In honor of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Anne Slovin, soprano, University of Notre Dame, and Jason Gresl, clarinet, instructor at Saint Mary's College, will perform I Never Saw Another Butterfly by Lori Laitman. This piece features musical settings of texts by children living in the Theresienstadt ghetto. Following the performance, a discussion on the spiritual resistance of the arts during the Shoah will be led by Philip B. Bohlman (Ludwig Rosenberger Distinguished Service Professor in Jewish History, Music and Humanities, University of Chicago) and Nicolette van den Bogerd (Postdoctoral scholar in Jewish Studies, Indiana University). This program is generously supported in part by the McBrien Special Collections Endowment, the Nanovic Institute for European Studies and the Sacred Music Program. It is being held in conjunction with the spring Rare Books and Special Collection exhibit, "Tragedies of War: Images of WWII in Print Visual Culture." About the Exhibit This exhibit commemorates the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War (1939-1945) using primarily European visual sources recently acquired by Rare Books and Special Collections. It showcases over forty 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.Open to undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, staff, postdocs, alumni, friends, and the pulbic. 

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the passing of Pope Francis, this event will be postponed; however, no date has yet been set. This event will no longer be taking place on this date, April 24, 2025. In September 2024, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences hosted a conference at the Vatican on the theme of “Sciences for a Sustainable Anthropocene: Opportunities, Challenges, and Risks of Innovations.” Invited scientists, scholars, and Church leaders delivered presentations and held discussions that considered the abundant scientific evidence for the human-caused alterations to Earth’s natural systems in tandem with the Catholic Church’s commitment to stewardship for God’s creation as exemplified in Pope Francis’s encyclical, Laudato Si’ (2015). Among the participants were geologist Francine McCarthy, historian of science Jürgen Renn, and Cardinal Peter Turkson, the Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Notre Dame is pleased to continue the conversation with these three major contributors to the Vatican conference at this Keeley Vatican Symposium hosted in partnership with the Nanovic Institute for European Studies. History professors Julia Adeney Thomas and Brad Gregory will join and help lead this conversation at Notre Dame along with:Cardinal Peter Turkson, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences;Francine McCarthy, Geologist at Brock University, Canada, whose work is the foundation for the proposed Anthropocene “golden spike”; Jürgen Renn, Director of the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Jena, Germany.Clemens Sedmak, professor of social ethics and director of the Nanovic Institute, will serve as the event's host and moderator. A brief reception will follow. All are invited to attend. This event is part of the Anthropocene ND conference (April 23-25, 2025); other events include:"10 Years After Laudato si’: Faith, Anthropocene, and Justice in the Global South" (Friday, April 25, 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.), hosted by the Notre Dame Forum 2024-25 "What do we owe each other?" in the Smith Ballroom of the Morris Inn"Africa and the Anthropocene" (Friday, April 25, 9:00 - 10:30 a.m.), held in C103 Hesburgh CenterThe Anthropocene The Anthropocene refers to the newly destabilized and still evolving state of our planet which is threatening the survival of many species, including our own. The concept arose in Earth System Science as a means of summing up Earth’s rapid mid- 20th-century lurch away from the relatively stable Holocene epoch of the past 11,700 years to today’s unpredictable planetary condition. Our dangerous predicament is not just a scientific and technological problem — it poses unprecedented political, economic, cultural, and ethical challenges. SpeakersCardinal Peter TurksonCardinal Archbishop of Ghana Since 2022, Cardinal Peter Turkson has been the chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. He was ordained a priest in 1975 and consecrated as Archbishop of Cape Coast in 1992 by Pope John Paul II, who also made him the first Cardinal Archbishop of Ghana in 2003. He has been a member of multiple pontifical councils, including president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (2009-2017) and prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Human Development (2017-2021). He has served as a mediator in numerous politically volatile situations on the African continent and been a tireless champion of human rights and sustainable human development. In addition to his knowledge of Latin and Greek, he speaks six languages.Brad GregoryProfessor of History at Notre Dame Brad Gregory, professor of history at Notre Dame, specializes in Western Europe in the Reformation era. His scholarship has analyzed the effects of early modern religious disagreement and religio-political conflict, not only in the 16th and 17th centuries, but also in the long-term shaping of Western modernity down to the present. In recent years, the scope of his work has further expanded and takes the Anthropocene as its point of departure, while retaining an emphasis on the assumptions, ambitions, practices, and institutions of premodern Western Europeans that antedated the Industrial Revolution while fostering the anthropogenic trajectories that led our planet out of the Holocene. He is currently at work on a major project about the relationship between Western Christianity and the long-term formation of our current global environmental realities, the working title of which is "The Way of the World: Power, Wealth, and Civilization from the Last Ice Age to the Anthropocene."Francine McCarthyGeologist at Brock University, Canada Francine McCarthy is a micropaleontologist who is interested in paleoenvironmental reconstruction, primarily using acid-resistant organic-walled microfossils, including pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs. Her research has spanned small lake to abyssal marine environments and everything in between, primarily at mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Her interdisciplinary research has been conducted in collaboration with several geologists, biologists, geographers, and archaeologists from government, university, and private sectors. She has been on the boards of several organizations, including current membership on the board of the International Association for Great Lakes Research. A leading member of the Anthropocene Working Group, her work on Crawford Lake served as the proposed “golden spike” of the new epoch.Jürgen RennFounding Director, Max Planck Institute for Geo-Anthropology, Jena, Germany Jürgen Renn’s research focuses on the long-term evolution of knowledge in consideration of the historical dynamics that led to the global changes encapsulated by the concept of the Anthropocene. In almost three decades as director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, his numerous research projects have opened up new approaches, especially in the digital humanities. As founding director of the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, he investigates, together with his team, the structural changes in the technosphere that have given rise to the Anthropocene. His central research topics include the history of science from antiquity to the 21st century, the history of the globalization of knowledge, the role of knowledge in global change processes, and the recent history of scientific institutions, particularly the Max Planck Society from its foundation to the present day.Julia Adeney ThomasProfessor of History at Notre Dame Julia Adeney Thomas is professor of history at Notre Dame and a member of the Anthropocene Working Group. She is an intellectual historian of Japan, photography as a political practice, and the Anthropocene. Her books include "Reconfiguring Modernity: Concepts of Nature in Japanese Political Ideology" (winner of the AHA John K. Fairbank Prize), "Japan at Nature’s Edge: The Environmental Context of a Global Power," "Rethinking Historical Distance, and Visualizing Fascism: The Twentieth-Century Rise of the Global Right." Her recent work on the Anthropocene includes "Altered Earth: Getting the Anthropocene Right" (Cambridge University Press, 2022); "The Anthropocene: A Multidisciplinary Approach," co-authored with geologists Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams (Polity, 2020); and, with Jan Zalasiewicz, "Strata and Three Stories" (Rachel Carson Center, Munich, 2020). She’s currently at work on "The Historian’s Task in the Anthropocene," which will explore the experiences, limitations, and breakthroughs of historical practice on our transformed planet.About the Keeley Vatican Lecture series The Keeley Vatican Lecture, facilitated annually by the Nanovic Institute, provides a way to deepen Notre Dame’s connection to the Holy See by bringing distinguished representatives from the Vatican to explore questions surrounding the University’s Catholic mission. Established in 2005 through the generous support of alumnus Terrence R. Keeley ’81, lecturers typically spend several days on campus, joining classes, celebrating Mass with students, and conversing with faculty members. Past Keeley Vatican Lectures have included Sister Raffaella Petrini (secretary-general of the Vatican City State), Rev. Fr. Hans Zollner, Dr. Barbara Jatta, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, and Ukrainian Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak. This year, the Keeley Vatican Lecture series has also manifested as the Keeley Vatican Symposium to provide a space for reflections upon the Catholic Church's understanding and actions surrounding the Anthropocene. Earlier this year, the series also welcomed Rev. Msgr. Anthony Onyemuche Ekpo, Undersecretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, for a lecture in February titled "The Reform of the Roman Curia and the Promotion of Integral Human Development." Originally published at nanovic.nd.edu.

