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Volume 52, Issue 36 | thursday, october 26, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com
Margaret Atwood visits Saint Mary’s Lecture explores origins of “The Handmaid’s Tale”
Author discusses importance of humanities
By MARTHA REILLY
By NICOLE CARATAS
Saint Mary’s Editor
Senior News Writer
With a Vera Wang clothing line honoring its characters and a Hulu original series adapting its plot, “The Handmaid’s Tale” has flooded modern society, but its author, Margaret Atwood, traced her work back to its sources during Saint Mary’s annual Christian Culture Lecture (CCL), which took place in O’Laughlin Auditorium on Wednesday. College President Jan Cervelli said Atwood’s work causes readers to question societal norms and leads to new avenues of understanding. “Perhaps most significantly
For author Margaret Atwood, known for novels such as “The Handmaid’s Tale,” stories and story telling are a quintessential part of the human experience. Wednesday, she explained the value of a liberal arts education in the present day. “It’s something that the human race has always done,” she said. “They’ve not always done algebra. … The most distinguishing feature of us as human beings is that we are story tellers and we’re enabled to be story tellers because we have evolved grammars with past
see LECTURE PAGE 5
KATELYN VALLEY | The Observer
Author Margaret Atwood delivers Saint Mary’s annual Christian Culture Lecture, sponsored by the department of Humanistic Studies, on Wednesday. She discussed her 1985 novel “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
Dinner discusses sexual assault in society By SELENA PONIO Associate News Editor
The Gender Relations Center hosted the “Time to Heal” dinner Monday to publicize the effects of relationship violence. Christine Gebhardt, director of the center, said the event aims to embrace victims and survivors and embolden the community to be a place of hope and healing. “It is hard even when you work in violence prevention everyday to acknowledge that violence is in our midst,” Gebhardt said. “And we can often rationalize that it doesn’t happen here within our communities..” Gebhardt cited a 2016 campus climate survey indicating 14 percent of respondents had experienced non-consensual contact or intercourse. She said less than 10 percent of women report sexual assaults. A panel of alumni shared their experiences with sexual assault.
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The panel consisted of Mariah McGrogan, Amanda Pena, Michael Nolan and Deirdre Harrington. Nolan shared his story about domestic violence during his freshman year of college. “It’s really difficult to spot an abusive relationship especially when you’re in it,” Noland said. “In each moment it kind of felt like a surprise too like this wasn’t like him. I didn’t really understand the gravity of it until I became an SOS advocate for the Family Justice Center and I went through the training to help other victims of domestic violence.” Nolan said the cycle of violence consists of abuse, the perpetrator’s feelings of guilt, excuses and rationalizations, normal behavior and then justification of the abuse. He said a support system is needed to break the cycle in order to break the cycle. see DINNER PAGE 4
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see HUMANITIES PAGE 5
Event introduces Catholic education programs By MARIE FAZIO News Writer
For the last 25 years, Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) has sent almost 2,000 graduate students to teach in Catholic schools across the country. The program hosted ACE Night on Wednesday, an annual gathering of the current campus ACE interns and staff as well as former ACE teachers, to publicize the program and allow interested students to get a sense of the community feeling that lies at the heart of ACE. The session included talks by former ACE graduates, including Steve Camilleri, current director or the Center for the Homeless, Allie Greene, former rector of Ryan Hall and current assistant director of liturgy of Campus Ministry and Jess Jones, a current ACE participant teaching in Chicago. After the talks, seniors who are currently interning for ACE answered
ScenE PAGE 9
questions from discerning students. “You get to step inside the community for a night and see the warmth,” senior Caroline Rooney, a current ACE intern, said. “You’re overwhelmed by the smell of food and you’re immediately greeted by someone. There’s no one who feels uncomfortable, it’s so welcoming … ACE night was what made me feel connected to the community.” During the two-year ACE commitment, students teach at Catholic schools, take summer classes at Notre Dame and ultimately complete a Masters of Education. Mike Comuniello, current ACE recruiting coordinator, graduated from Notre Dame in 2014 and completed the ACE program in 2016. During his time with ACE, he taught chemistry at Tampa Catholic High School in Tampa, Florida. As an undergraduate, he attended ACE Night to learn more about the program and said it heavily inf luenced his
decision to apply. “Ultimately it’s a time for students to experience the ACE community at its most full,” Comuniello said. “I think of my own experience of it as an undergrad … I remember looking around and thinking, ‘Notre Dame is full of amazing people and the most amazing of amazing people are in this room.’” Katie Moran, associate program director of ACE and 2015 Notre Dame graduate, said she would describe her experience during an ACE summer program as “full.” “Full not just in the sense of the full schedule — although it is very busy — but also in the sense of the number and the depth of the experiences you have,” she said. Of the 90 or so people who participate in ACE each year, about half are graduates of Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s or Holy Cross College. Over 210 universities are represented
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see ACE PAGE 3