Join the Klau Institute and NDVotes for this installment of "Pizza, Pop, and Politics" as Professor of Law Derek Muller discusses voting rights and election administration. Originally published at klau.nd.edu.

Michael C. Davis, a former professor at the University of Hong Kong, will discuss his recent publication, "Freedom Undone: The Assault on Liberal Values and Institutions in Hong Kong" (Columbia University Press, 2024). Liu faculty fellow Victoria Hui, associate professor of politics, will serve as a discussant and Michel Hockx, professor of Chinese literature and director of the Liu Institute, will moderate the event. The lecture is free and open to the public. Lunch will be served. Michael Davis's publication will be available for purchase during the event onsite through Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore. Sponsored by the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies and cosponsored by Law School Human Rights LLM Program and the Global Human Rights Clinic. In support of the Liu Institute’s growing commitment to sustainability, we will no longer be offering drinks at our public lectures and panels. We encourage audience members to bring their own water bottles or to drink from nearby water fountains. Thank you for your understanding. Originally published at asia.nd.edu.

Please join the Kellogg Institute in its annual tradition — this year in a new format! — that introduces research of its new Visiting Fellows in an informative and inviting atmosphere. Learn firsthand why Kellogg has invested in the work of these fellows from brief research overview presentations then delve deeper during a Q&A session, moderated by Kellogg Director Aníbal Pérez-Liñán. A light lunch will be available in this second session of a two-part series. Session 2Kelly McMann, Lucy Adams Leffingwell Professor of Political Science at Case Western Reserve UniversityNermin Allam, Associate Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University-NewarkNusrat Chowdhury, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Amherst CollegeSr. Damien Marie Savino, Franciscan Sister of the Eucharist and Dean of Science and Sustainability at Aquinas CollegeFor more information, click here.   Sponsored by the Kellogg Institute for International Studies.

The Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies honors this year’s International Day of Peace with a special presentation from one of its own — The Honorable Chernor Bah (M.A. ’11), Minister of Information and Civic Education in Sierra Leone, who will also receive this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award. Each year the Kroc Institute pays heed to the International Day of Peace (IDOP), established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly, by way of an event or panel discussion. The Institute also honors a Notre Dame graduate in peace studies annually with the Distinguished Alumni Award — someone whose career and life exemplifies the ideas of international peacebuilding. This year, the two events will merge. Using the 2024 IDOP theme “Cultivating a Culture of Peace” as a framework, Minister Bah will speak to his professional trajectory since graduating from the University of Notre Dame with a master’s degree in international peace studies. He will also address his current ministerial work with civic education related to cultural renaissance and decolonization, and the mindset shift necessary to rediscover our sense of identity and to see each other’s humanity. Minister Bah’s talk, "Intentional National Consciousness as critical tool for longterm Peacebuilding — A Sierra Leone case study," will discuss how national consciousness, the shared sense of identity among citizens, is essential for uniting a diverse nation like Sierra Leone. By examining the historical challenges stemming from colonial legacies, which fragment our national identity and contribute to social and political instability, this lecture will explore the crucial role of constructing and socializing an intentional national consciousness in long-term peacebuilding for Sierra Leone. In his lecture, Minister Bah will demonstrate how reconstructing these narratives purposefully and in citizen voices is critical to building a cohesive and peaceful society. Drawing lessons from countries including Rwanda, Germany, South Korea, Singapore, Sweden, and the United States, strategies emerge for reconstructing Sierra Leone's national consciousness through national dialogue, civic education reform, cultural revitalization, inclusive governance, youth engagement, and international collaboration. By embracing these strategies, Sierra Leone can build a more united, peaceful, and prosperous society. Just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, the strength (and positive peace) of a state is based on the power of its fictional narrative and the sense of ownership and pride that the citizens carry with them in their hearts. Originally published at kroc.nd.edu.

Longtime faculty fellow of the Kroc Institute, Sandra M. Gustafson draws on key insights from the field of peace studies (including positive and negative peace, as well as direct and indirect violence) in a rich study of US literature and culture in her most recent volume, Peace in the US Republic of Letters, 1840-1900 (Oxford, 2023). Exploring the early peace movement, Gustafson's book charts the rise of the peace cause in the works of William Penn and John Woolman, through the founding of the first peace societies in 1815 and the mid-century peace congresses, to the postbellum movement's consequential emphasis on arbitration. With the Civil War as the central axis, the volume includes readings of novels by James Fenimore Cooper, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne spanning the period from 1840 to 1865. It also explores fiction engaged with problems that arose in the aftermath of that war, including novels by Henry Adams and John Hay on political corruption and class conflict; works on the failures of Reconstruction by Albion Tourgée and Charles Chesnutt; and the varied treatments of Indigenous experience in Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona and Simon Pokagon's Queen of the Woods. Each of these writers focused on issues related to the cause of peace, expanding its thematic reach and anticipating key insights of twentieth-century peace scholars. Lunch will be provided. Speakers:Sandra Gustafson, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English; Concurrent Professor, Department of American StudiesAzareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, Dorothy G. Griffin College Professor of English; Concurrent Professor, Romance Languages & Literatures; Director, Literatures of Annihilation, Exile & ResistanceGeorge Lopez, Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., Professor Emeritus of Peace StudiesOriginally published at kroc.nd.edu.

Frank Shovlin (University of Liverpool) will deliver the 2024 Hibernian Lecture, “Like a Prayer: The Novels of John McGahern.”  One of the most acclaimed Irish writers of the second half of the 20th century, John McGahern (1934–2006) authored six novels. His final novel, That They May Face the Rising Sun, was named the Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year in 2003 and adapted into a 2023 film of the same name. Shovlin’s lecture will contextualize the political and social networks into which McGahern was born and explore religious aspects of his work as a writer. The 2024 Hibernian Lecture is cosponsored by the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies.About the speaker Frank Shovlin is professor of Irish literature in English at the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies. A native of the west of Ireland, he is a graduate of University College Galway and the University of Oxford. Shovlin is the author of numerous articles and book chapters as well as four monographs: The Irish Literary Periodical 1923–1958 (2004); Journey Westward: Joyce, Dubliners and the Literary Revival (2012); Touchstones: John McGahern's Classical Style (2016); and John McGahern's Dublin (2021). He edited The Letters of John McGahern (2022), and is currently writing McGahern’s authorized biography.In 1978, the Ancient Order of Hibernians and Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians undertook a campaign to establish an endowment at the University of Notre Dame for illuminating the Irish heritage in America. Thanks to their support, since then the Cushwa Center has administered a variety of programs—including the Hibernian Research Award—supporting the study of the Irish experience in Ireland and America. Each year, the center invites a distinguished scholar or author to deliver the Hibernian Lecture at Notre Dame on some aspect of the Irish experience. Image: John McGahern and his siblings on the Feast of Corpus Christi, circa 1946. Note: Hasia Diner (New York University) had previously been scheduled to deliver the 2024 Hibernian Lecture on the subject of her latest book, Opening Doors: The Unlikely Alliance Between the Irish and the Jews in America. The Cushwa Center is working to reschedule Diner’s visit and lecture at Notre Dame. For updates on upcoming events and other news, sign up at cushwa.nd.edu/subscribe.   Originally published at cushwa.nd.edu.