In 2009, the center’s innovative community-engaged research and teaching, together with expansive new partnerships across campus, led the University to designate the center as an institute. In the ensuing 15 years, the center has increasingly refined what it means to be a University institute and the scholarly home for justice on Notre Dame’s campus through an expanding research and teaching agenda.

“Our name change to the Institute for Social Concerns is a call and a reminder that we are at our best when we find ways to leverage the research and teaching strength of Notre Dame in collaboration with the community to grow the common good,” said , the Leo and Arlene Hawk Executive Director of the institute. “Similar name. Same mission.”

The Center for Social Concerns was founded in 1983 by a group of students determined to be a force for good in the world by working alongside communities to address the challenges they face. Together with Rev. Don McNeill, C.S.C., students Mary Meg McCarthy, Judith Anne Beatty and Stacy Hennessy persuaded then-University President Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., to let them use the recently vacated WNDU television studios to establish an office where they could work on their vision.

Over the next four decades, the center became Notre Dame’s scholarly home for justice rooted in the social teaching of the Church. More than 30,000 students would explore the complex demands of justice and delve into research for the common good through center programs on campus, in and around South Bend, and in 500 communities across the country and around the world.

The institute remains home to the signature immersion experiences that have been popular with graduates since the 1980s. and continue to provide summer opportunities for students to engage in research animated by core principles of Catholic social tradition alongside communities across the country and around the world.

The institute has recently welcomed new faculty researching some of the world’s most pressing social concerns in climate, labor, mass incarceration, migration, poverty and technology. Bioengineer joined the institute in the last academic year (a joint appointment with the College of Engineering) and will continue her research and teaching on Catholic social teaching and social technology. She is leading a collaborative initiative in the College of Engineering to integrate character across the curriculum.

joined the institute this fall following a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton and will continue his work at the intersection of ethics, faith and environmental challenges. comes to Notre Dame from St. Patrick’s Pontifical University in Maynooth, Ireland. A theologian, Mulligan applies Catholic social doctrine to a range of social concerns including housing, gender-based violence and human trafficking.

The institute now offers a range of new courses and programs to complement summer opportunities. Innovative enable undergraduate students to research fundamental questions of justice and develop evidence-based interventions to address them. The is a three-year opportunity for undergraduates to participate in an interdisciplinary community of practice for students who are especially committed to the pursuit of justice and the common good.

There is also new programming for graduate students. The admitted its second highly diverse cohort this year. Fourteen graduate and professional students from five colleges and almost a dozen departments regularly convened to share their research in progress, discuss scholarship on the pursuit of justice and hear from Notre Dame faculty committed to research for the common good.

“University institutes are one of the ways in which the University thinks as an institution. They bring faculty and students together for multidisciplinary teaching and research that is often imaginative and daring,” said Vice President and Associate Provost . “The Institute for Social Concerns is well-positioned to do just that while combining Catholic social teaching and community engagement in places across the country, around the world and right here in South Bend, Indiana.”

Renowned author Colson Whitehead will visit the University of Notre Dame on Oct. 3 (Tuesday) to deliver the at 5 p.m. in the Patricia George Decio Theatre of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.

The annual lecture was created in 2009 to highlight justice issues and themes related to human dignity and the common good. , the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost of the University, will introduce Whitehead.

The event is free and open to the public. Tickets will be available starting one hour beforehand at the box office of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.

“Whitehead is a perfect choice for the Bernie Clark Lecture,” said , the Leo and Arlene Hawk Executive Director of the��. “Whether he’s writing about the renaming of a New England town founded by Black settlers, a Black community in the Hamptons in the 1980s, or Harlem in the ’60s and ’70s, Whitehead’s novels show us communities where some of the deepest questions of dignity and justice are playing out in ways that are sometimes hilarious, sometimes horrifying and always revealing.”

Whitehead is the author of 11 books of fiction and nonfiction. His most recent works include “The Underground Railroad,” “The Nickel Boys,” “Harlem Shuffle” and “Crook Manifesto.”

