[POSTPONED. New date/time TBD] Register here  Stanley McChrystal is a retired four-star general and the former commander of US and International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) Afghanistan and the former commander of the nation’s premier military counter-terrorism force, Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). We will have a conversation with him about his recently released book, On Character: Choices that Define a Life, which draws on his lifetime of experiences to explore living with purpose and integrity. There will be time for audience questions.Virtues & Vocations is a social movement committed to individual and communal flourishing through the cultivation of character across the professions. This aspirational, cross-professional learning community understands thriving professions are the backbone of thriving societies and knows professional excellence requires both competence and character.Institute for Social Concerns

Laura Gamboa, assistant professor of democracy and global affairs in the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, will talk about “Democratic Backsliding” at the first Pizza, Pop and Politics event of the fall 2025 semester. Pizza, Pop and Politics is hosted by the Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights and ND Votes, a nonpartisan initiative that aims to foster conscientious engagement in political and civic life among students. The student-led initiative’s activities include promoting voter education, registration, and mobilization. Originally published at klau.nd.edu.

19th-Century Women’s Culture Through the Life and Work of Esmeralda Cervantes Discussion and Panel Join Rare Books & Special Collections from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. for a panel and discussion on the fascinating life of Catalan harpist Esmeralda Cervantes (born Clotilde Cerdá, 1861–1926), moderated by Latin American and Iberian Studies Librarian and Curator Payton Phillips Quintanilla. A child prodigy who toured the Americas in the 1870s, Cervantes meticulously documented her vast network of friends and acquaintances across Europe and the Americas in two personal friendship albums: scrapbooks filled with photographs, autographs, drawings, letters, poetry, and other keepsakes. One album resides at the Biblioteca de Catalunya, and the other is held by the University of Notre Dame. Our guest speakers, Lorena Fuster, University of Barcelona, Philosophy; Merli Marlowe, Barcelona-based film director; Vanesa Miseres, University of Notre Dame, Romance Languages & Literatures; and Erika Hosselkus, University of Notre Dame, Hesburgh Libraries, will use Cervantes’ unique case to explore broader themes of library archives, 19th-century women's sociability, the public and private conversations shaping women's lives, and the nascent stages of transnational feminisms. The panelists will also share how these remarkable albums brought them together for their ongoing academic and creative projects centered on Cervantes. Hands-On Workshop and Reception After the panel, attendees are invited to attend a reception from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Hesburgh Library Scholars Lounge to continue the conversation over light refreshments and engage in a hands-on activity to create their own album pages. Presenters:Lorena Fuster, University of Barcelona, Philosophy — Lorena Fuster is a professor of Philosophy and Feminist Theory at the University of Barcelona. Her research and publications focus on topics that link contemporary philosophy with cultural history. She currently directs the project "The Forgotten Legacy of Clotilde Cerdà/Esmeralda Cervantes: An International Avant-Garde Presence."Merli Marlowe, film director, Barcelona — Merli Marlowe is a singer and filmmaker, and has also written and directed television series and podcasts. She is currently working on a documentary about the harpist Esmeralda Cervantes in collaboration with Lorena Fuster. As a musician, she is the lead singer of the band Les Rencards, with whom she recently released the album Angles morts.Vanesa Miseres, University of Notre Dame, Romance Languages & Literatures — Vanesa Miseres specializes in the cultural and literary landscapes of 19th- and early 20th-century Latin America, with her research and teaching exploring diverse topics such as travel writing, war literature, women writers, and gender, cultural, and food studies. She is the author of Mujeres en tránsito: viaje, identidad y escritura en Sudamérica (1830–1910) (2017) and Gender Battles. Latin American Women, War, and Feminism (2025). She is also the co-editor of Food Studies in Latin American Literature. Perspectives on the Gastronarrative (2021).Erika Hosselkus, University of Notre Dame, Hesburgh Libraries — Erika Hosselkus is Associate University Librarian for the Distinctive and Academic Collections at Hesburgh Libraries. Her portfolio includes research collections, special collections and archives, metadata, and preservation. Prior to this appointment, Hosselkus served as the curator in Rare Books & Special Collections for Latin American and Iberian Studies, and developed a significant collection for this fast-growing area of study.Open to undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, staff, postdocs, alumni, friends, and the public.  Sponsored byHesburgh LibrariesFranco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public GoodKellogg Institute for International StudiesOffice of Undergraduate Studies (Teaching Beyond the Classroom Grant)

Join Wisconsin Poet Laureate Brenda Cárdenas for a talk and reading from her art-inspired work. Cárdenas’s remarks will center on “ekphrastic” writing—creative writings that respond to or are inspired by works of art. Her presentation will include projections of artworks that inspired some of her poems and her performance of them. Cárdenas’s campus visit launches “Poets & Art: Ekphrasis at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art,” a multi-year partnership between the museum and Letras Latinas, the literary initiative of the University’s Institute for Latino Studies (ILS). In addition to her poetry reading, Cárdenas will spend two days at the museum observing, reflecting, and writing a new ekphrastic poem inspired by an artwork on display. On Saturday, September 27, Cárdenas will lead a community-focused ekphrastic writing workshop. Brenda Cárdenas has published ekphrastic poems in her two books Trace (Red Hen Press, 2023) and Boomerang (Bilingual Press, 2009), as well as in literary magazines, and anthologies, most recently in Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology. Cárdenas is also co-editor of two anthologies, including Resist Much/Obey Little: Inaugural Poems to the Resistance (Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2017). She co-designed and co-taught the inaugural master workshop for PINTURA: PALABRA, a multi-year Letras Latinas initiative in partnership with the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She is professor emerita of English at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee where she taught undergraduate and graduate classes and seminars on poetry and the visual arts. Originally published at raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

