News
ndsmcobserver.com | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2021 | The Observer
ND history department provides new minor By ISABELLA VOLMERT Associate News Editor
The Notre Dame history department is offering a new economic and business history minor with the goal of providing an in-depth study of the history of capitalism, markets, economies, business and more for students interested in this side of history. Department Chair Dr. Elisabeth Köll said the creation of the minor was inspired by faculty members within the history department who focus their research and teaching on the history of economics and business, spanning subfields, subjects, time periods and geographical locations. Additionally, Dr. Jake Lundberg, director of undergraduate studies for the history department, said within the field of study, there has been a turn toward the history of capitalism — especially in the U.S. — in recent years. Lundberg also said the student population has expressed increased interest in the subject of economic and business history, including many economic majors and Mendoza College of Business students who do not have the time to complete a whole history major on the traditional fouryear track. “They are interested in the history of their profession and discipline, and the intellectual history of how to think about economic structures, institutions and markets,” Köll said. The economic and business history minor’s requirements are four elective courses and the completion of a capstone class. The available classes focus on a variety of subjects such as the history of commerce, financial markets, gender in the workforce, labor and more. The capstone class is designed to partly be a research seminar in which students can focus on and produce a project of their own specific interest while working with a faculty member. Köll emphasized students can cater the minor to their specific
interests and said the history department has a variety of educators and resources to support their goals. In regards to why the minor is valuable, Köll said economics and Mendoza students often learn very valuable content in their majorspecific classes, but not the rich historical context history classes can provide, especially outside of the context of the U.S. Such context includes a variety of temporal and geographical histories, such as the historyoftheroleofwomenintheU.S. economy or different economic approaches to modern India, Köll said. She herself teaches a course on the history of the stock market. “We are not pretending to be economists; we are historians,” she said. “But we bring something to the table in terms of being able to look more deeply into the political, social and economic conditions that lead to certain developments.” Finance major and Notre Dame senior Jason Kidwell also praised the importance of historical contextual knowledge for students interested in economics and business. “Mendoza is great in terms of teaching kids the technical stuff and about market theory and in the job market field, but they don’t necessarily contextualize a lot of things,” he explained. “If you don’t have an understanding of market history or investor behavior and stuff like that, you are basically running around without a flashlight.” Kidwell officially confirmed his enrollment in the economic and business history minor on Tuesday. He has taken a number of classes with Köll concerning the field. He is currently taking a class on the development of the economy in China, capitalism, and how China fits into the globalized world economy with Köll. “That’s a rockstar class to be in,” he said.
In addition to finance and economics students, Köll and Lundberg stressed any major is welcome to pick up the minor, as it would be beneficial to all Notre Dame students. “No matter what your major is — engineering, English, accounting — to see the economy in any country, in any chronological context, and in a broader perspective and to analyze it in that context is a very valuable skill and intellectual challenge that is interesting and useful to learn no matter what you do after in your job,” Köll said. Additionally, the minor teaches students how to think critically, to analyze and interpret challenging situations and to identify arguments — all based on limited information. For example, Köll often encourages her students to think about arguments and situations as if they were an analyst working for a firm or a consultant who suddenly has to deal with something they are not at all familiar with. “We teach exactly the skills you need in any professional environment,” Köll said. Kidwell said he is very grateful for the role the history department, and especially Köll, has played in his education, and hopes that more Mendoza students will join the minor in years to come. The life skills the minor provides, Lundberg said, will give students an edge after they graduate. “I think that for Notre Dame students planning on entering careers in the business world, this kind of historical grounding and historical way of thinking about what they’re doing will be really useful for them within their jobs, but also as citizens going out into the world,” Lundberg said. Contact Isabella Volmertat ivolmert@nd.edu
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Mustard Club offers community By MEGAN FAHRNEY News Writer
