Death by Numbers — Directed by Kim A. Snyder and Janique L. RobillardI Am Ready, Warden — Directed by Smriti Mundhra and Maya GnypIncident — Directed by Bill Morrison and Jamie KalvenInstruments of a Beating Heart — Directed by Ema Ryan Yamazaki and Eric NyariThe Only Girl in the Orchestra — Directed by Molly O'Brien and Lisa Remington GET TICKETS  

The University of Notre Dame’s Department of Art, Art History & Design is proud to present its annual MFA thesis exhibition, highlighting the culminating work of four graduate students set to earn their Master of Fine Arts degrees in May 2025. This highly anticipated exhibition will be displayed in two groups, each offering a distinct and engaging artistic experience. The first exhibition will run from February 28 to March 20 at the AAHD Galleries (214/216 Riley Hall), featuring the thought-provoking works of Thomas Callahan and Emma Ryan. An opening reception will be held on Friday, February 28, from 5 to 7 pm, providing an opportunity to meet the artists and experience their work firsthand. The second exhibition will showcase the exceptional pieces of Norah Amstutz and Griffin Liu, on display from April 3 to April 16 at the AAHD Galleries. The opening reception for this group will take place on Friday, April 4, from 5 to 7 pm. This annual exhibition is a celebration of creativity, dedication, and artistic vision, offering visitors a glimpse into the future of contemporary art. We invite you to join us in supporting these talented emerging artists and experiencing their extraordinary work. Originally published at artdept.nd.edu.

The Department of Art, Art History, and Design invites you for a lecture by Lucas Lynn Christensen, doctoral candidate in the Department of Theology, exploring the relationship between visual art, history, and ritual through Andrew of Crete’s engagement with the Dormition icon. His research examines how visual elements serve as historical evidence, blurring the boundaries between imagery, ritual, and sacred truth. In a series of early eighth-century homilies, Andrew of Crete explicitly references the detailed imagery of the Dormition icon, transforming visual elements into persuasive evidence for the historical events it commemorates. This lecture explores how Andrew deploys the icon’s details as an epistemological resource—a visual argument that invites his audience to actively participate in completing the narrative. For listeners encountering the celebration for the first time, the icon serves not only as a testimonial object but also as an open-ended canvas. By interweaving vivid recollections of his own experiences in Jerusalem with calls for mimetic ritual participation, Andrew positions his hearers within the very frame of the icon, thereby blurring the boundaries between art, lived ritual, and historical truth. This investigation reconsiders the role of visual representation in constructing and authenticating sacred history, revealing how immersive engagement with an image can function as a dynamic form of historical evidence. Originally published at artdept.nd.edu.

Wrestling with the fallout of the war in Gaza on Jewish identity, political commentator Peter Beinart shares his personal reckoning with the moral reconstruction needed to build a future "that recognizes the infinite value of all human life." Atalia Omer, professor of religion, conflict and peace studies, will moderate. A frequent contributor to The New York Times and an MSNBC analyst, Beinart is a professor of journalism and political science at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. He is also the editor at large of Jewish Currents and writes The Beinart Notebook, a weekly newsletter. Note: Bags and backpacks will not be allowed inside the venue. A storage space will be provided on site. Originally published at kroc.nd.edu. This event is co-sponsored by Contending Modernities, the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, and the Mirza Family Professor in Islamic Thought & Muslim Societies.

The University of Notre Dame’s Department of Art, Art History & Design is proud to present its annual MFA thesis exhibition, highlighting the culminating work of four graduate students set to earn their Master of Fine Arts degrees in May 2025. This highly anticipated exhibition will be displayed in two groups, each offering a distinct and engaging artistic experience. The first exhibition will run from February 28 to March 20 at the AAHD Galleries (214/216 Riley Hall), featuring the thought-provoking works of Thomas Callahan and Emma Ryan. An opening reception will be held on Friday, February 28, from 5 to 7 pm, providing an opportunity to meet the artists and experience their work firsthand. The second exhibition will showcase the exceptional pieces of Norah Amstutz and Griffin Liu, on display from April 3 to April 16 at the AAHD Galleries. The opening reception for this group will take place on Friday, April 4, from 5 to 7 pm. This annual exhibition is a celebration of creativity, dedication, and artistic vision, offering visitors a glimpse into the future of contemporary art. We invite you to join us in supporting these talented emerging artists and experiencing their extraordinary work. Originally published at artdept.nd.edu.

Edgar TaylorKellogg Institute Visiting FellowLecturer in the Department of History, Archaeology and Heritage Studies, Makerere University This book project charts the entangled fates of racial populism and electoral democracy in the public life of Uganda’s urban centers between the developmental colonialism of the late 1940s through the economic dependency and stagnation of the 1970s. It uses previously inaccessible archives, historical newspapers and interviews to illuminate how urban populism was informed by deep historical conversations over authority and reciprocal obligation among elites and commoners anchored in a Luganda conceptual vocabulary. The project also shows how activists inhabited changing infrastructures — of media, urban commerce, residential segregation, and legal paternalism — to uphold and subvert democratic ideals. The book will be anchored in African social history but will contribute to debates over democracy and racial populism in the wake of colonial violence among political historians and anthropologists of the state. More information here