You are invited to the first conference of the Building Inclusive Growth (BIG) Lab, focused on addressing structural barriers to equitable economic growth in low- and middle-income countries. Thursday, September 25 4:30 p.m. Welcome 4:45 Fireside Chat Introduction by Mary Gallagher, Dean of the Keough School of Global Affairs Dean Karlan, Northwestern University, former chief economist, USAID in conversation with Lakshmi Iyer, BIG Lab Director and Professor of Economics and Global Affairs 6:00 Opening Reception Friday, September 26 8:30 a.m.  Gender, Norms and Work Alejandro Estefan, University of Notre Dame & BIG Lab “Outsourcing Policy and Worker Outcomes: Causal Evidence from a Mexican Ban” Paul Novosad, Dartmouth College “Cultural Capital and Economic Opportunity in Rural India” Danila Serra, Texas A&M University “From Jobs to Careers: Understanding Aspirations, Opportunities, and Barriers Among Working Women in South Asia” Moderated by Brenda Samaniego de la Parra, University of Notre Dame & BIG Lab 10:00 Coffee 10:30 Keynote Address Introduction by James Sullivan, Professor of Economics & Director of the Notre Dame Poverty Initiative Ted Miguel, University of California, Berkeley 11:30 Human Capital Jere Behrman, University of Pennsylvania “Starting Strong: Medium- and Longer-run Benefits of Mexico's Universal Preschool Mandate” Taryn Dinkelman, University of Notre Dame & BIG Lab “Economic and Political Effects of Free Primary Education in Africa” Manisha Shah, University of California, Berkeley “Reducing bias among health care providers: Experimental evidence from Tanzania, Burkina Faso, and Pakistan” Moderated by Rebecca Thornton, University of Notre Dame & BIG Lab 1:00 Keynote Address & Lunch Introduction by Eric Sims, Notre Dame Economics Department Chair Pete Klenow, Stanford University 2:30 Trade & Structural Transformation Rodrigo Adao, University of Chicago Booth School "From Heterogeneous Firms to Heterogeneous Trade Elasticities: The Aggregate Implications of Firm Export Decisions" Heitor Pellegrina, University of Notre Dame & BIG Lab "Directed Innovation meets Economic Development: Embrapa and Brazil's Agricultural Revolution" Jing Zhang, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago “Deindustrialization and Industry Polarization” Moderated by Jeremy Majerovitz, University of Notre Dame & BIG Lab 4:00 Coffee 4:30 Political Economy Lakshmi Iyer, University of Notre Dame & BIG Lab “Electoral Redistricting in the World’s Largest Democracy” Nancy Qian, Northwestern University “Chinese growth and support for reunification in Taiwan” Enrico Spolaore, Tufts University “Cultural Remittances and Modern Fertility” Moderated by Enrique Seira Bejarano, University of Notre Dame & BIG Lab For more information, visit the event page. Sponsored by the Kellogg Institute at the Keough School of Global Affairs and the Franco Family Institute

In 2002, the Medieval Institute inaugurated a lecture series in honor of Robert M. and Ricki Conway. Robert Conway was a 1966 graduate of Notre Dame and trustee of the University, He was (and his wife Ricki continues to be) a long-time friend and supporter of the Medieval Institute. The annual Conway Lectures bring senior scholars of international distinction to Notre Dame each fall to speak on topics across a variety of disciplines.   The first talk in the 2025 series will be given by Petra Sijpesteijn, professor of Arabic at Leiden University, on "Running the early Islamic Empire: the papyrological evidence."About the Talk In the dry Egyptian desert sands, tens of thousands of Arabic, Coptic and Greek papyri from the first three centuries of Muslim rule in the province (7th-9th century CE) were preserved. Containing tax demand notes, fiscal receipts, lists of agricultural properties, tax payers, converts, alms payments, prisoners with the crimes they committed, the fines assigned to them or the petitions they wrote requesting to be released, decrees issued by the authorities or petitions directed to them, the papyri form the written residue of the daily running of the early Islamic Empire. They show that Arab rule was characterized by a marked continuity of daily administrative routines but also by the introduction of striking new practices. In this presentation I will discuss what the papyri tell us about the Arab administrative practices in early Islamic Egypt, what changed and what remained the same after the Arab conquest and why this was. About the Speaker Petra Sijpesteijn holds the chair of Arabic at Leiden University. She uses documentary sources such as papyri, seals, coins, inscriptions and manuscripts to reconstruct the daily life of Muslims and non-Muslims living under Muslim rule. Currently she runs a five-year research project entitled 'Land, space, power: Landscapes of the early caliphate' financed by the Netherlands National Science Foundation.Originally published at medieval.nd.edu.