The Notre Dame Children's Choir is excited to perform holiday favorites as featured guests with The Bergamot in this holiday tradition at the Morris Performing Arts Center!The BergamotTickets available at: https://morriscenter.org/event/the-bergamot-south-shore-christmas/ Originally published at sma.nd.edu.

Notre Dame Children's Choir performs with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra.Tickets for $13 - $25 are available. Originally published at sma.nd.edu.

Democratic erosion can be stopped. There are good theoretical reasons and first empirical evidence for that. However, stopping democratic erosion is not equivalent to democratic recovery. What possible trajectories are there for the post-erosion phase? How can democratic recovery—as one of them—be captured? These questions have not been found sufficient attention but are highly relevant for developing strategies of post-erosion democratic reconstruction. This lecture presents a framework covering these questions and thus offering an approach for addressing post-erosion developments.Kellogg Lecture by Marianne Kneuer.   More information here

Join us for an insightful fireside chat featuring Volodymyr Turchynovskyy, dean of the social sciences faculty at the Ukrainian Catholic University, in conversation with Nitesh Chawla, founding director of the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society. The conversation will explore the unique challenges and triumphs of leading a university during wartime while simultaneously advocating for freedom and preparing for postwar recovery and a secure future. It will also serve as a continuation of the ongoing UCU-ND dialogue—a partnership that began 20 years ago and has proven invaluable, particularly during challenging times. Additionally, it builds on Professor Nitesh Chawla’s recent visit to UCU to further deepen our understanding of resilience and leadership in higher education. This event is co-sponsored by the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society and the Nanovic Institute for European Studies.About the SpeakerVolodymyr Turchynovskyy is the dean of the faculty of social sciences at the Ukrainian Catholic University and a returning visiting scholar at Notre Dame’s Nanovic Institute for European Studies. Recently (September 2024), he contributed to and edited Resilient Universities, a newly published book in the Integral Human Development series—a collaborative project between UCU and Notre Dame.Professor Turchynovskyy holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the International Academy of Philosophy in Liechtenstein. His academic focus includes moral philosophy, the impact of wartime disruptions, and the role of integral human development in advancing postwar recovery. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated thoughtful leadership, promoted ethical discourse and strengthened the resilience of Ukrainian higher education institutions, even in the face of crisis.

Click image to download poster [PDF, 3MB]Refreshments are available following the event. Free and open to all. Paul Roquet studies the use of media as personal technologies of perceptual and emotional self- regulation as an associate professor of media studies and Japan studies at MIT. Photogrammetry creates 3D representations by triangulating 2D images, building on a century of struggles to add spatial depth to photographs. Photogrammetry’s focus on surveying excluded it from media histories despite its entwinement with camera technologies. Tracing its trajectory in Japan reveals a contemporary culture focused less on images and more onthe spaces—and temporalities—that lie between them. Organized by Liu Faculty Fellow Amanda Kennell, assistant professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, sponsored by the Institute for the Scholarship in the Liberal Arts and the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, College of Arts and Letters, University of Notre Dame. Originally published at asia.nd.edu.

Known as a master of homage and genre, director Peter Strickland has focused on Jess Franco with his The Duke of Burgundy and James Bidgood with his Black Narcissus. What seems to be Strickland's fastball, though, is channeling his love for and appropriating Italian giallo films. As he would later do in In Fabric, which is essentially Suspiria set at a Macy's, Strickland quotes giallos while adding his own notes of camp and extremes. Here, an English foley artist (Toby Jones) is brought to Rome to complete the sound for an Italian horror film in 1970s Rome. Completing the jobs, however, may cost him both his sanity and his life. GET TICKETS!  

