initiative   More on featured poets: Richard Blanco was selected by President Obama as the fifth Presidential Inaugural Poet. In 2023, Blanco was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Biden from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Born in Madrid to Cuban exile parents and raised in Miami in a working-class family, Blanco’s personal negotiation of cultural identity and the universal themes of place and belonging characterize Blanco’s poetry, including his most recent, Homeland of My Body: New and Selected Poems. He has also authored the memoirs For All of Us, One Today: an Inaugural Poet’s Journey, and The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood. Blanco has received numerous awards, including the Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize, the PEN American Beyond Margins Award, the Patterson Prize, and a Lambda Prize for memoir. He was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and has received numerous honorary degrees. Currently, he serves as Education Ambassador for The Academy of American Poets and is an Associate Professor at Florida International University. In April 2022, Blanco was appointed the first-ever Poet Laureate of Miami-Dade County. Rigoberto González is the author of eighteen books of poetry and prose. His awards include Lannan, Guggenheim, NEA, NYFA, and USA Rolón fellowships, the PEN/ Voelcker Award, the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets, and the Shelley Memorial Prize from the Poetry Society of America. Contributing editor for Poets & Writers, he is the series editor for the Camino del Sol Latinx Literary Series at the University of Arizona Press, and the editor of Latino Poetry: A Library of America Anthology. Currently, he’s Distinguished Professor of English and the director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Rutgers-Newark, the State University of New Jersey. Originally published at latinostudies.nd.edu.

Join the School of Architecture for the annual Michael Christopher Duda Center Lecture "Preservation Today" by Ashley R. Wilson, FAIA. Wilson will explore the role of preservation in addressing contemporary architectural challenges, from sustainable development to the conservation of recent heritage. Drawing on her extensive experience, she will discuss how preservation practices can foster community development and urban regeneration while maintaining the integrity of historic sites. Register for the lecture Originally published at architecture.nd.edu.

Join the Klau Institute and NDVotes for this installment of "Pizza, Pop, and Politics" as Chloe Gibbs, assistant professor of economics, discusses the imapct of the economy on the upcoming US election.  Originally published at klau.nd.edu.

Your 20th anniversary Presenting Series season is brimming with unmissable gems. One is the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the famed ensemble founded over 90 years ago, which our audiences last experienced in 2006. Encounter the raw power and unbridled emotion of Sibelius' Fifth Symphony, Shostakovich's explosive First Violin Concerto with incomparable violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja as a soloist, and a new work by Kennedy Center Honoree, Cuban-American composer Tania León. This rare treat will ignite your emotions through a concert of dazzling orchestral colors. GET TICKETS  

Peter Wallensteen, the Kroc Institute’s Richard G. Starmann Sr. Research professor emeritus, will discuss his new book, Sanctions for Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation: Moving Forward (Routledge, 2024). Co-edited with Uppsala University’s Armend Bekaj and appearing in Routledge’s Global Security Studies series, the volume examines the interplay between sanctions and nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. Specifically, it studies the conceptual frameworks behind the application of sanctions and the decision by states to pursue nuclear disarmament in their theoretical and practical expressions. Wallensteen’s contribution does much to update and stimulate the academic and policy debates on these issues by recasting them in light of contemporary global events, and considering case studies from the EU, Latin America and the Caribbean, India, China, Pakistan, Iran, and Africa. This book launch will take the form of a panel discussion, moderated by George Lopez, Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., professor emeritus of peace studies, who authored one of the book’s chapters, “Sanctions as tools to achieve nuclear reduction policy: is there a better way forward?” Responses to the book will come from Kelsey Davenport, director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, and Monica Montgomery (BA '19), policy analyst at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, and members of Kroc’s Advisory Board who have worked extensively on nuclear disarmament. All are encouraged to attend the launch of this significant volume, which will be of particular interest to students of nuclear non-proliferation, economic sanctions, security studies, and international relations. Lunch will be provided after the event in the Hesburgh Center Great Hall. Originally published at kroc.nd.edu.

International scholars partake in a six-part seminar series devoted to Psalms in the first half of 2024. This series continues from where the 2023 series left off. The format will be a 60-minute lecture followed by a 30-minute discussion. These events are free and open to all, but registration is required.  Once registered, you will be sent an email with an invitation to the Zoom link for each session. Register for the last session The last meeting in the 2024 seminar cycle Meetings with the Psalms and Psalters – Series 2 will take place on Thursday, October 17th, 2024, at 12:00 EST / 18:00 CET. Our guest speaker, Sophia Dege-Müller (Hamburg University) will talk about Ethiopian and Eritrean psalters. Psalters in the Ethiopian and Eritrean tradition The manuscript culture in Ethiopia and Eritrea remains vibrant, with Psalters being the most numerous among the hundreds of thousands of manuscripts. While the overall Psalter tradition has been remarkably stable since the 15th century, these manuscripts exhibit significant features that link them to the broader Christian world. This lecture will highlight various codicological elements and explore the importance of illuminated medieval Ethiopic Psalters, which not only reflect artistic traditions of Ethiopia and Eritrea but also provide insights into the theological and liturgical practices of the time. Additionally, the discussion will address paratextual elements that connect to the Patristic heritage, illustrating how these works serve as vital links between past and present Christian communities in the region. Sophia Dege-Müller is a researcher and scientific coordinator of the ERC project BeInf: the Connected Histories of Ethiopic and Syriac Christianity led by Aaron Butts at the University of Hamburg. She is also a member of the editorial team of Aethiopica: International Journal of Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies. In recent years, her research has focussed on the manuscript traditions of the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews) and the Psalter tradition in Ethiopia and Eritrea. 12:00 Eastern Standard Time (NEW YORK, INDIANAPOLIS)17:00 Greenwich Mean Time (LONDON, DUBLIN)18:00 Central European Time  (WARSAW, BRUSSELS) (Individual session times are subject to change due to daylight savings time. Please check each session and the time conversion as the day approaches) Sponsored by the Nanovic Institute for European Studies at the University of Notre Dame, USA; John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland; the Research Group for the Study of Manuscripts (SIGLUM); and the Institute of English Studies at the University of Warsaw, Poland. Originally published at nanovic.nd.edu.

