The Chicago-based intermedia percussion ensemble Beyond This Point will lead a hands-on workshop showcasing the innovative and unconventional performance technologies used in their work. Participants will explore how these technologies shape musical expression—ranging from controlling lighting and sensor-driven cues to interacting with electronic elements and unconventional instruments. The workshop will showcase how such technologies can enhance theatricality and audience engagement, transforming traditional composition and performance spaces into rich, multi-sensory experiences.Bio:Beyond This Point is a Chicago-based collaborative music ensemble dedicated to the advancement of experimental and contemporary culture. This multifaceted collective of musicians, performers, and arts practitioners builds experimental projects that engage with written music, sound art, lighting, installation, improvisation, and live electronics. From the intimate to the monumental, BTP is known for producing unique performances that offer captivating and exhilarating experiences. Most recently, BTP has presented its community-oriented multimedia production Reclaimed Timber; immersive sound+light concert LIT; and thought-provoking theatrical performance Musician Minus Instrument.This workshop is part of the lecture series "Sonifying the Body: Embodied Technologies in Electronic Music Performance," sponsored by the Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good, the Department of Music, and the Technology & Digital Studies Program.   Originally published at music.nd.edu.

James A. Maynard, Ph.D., is a professor of number theory at the Mathematical Institute in Oxford University in Oxford, England. He is being recognized with the Carrier Medal for transformative discoveries in analytical number theory and the structure of prime numbers, advancing both foundational science and practical application. He will accept the Rev. Carrier Medal on September 15, 2025.   Maynard won the Fields Medal, a prestigious honor awarded every four years by the International Mathematical Union, which chooses two to four medalists during each award cycle for outstanding advancements in mathematics. His early work was on sieve methods, a technique used to estimate the size of a set of numbers by "sifting out" numbers that are divisible by specific primes. He settled an established conjecture by Paul Erdös — a prolific mathematician who spent a year on the faculty of the University of Notre Dame during the 1950s — on large gaps between prime numbers.   Recently, Maynard has improved upon previous work on questions about the Diophantine approximation, the process of finding successively better rational approximations to irrational numbers. In 2024 he and Larry Guth, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, developed a new proof that better estimates how many primes exist in short intervals on the number line. The proof also provides more insights into the behavior of prime numbers.  Read more about James MaynardOriginally published at science.nd.edu.

What impact have Western sanctions, international aid, and regional diplomacy and trade had on the Taliban’s internal dynamics, governance capacity, and international relations? Are the Taliban weakened or strengthened as a result of these strategies since 2021? Join this webinar panel to learn about our research findings. The Kroc Institute’s Afghanistan Program for Peace and Development collaborated on a study with the Libertas Council to examine the impact of international strategies on Afghanistan from August 2021 to December 2024. Led by Sibghatullah Ghaznawi, the study assessed their influence on the Taliban’s governance, internal cohesion and response to these strategies. Register hereModerator:Laurie Nathan, director of the Mediation Program at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, part of the Keough School of Global AffairsIntroductory remarks:Aref Dostyar, director of the Afghanistan Program for Peace and Development at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, part of the Keough School of Global Affairs, and a Global Fellow at the Libertas CouncilPanelists:Sibghatullah Ghaznawi, associate research scholar, Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia UniversityMuqaddessa Yoursih, senior advisor at swisspeaceConcluding remarks:Emily Ann Milnes, chief of staff, Libertas CouncilCo-Sponsor:Libertas CouncilRegister here Originally published at kroc.nd.edu.

Enrique SeiraKellogg Institute Faculty FellowJoe and Deborah Loughrey Professor of Economics We complement a field experiment with cross-country evidence to show that exposure to apex corruption— corrupt acts implicating top-level politicians—causes large decreases in democratic values and associated behaviors. Behaviors such as individual voter turnout, contributions to support elections, and honesty and trust in incentivized games all fall. The effects on voting are greatest for incumbents perceived to be honest when apex corruption is exposed close to elections. We show, both experimentally and across scandals in 17 national settings, that apex corruption also reduces explicit support for democracy in favor of authoritarianism. We test two restorative solutions. Sponsored by the Kellogg Institute at the Keough School of Global Affairs.    

