The Nanovic Institute for European Studies is committed to enriching the intellectual culture of Notre Dame by creating an integrated, interdisciplinary home for students and faculty to explore the evolving ideas, cultures, beliefs, and institutions that shape Europe today. CONTACT US The Nanovic Institute for European Studies University of Notre Dame 1060 Nanovic Hall Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 -7000 Telephone 574-631-5253 Email nanovic@nd.edu Website nanovic.nd.edu Social Media @NanovicND
FROM THE DIRECTOR Welcome to the Nanovic Institute’s Year in Review for 2017-18. As the Institute’s third director, I am proud to follow in the footsteps of my very accomplished predecessors, J. Robert Wegs and A. James McAdams. Like them, I am as passionate about Europe and its role in world affairs as I am about the students and faculty of Notre Dame. So I enter this position with great excitement and high expectations. As we look at Europe today, the picture is deeply troubling. Despite past successes in European integration, there remain many problems and sources of division from north to south and east to west. Europeans rightly worry about their relationships with Russia, China, and now with the United States. Indeed, more than at any time since the Second World War, our European Allies doubt our commitment to them.
During the past year, the Institute’s 25th anniversary year, I hope you will see that the Nanovic Institute represented something profoundly different: instead of observing deepening divisions, it cultivated and deepened its relationships, and generously supported faculty, students, and visitors interested in doing the same. Students traveled to Europe, often with faculty guidance, interacted and learned from people, and returned to Notre Dame transformed. Graduate students won awards, established working relationships with future colleagues, and joined their peers in the academy. Along the way, our visitors exhorted students to see their citizenship in ethical terms, inspired students with the rigors of good scholarship, and taught them how to understand geopolitics from diverse perspectives.
William Collins Donahue Rev. John J. Cavanaugh, CSC Professor of the Humanities
The former President of Germany and the former Secretary-General of the European Commission interacted with our students in open, warm, personally reflective ways. Participants in the Catholic Leadership Institute this summer were visibly moved to have taken part in a collective experience aimed at training and strengthening them for tough years ahead in central and eastern Europe. This focus on cultivating relationships with Europe is central to the Institute’s mission and part of a long history at the university. Now that we are part of Notre Dame’s new Keough School of Global Affairs, the Nanovic Institute has the opportunity to show how the humanities and policy studies go hand-in-hand. For these and so many other reasons, I am looking forward to leading the Institute, working with its staff, and collaborating with our incredibly talented faculty fellows. It is all to the credit of Jim and the Institute’s incomparable staff.
CELEBRATING 25 YEARS | 1
CITIZENSHIP IN A GLOBAL AGE
Horst Koehler Returns to the Nanovic Forum Former President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Horst Koehler, returned to the Nanovic Forum to address “Citizenship in a Global Age.” Koehler discussed the pros and cons of globalization. “Most of our nationalist politics still fail to grasp the fundamental reality of the twenty-first century, a reality which makes this century so different from all that came before: interdependence.” He stressed that “the world is our neighbor, and most of our neighbor’s problems will eventually become also our own.” To a capacity crowd, Koehler urged students toward “a great transformation” in how they acted as citizens, consumers, and voters. In addition to delivering a public lecture, Koehler spent three days at Notre Dame. He held seminars and engaged students and faculty in the Keough School of Global Affairs, the Department of Economics, the Department of German and Russian Languages and Literatures, and the Harper Cancer Research Institute. Kohler expressed gratitude for the experience: “All of you have shown a level of curiosity, of openness, and of caring about the changes in our times that has impressed me deeply. Meeting people like you always makes me feel hopeful for the future … despite the systemic mess this world seems to be in.” The Nanovic Forum aims to deepen Notre Dame’s connection to Europe by bringing prominent figures to campus in a wide range of fields to explore, discuss, and debate the most pressing issues in Europe today. The visit was co-sponsored by the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study. More information, along with a video of the lecture, can be found at nanovic.nd.edu/forum.
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Horst Koehler and his wife Eva are introduced to Notre Dame faculty and students during a class visit. Horst Koehler, Robert Nanovic, and A. James McAdams at the lecture.
“I often had to think about the powerful words of St. Augustine: ‘We are the times. Such as we are, such are the times.’” HORST KOEHLER
CELEBRATING 25 YEARS | 3
TRANSFORMING STUDENTS IN EUROPE Support at Every Stage of the Undergraduate Career
The Institute has always believed that sending students to Europe to study, work, or conduct research independently is a powerful impetus for personal and academic growth. This year, the Institute awarded a total of 119 undergraduate student grants. Adam Kulam (’19) won the Barrett Prize for Best Undergraduate Proposal this year to investigate financial risk aversion since 2008 by conducting a 600-person survey of his own design this summer in Reykjavík. With professors in the Department of Finance at Notre Dame, Kulam established working relationships with economists in Iceland and will deliver his final report to Iceland’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs. Challenging him as never before, Kulam’s project will inform his senior thesis. Several seniors this year had transformative experiences by studying how Europeans are using new technologies. Seniors Michael McRoskey, Nick Courtney, and Søren Kyhl traveled to Finland to investigate how electronic ‘blockchain’ systems are being used to support asylum seekers. The group met refugees who were using the system and experts at the start-up company administering the system in Finland. Similarly, Margaret Thomann (’18) wanted to know why the Swiss banking system did not use fast and economical ‘public cloud’ computing technology. She found answers in discussions with key figures in IT strategy and data architecture at Credit Suisse. Thomann now works for a domestic financial service company that values her international experience. European technology was not the only subject of student interest. Jacob Vila (’18), a senior finance major in the Mendoza College of Business, spent his last semester at Notre Dame reading everything he could about Reformation-era religion and politics in Tudor England. His essay on the career of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer won the Institute’s annual J. Robert Wegs Prize for Best Minor in European Studies Capstone Essay. Vila credited his interest in Cranmer to a class he took 4 | NANOVIC INSTITUTE FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES
“My rainy months in Reykjavík entailed the most challenging, yet rewarding summer of my life. I developed academically, professionally, and personally, and it further stimulated my interest in financial and behavioral research.” ADAM KULAM '19
“My employers were looking for someone with an international perspective. During my interview, I was able to talk about the Nanovic research project I did in Switzerland.” MARGARET THOMANN '18
“The research I did with the support of the Institute helped me to land a job at Google. My boss told me he was impressed with the research I had done on refugees over the summer and recommended me for a full-time position.” MICHAEL McROSKEY '18
“Taking the European Studies minor was one of the best decisions I made at Notre Dame. The skills I developed in my history classes are really important in the business world and will help me greatly during my career in finance.”
