Faculty organist Kola Owolabi performs works by Francisco Correa de Arauxo, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, John Scott Whiteley, and Louis Vierne. This concert is free and open to the public. Originally published at music.nd.edu.

Author Jan Carson will read from and discuss her new short story collection, Quickly, While They Still Have Horses (Scribner, July 2024).Book Description:  A surreal and darkly comic collection of stories that offer a fresh and irreverent look at life in contemporary Northern Ireland from “one of the most exciting and original Northern Irish writers of her generation” (The Sunday Times, London). Humorous and horrifying, tender and absurd, the stories in Quickly, While They Still Have Horses offer a fresh, irreverent look at life in post-conflict Northern Ireland. From first loves to strained relationships, the thrills and terrors of growing up to the dangers and challenges of parenthood, Carson infuses all her stories with empathy, dark wit, and a surreal edge. In “A Certain Degree of Ownership,” a distracted couple on a beach fail to notice their baby crawl perilously toward the sea. In “Grand So,” the ghost of a car’s previous owner haunts the backseat. In “Troubling the Water,” a rumor of miraculous healing creates chaos at a public swimming pool. Carson never fails to shock and delight as kids go missing in jungle gyms, a baby washes up on a riverbank in a biscuit tin, and a bloody hand appears (and reappears) in a refrigerator. Every so often, these stories travel into alternate versions of our world where pillars of fire are a new treatment for mental illness and animals deemed nonessential are going extinct by legislative orders. While the legacy of the Troubles is never far from Carson’s mind, it is only a backdrop to the worlds she’s woven in these stories, driven by characters who feel real enough to touch. This stunning collection marks the arrival of a “bracingly fresh, darkly funny, [and] unwaveringly compassionate” (The Irish News) writer to North American readers.Speaker Biography Jan Carson is a writer and community arts facilitator based in Belfast. She has published three novels, three short story collections and two micro-fiction collections. Her novel The Fire Starters won the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland 2019. Jan’s latest novel, The Raptures was published by Doubleday in early 2022 and was subsequently shortlisted for the An Post Irish Novel of the Year and Kerry Group Novel of the Year. Her short story collection Quickly, While They Still Have Horses was recently published by Scribner in July 2024. This event is co-sponsored by the Creative Writing Program.   Originally published at irishstudies.nd.edu.

Nanovic Institute Faculty Fellow Alexander Martin, professor of history, will host a discussion with Wojciech Materski, the author of the recent award-winning book From the Tsars to “The Tsar”: A Study of Russia’s Politics of Memory. Materski is a professor in the Department of East-Central Europe and Post-Soviet Studies at the Institute of Political Science at the Polish Academy of Sciences, and his book offers a sweeping overview of the propagandistic manipulation of history by Russian and Soviet rulers from Ivan the Terrible to Putin. Martin will provide attendees with a PDF of the English translation of the book upon request. This special event is part of the "In the Shade of Russia" series of similar presentations, lectures, and events facilitated by the Janusz Kurtyka Foundation, a Polish non-governmental organization whose main aim is to disseminate information on Polish history and historiography in Poland and abroad. The Nanovic Institute is partnering with the foundation, Alexander Martin, and the Department of History to bring this conversation to the academic community as an online meeting open to faculty, staff, and interested members of the local community and the field of history. Register to attend Registration for this event is free, but it is required for admission. Please register on Zoom to ensure you receive a calendar invite and may join the event electronically when it starts. About the speaker Professor Wojciech Materski is a distinguished Polish historian, political scientist, and Sovietologist affiliated with the Department of East-Central Europe and Post-Soviet Studies in the Institute of Political Science at the Polish Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on the history of the Soviet Union and Polish‒Soviet relations, the history of international collective security institutions, and the transformation of the post-Soviet region after 1991. He is the author or joint author of over 500 publications including over 30 books on contemporary history, and has received numerous prizes, including the 2023 Janusz Kurtyka Award for the book this session centers on. Originally published at nanovic.nd.edu.

The Labor Café kicks off its 11th year at the Center for Social Concerns by welcoming both old friends and new students and colleagues. We’ll hear updates from students and faculty, and talk about what topics we should explore this academic year. All are welcome. Join us at the Labor Café: Where ND Talks Work. Facilitator: Dan Graff, professor of the practice, Department of History, and the director of the Higgins Labor Program at the Center for Social Concerns. Visit socialconcerns.nd.edu/labor-cafe for more information.

Join the School of Architecture for a lectutre by Joseph Connors. One of the most imaginative architects in history, Francesco Borromini (1599-1667), came out of the quarries of Switzerland to transform the face of Baroque Rome. Masterpieces like San Carlo alle Quattro Fontana and Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza have long entered the canon of architectural history. This master builder, pioneer of the graphite revolution in draftsmanship, was both a connoisseur of history and an apostle of inventiveness. In this lecture, Connors will outline his search over five decades for ways of repositioning an elusive genius in the culture of his time. Register here Originally published at architecture.nd.edu.

Join the School of Architecture for a lecture by Joseph Connors, an American art historian and educator, who specializes in the Italian Renaissance and Baroque architecture. One of the most imaginative architects in history, Francesco Borromini (1599-1667), came out of the quarries of Switzerland to transform the face of Baroque Rome. Masterpieces like San Carlo alle Quattro Fontana and Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza have long entered the canon of architectural history. This master builder, pioneer of the graphite revolution in draftsmanship, was both a connoisseur of history and an apostle of inventiveness. In this lecture, Connors will outline his search over five decades for ways of repositioning an elusive genius in the culture of his time. Register here Originally published at architecture.nd.edu.