“The Underground Railroad,” a novel published in summer 2016, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the National Book Award and the Carnegie Medal for Fiction and was No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.

Based on events at the Arthur G. Dozier 91��Ƶ for Boys in Florida, Whitehead’s novel “The Nickel Boys” was published in 2019 and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the Kirkus Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.

Whitehead’s reviews, essays and fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Harper’s and Granta. He has received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Dos Passos Prize and a fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.

In 2018, he was named New York State Author, and in 2020 the Library of Congress awarded him its Prize for American Fiction.

This year’s lecture is co-sponsored by the Catholic Social Tradition Minor; Department of Africana 91��Ƶ; Department of American 91��Ƶ; Department of Anthropology; Department of English; Department of Film, Television and Theatre; Department of History; Initiative on Race and Resilience; and the Office of the Provost.

Learn more at .

A new college-in-prison initiative will bring five local, state and national programs together in one effort to be housed at the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns. Notre Dame Programs for Education in Prison (NDPEP) will offer opportunities for liberal arts education to people incarcerated in Indiana, create the infrastructure to support NDPEP participants as they re-enter their home communities and provide faculty and student opportunities for education and research on issues related to incarceration.

“NDPEP represents a wonderful way for Notre Dame to live out its Catholic mission and to be a healing and unifying force for good,” said Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., vice president and associate provost for interdisciplinary initiatives at Notre Dame. “It not only provides people who are incarcerated with opportunities to learn and to chart a new way forward for their lives, but it also allows our faculty and students to apply their skills and deepen their understanding of the challenges faced by our society’s corrections system.”

NDPEP will include the Indiana Prison Liberal Arts Network (IPLAN) and Inside-Out classes, as well as research and alumni support services for the Moreau College Initiative, administrative oversight of the Women’s College Partnership and fieldwork for Shakespeare at Notre Dame’s prison programs.

“The center is focused on engaging injustice wherever it occurs, and we’ve seen for decades that it’s occurring in the U.S. prison system, so housing the network at the center makes a lot of sense,” said Suzanne Shanahan, the Leo and Arlene Hawk Executive Director of the Center for Social Concerns. “We’re looking forward to the rich possibilities for research and education that will grow from the move.”

The Moreau College Initiative (MCI) and the Women’s College Partnership (WCP) are liberal arts degree programs that were launched in collaboration with the national Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) and are part of the BPI Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison, a network of 15 college-in-prison programs across the country. BPI was founded at Bard College in 1999 and now enrolls 300 Bard undergraduates in seven prisons in New York state.

MCI was founded in 2013 as a joint academic collaboration of the University of Notre Dame and Holy Cross College. Its mission is to ensure that incarcerated men in correctional facilities across Indiana have access to a world-class liberal arts education. Notre Dame and Holy Cross College faculty offer classes at Westville Correctional Facility; Holy Cross College confers the credits and degrees. To date, Holy Cross College has awarded 101 associate and 29 bachelor’s degrees. WCP launched in January 2019 in partnership with the Bard Prison Initiative, Marian University, and the Indiana Women’s Prison near Indianapolis. To date, WCP students have earned 10 associate and five bachelor’s degrees from Marian University.��

“We are excited about the potential for support that NDPEP can offer our alumni,” said Marco Clark, president of Holy Cross College. “Finding viable career options and affordable housing are just two critical needs that our returning citizens face. Identifying key constituents in regional areas across the state will afford the men of MCI and women of WCP every opportunity for success when they go home.”

In 2012, the Center for Social Concerns launched its Inside-Out class as part of the national Inside-Out program. The course offers a restorative justice approach as an alternative to the current criminal justice system. “Inside” students at Westville Correctional Facility and “outside” students from Notre Dame attend the class together at the prison.