“What I encountered in the L’Arche community was the divine and unconditional love that this organization is founded on. This love turns weaknesses into strengths and makes differences of language, culture, geography, and ability obsolete.”
JACOB VILA '18
ALLISON BARTOSZEWICZ '18
Since 2002, the Institute has awarded 1,187 grants to individual undergraduate students in all areas of European studies.
on Tudor history with Nanovic fellow Rory Rapple (History), who helped to guide Vila’s reading and research.
to learn about the history of European bookmaking and explore the places and scenery she plans to write about in her book.
The Institute also awarded grants to students committed to service and spiritual discernment. Allison Bartoszewicz (English, ’18) for example found her experience as a live-in assistant at a L’Arche community in Barka, Slovenia, to be extraordinary. L’Arche International provides homes and workplaces for people with intellectual disabilities to live and work together as peers.
Can poetry be a useful tool for medical doctors? Alexandra Tatarian thinks so. The junior pre-med student visited Ireland during spring break to explore poetry as a means of sharing science with the public. While there, she met physicist-poet Iggy McGovern and the Irish poet Jane Clarke. She plans to use the insights she gained from these conversations to craft a submission for the Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine.
María Inés Aranguren (Computer Science, ’18) traveled to Rome on an Institute grant to participate in Vatican City’s first ever “hackathon.” At the four-day competition, 120 students worked in teams to use technological innovation to solve global problems. Aranguren helped develop a website that migrants and refugees can use to more easily connect with potential employers. Joan Becker (Program of Liberal Studies ’19) visited France, Germany, and Belgium over winter break to conduct research for her upcoming senior project, which will include creating a handmade, illustrated book about King Arthur. Her research trip allowed her 6 | NANOVIC INSTITUTE FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES
With the support of the Nanovic Institute, Sarah Bueter (’18), Christopher Collum (’18), Bridget Rickard (’18), and Chris Haw (Ph.D. candidate in Theology & Peace Studies) traveled to Vatican City in November to meet Pope Francis and attend a conference on nuclear disarmament. They joined thirteen other Notre Dame students, faculty, and alumni to participate in the first international gathering on nuclear disarmament since the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was signed at the United Nations in New York in July 2017.
“One note I wrote in my journal during the trip says, ‘I may be the happiest I have ever been. I realize life is about seeing the world and pursuing your passions. For the first time, I am doing just that.’ ” ALEXANDRA TATARIAN ’19
“Traveling to Rome, learning from a diverse group of enthusiastic and intelligent students and speakers, seeing Pope Francis, and gaining insight into how to use technology for social impact was unforgettable for me. This experience was an excellent complement to my Notre Dame education, and my growth from it will carry through to my career after graduation.” MARÍA INÉS ARANGUREN ’18
“Through this experience, I’ve gained so much valuable information and inspiration for my senior thesis project. I will always value this memorable experience, but it is just one special component of the resources I’ve been able to access through the Nanovic Institute, from research advice to lectures to cultural events.” JOAN BECKER '19
Christopher Collum, along with other Notre Dame students, had the opportunity to meet Pope Francis in Vatican City. Mairéad Corrigan Maguire, co-founder of Peace People and 1976 Nobel Peace Prize winner, talks with Sarah Bueter during the conference.
CELEBRATING 25 YEARS | 7
WILL THE EU SURVIVE BREXIT?
A View from the European Commission with Catherine Day Thanks to the generosity of R. Stephen (’75) and Ruth Barrett, the Institute invited Catherine Day to Dublin’s Newman Center for Faith and Reason to reflect on the impact of Brexit upon Ireland and the European Union. Day served as Secretary-General of the European Commission from 2005-2015. A. James McAdams described Day as possessing “the experience to provide a nuanced perspective of the many challenges and uncertainties” facing Europe’s future. Day’s lecture addressed many of these challenges, such as the role of the euro in political integration, the changing nature of NATO’s and the EU’s defense posture, and the question of Turkey as a prospective member. Ms. Day’s talk was covered in The Irish Times, IrishCentral.com, and numerous posts on social media. A special discussion between Day and Notre Dame students in Dublin took place before the lecture. Students were able to ask a range of questions related to Europe, Ireland, and her own career as the first woman to hold the highest office in the European Commission. Day continues to be heavily involved in Irish and European affairs, serving as Special Adviser to the European Commission President and as a board member of European Movement Ireland. The lecture was organized by the Institute in collaboration with Kevin Whelan and his staff at Notre Dame’s Dublin Global Gateway. The event was co-sponsored by BryneWallace law firm, one of the largest law firms in Ireland. The Barrett Family Lecture brings leaders in global business, politics, and the arts to the Notre Dame community in Dublin.