Petrus Liu is professor of Chinese & Comparative Literature and of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Boston University. He received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature (Chinese, German, and Latin) from UC Berkeley in 2005 and taught at Cornell University and Yale-NUS College before joining BU in 2017. His research interests lie at the intersection of queer theory and Marxist cultural criticism, which he explores through publications and courses on modern Chinese and comparative literature, digital media, capitalism and the novel, and new social movements in the global South. Liu is the author of three scholarly monographs: Stateless Subjects: Chinese Martial Arts Literature and Postcolonial History (Cornell East Asia Series, 2011); Queer Marxism in Two Chinas (Duke University Press, 2015), winner of the Alan Bray Memorial Book Prize Honorable Mention and a finalist for the 2016 Lambda Literary Award; and The Specter of Materialism: Queer Theory and Marxism in the Age of the Beijing Consensus (Duke University Press, 2023), a work that offers a new approach to the political economy of sexuality through a decentered history of global capitalism’s latest mutations and queer bodies. Liu is also the coeditor (with Lisa Rofel) and cotranslator of Platinum Bible of the Public Toilet (Duke University Press, 2024), a collection of queer stories by the Chinese writer Cui Zi’en. Liu’s other publications include “Beyond the Strai(gh)ts: Transnationalism and Queer Chinese Politics,” a coedited special issue of the journal positions: asia critique that received the Modern Language Association’s Council of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ) Award for Best Journal Special Issue of 2010; three collections of film commentaries simultaneously published in English, Chinese, Spanish, and French; and journal articles in Social Text; South Atlantic Quarterly; Modern Language Quarterly; GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies; Feminist Studies; positions: asia critique; The Funambulist; Asian Exchange; Modern Chinese Literature and Culture; Prism: Theory and Modern Chinese Literature; Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies; Inter-Asia Cultural Studies; Genre en Action; Kaos Queer+; Sexuality Policy Watch; Router: A Journal of Cultural Studies; Refeng xueshu; and The China Journal. His works have been translated into Chinese, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Turkish, and Russian. The lecture is sponsored by the Liu Institute's Chinese Working Group. The event is free and open to the public. 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 Kellogg Institute presents its annual tradition—that introduces research of new Visiting Fellows and Dissertation-Year Fellows in an informative and inviting atmosphere. Learn firsthand why Kellogg has invested in the work of these fellows from brief research overview presentations moderated by Kellogg Director Aníbal Pérez-Liñán. Feel free to ask questions and chat with the visiting fellows at the reception in the Great Hall afterward. Sponsored by the Kellogg Institute at the Keough School of Global Affairs.

As part of its Democracy Talks series, the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative will host a fireside chat with Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D- NM) and Governor Spencer Cox (R-UT), moderated by John McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost. The governors will discuss their experiences as Western state governors working together on policy issues like water, housing, and energy, focusing on how Western state pragmatism can serve as a model for the country to overcome toxic polarization. Introductory remarks will be provided by University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C. The event is free and open to the public on a first-come basis. About the speakersGovernor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D- NM) is the 32nd governor of the state of New Mexico, and the first Democratic Latina elected governor in U.S. history. She has also served as a county commissioner, state cabinet secretary, and member of Congress. A 12th-generation New Mexican, she is a former chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Western Governors Association.  Governor Spencer Cox (R-UT) is the 18th governor of Utah, a fourth-generation Utahn who has served as a mayor, county commissioner, state legislator, and lieutenant governor. He is the current chair of the Western Governors’ Association and served as chair of the National Governors Association from 2023 to 2024. Originally published at strategicframework.nd.edu.

Get a one-hour sampling of the power of a Notre Dame liberal arts education with the College of Arts & Letters' Crash Course series on home football Fridays! Each event features an A&L professor leading a class session pulled directly from some of the most popular and riveting courses on campus."Writing in the Age of AI" with Nathaniel MyersUniverity Writing Program  Would you use ChatGPT to complete a report for work? Would you use it to write an apology letter to a loved one? What about drafting a toast for a wedding reception? Generative artificial intelligence technologies can produce text that sounds convincingly human, and they hold the promise to make us more efficient and effective writers. But they're also prone to fabricating information — and besides, what do we owe our (human) readers? In this session, attendees will get a glimpse into how this course examines what it means to write with AI across many different situations, provides strategies for incorporating it into the writing process, and encourages us to reflect on why we might choose to use AI (or not) in the first place.  Alumni, friends, prospective students and their parents, and anyone else on campus are welcome.   Visit Crash Course for a complete listing of courses this season.Originally published at al.nd.edu.

