The roots of modern Ukraine are the rhythms and rhymes of Taras Shevchenko (1814-61). His innovative poetry has long been Ukraine’s source code, a cultural algorithm in pursuit of personal, national, and universal human freedom. Today it helps fuel widespread grassroots resistance against a Russian war of aggression and conquest that threatens all of Europe. In this lecture, Rory Finnin, professor of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Cambridge, places Shevchenko’s work in the context of a long Ukrainian anticolonial struggle against Russian imperialism. Through close readings, he examines Shevchenko’s fierce “solidarity with the subaltern” and explores coded mysteries in his painting and poetry, where freedom is depicted as buried and entombed, awaiting rescue. All are welcome to this public lecture. Lunch will be available beginning at 12:00 p.m., while supplies last. About the speakerRory Finnin (Photo by Peter Ringenberg/University of Notre Dame).Rory Finnin is professor of Ukrainian studies at the University of Cambridge. He launched the Cambridge Ukrainian Studies program in 2008. Finnin’s primary research interest is the interplay of culture and identity in Ukraine. His broader research interests include nationalism studies, solidarity studies, and cultural memory in the region of the Black Sea. Finnin is a graduate of St Ignatius High School (Cleveland), Georgetown University (B.A.), and Columbia University (Ph.D.). From 1995-97 he served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine. In 2024, he received the Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies for his book Blood of Others: Stalin's Crimean Atrocity and the Poetics of Solidarity (University of Toronto Press, 2022).   Finnin will also be featured in the Ukrainian Studies Hub conference "Revolutions of Hope: Resilience and Recovery in Ukraine," March 6-8, 2025. He will join Archbishop Borys Gudziak during the opening keynote session.   Originally published at nanovic.nd.edu.

The Kroc Institute has selected The Honorable Emilce Cuda as the featured speaker for the 26th Annual Dialogues on Nonviolence, Religion, and Peace. As Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America at the Holy See, Cuda is a renowned international speaker who has published extensively on moral social theology, democracy and Catholicism in liberal contexts, theology of the people and culture in a Latin American context, economic migration, the socio-environmental ecological crisis, and more. Cuda is a member of the research team, “The future work of labor after Laudato si,” at the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) and the Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church (CTEWC). She received a Ph.D. in theology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina and specializes in social moral theology. Lunch and conversation will follow this lecture in C103, Hesburgh Center for International Studies. The Dialogues on Nonviolence, Religion, and Peace, which began in 1999, were established through a gift to the Kroc Institute from Mrs. Anne Marie Yoder and her family. Each year, the Kroc Institute invites a leading thinker, writer, scholar, and/or peace advocate to deliver a lecture related to nonviolence, religion, and peace. Following the lecture, audience members join in informal dialogue and discussion with the speaker and with each other. Originally published at kroc.nd.edu.

This Notre Dame Forum event is co-sponsored by the Office of the President and the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, part of the University’s Keough School of Global Affairs. Featuring Danielle Allen, the James Bryant Conant University Professor, Harvard University; Director, Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation, Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation Professor Allen is a renowned professor of political philosophy, ethics, and public policy. She is also a seasoned nonprofit leader, democracy advocate, tech ethicist, distinguished author, and mom. Allen's work to make the world better for young people has taken her from teaching college and leading a $60 million university division to driving change at the helm of a $6 billion foundation, writing as a national opinion columnist, and advocating for strong public health policy, democracy renovation, civic education, and sound governance of and with new technology. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, her leadership in rallying coalitions and building solutions resulted in the country’s first-ever Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience; her policies were adopted in federal legislation and a presidential executive order. She was the 2020 winner of the Library of Congress' Kluge Prize, which recognizes scholarly achievement in the disciplines not covered by the Nobel Prize. She received the Prize "for her internationally recognized scholarship in political theory and her commitment to improving democratic practice and civics education." She was a lead author on the Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy, a framework for securing excellence in history and civic education for all learners, K-12, released in 2021. The annual Hesburgh Lecture in Ethics and Public Policy, established by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies in 1995, honors the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., president emeritus of Notre Dame, a global champion of peace and justice, and the founder of the Kroc Institute. Each year a distinguished scholar, policymaker, and/or peace advocate is invited by the Kroc Institute director to deliver a major lecture on an issue related to ethics and public policy in the context of peace and justice. Originally published at forum2024.nd.edu.