Lunch will be provided, but registration is required by Monday, April 21.  "Political Mobile Apps as Interactive Propaganda: Evidence from India and China" Peitong Jing is a Ph.D. candidate in political science and University Presidential Fellow at the University of Notre Dame. Her research explores the intersections of nationalism, emotion, and the use of media technology. She applies computational methods to study official nationalism as a co-optation strategy. She has published "Church and State in Contemporary China: Securing Christianity" in Politics and Religion (co-authored with Karrie J. Koesel). She holds an M.A. in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Notre Dame and an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. Before coming to Notre Dame, she taught for the University of Chicago Writing Program and worked for Honoring the Future, a non-profit that engages the public on the issue of climate change through education and art. The event is sponsored by the Liu Institute's South Asia Group. Originally published at asia.nd.edu.

The Joint Memorial Day Ceremony, organized by Combatants for Peace and The Parents Circle Families Forum, is one of the largest Israeli-Palestinian jointly organized peace events in history.  According to Palestinian and Israeli Bereaved Families for Peace, the ceremony "provides a unique opportunity for Israelis and Palestinians to grieve together and stand strong in demanding an end to the occupation and ongoing violence." The memorial service, which occurs in Jerusalem, will be live-streamed on campus where members of the Notre Dame Community and beyond will gather to lament, to remember, and to imagine a different path forward. This event will precede the University President's forum. For this reason speakers Hussein Ibish and David Myers will be joining us for the service and participants are invited to interact with each of them in an informal manner following the livestream. Light refreshments will be provided.Hussein Ibish, Senior Resident Scholar, Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington        David Myers, Distinguished Professor and Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History, UCLA         Co-sponsored by the University of Notre Dame's Institute for Social Concerns and Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies along with the Student Voices for Palestine, Sunnyside Presbyterian Church, United Religious Community, Women's Interfaith Dialogue. Originally published at ansari.nd.edu.

How can we rightfully represent and bring visibility to marginalized communities without falling into idealization and caricature? Journalist, poet and author Anas Daif will focus on how people of color in France are reclaiming their narratives and self-representation. Creator of the podcast À l'intersection (At the intersection) and author of Et un jour je suis devenu Arabe (And one day, I became Arab), he will share his personal and professional journey, the challenges he has faced as a Franco-Moroccan and queer man, and the ongoing struggle for better representation both outside and within communities of color. Sponsored by the Nanovic Insitute for European Studies, the Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values, and the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. Originally published at nanovic.nd.edu.

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.