Join the Institute for Social Concerns on Friday afternoons on select home football weekends for MVP Fridays: lectures by national leaders, journalists, and writers on questions of meaning, values, and purpose. Each lecture will take place at 4:00 p.m. in the Geddes Hall Andrews Auditorium. For the weekend of the Purdue game, join us for "POV: Writing as Other" with Viet Thanh Nguyen. Introduction by Azareen Van Der Vliet Oloomi, the Dorothy G. Griffin College Professor of English. Co-sponsored by the Creative Writing Program, the Department of American Studies, the Initiative on Race and Resilience, and the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel The Sympathizer is a New York Times bestseller and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Other honors include the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction from the American Library Association, the First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction, a Gold Medal in First Fiction from the California Book Awards, and the Asian/Pacific American Literature Award from the Asian/Pacific American Librarian Association. His other books are Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War (a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction) and Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America. He is the Aerol Arnold Chair of English, and a professor of English, American studies and ethnicity, and comparative literature at the University of Southern California. Most recently he has been the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations, and le Prix du meilleur livre étranger (Best Foreign Book in France), for The Sympathizer. 

Please join the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies and its Clingen Center for the Study of Modern Ireland for a public conversation with Siobhan Keegan, Lady Chief Justice of Northern Ireland. This conversation is part of the Women in Leadership series, which brings to the University of Notre Dame women from across the island of Ireland who are leaders in the fields of politics, civic society, business, and beyond. On Friday, September 19, Dame Siobhan Keegan will join G. Marcus Cole, the Joseph A. Matson Dean and Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School, in conversation at the University's McKenna Auditorium. The Lady Chief Justice will discuss her study and career path leading up to her current appointment, her experience and views as a woman in leadership, the Rule of Law, and AI in the justice system. A reception will follow the conversation in the McKenna Auditorium gallery. This event is co-sponsored by Notre Dame Law School. About Siobhan Keegan Dame Siobhan Keegan graduated from Queen’s University Belfast in 1993. She has been a High Court Judge, served as Vice Chair of the Bar of Northern Ireland, Chair of the Young Bar, Chair of the Family Bar Association, Chair of the Bar Charity Committee and a member of the Bar Professional Conduct Committee. Dame Siobhan was the Judge in Residence at the Queen’s University Belfast and became a Bencher of the Northern Ireland Inn of Court, an Honorary Bencher of Gray’s Inn and an Honorary Bencher of King’s Inns in 2022. She was a member of the Judicial Studies Board (JSB) and was also the Northern Ireland representative on the FrancoBritish-Irish Judicial Cooperation Committee. Dame Siobhan has been the Presiding Coroner, the Senior Family Judge in the High Court of Northern Ireland, the designated Northern Ireland judicial member of the International Hague Network of Judges, was a Commissioner in the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission (NIJAC) and is now Chair of NIJAC. Dame Siobhan was made an honorary member of the Society of Legal Scholars. She was sworn in as Lady Chief Justice of Northern Ireland on 2 September 2021. In 2023, Queen’s University Belfast conferred upon her an honorary degree in ‘Doctor of Laws for Distinction in Public Service’. Originally published at irishstudies.nd.edu.

Saturdays with the Saints has established itself as a popular Notre Dame football pregame ritual that combines the University’s rich traditions of Catholic faith and spirited game days. In this lecture, Timothy P. O’Malley, Professor of the Practice, ND Center for Liturgy, and academic director, Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, will present on "Providence and Obedience: Claude La Colombière, SJ, the Jesuits, and the Sacred Heart." The lectures take place in the Andrews Auditorium, located on the lower level of Geddes Hall, adjacent to the Hesburgh Library. The talks are free and open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to arrive early as the events tend to fill to capacity.Originally published at mcgrath.nd.edu.