The Shakespeare in Prisons Network was founded by Shakespeare at Notre Dame in 2013. The network’s mission is to serve as a global forum for the prison and community arts practitioner community, promote the production and study of the plays of William Shakespeare within prisons and alternative settings, and advocate on a local, national and international level on behalf of organizations engaged in arts programming for and by incarcerated and post-incarcerated populations. Locally, Shakespeare at Notre Dame’s work includes offering regular classes at the Westville Correctional Facility and at the DePaul Academy housed within the Thomas N. Frederick Center for Juvenile Justice in South Bend.

“Housing NDPEP at the Center for Social Concerns is a recognition of the impact of mass incarceration for society as a whole,” said Moreau steering committee member Anna Haskins, the Andrew V. Tackes Associate Professor of Sociology at Notre Dame. “It isn’t just an individual problem, but a broad social concern we should all care about. The center will provide a rich interdisciplinary community that unites disparate efforts across the University and state all aimed at addressing issues that stem from incarceration.”

IPLAN was created in July by the University of Notre Dame, Holy Cross College, Marian University, and BPI to expand existing liberal arts college-in-prison programs while catalyzing new, collaborative efforts of higher education institutions across the state and around the country. It is designed to serve as a statewide training and advocacy center, as well as a national resource on higher education in prison for organizations and educational institutions.

In mid-November, the University will formally announce NDPEP’s formation, scope and resources, highlighting the integration with the Center for Social Concerns in an event with national, state and local partners.

This year’s conference will feature a series of six Zoom webinar panels that will be free and open to the public. It will also include presentation of the Rev. Don McNeill, C.S.C., and Sr. Judith Anne Beattie, C.S.C., Award for Social Concerns, a juried exhibit of student art, and a Holy Saturday virtual retreat focused on questions related to the environment and poverty.

“For the last 50 years, the Church’s social justice teaching has been guided by Justice in the World, especially the idea that ‘action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world’ are constitutive of the Gospel,” said , acting executive director of the center and conference organizer. “As always, the conference will aim to help us both understand and practice Catholic social tradition.”

Each panel will feature three to five short presentations followed by a moderated question-and-answer period. Panel topics include Racial Justice: Engaging the Structure of Oppression; Creating a Global Vision of Justice; Hearing the Gospel and Spreading Good News; Justice in the World of Work: Global, National, Local Perspectives; Starting Justice at Home; and Justice for the Earth.

For the full conference schedule, panelist information and Zoom link and password, go to .

The conference is co-sponsored by the .

Contact: Bill Purcell, Center for Social Concerns, 574-631-9473, wpurcell@nd.edu

The option for the poor and vulnerable has long been central to Catholic social tradition, holding that societies ought to be measured by the standard of how their most vulnerable members are faring and that all members of society have a special obligation to the poor and vulnerable.

“,��wrote in 1979 that ‘we teach human dignity best by serving it where it is most likely to be disregarded, in the poor and abandoned,’” said Rev. Kevin Sandberg, C.S.C., Leo and Arlene Hawk Director of the Center for Social Concerns. “The Center’s pedagogy depends on that kind of insight, and this year’s conference promises to extend and develop it in new and fruitful directions.”

Past Catholic social tradition conferences have focused on important writings within the documentary tradition:��Populorum Progressio��in 2017,��Gaudium et Spes��in 2015,��Pacem in Terris��in 2013, and��Rerum Novarum��in 2011. By focusing on the option for the poor, this year’s conference will explore a principle central to many of the major writings in the documentary tradition, as well as the Gospel.

“This series of biennial conferences first began in 2011 as a way to assemble scholars and practitioners who wanted to address social issues through the social teachings of the Church,” said Bill Purcell, senior associate director of Catholic social tradition and practice at the Center for Social Concerns and conference organizer. “The first one drew 30 presenters and 125 participants; this year we have 68 presenters and more than 350 participants.”

The conference will feature keynote addresses by Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, S.D.B, Archdiocese of Sangon, Myanmar; , John Cardinal O’Hara Professor of Theology emeritus, University of Notre Dame; Lisa Sowle Cahill, Ph.D., J. Donald Monan Professor of Theology, Boston College; Charles Clarke, Ph.D., professor of economics, St. John’s University; and Daniel Graff, Ph.D., director of the Higgins Labor Program of the Center for Social Concerns, and professor of the practice, Department of History, University of Notre Dame.