R. Stephen and Ruth Barrett with Catherine Day and A. James McAdams in Dublin. To view the full lecture video, visit nanovic.nd.edu/barrett.
“Like few other authorities, Catherine Day has the experience to provide a nuanced perspective of the many challenges and uncertainties currently faced by the European Union.” A. JAMES McADAMS
William M. Scholl Professor of International Affairs
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“I remain optimistic, because I think the European Union is the best way for most European countries to live together in a globalized world.” CATHERINE DAY CELEBRATING 25 YEARS | 9
GRADUATE EDUCATION
Graduate Students Take European Studies to the Next Level Dissertation Fellows Elisabeth Kincaid (Theology) Kincaid completed and defended her dissertation in Theology and accepted a position for the fall as Assistant Professor for Moral Theology at the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis. Her research focused on conceptions of legal equity in the writings of Francisco Suárez, SJ (d. 1617), an important writer in the philosophy of international law. During her fellowship year, she was also able to complete new projects and publications related to Suárez’s writings and to present her findings at the International Colloquium on Jesuit Studies in Seville, Spain. Lucia Manzi (Political Science) Manzi completed and defended her dissertation in Political Science and has accepted a position for the fall as Assistant Professor of Political Science at SUNY Plattsburgh. Her dissertation examined the conditions under which effective judicial prosecution of political corruption and organized crime can occur by focusing on Italian cases. Related research focused on the interaction between judicial politics and party politics in Italy. During this past year, she presented her work at the 25th International Conference of Europeanists in Chicago. Ana Petrova (Political Science) Petrova spent the year conducting 130 interviews in Spanish and Bulgarian and gathering statistical data on over 200 political parties in 20 countries in order to explain why new political parties in Eastern Europe and Latin America spend so much time constructing strong party organizations when state subsidies and inexpensive media weaken the incentives to do so. Petrova also wrote her dissertation’s introduction, finished nearly two case studies, and put herself in a position to complete a third this summer. She expects to defend her dissertation this coming fall. Brandon Sepulvado (Sociology) Sepulvado is helping to clarify the emergence of neurology as a discipline by describing—for the first time— the growth of its professional network in France. On the strength of previous research and language acquisition supported by the Institute, Sepulvado won a Fulbright Fellowship to spend 2016-17 collecting data about these networks in Paris. He also won a National Science Foundation grant to recruit students to assist him in computational methods and social network analysis as he writes his dissertation. Kincaid received a Paul G. Tobin Dissertation Fellowship; Manzi, Petrova, Sepulvado received Dominica and Frank Annese Fellowships in Graduate Studies. 10 | NANOVIC INSTITUTE FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES
International Law Competition Win in Italy How should the law balance the principle of religious liberty with the principle of non-discrimination? With the support of the Nanovic Institute, second-year Notre Dame Law School students Megan Ball, Jackson Blais, Cristina Sanchez, and Lawrence Wesco traveled to Bologna to debate this question at the European Academy of Religion’s 2018 Moot Court Competition in Law and Religion. Their team placed first overall, and Lawrence Wesco was awarded Best Oralist.
“Our team spent hours in preparation posing difficult hypothetical and legal questions to one another, and I am grateful for how this experience broadened my perspective and enhanced my legal reasoning skills. This experience was rigorous and well worth the effort.” LAWRENCE WESCO CELEBRATING 25 YEARS | 11
Graduate Student Conferences
New Discoveries in Cold War Litigation
God, Virtue, & Moral Absolutes: Anscombe’s Modern Moral Philosophy at 60 January 21-23, 2018
Between 1954 and 1961, the United States made the highly unusual decision to sue the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies six times in the International Court of Justice. With Nanovic Institute support, Steven McDowell (Ph.D. candidate, Political Science) traveled to the National Archives in College Park, MD, to determine why the United States would use international law in this way. There he discovered a treasure trove of documents that helped illuminate the United States’ perplexing behavior.
In 1958, the Catholic British philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe published “Modern Moral Philosophy,” one of the most influential essays in contemporary philosophy. In celebration of the 60th anniversary of its publication, philosophy graduate students at Notre Dame organized a conference on this essay with the support of the Institute. Sessions focused on three of the work’s most controversial theses: (1) the philosophical study of psychology should precede the philosophical study of morality, (2) ethical concepts presuppose a divine lawgiver, and (3) 20th-century philosophers are separated by differences of little importance. Keynote lectures were delivered by leading Anscombe scholars, including Alasdair MacIntyre (University of Notre Dame), Cyrille Michon (University of Nantes), Jennifer A. Frey (University of South Carolina), and Rachael Wiseman (University of Liverpool). Theorizing Human Nature: Bridge, Barrier, or Both? February 25-27, 2018 Graduate students from around the country gathered at Notre Dame to discuss human nature during a conference funded by the Nanovic Institute and co-organized by students in the department of theology and students at the University of Chicago Divinity School. The conference sparked interdisciplinary conversations about the place of human nature in academic and public discourse—sessions explored dehumanization in warfare and in the American prison system, the Confucian understanding of human nature, ethnographic and ecological perspectives on human nature, and religious and social narratives of sexuality. Four speakers delivered keynote lectures: Séverine Deneulin (University of Bath), Vincent Lloyd (Villanova University), Cristina Traina (Northwestern University), and Thomas A. Tweed (University of Notre Dame). 12 | NANOVIC INSTITUTE FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES
“The information gathered during this research trip is sufficient for writing an article publishable in a number of history, international relations, or interdisciplinary journals. Furthermore, it will form the core of a future book project telling the full story of the litigation policy. These potential publications will enhance my credentials as a scholar and prospective academic.” STEVEN McDOWELL
Graduate students from Notre Dame and the University of Chicago in discussion at the conference “Theorizing Human Nature” at the University of Notre Dame.
