Cultures & Languages | St. Joseph County Public Library, 304 S Main Street, South Bend, IN 46601
Join us at the St. Joseph County Public Library (Main Street Branch) Story House for a family-friendly Korean bookmark-making activity at the public library to celebrate Korea Week 2025.  Free and open to the public.  About the Series Korea Week 2025 is co-hosted with Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies and Korean Cultural Center, Washington, D.C. This week is sponsored by the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, the Browning Cinema at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, and the St. Joseph County Public Library. Originally published at asia.nd.edu.

Cultures & Languages | Lady Chapel, Basilica of the Sacred Heart
Join us for Holy Mass in Portuguese, hosted by the Brazilian Student Association. Brazilian dinner to follow in the Knights of Columbus Building.

Cultures & Languages | Bond Hall 104
Join us for an evening of culture, conversation, and community as we explore the tastes and traditions of Ireland, South Korea, and Brazil. Our international presenters will share insights into their countries’ heritage, daily life, and unique customs while guiding us through some of their most beloved foods. Come hungry for knowledge—and maybe a new favorite dish—as we celebrate the diversity and richness of our global community.

Cultures & Languages | Decio 151
Join us for the Chinese Singing Club and enjoy cultural musical talent here on campus!

Cultures & Languages | Decio 131
Come join us for a fun time and practice your Japanese conversation skills with snacks and friends!

Cultures & Languages | Decio Commons
Come celebrate the Moon Festival with the Chinese department faculty and students!

Cultures & Languages | 220E Bond Hall
The English Conversation Table (ECT -- formerly English Language Table) meets is a great chance to practice English with both native and non-native speakers and to make some new friends in the process. Come join this amazing group of ND faculty, staff & students and volunteers from the South Bend commnunit) who love welcoming, creating space for great conversations and learning from the beautifully diverse international Notre Dame community. Uncertain what you might talk about, find a slip of paper at the center of your table with a conversation starter. Enjoy light refreshments and great conversations. It is free and open to anyone at Notre Dame.

Cultures & Languages | North Dining Hall Entrance
Come join us for a fun time and practice your Japanese conversation skills with snacks and friends!  Please note that the Nov 2nd language table will be held at the entrance of North Dining Hall instead of the usual Decio Hall location.

Cultures & Languages | Lewis Hall Chapel
Please join us as we celebrate Christ with a mass and liturgy in Arabic. All are welcome, and guidance in both English and Arabic will be provided. Officiant: Fr. Aaron Michka Co-sponsored by: Notre Dame Campus Ministry For more information or if you would like to volunteer to help, please contact Eva Hoeckner (ehoeckn2@nd.edu).         

Cultures & Languages | Decio 3rd Floor
Italian Coffee Hour, a fun experience where you are welcome to meet and practice your Italian with members of the Italian Program, Italophones, Italophiles, and people with an appreciation for all things Italian. Come enjoy some tasty pizza and show off your Italian cultural knowledge! All are welcome! For more information, contact cslcstaf@nd.edu. Originally published at italianstudies.nd.edu.

Cultures & Languages | Decio 131
Come join us for a fun time and practice your Japanese conversation skills with snacks and friends!

Cultures & Languages | Decio 131
Join us for a movie in Chinese! More information TBA!

Cultures & Languages | 2148 Jenkins Nanovic Halls
Lionel Jensen, associate professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures and a Liu Institute faculty fellow, will present his paper "Enchantment in the Temple of Our Ancestors: A Forensic" to the Chinese Working Group. Lionel Jensen is the author of Manufacturing Confucianism: Chinese Traditions and Universal Civilization, recognized in 1998 as the Best First Book in the History of Religions by the American Academy of Religion. He has edited or co-edited five other works, Early China (1997), China Beyond the Headlines (2000), China Off Center: Mapping the Margins of the Middle Kingdom (2002), China’s Transformations: the Stories beyond the Headlines (2007), and China in and beyond the Headlines (2012, Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2013). Although his research is identified with the intellectual history of “Confucianism,” his interests and published work extend from ancient through medieval, modern and even to contemporary topics. He has written on Chinese religion and thought, contemporary economy and politics, human rights, early culture contact, popular cults, mythology and nationalism. In 2010 he received the Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C. Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in the Humanities. Originally published at asia.nd.edu.

Cultures & Languages | Collaboration Hub 120
Join the Multi-Language Reading Club for an hour of fun reading in the language of your choosing! Bring a foreign language book, magazine, or newspaper, or read one from the library collection.

Cultures & Languages | Decio 131
Come join us for a fun time and practice your Japanese conversation skills with snacks and friends!

