The 2025 Global Democracy Conference (GDC) will convene scholars and practitioners to address urgent questions around the theme "Global Democracy and Executive Power." The road to dictatorship is cleared by the expansion of executive power. Whether in Hungary, Turkey, El Salvador, or Venezuela, elected presidents and prime ministers have used their constitutional authority and legislative majorities to undermine, and ultimately capture, other institutions. These countries are just illustrative of a broader trend: anti-democratic executives have progressively packed the judiciary, purged the civil service, undermined electoral management bodies, silenced independent media, prosecuted dissidents, restricted non-governmental organizations, regulated the business sector in favor of cronies, and politicized the security forces. Small actions against those institutions, under the cover of executive immunity, eventually accumulate into the breakdown of democracy. The ultimate goal of the conference is to improve our collective ability to identify antidemocratic behaviors and the effective ways to resist them. The GDC also aims to open new areas of collaboration between academia and the policy world, as well as between scholars and practitioners based in different countries.   Registration is required. More information here.   

View the annual exhibition of the culminating thesis projects created by the students graduating with a BFA or BA Honors​ degree from the University of Notre Dame, Department of Art, Art History & Design. An opening reception will occur from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 30.  The show will run from April 30 through May 18, 2025. BFA CandidatesVictoria GillespieRosario MurilloSophia OchoaSamantha ScheidermanMarin Mowat BA Honors CandidatesPaulina RosilesTaylor Dellelce Originally published at artdept.nd.edu.

This exhibit commemorates the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War (1939-45) using primarily European visual sources recently acquired by Rare Books & Special Collections. It showcases more than 40 works on paper, including posters, maps, propaganda ephemera, and illustrated books, as well as photographs and first-hand accounts. The exhibit explores themes of Nazi racial ideology, the Holocaust, children in war, resistance, liberation, and memories of war. By examining images created for personal use and for state-sponsored propaganda, the exhibit presents a visual narrative of the war’s profound impact on individuals and societies, offering deeper insight into how this war was experienced and remembered. This exhibit is curated by Natasha Lyandres, Curator, Rare Books & Special Collections; Jean McManus, Catholic Studies Librarian, University Archives; and Julia Schneider, German Language and Literature and Italian Studies Librarian, Hesburgh Libraries. This and other exhibits within the Hesburgh Libraries are generously supported by the McBrien Special Collections Endowment. All exhibits are free and open to the public during business hours. Related Events Monday, March 31, 4:30 pmLecture: Martina Cucchiara, “Fervent Faith, Relentless Persecution: The Daily Life of Erna Becker-Kohen, a Catholic of Jewish Descent in Nazi Germany” Thursday, April 10, 4:30 pmLecture: Robert M. Citino, "The Fascist Lair: the Battle of Berlin" Tuesday, April 22, 4:30 pmYom HaShoah Program to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust Exhibit Tours Meet and speak with curators of the spring exhibit, "Tragedies of War: Images of WWII in Print Visual Culture." Monday, March 31, 3:30 pmThursday, April 10, 3:30 pmTuesday, April 22, 3:30 pm