Since 2002, the Institute has supported 701 graduate students as they pursued their research and professional development in all areas of European studies. In addition, the Institute has supported and hosted twenty-one scholarly graduate student conferences, which were envisioned initially as regional, but quickly developed into international gatherings. CELEBRATING 25 YEARS | 13
POPE FRANCIS’S DIPLOMACY OF MERCY
The Keeley Vatican Lecture with Reverend Antonio Spadaro, SJ The editor-in-chief of La Civiltà Cattolica, Rev. Antonio Spadaro, SJ, presented this year’s Terrence R. Keeley Vatican Lecture. He spoke about Pope Francis’s approach to geopolitics and diplomacy. Rev. Spadaro was in a special position to address the subject. With degrees in theology, philosophy, and social communications from the University of Messina, the Pontifical Urban University, and the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rev. Spadaro has edited La Civiltà Cattolica since 2011. The journal is published twice a month and offers commentary on a wide range of contemporary and historical issues and ideas. It is the only journal to be reviewed and approved by the Holy See’s Secretariat of State before publication, so its perspectives are considered carefully by observers interested in the disposition of each papacy. Spadaro’s lecture focused on what inspires the Pope’s approach to geopolitics. Framing Francis’s approach as one of mercy, Spadaro outlined the principles of its practice. His reflections touched on the abuses of political and diplomatic language, the necessity of dialogue, the rejection of a “clash of civilizations” mentality, and the danger of using Catholicism as a “political guarantor” or refuge. Above all, a diplomacy of mercy gives special regard, he noted, to those “on the peripheries” of Europe and elsewhere, which explains the Pope’s attention to border cities like Lampedusa, Lesbos, Lund, and Fatima.
“The Pope travels to touch injuries and place his hands on those injuries, as Christ placed his hand on the wounds of his time. This is the deeper meaning of the diplomacy of mercy.”
The Keeley Vatican Lecture was established through the generosity of Terrence R. Keeley (’81) to bring distinguished representatives from the Vatican to explore questions involving Notre Dame’s Catholic mission. Visit nanovic.nd.edu/vatican to watch videos of all lectures in this series.
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REV. ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ
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The relationship between Notre Dame and Europe is in some ways obvious given its founding by the Congregation of Holy Cross, a French order of priests and brothers. But origins and roots only tell part of a long story of how the histories of Europe and Notre Dame intertwine. Early Partnership
the source of the University’s library, its scientific equipment, its great herbarium, and its famous Grotto (1896). Even the University’s vineyards were tended by someone who reportedly spoke German or Dutch.
Facing bad weather, fatal illness, poverty, and local suspicion, the University’s fragile founding community depended existentially in its earliest years on the spiritual and financial generosity of religious benefactors in France and Italy.
Academic life was steeped in European classics. The turn toward scientific studies in the early twentieth-century was energized by the work of Charles Darwin from England. Far-reaching changes in organization at the University were inspired by a departmental model from Germany. Outside that curriculum, the leader of what would soon become a wider American mainstay (college football) was Knute Rockne, an immigrant from Norway.
The story of Notre Dame then turned in classic American fashion toward independence. As its wealth increased, Rev. Edward Sorin’s enterprise produced tensions with his religious leaders in France. Sorin made over fifty transatlantic crossings to maintain the relationship. Eventually the wealth of Notre Dame flowed in the opposite direction, becoming an existential source of support for the religious mother-house in France. In turn, European culture shaped the University’s early infrastructure. Even if the bricks were made from local clay, the architecture was French. The basilica was decorated by Italians. Europe was
Our Founding Father
Refuge and Reciprocity At the turn of the century, the University’s assistance flowed again toward Europe. Two of Notre Dame’s future presidents, Rev. Matthew Walsh and Rev. Charles O’Donnell, worked as
The Grotto
military chaplains during the First World War. A total of 2,500 Notre Dame students, alumni, and faculty members served in the Great War. In 1924, the World War I Memorial on the East side of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart was dedicated to the fifty-six men who lost their lives in service. In the 1930s, as European totalitarianism began to loom, professors from endangered countries came to Notre Dame for refuge. Physicists like Arthur Haas and Eugene Guth did pioneering work with Notre Dame’s new Van de Graaff particle accelerator, the third particle accelerator to be installed at an American university, following the original at Princeton and one at MIT. Kurt Gödel and Karl Menger taught mathematics. The political theorist Waldemar Gurian elevated Notre Dame’s international reputation by founding The Review of Politics (1939-), which clarified the ideological dangers threatening not only Europeans, but the whole world.