Cultures & Languages | 3130 Jenkins Nanovic Halls
Are you learning Irish on campus or would like to learn some Irish phrases? Join us in KNI's office suite, 3130 Jenkins Nanovic Halls for tea, biscuits, and conversation practice in Irish. Originally published at irishstudies.nd.edu.

Cultures & Languages | Decio 151
Join us for the Chinese Singing Club and enjoy cultural musical talent here on campus!

Cultures & Languages | Bond Hall 104
Step into the world of international cinema with a look at films from Germany and Taiwan. Our presenters will showcase how each country’s movies reflect culture and everyday life—while also shaping global film trends. From the classics to modern favorites, discover how storytelling on screen brings people together across continents.

Cultures & Languages | Rare Books and Special Collections 102 Hesburgh Library & via YouTube
As part of the 2025 Fall Italian Research Seminar series, the Center for Italian Studies is pleased to host a lecture by Professor Filippo Gianferrari (UC Santa Cruz) titled:Our Memories, Ourselves: Restoring Political Communities in Purgatorio   In one of the most striking and comic episodes of the Commedia, Dante and Virgil, Dante, Virgil, and a group of newly arrived souls in Purgatorio are suddenly scattered—like doves in a public square—by an irate Cato. They have just been caught indulging in a moment of recreation, entranced by the singing of a Florentine musician, Casella, who is performing one of Dante’s own canzoni: “Amor che nella mente mi ragiona.” This enigmatic episode has generated sustained critical debate, particularly concerning the target of Cato’s rebuke. Yet the preceding exchange between Dante and Casella is no less peculiar and deserves closer scrutiny—an inquiry this reading seeks to undertake. Casella’s assurances about his unchanged “memory” and “practice of the songs of love” (Purgatorio 2.107) constitute a bizarre and surprising claim in light of the late-medieval scholastic controversy on the survival of memory and affections in the disembodied soul. Dante’s revelations here about the condition of the separated souls must be appreciated as integral to the development of two of the Ante-Purgatory’s central and interconnected themes: the human body-soul composite and the political wreckage of Dante’s contemporary Italy. How do these seemingly unrelated concerns converge to animate this liminal space between life and death, body and soul, time and eternity? To begin addressing this question, this reading broadens its focus to examine the nexus between memory and embodiment in Dante’s treatment of both human generation (Purgatorio 25) and his representation of bodily ombre who can see, experience, and remember each other in Purgatorio (12–14). Through this exploration, affective memory and empathy emerge as key elements of Dante’s anthropology. Not only are they essential to individual and collective identities, but they are also central to his vision of ‘embodied’ souls called to purge themselves and to mend their fractured political bonds. Filippo Gianferrari is Associate Professor of Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He received a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from the University of Notre Dame, and an MA and BA from the University of Bologna. Before joining USCS, he taught at Vassar College and Smith College. His recent book, Dante’s Education: Latin Schoolbooks and Vernacular Poetics, was published by OUP in 2024 and investigates the influence of Latin school texts on Dante's poetics of vernacular learning. His next book project, “Political Eschatology: Vernacular Theories of the Common Good,” focuses on debates on the common good among the laity in late medieval Italian city-states. In particular, the project explores the entanglements of late-medieval political theory and theological controversies on the body-soul nexus, the intellect, and the beatific vision. He is the organizer of the webinar, “Project Paradiso: Exploring Dante’s Heaven,” and co-editor with Ronald Herzman of the edited volume Dante's Paradiso: A Reader's Guide (forthcoming, Routledge: 2025). The lecture is co-sponsored by the Medieval Institute.The Italian Research Seminar, a core event of the Center for Italian Studies, aims to provide a regular forum for faculty, postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and colleagues from other universities to present and discuss their current research. The Seminar is vigorously interdisciplinary, and embraces all areas of Italian literature, language, and culture, as well as perceptions of Italy, its achievements and its peoples in other national and international cultures. The Seminar constitutes an important element in the effort by Notre Dame's Center for Italian Studies to promote the study of Italy and to serve as a strategic point of contact for scholarly exchange. Originally published at italianstudies.nd.edu.

Cultures & Languages | 220E Bond Hall
The English Conversation Table (ECT -- formerly English Language Table) gathering is a great chance to practice English with both native and non-native speakers and to make some new friends in the process. Come join this amazing group of Notre Dame (ND) faculty, staff & students and volunteers from the South Bend community who love welcoming, creating space for great conversations and learning from the beautifully diverse international ND community. Uncertain what you might talk about, find a slip of paper at the center of your table with a conversation starter. Enjoy light refreshments and lively conversations. It is free and open to anyone at Notre Dame.