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, Therese Cory, associate professor of Thomistic studies, will present. The lectures take place in the Andrews Auditorium on the lower level of Geddes Hall adjacent to 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. Come and grab a free T-shirt! Originally published at mcgrath.nd.edu.

American political life is characterized by hyper-partisanship and polarization. Each election cycle seems to sharpen divisions and deepen political idolatry, while leaving most of us exasperated and exhausted. Yet, the Catholic Church encourages us to participate in politics. Pope Francis expresses the Church’s conviction that politics is “a lofty vocation and one of the highest forms of charity, inasmuch as it seeks the common good” (EV, 205). This series explores the Church’s call to participate in political life and the complexities, challenges, and possibilities therein: What is politics? How do Catholics balance the call to participation without making an idol of politics? Is our call to participate exhausted by our duty to vote? What is the mission of Catholics in the public square? What constitutes the public square? How can the Eucharist transform our understanding of politics? Can we envision a world where charity, not political ideology, guides all our actions and decisions? Featured panelists will include: Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt, professor of theology at Loyola University Maryland and a deacon of the Archdiocese of Baltimore; Kathleen Buckley Domingo, executive director of the California Catholic Conference; and Theresa MacArt, assistant professor of politics and public service at Holy Cross College.  Click here to register. Originally published at mcgrath.nd.edu.

Join us for GIS Day at Notre Dame — a symposium that combines workshops, presentations, and more to demonstrate the power of geospatial technologies. GIS Day Schedule “What in the World is GIS?” 12:00pm – 1:00pm Presenter: Matthew Sisk, Professor of the Practice, Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society GIS is a system of hardware and software for the storage, retrieval, mapping, and analysis of geographic data. It provides a system for organizing spatial and related information into a single analytical framework and is used in various academic and industry settings for understanding spatial relationships. This workshop will address the question, "What is GIS?", provide examples, and present an overview of campus GIS resources. “Getting Started with ArcGIS Online” 1:00pm – 2:00pm Presenter: Jacob Swisher, Graduate Student, Department of History Learn how to make maps using ArcGIS Online and incorporate Geographic Information Systems (GIS) into your research. This workshop provides an introduction to basic tools and workflows in ESRI’s ArcGIS Online platform. ArcGIS Online is a browser-based GIS platform that allows users to create, visualize, and manipulate spatial data. Whether you are interested in working with larger datasets or creating maps to add to a class project or senior thesis, ArcGIS Online offers an excellent workspace for researchers who are beginning to work with GIS. Experienced GIS users may also find ArcGIS Online to be a useful space for hosting data for collaborative projects and communicating research findings to public audiences. This workshop is designed with the novice GIS user in mind. After participating in this workshop, you will be able to:Gather, manage, and display spatial data in ArcGIS Online. Use the filters tool to answer questions with spatial data. Create data visualizations using the styles tool.PLEASE NOTE:If you do not already have access to the campus GIS network, you will receive an invitation before the workshop. Please follow the email instructions to activate your account prior to the workshop. Participants are expected to bring a computer to the session.Break 2:00pm – 2:15pm Lightning Talks 2:15pm – 3:30pm Tyler Wolford, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Medieval Institute“Paper Walls: GIS and the Byzantine Boundary Description (Periorismos)” Liang Cai, Associate Professor, Department of History“Geographic Mobility of Elites: Identity Construction Before Qin's Unification of China (ca. 390-221 BCE)” Daniel Tadmon, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology“Limits to Helping in a Helping Profession: The Spatial-Social Context of Psychiatrist Opt-Out from Public Insurance” Katie Walden, Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of American StudiesJake Swisher, Graduate Student, Department of History“Placing History” Hannah R. Spero, Graduate Student, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth SciencesAman Tejaswi, Graduate Student, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth SciencesAndrew B. Kennedy, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth SciencesJoannes Westerink, Joseph and Nona Ahearn Professor of Computational Engineering and Science“Reconstructing Boulder Transport on Rocky Coastlines Using GIS Tools and Field Data: A Case Study on Inishmaan, Ireland” GIS Day Reception 3:30pm – 4:00pm Join us for GIS Day treats and coffee.

The Medieval Institute is pleased to present the eighteenth lecture in the Graduate Student Invitation Series with Hanna Gentili (University of Hamburg, Institut für Jüdische Philosophie und Religion), who will be speaking on "Natural Philosophy in the Arabic-Hebrew-Latin Landscape: Deconstructing and Reconstructing the Corpus." About the Talk Averroes’ works received their authoritative form in Latin in the Renaissance printed projects, culminating in the mid-sixteenth century Giunta editions. From this moment, up to modern editions, Averroes’ text remained “frozen in place.” But in reality, it was never like that. Dynamic and fluid, Averroes’ works were constantly evolving, circulating in various forms already in the Arabic world. This complication escalated as they reached the Latin world, often via the mediation of Hebrew, as further hands became involved. Finally, there was the hidden space that occupied the transitions from manuscript to print. Through a series of examples on the macro and micro levels, my talk will breathe life into this process, with focus on Averroes’ natural philosophy. I will argue that examining the texts across languages and media has philosophical and historiographical implications, and that we should adopt new methods to better understand philosophy and its study in premodern circles.  About the Speaker Hanna Gentili (Ph.D, Warburg Institute) is a historian of Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy. Her research focuses on the consolidation and circulation of the Hebrew philosophical corpus in manuscript and early print. She is currently a Research Associate at the University of Hamburg where she is working on Averroes’ natural philosophy in Hebrew and Latin within the ERC Project HEPMASITE (Hebrew Philosophical Manuscripts as Sites of Engagement). Before joining the University of Hamburg, she worked at the crossroads of philosophy and kabbalah in the Digital Humanities project Ilanot and in 2023 she was the curator of the Hebrew collections at the British Library. Her first monograph—about the philosophical notebook of the fifteenth-century Jewish intellectual Yoḥanan Alemanno in the context of the Italian Renaissance and Jewish philosophical training—is currently in preparation. Originally published at medieval.nd.edu.

Join the McGrath Institute for Church Life for a special book launch and lecture on "The Concept of Woman: A Synthesis in One Volume" by Sr. Prudence Allen, RSM. Topics of discussion will include the development of a philosophically coherent concept of woman from the pre-Socratics to the 20th-century personalists. Brief presentations will be led by Sr. Ann Astell, Ph.D., John Cavadini, Ph.D., and Abigail Favale, Ph.D., with a response by the author, Sr. Prudence Allen, RSM. Originally published at mcgrath.nd.edu.

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.