1924 WWI Memorial
Another forty-one European professors came to Notre Dame during and after the Second World War. They made notable contributions to university programs in math, physics, political science, history, philosophy, biology, and architecture. Rev. Astrik Gabriel from Hungary was fundamental to developing the University’s medieval studies program, which quickly achieved an international reputation and an enduring relationship with the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan. Cold War Determination After the chaos of two world wars, the mood at Notre Dame for international cooperation was strong. In his second year as president, Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, CSC “barnstormed” (his word) fifteen European universities, intending to bring forty-five experts to Notre Dame and so increase the quality of its faculty. Among the distinguished visitors were Jacques Maritain and Bogusław Sobocinski (philosophy); Josef Pieper and Frank Sheed (theology); and dozens of distinguished professors of law, history, mathematics, political science, and journalism. Artists like Ivan Meštrović, Josip Turkalj, Jean Charlot, and Konstantin Milonadis ran
Political Science Gerhardt Niemeyer
productive studios and produced works that can still be seen on campus today. During the Cold War, Hesburgh’s commitment to internationalism led Notre Dame back into Europe. He continued to invite promising intellectuals to join Notre Dame’s faculty, like the young priesttheologian named Joseph Ratzinger. Hesburgh played a role in organizing Catholic higher education world-wide by helping to establish the International Federation of Catholic Universities. Following his vision, Notre Dame established study-abroad programs in Innsbruck (1964) and Angers (1966), followed shortly thereafter by programs in law (London, 1968) and architecture (Rome, 1969). New Institutional Structures In the 1970s and ’80s, Notre Dame’s institutional presence abroad and its growing sense that world-wide problems would require new approaches to university organization brought Notre Dame into a new era of international centers and institutes. There was precedent. An early grant from the Ford Foundation had established a
multi-disciplinary Center for Soviet and East European Studies at Notre Dame in the 1950s. In the early 1980s, major funding began to appear for university units devoted to issues that transcended a focus on single countries or regions. To that end, Hesburgh established three international institutes dedicated to peace, democracy, and human rights. After Hesburgh stepped down as president in 1987, Notre Dame continued to build stronger ties to Europe. Irish studies was formed in 1992 to bring faculty from Ireland to Notre Dame and to bring the University and Ireland closer together. The London Program moved into a facility next to Trafalgar Square and expanded the curriculum for undergraduate students. With such structures in place, the stage was set for the creation of a home for European studies that would deepen Notre Dame’s relationship with Europe in a new and powerful way. The Urgency of 1989 The fall of the Berlin Wall and the impending collapse of the USSR led many observers to expect that Europe again was facing changes
Philosophy Jacques Maritain
History
Mathematics
Guillaume de Bertier de Sauvigny
Vladimir Seidel
Hesburgh Library and Rev. Hesburgh, CSC
Innsbruck, Austria
Angers, France
that would affect the rest of the world deeply. In 1992, on a cruise in the middle of the Danube River, professor of history J. Robert Wegs (’54), with Robert (’54) and Elizabeth Nanovic, discussed the idea of creating some way for Notre Dame to stay connected to the swirl of events, cultures, and institutions that shaped Europe and the world by extension. Their conversation led to the creation of a new Center for European Studies at Notre Dame in 1993 with Professor Wegs as founding director. Wegs immediately formed an advisory faculty committee and established a series of guest lectures. Pursuing the goal of gathering “a critical mass of people” in European studies, Wegs and Nanovic believed that a center dedicated to the study of Europe’s problems and successes could have a significant impact on the lives of students. In 1997, additional financial gifts allowed the Center to evolve into a university Institute. Wegs established a Nanovic Scholars program, starting with a Distinguished US-Italian Fulbright Scholar and expanding quickly to include scholars from Poland and Germany. Topics addressed by speakers and events were multi-disciplinary, ranging across historiography, religion, politics,
J. Robert Wegs
Elizabeth and Robert Nanovic
Brownson Hall
diplomacy, and art. Wegs organized scholarly conferences and distributed several grants each year to deserving students for summer studies in Europe. All this had a positive effect on students. When he stepped down as director in 2002, Wegs was gratified to observe that the Institute had “widened their visions and their aspirations.” Growth in a New Millennium Leading the Institute through its next phase of growth was A. James McAdams (Political Science), whose tenure as director spanned sixteen years. Former chair of the department of political science, historian of political thought and modern Germany, and a devoted teacher, McAdams was well-suited to broaden the Institute’s range of activities in line with its aim to keep student benefit at the center of its work. Developing a strategic plan and forming a new external Advisory Board, McAdams established five goals for Institute activity that allowed it to develop programs affecting nearly every area of campus life: promoting the study of Europe through public events, transforming undergraduates in Europe, professionalizing
graduate students, integrating faculty research, and building a network in Europe for the University as a whole. With a dedicated and energetic staff, McAdams led the Institute through a surge of creativity and development. More than a hundred individuals across campus, from senior faculty to librarians, affiliated with the Institute as fellows. Student applications for grants doubled, tripled, and then quadrupled. The Institute developed lecture series; convened regular faculty panel discussions for students about current events; expanded its artistic programming to include film, music, and the visual arts; inaugurated a major annual scholarly book prize; brought Catholic European faculty to campus to foster their research; and developed an active presence on the web and social media. In 2010, the first external review committee’s report was glowing: “everything the Institute does, it does well, and everything it does is worth doing.” Enduring Commitment Central to McAdams’s leadership was the idea that being international was not merely a matter
A. James McAdams
The Keeley Vatican Lecture
The Laura Shannon Prize
Nanovic Advisory Board
The Nanovic Forum
The Barrett Family Lecture
of expressing international curiosity but of having a committed stake in another’s success. For this reason, just as the Institute promoted the study of Europe in South Bend, students and faculty undertook to support and connect personally to its partners in Europe. The Institute was therefore the first to organize a major academic event in the University’s new Global Gateway in Rome. It helped to solidify relations with the Holy See, the US-Italian Fulbright Commission, and the US Embassy in Italy. In London, the Institute organized scholarly conferences, enabled its students to travel with faculty to other European countries, and made London a place for graduate workshops in politics, literature, and history. The Dublin Gateway became the location of the Institute’s annual Barrett Family Lecture and a base for student internships. Recently, the Institute contributed to programs and seminars organized in Berlin. Most of all, the Institute invested in the Catholic Universities Partnership (CUP). Begun in 2005, the CUP has gathered leaders and key faculty from universities and central and eastern Europe to pursue the practical challenge of rebuilding Catholic higher
education in post-communist societies. Where these institutions were once isolated, they are now more integrated. The Institute brings their faculty to Notre Dame for research, as well as for training in a summer Catholic Leadership Institute. In return, the European faculty inspire and demonstrate to Notre Dame what it means to be engaged as witnesses and actors in a deep historical struggle. All such initiatives, at home and abroad, involved Notre Dame students, but the biggest impact on student life came from the Institute’s suite of competitive grant programs that, over the past decade, became comprehensive. Almost 2,000 Notre Dame students have received grants to conduct original research, study a language by immersion, work as an intern or artist, engage in community service, and organize or present at a professional academic conference. The effect of such experiences on their personal and intellectual development has been transformative: students win prizes, are awarded external fellowships, write serious senior theses, and secure jobs. Students return home with greater confidence and maturity. Their sense of possibility is larger, and what they care about, more broadly defined.