As part of the Keough-Naughton Institute's fall 2024 speaker series, Professor Peter Shirlow will deliver a lecture titled “The Failings of Irish Republicans and the National Question in Ireland.” Lecture Abstract This lecture will explore how, despite post-Brexit Referendum predictions of a united Ireland by as early as 2021, there has been, at best, limited growth in recorded support for ending partition between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Growth of Northern Ireland’s Catholic population has been less dramatic than predicted and the region now has the fastest growing economy in the UK. Peter Shirlow asserts that in this context, pro-united Ireland campaigns and republican activism, especially via civic fora and social media, have failed to significantly close the gap between Irish unity and pro-union proponents. In this lecture, Shirlow will consider how Irish Republican arguments for unity contain internal contractions: underscoring the economic successes of the South while also indicating its structural deficiencies, or pointing to socio-economic deficiencies of Northern Ireland even while Republicans are co-authors of its new found economic growth. Ultimately, Shirlow argues, the shortcomings of Irish republicanism lie in its inability to read and understand the new sociology of Northern Ireland– particularly temporal and social shifts that potentially render the inevitability thesis of Irish unification inconsistent, if not ineffective, in the short to medium term. Speaker Biography Professor Peter Shirlow (FaCSS) is the director at the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies. He was formerly the deputy director of the Institute for Conflict Transformation and Social Justice, QUB. He is the independent chair of the Executive Office's Employers' Guidance on Recruiting People with Conflict-Related Convictions Working Group and a board member of the mental health charity Threshold. He is a visiting research professor at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. He sits on the editorial boards of Irish Political Studies and International Planning Studies. Professor Shirlow has undertaken conflict transformation work in Northern Ireland and has used that knowledge in exchanges with governments, former combatants and NGOs in the former Yugoslavia, Moldova, Bahrain and Iraq. He has also presented talks to members of the US Senate and House of Representatives and is a regular media contributor. Originally published at irishstudies.nd.edu.

Register here Join us for an engaging discussion on the groundbreaking Abraham Accords and their implications for national security, regional order, and popular representation in the Middle East. Signed on September 15, 2020, the accords normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and later Morocco, marking a major shift in regional dynamics. In this event, co-authors of The Abraham Accords: National Security, Regional Order, and Popular Representation (Lexington Books, 2025) will explore the motivations and impacts of this historic agreement. They will analyze how political consolidation, pluralism, and regional alliances have shaped normalization trends with Israel and could influence future developments, especially amid the ongoing Gaza conflict. Moderated by Asher Kaufman, John M. Regan, Jr. Director of the Kroc Institute for International Studies, the panel will provide key insights into Israel's relationships with the six Gulf Cooperation Council states—Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, and the UAE—as well as Iran. Don’t miss this opportunity to dive into the evolving dynamics of Middle Eastern politics and diplomacy. Panelists: Banafsheh Keynoush, scholar in residence, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre DameGuy Burton, visiting fellow, Sectarianism, Proxies and De-Sectarianisation Project, Lancaster University  Register here Originally published at kroc.nd.edu.

As part of the Keough-Naughton Institute's spring 2025 speaker series, Professor John Morrison will deliver a lecture titled "Presbyterian Martyr John Brown of Priesthill and the Disruption." Lecture Abstract  In 1843 the presbyterian Church of Scotland split along ideological lines. The dispute centered on the question of 'patronage,' or who had the power to appoint any given individual minister: the congregation of the church he was being appointed to, or the principal local landowner. Around forty percent of all incumbent ministers walked out of the Church of Scotland over the issue and established the Free Church. This arcane piece of exclusively Scottish history was a major event in Scotland but not hugely significant (or, apparently, terribly interesting) However, it is more thought provoking than it initially appears. At the time, the 'Disruption' of the Kirk occasioned much literature and painting on and around the event, and the 1844 painting in the Raclin Murphy collection, Thomas Duncan’s sketch for The Death of John Brown of Priesthill relates directly, if metaphorically. Duncan’s subject is historical: depicting an event in the late 17th century, it is about sometimes extremist presbyterian belief, political power and revolution. In this lecture, Professor John Morrison will consider the painting, its 17th century subject, its relevance to its 19th century context, and its relationship to Ireland, Scotland and Notre Dame. Speaker Biography John Morrison took a Ph.D. in Art History at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Following a period at the Yale Center for British Art in Connecticut working on the success of the ‘Glasgow Boys’ in the USA in the late nineteenth century, Professor Morrison joined the Art History Department at the University of Aberdeen in 1992. He went on to be Head of the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy and Director of teaching and learning for Arts and Social Sciences. From July 2019 he became Head of the School of History and Heritage at the University of Lincoln. He has appeared regularly on radio and television and published several monographs on Scottish art and cultural history, including Painting the Nation (EUP), Painting Labour in Scotland and Europe 1850-1900 (Ashgate) and Land and Landscape (Sansom). He is currently working on a volume of historical sources for nineteenth-century Scottish painting for Routledge. This event is co-sponsored by the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. Originally published at irishstudies.nd.edu.