The conference is cosponsored by the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion; Catholic Social Tradition Minor; Center for the Study of Religion and Society; Center for Theology, Science and Human Flourishing; Cushwa Center for American Catholicism; Department of Theology; Higgins Labor Program; Institute for Latino 91��Ƶ; Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs; Klau Center for Civil and Human Rights; Kroc Institute for International Peace 91��Ƶ; Poverty 91��Ƶ Interdisciplinary Minor; The Law 91��Ƶ’s Program on Church, State, & Society;��Center for Spirituality at Saint Mary’s College; Catholic Charities USA; Catholic Mobilizing Network; National Center for the Laity.

Contact: JP Shortall, director of communications and advancement, (574) 631-3209,��jshortal@nd.edu

Originally published by JP Shortall at on March 18, 2019.

The idea for the network originated with , professor of social ethics at the and adviser in Catholic social tradition at the Center for Social Concerns, and , senior associate director of Catholic social tradition at the Center for Social Concerns. As Sedmak said, “We want to ask what it means to translate the principles of CST into practices and judgments in real-world situations, and how realities on the ground challenge the fundamental principles of CST.”

The Jerusalem conference is being organized in association with the Jerusalem Global Gateway at Tantur and will take place there and at Bethlehem University. Participants will hear and share multiple local perspectives on environmental problems in the Holy Land while exploring approaches found in Catholic social tradition.

“With��Laudato Si’, Pope Francis called attention to the environment, which he described as a common good,” said , Leo and Arlene Hawk Executive Director of the Center for Social Concerns. “So the more we see the environment as a shared inheritance, the more we do justice to the pursuit of peace that stirs restlessly in the hearts of Muslims, Jews��and Christians.”

During the first day of the conference, Jewish and Christian leaders and thinkers will look at ecological issues from different perspectives and disciplinary backgrounds. The second day will take place at the University of Bethlehem and sites around Palestine, with a focus on the perspectives of Muslim leaders and scientists. On the final day of the conference, participants will return to Tantur and discuss pedagogical approaches to environmental issues in the Holy Land, with an emphasis on the pedagogical role of experience, story��and spirituality.

Before coming to Notre Dame, Sedmak was the FD Maurice Professor for Moral Theology and Social Theology at King’s College London. He has held multiple positions at the University of Salzburg, serving as director of the Center for Ethics and Poverty Research and chair for epistemology and philosophy of religion. Sedmak also was president of the Institute for Advanced 91��Ƶ in Social Ethics in Salzburg. He has recently written "A Church of the Poor: Pope Francis and the Transformation of Orthodoxy"��(Orbis Books, 2016) and "The Capacity to be Displaced: Resilience, Mission, and Inner Strength"��(Brill, 2017).

Purcell oversees the integration of Catholic social thought into the center’s courses and programming. He also co-directs the interdisciplinary Minor in Catholic Social Tradition for the University and acts as a liaison for the center with national Catholic institutions that focus on justice education.

Contact: JP Shortall, director of communications and advancement, 574-631-3209,��jshortal@nd.edu

Originally published by JP Shortall at on Nov. 14.

In his new role, Brandenberger will help facilitate and promote engagement between Notre Dame faculty and community partners involved in community, social, cultural, human and economic development. He was appointed by the Community Engagement Coordinating Council (CECC), a body established in 2011 to deepen the culture of engagement between Notre Dame and its many community partners. He has been a member of the CECC since it was established.

“After 27 years of community-based research and teaching at the Center for Social Concerns,��Jay is well positioned to lead the University’s efforts to assess and enhance the degree to which community engagement at Notre Dame helps fulfill the University’s academic vision,” said , Leo and Arlene Hawk Executive Director of the Center for Social Concerns. “His concurrent leadership of Notre Dame’s effort to renew its Carnegie Community Engagement Classification provides a perfect platform toward this end.”