In 2024, over 70 countries held elections, with more than half of the world's population participating. This panel will explore global election results from a comparative perspective and reflect on what they reveal about the state of democracy. Featuring expert insights on key regions, Victoria Hui (Asia), Scott Mainwaring (Latin America), Dianne Pinderhughes (USA), Marc Jacob (Europe), and Bernard Forjwuor (Africa), the discussion will cover elections in nations like India, South Africa, Poland, France, the UK, Venezuela, and the U.S. Moderated by Dean Mary Gallagher of the Keough School of Global Affairs, the event will draw broad themes and collective takeaways about the health of global democracy in 2024. Dave Campbell, Director of the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative, will offer introductory remarks. A welcome reception with light refreshments will begin at 5:30 pm, and the panel will begin at 6:00 pm. The event is free and open to the public. This event is sponsored by the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative, and co-sponsored by the Kellogg Institute for International Studies and the Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy. Originally published at rooneycenter.nd.edu.

This event brings together a diverse array of Notre Dame voices with personal and professional relationships to the current conflict. From their distinct vantage points as scholars, practitioners, and individuals with deep ties to the region, panelists will describe their experiences, how they are processing what is happening, and what they hope and expect for the future. The evening fireside chat intends to create a safe space for the Notre Dame community to engage in this challenging, but necessary, conversation. Featuring:Daniel Bannoura, Palestinian Theologian; Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Theology Ramzi Bualuan, Teaching Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Computer Science and Engineering Gabriel Mitchell, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Notre Dame Jerusalem Ray Offenheiser, Senior Advisor to the Dean, Keough School of Global Affairs; Director, McKenna Center for Human Development and Global Business Atalia Omer, Professor of Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding, Keough School of Global AffairsModerator:  Michael Desch, Packey J. Dee Professor of International Relations and Brian and Jeannelle Brady Family Director of the Notre Dame International Security CenterA reception will follow the panel discussion. Originally published at forum2024.nd.edu.

The Kroc Institute proudly hosts a new series focused on intersectionality and justice as a beneficial framework and methodology paired with peace studies. Led by Ashley Bohrer, assistant professor of gender and peace studies, and featuring a variety of guest presenters, the series will address the potential of intersectional analysis for peace studies scholars, with an ability to transform timely global conversations and issues. The series will also illustrate how peacebuilding in its many forms contributes to the strength and value of intersectionality and justice as an analytical tool and concept. Marsha Henry, the Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton Chair in Women, Peace, Security and Justice at Queen’s University, Belfast, will discuss her new book, The End of Peacekeeping: Gender, Race, and the Martial Politics of Intervention. Drawing on critical concepts from Black feminist thought and postcolonial and critical race theories, Henry provides an intersectional analysis of peacekeeping from more than 15 years of ethnographic fieldwork around the world—including interviews with UN peacekeepers, humanitarian aid personnel, and local populations. Revealing that peacekeeping is not the benign, apolitical project it is often purported to be, Henry’s book encourages readers to imagine and enact alternative futures to peacekeeping. Originally published at kroc.nd.edu.