It all started with a packet of mustard on a table in South Dining Hall. Club legend has it that before becoming Notre Dame’s official creative writing club, Mustard was an informal gathering of students interested in creative writing. A packet of mustard would be placed on a table in South Dining Hall before each meeting to discreetly show where participants should meet. Since its creation, Mustard’s goal has been to provide an opportunity for students to share their writing and receive feedback in a laid-back setting. Mustard uses a unique style of workshopping and critique, junior Ella Wisniewski, Mustard club president, said. “One of the best things about Mustard is you get feedback immediately after you read your piece out loud,” she said. “Other times, when you’re trying to get feedback on your writing, it can take days or weeks for someone to email you back and be like, ‘Oh, this is good.’ But in Mustard, you get it right away.” Meetings take place on Wednesdays from 9:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., in the McNeill room in LaFortune Student Center. Meetings are held in-person, but due to the pandemic, members participate via Zoom if the number of attendees exceeds the room’s maximum occupancy. Senior club member William DiSimone said Mustard is open to anyone, regardless of major or level of writing experience. DiSimone himself joined as a first-year studying finance and felt welcomed. “You can even come not intending to submit anything, just to see what other people write, to get a feel for how everything works,” DiSimone said. “It’s a pretty casual experience.” Participants are welcome to
submit any type of writing, junior Alena Coleman, another member of Mustard, said. “We’ve had raps, screenplays, poems, prose, short stories, bits of novels, songs,” Coleman said. “Really anything that you can write, we can talk about.” In a typical meeting, members submit a piece beforehand, read their work aloud and then receive feedback, Wisniewski said. Coleman said during national novel writing month, the club holds “write-ins.” In these meetings, members participate in various writing activities. “We’ll do some writing sprints, where you write for a short amount of time and try to get as many words out as possible. We’ll do fun writing prompts, or we’ll just talk and play other games,” Coleman said. “So those are a little less like a workshop and a little more like a writing camp for an hour or two.” DiSimone said during one meeting in his sophomore year, the group didn’t feel like discussing writing, so everyone went around and told stories of the most horrific injuries they had had. “It’s just fun hanging out,” DiSimone said. “It’s a good time.” Wisniewski said the first time she submitted a piece for a meeting as a sophomore, she was terrified. “Everyone was so nice and they genuinely made my poems better, and now I feel a lot more comfortable submitting,” Wisniewski said. “And I just hope that someone who comes into Mustard and submits for the first time can have that same experience. If you just want to come and not say anything, just listen to writing, that’s awesome, that’s totally fine. We’re just happy you’re there.” Contact Megan Fahrney at mfahrney@nd.edu
College’s Campus Ministry changes location By CARMEN FEUCHT News Writer
For the first time in over 40 years, Saint Mary’s Campus Ministry has moved its location from Regina Hall to a suite on the second floor of the Student Center. Director of Campus Ministry Regina Wilson said the Regina Center is currently undergoing major renovations to provide space for the health science departments. In order for these renovations to happen, Campus Ministry was offered the opportunity to move its location for the foreseeable future. “The second floor of the Student Center was identified as a very good location for Campus Ministry
since it is a place where most students come for meals and for other student services,” Wilson said. “It made a lot of good sense for Campus Ministry to join those other student service offices in the Student Center and to be in a location where students frequently gather.” Wilson and the Campus Ministry staff are very pleased with the move and believe it has benefitted the Campus Ministry community. “Overall, some of the benefits we gain are an office space where we can work together better as colleagues, a location that is more central to campus, more meeting space for gathering with students, more
possibility for networking with other student service colleagues, and shiny new offices,” Wilson said. The Campus Ministry staff are still working together on how to invite students into their new space. In Regina Hall, there was a fair amount of student traffic passing by so it was common to meet a student interested in Campus Ministry. “That kind of engagement with students will be a little more difficult now, but we are actively thinking about how to facilitate more opportunities for those kinds of engagements,” Wilson said. Wilson and her staff view the change as a new opportunity and are hopeful for the future. “We believe that all the changes
aren’tworseorbetter,it’sjustchange, and we’re embracing the challenge with an eye to all the new possibilities that we can imagine and that present themselves,” Wilson said. Campus Ministry also plans on adding new renovations to their new home in the near future. “Eventually, we will also have a lounge when further renovation of the second floor of the Student Center occurs, and this will allow us to have those more informal encounters with students that are a big part of our ministry and outreach,” Wilson said. Wilson also added that another
bonus of the move is that students can now get to the Holy Spirit Chapel of Le Mans through the tunnel and not have to walk outside. Wilson and the Campus Ministry staff are looking forward to the future of the program in the Student Center and will be hosting an open house Feb. 16 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. “We hope a lot of people will come for that, appropriately distanced, of course,” Wilson said. “We’ll be giving away a prize for a little contest we are having and showing people around the new space.” Contact Carmen Feucht at cfeucht01@saintmarys.edu