The CECC works with each college and school, the Center for Social Concerns, the Office of Public Affairs, and other University units to coordinate, support, and communicate community engagement efforts, including engaged scholarship, relevant economic development efforts, and outreach activities.

“I appreciate the opportunity to build on the good work of the CECC and many thoughtful colleagues,” said Brandenberger. “This year, we’ll have the opportunity to enhance our work through comprehensive efforts to complete the University’s application to the Carnegie Foundation for classification as a community engaged institution.”

In his current role at the center, Brandenberger directs research initiatives and graduate student programs while working with colleagues to examine the developmental outcomes and best practices associated with center courses and programs. He is the editor of the center’s Research Report Series and facilitates ongoing longitudinal research focusing on the moral and ethical outcomes of community engagement. He is a concurrent associate professor in the Department of Psychology, a fellow of the Institute for Educational Initiatives, and a past recipient of the Notre Dame Frank O’Malley Undergraduate Teaching Award.

Contact: JP Shortall, Center for Social Concerns, 574-631-3209,��james.p.shortall.1@nd.edu

Originally published by JP Shortall at on August 28, 2018.

“Father Sandberg’s innovative teaching and ambitious vision for the role of Catholic social teaching at Notre Dame and beyond make him well-suited for leadership of the center,” said Christine M. Maziar, vice president and senior associate provost for budget and planning. “And we want to thank Father Kollman for five years of faith-filled leadership that helped the center expand its many important contributions to the University’s mission.”

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“I am very grateful for the confidence that Father Paul and the Office of the Provost have in my ability to continue to lead the Center for Social Concerns,” said Father Sandberg. “Our vision is to be the pre-eminent academic institute in the academy that provides a place to gather, form��and nourish people in the study and practice of engaged Catholic social teaching. Together we learn more fully what it means to understand the Gospel mandate that the love of God enjoins us to the love of neighbor.”

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Since joining the center in 2014, Father Sandberg has directed the Common Good Initiative, a Catholic social teaching immersion course for graduate students with sites in Haiti, Cuba, Uganda, Jerusalem��and Detroit. In a previous stint at the center, he taught immersion seminars in Hispanic ministry and education. He regularly teaches a development of theology course for undergraduate students who have participated in service learning.

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He is a Fellow of the Institute for Educational Initiatives, a member of the board of Ave Maria Press��and a past board member of the Religious Education Association.

Father Sandberg received his B.A. in economics and an M.Div. from the University of Notre Dame, an M.A. in theology from the Graduate Theological Union/Jesuit 91��Ƶ of Theology��and his doctorate in religion and education from Fordham University. His research interests include theological reflection, the principle of the common good in Catholic social teaching��and the neglect of listening and its restoration through religious education.

Prior to pastoral ministry as a member of the Congregation of Holy Cross, Father Sandberg was a trust officer with the Northern Trust Bank and a financial economist with the U.S. Treasury Department. He was the founding director of Young Adult Community at St. Clement Church in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.

Contact: JP Shortall, director of communications and advancement, 575-631-3209, jshortal@nd.edu

Originally published by JP Shortall at on April 2.

The University of Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns will host “Five Years of Francis’ Papacy: Prospects for Peace, the Poor��and the Planet,” a lecture and panel discussion at 4 p.m. April 3 (Tuesday) in the McKenna Hall Auditorium. The event will mark the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis’ papacy by exploring its major geopolitical, ecumenical��and cultural themes. ��

Cardinal Jorge Mario��Bergoglio��was elected pope on March 13, 2013, taking Francis as his papal name to signal a ministry that would share St. Francis of Assisi’s concern for the poor, the environment��and peace. Since then his papacy has been especially distinguished by its pastoral outreach, reorganization of the Vatican��and the central position it has accorded creation in Catholic social teaching.

The fifth anniversary of Francis’ papacy has prompted Catholic universities around the country��to hold events exploring its historical meaning and importance to the Church and the modern world.