The Center for Italian Studies is pleased to host a lecture by Professor Eva Del Soldato (University of Pennsylvania) titled: A Reckless and Scandalous Doctrine: Matthias Ferchius, a Franciscan in the Index  This paper delves into the intriguing journey of a forgotten booklet by the Franciscan Matthias Ferchius (1583-1669), drawing from recently unearthed material. It uncovers a fascinating blend of Biblical exegesis, poison expertise, medical reasoning, and rhetorical balancing acts, all in an audacious attempt by Ferchius to present no less than a revisionist account of the death of Jesus Christ. The paper will engage in the dialectic between Ferchius and the Holy Office censors, shedding light on the aspects of Ferchius’s text that raised particular concerns. It will also demonstrate how the pursuit of “new” outlooks in philosophy and theology always necessitated a firm reliance on tradition, a fact exemplified by other episodes of Ferchius’ intellectual career. Lastly, it will bring to the fore the paradoxical outcomes of this form of “conspiracy” philology.  Eva Del Soldato is associate professor of Italian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where she directs the FIGS Graduate Program and serves as interim director of the Center for Italian Studies. She was trained in philosophy and intellectual history at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Her research is primarily devoted to Renaissance thought and culture, particularly the Aristotelian and Platonic traditions. Her current project is focused on lovesickness treatises in the Counterreformation period. She is the author of the monographs Simone Porzio (2010) and Early Modern Aristotle. On the Making and Unmaking of Authority (2020). She has also published several articles and editions, including the Italian translation of Bessarion's In calumniatorem Platonis. She has co-edited several volumes (the most recent is Plato in the Italian Universities, 2024). She received— among others — fellowships from the Scuola Normale Superiore, Villa I Tatti, the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbuettel, the Huntington Library in Pasadena, and she has been a Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Warwick, UK. She has been a visiting professor at the University of Milan, the University of Bergamo, and the 2022/2023 Charles Speroni Chair at UCLA. She has been the interim director (2019/2020) of the Global Medieval Studies Program at Penn, and she is currently the executive secretary of the American Association for Italian Studies (AAIS).   The lecture is co-sponsored by the Medieval Institute.The Italian Research Seminar, a core event of the Center for Italian Studies, aims to provide a regular forum for faculty, postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and colleagues from other universities to present and discuss their current research. The Seminar is vigorously interdisciplinary, and embraces all areas of Italian literature, language, and culture, as well as perceptions of Italy, its achievements and its peoples in other national and international cultures. The Seminar constitutes an important element in the effort by Notre Dame's Center for Italian Studies to promote the study of Italy and to serve as a strategic point of contact for scholarly exchange.Originally published at italianstudies.nd.edu.

Inspired by the films of Ingmar Bergman and the Mary Kay Letourneau scandal, May December has at its core the details of the teacher-student relationship with a dollop of Natalie Portman bringing Persona into the mix. The film follows Elizabeth (Portman), an actress performing background research for a film about Gracie (Julianne Moore) and Joe (Charles Melton), who are now married after their relationship began when she was 36 and he was 13. As Elizabeth probes the marriage for inspiration for her film, she begins to realize what rests under the surface for both Gracie and Joe is far more complicated than she expected. GET TICKETS  

With her ravishingly sensual take on Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Sailor, Claire Denis firmly established herself as one of the great visual tone poets of our time. Amid the azure waters and sunbaked desert landscapes of Djibouti, a French Foreign Legion sergeant (Denis Lavant) sows the seeds of his own ruin as his obsession with a striking young recruit (Grégoire Colin) plays out to the thunderous, operatic strains of Benjamin Britten. Denis and cinematographer Agnès Godard fold military and masculine codes of honor, colonialism's legacy, destructive jealousy, and repressed desire into shimmering, hypnotic images that ultimately explode in one of the most startling and unforgettable endings in all of modern cinema. GET TICKETS  

Join us in the O'Neill Hall of Music for this Fall Fridays at Noon concert, which features short performances by talented Department of Music students.  Originally published at music.nd.edu.

In this second teaching conference of the Organs and Origins series co-sponsored by the College of Science and the McGrath Institute for Church Life, scientists, philosophers and theologians will come together to consider initial causes in an interdisciplinary approach to “life, the universe and everything.” For more information, click here. Originally published at mcgrath.nd.edu.

Demi Moore gives a career-defining performance as Elisabeth Sparkle, a former A-lister past her prime and suddenly fired from her fitness TV show by repellent studio head Harvey (Dennis Quaid). She is then drawn to the opportunity presented by a mysterious new drug: THE SUBSTANCE. All it takes is one injection and she is reborn as the gorgeous, twentysomething Sue (Margaret Qualley). The only rule? Time needs to be split: exactly one week in one body, then one week in the other. No exceptions. A perfect balance. What could go wrong? GET TICKETS  

All are welcome to join us for the fourth annual Christmas Lecture with special guest Dr. Michelle Thaller, retired assistant director for Science Communication at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Thaller invites you to explore the invisible universe with the James Webb Space Telescope and to learn about infrared light—and what it's revealed about the lives of stars and our connection to a larger reality.  Following Thaller's presentation, there will be a Q&A with Thaller moderated by Dr. Kate Biberdorf, popularly known as Kate the Chemist.  After the lecture, free cookies from local bakers and a hot chocolate bar will be available for all to enjoy!  This year's Christmas Lecture will be held at the Century Center in downtown South Bend. The lecture is conveniently scheduled to begin following South Bend's Christmas Tree Lighting. Get to know Dr. Thaller in these short NOVA videos from PBS. Read more about Dr. Thaller's career and interests from NASA.  Originally published at science.nd.edu.