None of this would have been possible without the enduring conviction of Notre Dame faculty members that what happens in Europe matters profoundly to students and their world. Now housed in Nanovic Hall, a magnificent new facility on Notre Dame Avenue, the Institute’s commitment to European Studies at Notre Dame is a contribution to the dreams of the University’s European founders in 1842.
Nanovic Hall
Lily Kang '16
Macklin Wagner '14
Cristina Bordeaux '16
William Thwaites and Kyle Collins '12
William Collins Donahue
Alexis Palá '15
Colin Campbell '13
Kristin Andrejko '19
Rev. Jenkins, CSC, with Robert and Elizabeth Nanovic
“IT’S JUST A BUILDING”
A Home for European Culture at Notre Dame Visitors find the architectural splendor of Nanovic Hall impressive, but the spirit of the place has more to do with its life than its looks. This year, the Institute contributed significantly to the vitality of the building by organizing a wide variety of cultural events. The building’s central Forum held the annual Gallery of European Studies, presenting and celebrating faculty scholarship and creative work. The Elizabeth E. Nanovic Seminar Room, which adjoins the Forum, was home to a continuous series of presentations by visitors, faculty, and students, from Sir Alan Duncan, UK Minister of State for Europe and the Americas at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, to Ahmed Ag Kaedi, a Frenchspeaking musician from Mali. Each Monday in the fall, an informal music series in the Forum featured visiting or student musicians playing a range of European music. Across campus, the Institute supported a variety of European cultural programs. The film series featured directors Signe Astrup (Germany) and Chico Pereira (Spain); the Distinguished Visiting European Artists included flautist Erik Drescher (Germany) and pianists Ricardo Descalzo (Spain) and Stephen Hough (UK); and the Institute participated in the annual gala of Italian music by faculty and students in Italian Studies, which sold out the 800-seat Leighton Concert Hall. During the summer, Nanovic Hall hosted participants in the Catholic Leadership Institute, offered in conjunction with the Mendoza College of Business. “It’s just a building,” Robert Nanovic quipped at the dedication, but European studies would not flourish as greatly without it.
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CELEBRATING 25 YEARS | 21
WHAT THE INSTITUTE MEANS TO FACULTY Faculty Perspectives on the Past Twenty-Five Years “I think the Nanovic Institute’s most important achievement has been to create a culture of European studies at Notre Dame that suffuses the campus and reaches into all of the university’s activities in Europe. Before the Institute’s founding, it was difficult to say what role the study of Europe played at Notre Dame. This was not because there was any lack of expertise in European affairs. In fact, an extraordinary number of faculty members were engaged in one or another aspect of European studies, from the Humanities to the Arts, to Social Sciences, Business, and Architecture. The challenge was to bring these individuals together in a way that maximized these strengths and created an ideal environment for scholarship and teaching. I believe the Institute has successfully met this goal.” A. James McAdams, Political Science
“The Institute is a special place where we can bring ideas and share interests, then see them almost magically coalesce into events, film series, symposia, workshops, and flash panels in response to current events in Europe. Among all our distinguished institutes and centers, the Nanovic Institute carries the torch for its creativity, intellectual energy, inclusivity, and superb achievements.” Catherine Perry, French 22 | NANOVIC INSTITUTE FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES
“I cannot imagine Notre Dame without the Nanovic Institute. The Nanovic has been absolutely indispensable in supporting my research agenda ever since I arrived, and it offers a unique and truly interdisciplinary scholarly forum for students and faculty alike.”
“The Institute has served as an intellectual center of gravity for so many of our faculty and has added incalculably to the excellence of our work. In addition, Nanovic’s generosity has allowed our graduate students to embark on research in ways that make them the envy of their peers.”
“One of the unique qualities of the Institute is the way that it facilitates engagements among different groups on campus. Thanks to Nanovic, students have the opportunity to share their work with an international coterie of scholars. In turn, visiting scholars are deeply impressed by the intelligence and perceptiveness of our students. The Nanovic makes this dialogue possible.”
Patrick Griffin, History
Susan Ohmer, Film, Television & Theatre
“The Nanovic has been one of the first institutes on campus to support our faculty and students with their research endeavors. Our faculty has made incredible progress due to strong support for new initiatives and non-conventional research structures.”
“Without the Nanovic’s support across a broad range of issues and projects, we would not be able to provide the range of opportunities and services to the undergraduate and graduate student body that we offer.”
Emilia Powell, Political Science
Krupali Uplekar Krusche, Architecture
“It is an unfailing mark of the Institute’s prominent presence on campus and commitment to excellence in graduate education that whenever faculty or graduate students conceive of a project related to European studies, their first and foremost thought is to come to the Nanovic to share ideas and to ask for help in organizing or funding an initiative.”