This biopic follows Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan), who graduated from Harvard Law and sidestepped the well-oiled path to lucrative law firm money and instead moved to Alabama where he defended individuals unjustly sentenced to death through a broken criminal justice system. Profiled in the film is one of Stevenson's most incendiary cases: In 1987, Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx) was sentenced to death for a notorious murder despite a preponderance of evidence proving his innocence and the only incriminating testimony coming from a biased source. Litigating on behalf of McMillian, Stevenson learns quickly the severity of both hot and cold racism baked into the criminal justice system. GET TICKETS!  

Two-time Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori's powerful new opera Grounded, commissioned by the Met and based on librettist George Brant's acclaimed play, wrestles with the ethical quandaries and psychological toll of 21st-century warfare. Mezzo-soprano Emily D'Angelo, one of opera's most compelling young stars, portrays Jess, a hot-shot fighter pilot whose unplanned pregnancy takes her out of the cockpit and lands her in Las Vegas, operating a Reaper drone halfway around the world. As she struggles to adjust to this new way of doing battle, she fights to maintain her sanity, and her soul, as she is called to rain down death by remote control. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin oversees the Met premiere of Tesori's kaleidoscopic score and a cast that also features tenor Ben Bliss as the Wyoming rancher who becomes Jess's husband. Michael Mayer's high-tech staging, using a vast array of LED screens, presents a variety of perspectives on the action, including the drone's predatory view from high above. GET TICKETS  

When John Bellairs released The House with a Clock in Its Walls in 1973, he pulled from his childhood in nearby Marshall, Michigan, specifically the Cronin House. Tours are available for fans who want to make the day trip. That inspiration became text and, in turn, inspired illustrator Edward Gorey's drawings. Together, the two created one of its era's most compelling children's mystery novels. Two generations on, the book was adapted for film with faithfulness to the tale that follows the story many know well: The young orphan Lewis (Owen Vacarro) goes to live with his uncle (Jack Black) and soon realizes he and his neighbor (Cate Blanchett) have magical powers, which come in handy when Lewis mistakenly resurrects the dead. GET TICKETS!  

Join the Liturgical Choir of the Notre Dame Children's Choir the second and third Mondays of the month in-person or online for a prayerful Vespers service. Notre Dame Children's Liturgical ChoirOriginally published at sma.nd.edu.

A cornerstone of the horror film, F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror is resurrected in an HD edition mastered from the acclaimed 35mm restoration by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung. This edition offers unprecedented visual clarity and historical faithfulness to the original release version. An unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Nosferatu remains to many viewers the most unsettling vampire film ever made, and its bald, spidery vampire, personified by the diabolical Max Schreck, continues to spawn imitations in the realm of contemporary cinema. GET TICKETS!  

After moving to Salem, Massachusetts (not the best town to land in right before Halloween), teenager Max explores an abandoned house with his sister Dani (future star of American Beauty, Thora Birch) and their new friend, Allison. When Allison tells them a bit of local lore, the siblings dismiss the story as boring old superstition. As is sometimes the case, there's truth behind the legend, and Max accidentally frees a coven of witches (Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy). Now, with the help of a magical cat (bearing a strong resemblance to Salem Saberhagen), the kids must steal the witches' book of spells to stop them from becoming immortal. GET TICKETS!  

Sponsored by the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative and the Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and the Common Good Honoring the legacy of legendary Notre Dame President Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., Fr. TED Talks is a two-night festival, October 28-29, on Notre Dame’s campus featuring short keynote talks from every corner of the Notre Dame community as we gather to consider all of the ways the pillars of Catholic social tradition animate our lives together. A “Fr. TED Talk” is a ten-minute address by members of the Notre Dame community (students, alumni, staff, and faculty) on one big idea from the Catholic social tradition that is worth exploring. Featuring stories, points of view, and personal flair – a great Fr. Ted talk inspires the audience to take a deeper look at the idea. Each evening, several Notre Dame community members–students, alumni, staff, and faculty–will give TED-style talks. Speakers will be chosen through an application process, which is open to all members of the campus community. If selected, speakers will receive support in preparation from a distinguished mentor on campus. There will be food and door prizes for audience members, awards for speakers, as well as a few surprises during the festival.If you have an idea for a Fr Ted Talk you'd like to give, click here to submit a video interview proposal! You'll pitch your idea by recording answers to a short set of questions. Apply by September 30!  Originally published at forum2024.nd.edu.

Scott MorgensternProfessor of Political ScienceUniversity of Pittsburgh Given their role in implementing policy and executive orders, bureaucrats are uniquely positioned to respond to executive overreach. Their attitudes toward democracy, however, have avoided significant scrutiny. This talk thus explores their commitment to democracy using an original survey of nearly 12,000 Latin American bureaucrats. To explain the likelihood of their commitment to democracy, the focus is on technocratic orientation, their alignment with the president, and the level of and change in the country’s democratic context. For more information, click here. Sponsored by the Kellogg Institute for International Studies.