M. Victoria MurilloProfessor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs andDirector of the Institute for Latin American Studies (ILAS)Columbia University Vicky Murillo presents a forthcoming volume co-edited with Gabriel Kessler that addresses the following question: Why are Latin Americans increasingly disillusioned with democracy, even as the region has made social progress? This book project examines the paradox of widespread political discontent amid improvements in poverty reduction, education, and expanded rights. It illustrates how rising expectations and broken promises have generated social frustration and political reactions, which manifest in two distinct forms: they can target all political elites (vertical discontent) or focus on opposing political coalitions (horizontal discontent). Each form poses unique challenges for democracy.M. Victoria Murillo is a professor of political science and international and public affairs at Columbia University, where she is is currently the Director of the Institute for Latin American Studies (ILAS). She specializes in Latin American politics, distributive politics, and institutional weakness, with numerous influential books and articles on these topics. She holds a PhD from Harvard University and previously taught at Yale University. For more information, visit the event page. Sponsored by the Kellogg Institute at the Keough School of Global Affairs.  

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)

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.

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 second talk in the 2025 series will be given by Graham Loud, Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at the University of Leeds, on "The Sicilian Chancery, from the Normans to Frederick II." About the Talk The paper traces the evolution of the chancery of the Norman rulers of Sicily, from the writing office of Count Roger I (d. 1101), which operated primarily in Greek, through to the trilingual documentation of the Sicilian monarchy after 1130. It looks at the emergence of a Latin chancery, at first as a subordinate section, but then as the increasingly dominant element within the royal administration. This led to the eventual abandonment of writing documents in Greek and Arabic. The paper concludes with an analysis of the greatly enhanced scale of the operations of the (by now monolingual) chancery of Emperor Frederick II as ruler of Sicily in the first half of the thirteenth century. About the Speaker Graham Loud is professor emeritus of medieval history at the University of Leeds, where he taught from 1978 to 2019. He is a leading authority on the history of southern Italy from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries, and has also written about Staufen Germany and the Crusades. His most recent books are The Social World of the Abbey of Cava, c. 1020-1300 (2021) and Frederick Barbarossa (2025). His translation of the Montecassino Chronicle of Leo Marsicanus, c. 529-1075, will be published in February 2026, and his chapter on 'Frederick II and the Crusades' will appear in The Cambridge History of the Crusades during the summer of 2026. Originally published at medieval.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

We are excited to announce Dr. Han Xia as the keynote speaker for the 11th Annual Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Graduate Research Symposium. Han Xia earned his Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 2017. Following graduation, he joined the Chemical Hazard Laboratory at Eli Lilly and Company, where he became the technical lead in 2020. Under his leadership, the lab advances process safety by thoroughly characterizing and modeling the kinetic and thermodynamic behavior of chemical reactions, unit operations, and materials involved in the development of Lilly medicines. Han collaborates across R&D, internal and external manufacturing, global compliance, and HSE teams to ensure robust process safety assessments for Lilly’s laboratories, production facilities, and global supply chain assets. The Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering looks forward to seeing you at this year's symposium, featuring exciting events such as panel discussion, career fair, poster session, and student presentations.

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 third and final talk in the 2025 series will be given bey Adam Benkato, the Bita Daryabari Presidential Chair of Iranian Studies, on "Reconstructing Sasanian and post-Sasanian Chanceries: Where do the Middle Persian documents fit in?" About the Talk This talk will consider the existing traces of official document production in the Sasanian Empire and in post-Sasanian/early Islamic Iran based on groups of seals, sealings, and documents that have been discovered over the 20th century at a variety of sites, and in comparison with observations from Islamic sources. It will attempt to discuss the notions of 'chancery', 'archive', and 'diwan' as they pertain to the material evidence of Sasanian and post-Sasanian administrative practices and will examine the existing groups of evidence with regards to their internal coherence. About the Speaker Adam Benkato is an associate professor in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, and holder of the Bita Daryabari Presidential Chair in Iranian Studies, at the University of California, Berkeley. His research investigates a wide variety of textual and audio sources through the lenses of material philology, sociolinguistics, and archive studies. His two main fields are (ancient) Iranian studies (particularly philology of Middle Iranian languages) and Arabic linguistics (particularly dialectology). He is the leader of two digital projects pertaining to sources in Iranian languages of late antiquity and the medieval period: the Open Archive of Middle Persian Documents, and Chorasmian Online.Originally published at medieval.nd.edu.