Brian Ó Conchubhair, Irish
Semion Lyandres, History
“A faculty workshop supported by Nanovic made it not only possible but necessary for a group of scholars regularly to interact. This is not a trivial matter: over time, substantive interconnections were recognized, and all sorts of discussions, within members of the department, and between members of different departments, were generated.” Karl Ameriks, Philosophy
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CATHOLIC UNIVERSITIES IN A TIME OF TENSION
The Catholic Universities Partnership in Ukraine, 2018 A perfect example of the benefit of bringing Europe and Notre Dame together, the Catholic Universities Partnership marked its thirteenth year of dialogue and collaboration in Lviv, Ukraine. The topic of discussion was the role of the Catholic university in times of political tension. With participants from Zagreb, Budapest, Rome, Lublin, Lviv, and Tbilisi, the conference explored the relationship between populism, nationalism, religion, socialism, and totalitarianism. Aware of the many dangers posed by deceit and social disconnection, participants articulated alternative public ideals and brainstormed effective ways of overcoming the negative effects of political polarization. The keynote address was delivered by Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine. Participants also included Jean-Christophe Bas, formerly of the Council of Europe, and faculty participants from Notre Dame who are new to the partnership: Rev. James Lies, CSC (London Global Gateway) and Nanovic fellows Clemens Sedmak (Keough School of Global Affairs) and Patrick Deneen (Political Science).
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The Ukrainian Catholic University created a video about the conference that can be viewed at nanovic.nd.edu/cup.
VISITING SCHOLARS
European Scholars in Residence, 2017-18 Since 2002, the Nanovic Institute has brought the brightest faculty from its university partners in Europe for extended research during the academic year and short research leaves during the summer. A list of all of the Institute’s visiting scholars can be found at nanovic.nd.edu/scholars. Ján Baňas Catholic University of Ružomberok, Slovakia
Dariusz Skórczewski John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland
Maria Jadwiga Bloch-Trojnar John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland
Tomasz Sieniow John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland
Melinda Dabis Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest, Hungary
Tomasz Stępniewski John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland
Rev. Pavlo Khud John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland
Michela Valmori Distinguished Visiting Italian Fulbright Scholar, University of Bologna, Italy
Grzegorz Maziarczyk John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland
Vaja Vardidze Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani Teaching University, Georgia
Sophia Opatska Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv, Ukraine McAdams Awarded Honorary Degree The occasion was marked by a special event: the Ukrainian Catholic University awarded an honorary doctoral degree to A. James McAdams “for his sustained commitment to the university, his efforts to promote Catholic education in Eastern Europe, and his research on global communism.” CELEBRATING 25 YEARS | 25
EUROPEAN CHURCHES AND MORAL AUTHORITY
The 2017 Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies Established in 2010 by the generosity of Laura Shannon and her husband, Michael (’58), the Laura Shannon Prize is awarded annually to the author of the best book in European studies that transcends a focus on any one country, state, or people to stimulate new ways of thinking about contemporary Europe as a whole. This year’s prize was awarded to Nations Under God: How Churches Use Moral Authority to Influence Policy by Anna Grzymała-Busse. Examining why churches in some countries have more influence on public policy than others, Grzymała-Busse shows that churches tend to have a greater impact in countries where religious identity is fused with national identity. Her study analyzes the histories of six democracies that have similar religious orientations but vastly different public policies: Ireland, Italy, Poland, Croatia, Canada, and the United States. The jury praised the book for its interdisciplinary sophistication: Nations Under God is an outstanding accomplishment of historically grounded and carefully contextualized comparative political science. Its richness of range and detailed empirical command are no less impressive than its conceptual and methodological sophistication. Together they make an exceedingly rare combination, appealing to historians and political scientists alike, while leaving scholars across the disciplines in its debt. Grzymała-Busse is the Michelle and Kevin Douglas Professor of International Studies in Stanford University’s Department of Political Science and a Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. In her visit to campus, she presented the central argument of her book in a lecture entitled “Religious Nationalism and Populism in Europe.” To learn more about the prize, and to watch the lecture, visit nanovic.nd.edu/prize.
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The 2017 Laura Shannon Prize Jury George W. Breslauer Faculty Director of the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, Emeritus University of California, Berkeley E. Mark Cummings Professor and Notre Dame Chair in Psychology University of Notre Dame Geoff Eley Karl Pohrt Distinguished University Professor of Contemporary History University of Michigan Patrick Griffin Madden-Hennebry Professor of History University of Notre Dame Adele Lindenmeyr Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Professor of History Villanova University
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1968 IN EUROPE AND LATIN AMERICA
A Collaborative Conference in the Keough School of Global Affairs On April 26-29, the Nanovic Institute gathered an international group of scholars and artists to reflect on the 50th anniversary of 1968 in Europe and Latin America. The conference took a unique approach. Instead of using political events as points of reference, conference participants were asked to evaluate the historian Arthur Marwick’s famous contention that 1968 represented a cultural revolution. Mindful of the simultaneity of events and ideas across multiple countries and continents, participants discussed Marwick’s contention with reference to a broader range of contexts. Keynote addresses were given by Volker Schlöndorff, an eminent filmmaker from Germany, and Ignacio Walker, Chile’s former foreign minister. Consistent with current scholarly interest in “the global Sixties,” contributions ranged from analyses of student protests in Uruguay and Mexico to assessments of the extent of revolution in Santiago all the way to the Soviet Union. The conference was unusual also in featuring detailed discussion of key developments in music, photography, literature, philosophy, and film. Several generations were represented at the conference, from eyewitnesses like Schlöndorff and immediate heirs of ’68 like Walker to younger scholars seeking broader understanding in retrospect. The conference was organized by A. James McAdams (Political Science), William Collins Donahue (German), Carmen-Helena Téllez (Music), and Jaime M. Pensado (History). Participants are revising their essays in light of the conference and pursuing their publication as a unified volume. The conference was jointly sponsored with the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. Additional 2017-18 Conferences and Symposia in European Studies • Reformations and the Organ, 1517–2017 • Communities of Laughter: Comedy and the Making of the Nation • From Panama to BEPS: Tax Evasion or Tax Avoidance • Revolutionizing the Age of Revolutions • Changing Histories of the State • Émilie Du Châtelet’s “Foundations of Physics”
A. James McAdams in discussion with participants. William Collins Donahue with German film director Volker Schlöndorff. Students of Susan Ohmer, associate professor of film, television and theatre, present their digital Notre Dame archival material from 1968. Full details of the symposium and videos of the lectures are at 1968festival.nd.edu.