“‘Five Years of Francis’ Papacy’ aims to join fifth anniversary conversations happening in other Catholic universities,” says Rev. Kevin Sandberg, C.S.C., acting executive director of the Center for Social Concerns. “But we want to focus more on the still unfolding promise of Francis’ papacy and our participation in it, instead of presuming a legacy. Any legacy of this papacy will be determined by our ability to address the tension between the center and the periphery of both Church and society.”

Bishop Robert McElroy of the Diocese of San Diego will give the opening lecture, "Seeing��Through��a��New��Lens: Pope��Francis’ Quest��on��Behalf��of��Peace, Justice��and��Our��Common��Home, then join a panel featuring Anne Thompson, NBC News correspondent; Julie Hanlon Rubio, professor of Christian ethics, Saint Louis University; and��Anantanand��Rambachan, professor of religion, philosophy��and Asian studies, St. Olaf College. Father Sandberg will serve as moderator.

The event is co-sponsored by the��Cushwa��Center for the Study of American Catholicism, Institute for Latino 91��Ƶ��and��Keough��91��Ƶ of Global Affairs.

Contact: JP��Shortall, director of communications and advancement, Center for Social Concerns, 575-631-3209,��jshortal@nd.edu

Originally published by JP Shortall at on March 26.

., wrote in support of Juneja’s nomination that he “draws upon his deep understanding of others, personal experiences, and classroom learning to create opportunities for his fellow students to practice civil discourse, advance voter education, and increase electoral turnout among students and local residents.”

During his time at Notre Dame, Juneja has been engaged in civic and political activity both on campus and in the city of South Bend. As current student government chief of staff, he works with students, faculty��and administrators on issues of innovation, diversity and inclusion, sexual assault��and community relations. He has also interned on political campaigns in the city and recently served as an intern in the mayor’s Office of Innovation.

“As the son of Indian immigrants, my parents always taught me that we, too, were American,” Juneja said. “This constant reminder of my unique story as a part of our greater national story drove me to grow passionate about civic engagement and politics.”

Since his freshman year, Juneja has participated in��, a nonpartisan campaign of the��,����and the����to promote voter education, registration��and mobilization.

In 2016, Juneja was Notre Dame’s delegate to #CollegeDebate16 at Dominican University of California, a national, nonpartisan initiative to empower young voters to identify issues and engage peers in the presidential election. In 2017, he presented a paper on his delegate experience at the annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Contact: Rosie McDowell, Center for Social Concerns, 574-631-0468,��mcdowell.9@nd.edu

Originally published by J.P.��Shortall at on March 9.

The idea for the network originated with��, professor of social ethics at the����and adviser in Catholic social tradition at the Center for Social Concerns, and��, associate director of��Catholic social tradition at the Center for Social Concerns.��The London conference is being organized in association with , director of Catholic initiatives and outreach of the London Global Gateway.��

This conference will build on the one in Rome by focusing on the relationship between the fundamental principles of Catholic social tradition and the complex realities of particular situations. As��Sedmak��said, “We want to ask what it means to translate the principles of CST into practices and judgments in real-world situations, and how realities on the ground challenge the fundamental principles of CST.”

The London conference is the second in what will be a series of conferences intended to engage the expertise of an international network of academics, religious��and nonprofit professionals. Those in attendance will focus on fundamental and practical questions about the difference Catholic social tradition can make in concrete social situations, especially at the peripheries of society. The aim of the network is to respond to Pope Francis’ reminder in��Evangelii��Gaudium��(Joy of the Gospel), “to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the ‘peripheries’ in need of the light of the Gospel.”

, acting executive director of the Center for Social Concerns, said that networks and conferences like this one are important for the center, for Notre Dame, for the Church��and for the world. “When there’s a rare disease that no one medical field of specialization alone understands, it’s important to gather specialists from various fields to approach it. The CST network conferences gather people with various gifts and perspectives to approach challenging social problems that none of us alone understands completely or can remedy.”

The medical metaphor is apt. Pope Francis often refers to the Church as a “field hospital” that “welcomes all those wounded by life.” Purcell and��Sedmak��are using the metaphor to guide the work of the London conference, which will focus on the social wounds of our time.