A tradition the world over, including at Notre Dame, Alexander Blachly leads the Notre Dame Chorale, Festival Baroque Orchestra, and student soloists in Handel’s beloved masterpiece. Friday, December 6, and Saturday, December 7. For tickets, call 574-631-2800 or visit performingarts.nd.edu. Originally published at music.nd.edu.

Demi Moore gives a career-defining performance as Elisabeth Sparkle, a former A-lister past her prime and suddenly fired from her fitness TV show by repellent studio head Harvey (Dennis Quaid). She is then drawn to the opportunity presented by a mysterious new drug: THE SUBSTANCE. All it takes is one injection and she is reborn as the gorgeous, twentysomething Sue (Margaret Qualley). The only rule? Time needs to be split: exactly one week in one body, then one week in the other. No exceptions. A perfect balance. What could go wrong? GET TICKETS  

Bringing together scholars, activists, and faith leaders with expertise in religion, radicalism, democracy, and depolarization, the 2024 Election Postmortem offers space for interdisciplinary analysis and collaboration at this critical historical moment. All sessions are free and open to the public. Drop-ins are welcome, but advanced registration is appreciated for planning purposes. REGISTER HERE.8:45AM - 9:00AM Opening RemarksLaura Frances Callahan, Asssistant Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Center for Philosophy of Religion, University of Notre DameMichael Rea, Rev. John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Center for Philosophy of Religion, University of Notre Dame9:00AM - 10:45AM What Happened: Reflecting on the 2024 Election and How We Got HerePanelists:David Campbell, Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy and the Director of the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative, University of Notre DameDavid French, Opinion Columnist for The New York TimesRobert P. Jones, President and Founder of the Public Religion Research InstituteChristopher Sebastian Parker, Professor of Political Science, University of California, Santa BarbaraKatherine Stewart, Journalist, Author of The Power Worshippers and Money, Lies, and GodModerator: Michael Rea11:00AM - 12:45PM Remaining Vigilant: What to Watch for in the Days AheadPanelists:Rachel Brown, Founder and Executive Director of Over ZeroKristin Kobes Du Mez, Professor of History and Gender Studies, Calvin UniversityLilliana Mason, SNF Angora Institute Associate Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins UniversityElizabeth Neumann, Department of Homeland Security (former)Matthew D. Taylor, Protestant Scholar, Institute for Islamic • Christian • Jewish StudiesModerator: Laura Frances Callahan3:30PM - 5:30PM Strategy Session: Planning, Partnerships, and Practical Steps for the Next Four YearsPanelists:Chris Crawford, Policy Strategist, Free & Fair Elections, at Protect DemocracyAmanda Tyler, Executive Director of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious LibertyJim Wallis, Director of the Center on Faith +Justice, Georgetown UniversityTim Whitaker, Creator + Facilitator, The New EvangelicalsModerator: Joel Day, Managing Director of the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative, University of Notre DameFree visitor parking is available in the Stadium, Joyce, Walsh, and Compton lots on campus, located just south of the football stadium. Campus Map Lodging within walking distance of the conference center include The Morris Inn on campus, and the Embassy Suites by Hilton South Bend at Notre Dame and the Fairfield Inn & Suites South Bend at Notre Dame at Eddy Street Commons. The 2024 Election Postmortem event is hosted by the Center for Philosophy of Religion at the Unversity of Notre Dame. Please contact the Center for Philosophy of Religion with questions.

In this second teaching conference of the Organs and Origins series co-sponsored by the College of Science and the McGrath Institute for Church Life, scientists, philosophers and theologians will come together to consider initial causes in an interdisciplinary approach to “life, the universe and everything.” For more information, click here. Originally published at mcgrath.nd.edu.