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TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM
Faculty-Led Seminars in Europe
David Fagerberg (Theology) took twelve students during fall break to Poland as part of his course on the Church in Poland. Students explored connections between the personalist philosophy of John Paul II, the Polish use of icons, and ecumenical relations between Catholic and Orthodox. None of the students had been to Poland before. The seminar was hosted by the Open University program of the John Paul II Catholic University in Lublin (KUL) and also supported by the Jewish Studies fund in Theology, the Center for Ethics and Culture, and Campus Ministry.
“It was very good to hear a lecture at the Yeshiva in Lublin and see this aspect in light of the Holocaust.” a student from the church in poland class
Thirteen students studying in London and enrolled in Simon Uttley’s course on Catholic education traveled to Slovakia for a weekend through the Institute’s support. There, the students offered a presentation at an international conference on education, visited a school for the Roma, engaged students at an English-language school, and toured the city of Košice. Coordinated by Judy Hutchinson, Director of Student Affairs at the London Global Gateway, the trip was a model of cultural engagement and experiential learning. Clemens Sedmak (Keough School) took nine graduate students to southern Germany and Austria during spring break to explore Holocaust memorials and other sites related to historical memory, ethics, and the common good as defined in Catholic social tradition. Students were required to take extensive field notes and write essays before and after the trip.
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In early summer, Margot Fassler (Music) sent graduate students to Tbilisi, Georgia, to learn from musicians and musicologists there as a way of extending Notre Dame’s relations with sacred musicians in eastern Churches. The Berlin Seminar in Transnational European Studies was a week-long seminar for faculty and advanced Ph.D. students from all ranks and disciplines. The seminar was co-sponsored with the College of Arts & Letters and the Max Kade Foundation and was directed by William Collins Donahue (German), Martin Kagel and Nicholas Allen (University of Georgia). In its third year, the Notre Dame Berlin Seminar brought American scholars of German literary and cultural studies together with experts and leading figures of Germany’s literary scene for ten days in Berlin under the direction of William Collins Donahue (German) and Martin Kagel (University of Georgia). John Deak (History) received funding to take thirty-one students in Notre Dame’s six-week, six-credit Berlin Summer Program to Vienna. Deak led the group’s exploration of Vienna’s history as the political and administrative center of the multinational Austro-Hungarian empire. The tour was organized by Steffen Kaupp (German) and co-sponsored with a Teaching Beyond the Classroom grant from the College of Arts and Letters.
Notre Dame students connect with children through music at a school for the Roma and meet with Peter Krajnak, the Deputy Minister of Education for Slovakia. Below, scholars participate in the Notre Dame Berlin Seminar.
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LEADERSHIP 2017-18 Director
Staff
New Faculty Fellows
A. James McAdams William M. Scholl Professor of International Affairs
Anthony Monta Associate Director Monica Caro Manager of Operations Sharon Konopka Business Associate Jennifer Lechtanski Communications Coordinator Kristian Olsen Program Coordinator Chris Stump Student Coordinator Melanie Webb Events Program Manager
Neil Arner Theology Christiane Baumeister Economics Patrick Deneen Political Science Kirk Doran Economics Steffen Kaupp German Language and Literature Melissa Miller Russian Language and Literature Denis Robichaud Program of Liberal Studies Clemens Sedmak Keough School of Global Affairs Sarah Shortall History Sonja Stojanovic French Language and Literature David Thomas English Alexis Torrance Theology Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi English Anré Venter Psychology Emily Wang Russian Language and Literature
Incoming Director William Collins Donahue Rev. John J. Cavanaugh, CSC Professor of the Humanities Advisory Board Jane Heiden Chair Dominica Annese R. Stephen Barrett, Jr. James J. Hummer Terrence R. Keeley Paul L. Mahoney Susan Mahoney Hatfield Patrick Moran Elizabeth Nanovic Robert Nanovic Susan Nanovic Flannery Sean M. Reilly Laura Shannon Peter Šťastný Paul Tobin Cornelius McGrath Recent Alumni Representative
Faculty Committee Tobias Boes German John Deak History Margot Fassler Sacred Music and Theology Barry McCrea English Hildegund Müller Classics Alison Rice French
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Photography Flickr James Clark University of Notre Dame Notre Dame Archives Matt Cashore Barbara Johnston Jennifer Mayo Mary McGraw Peter Ringenberg Christian Winters Katie Whitcomb Staff, students, visitors, artists, and friends
The cover image is an uncredited photograph of the Mayenne River as it passes through the town of Laval, France. A short distance away from Laval is the small village of Ahuillé, the birthplace of Rev. Edward Sorin, CSC, founder of the University of Notre Dame (USA). Seeing the fine old bridge and flow of water, we could not think of a better image to convey the historical purpose and history of the Institute at Notre Dame.