Before coming to Notre Dame,��Sedmak��was the FD Maurice Professor for Moral Theology and Social Theology at King’s College London. He has held multiple positions at the University of Salzburg, serving as director of the Center for Ethics and Poverty Research and chair for epistemology and philosophy of religion.��Sedmak��also was president of the Institute for Advanced 91��Ƶ in Social Ethics in Salzburg. He has recently written "A Church of the Poor: Pope Francis and the Transformation of Orthodoxy"��(Orbis��Books, 2016) and "The Capacity to be Displaced: Resilience, Mission, and Inner Strength"��(Brill, 2017).

Purcell oversees the integration of Catholic social thought into the center's courses and programming. He also co-directs the interdisciplinary Minor in Catholic Social Tradition for the University and acts as a liaison for the center with national Catholic institutions that focus on justice education.

Originally published by JP��Shortall��at on March 6.

The event gathered community partners, faculty, and graduate students to explore and deepen their knowledge of community-engaged teaching and research.

Read more:“https://socialconcerns.nd.edu/news/institute-introduces-participants-theory-and-practice-academic-community-engagement”https://socialconcerns.nd.edu/news/institute-introduces-participants-theory-and-practice-academic-community-engagement.

Professor Kasturi Haldar received the community-based research award.

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The award is given to students who have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to community engagement.

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Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila among keynotes at social concerns gathering.

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The University of Notre Dame’s will hold its biennial on March 23-25 at McKenna Hall. This year’s conference, “The Soul of Development: 50th Anniversary of Populorum Progressio,” will bring together more than 80 international scholars and practitioners of Catholic social tradition to discuss the central themes of Pope Paul VI’s 1967 encyclical, Populorum Progressio (On the Development of Peoples).

The encyclical was important in the late 1960s for calling attention to the increasing marginalization of the poor in the developing world. Since then, it has provided the basis for the Catholic Church’s integral approach to human development. Pope Paul VI wrote in the encyclical that “development cannot be limited to mere economic growth. In order to be authentic, it must be complete: integral, that is, it has to promote the good of every person and of all humanity.”

“The center has hosted the Catholic social tradition conference every other year since 2011, and it continues to grow both in size and importance,” said , Leo and Arlene Hawk Director of the Center for Social Concerns. “Populorum Progressio is a seminal document; we’re looking forward to the productive conversation it will generate.”

The conference will open Thursday evening with an original musical performance by a Notre Dame student ensemble. During the course of the three days, there will be five keynote addresses, more than 50 colloquium presentations and five workshops discussing the influence of the encyclical — and addressing themes such as economic justice, international development, solidarity with the poor, peace-building and globalization.

“This biennial conference remains one of the few events that gathers the best minds and practitioners of the Catholic social tradition so that the University of Notre Dame can be a place of engaged thinking with the Church,” said , associate director of Catholic social tradition and practice at the Center for Social Concerns and organizer of the conference.

Keynote speakers will include Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Archdiocese of Manila, Philippines; Sean Callahan, president and CEO, Catholic Relief Services; Sister Ana Maria Pineda, associate professor of religious studies, Santa Clara University; Stephen J. Pope, professor of theology, Boston College; and Stefano Zamagni, professor of economics, University of Bologna.

Contact: Bill Purcell, Center for Social Concerns, 574-631-9473, wpurcell@nd.edu

The new book is written by visiting professor Clemens Sedmak.

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has received the 2016 for working together with Kosciusko County farmers and local conservation staff to reduce nutrient runoff in the Shatto Ditch watershed. The award is a $5,000 prize presented annually to a regular faculty member at the University of Notre Dame who has completed at least one research project that addresses a need within South Bend or the surrounding area.

For decades, farmers have added fertilizers to their soils to help maximize crop yields and profits. But nutrients that crops do not incorporate eventually run off into surrounding streams and rivers where they can cause serious problems. Excess nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus can change the character of water, even altering its biology so that it harms freshwater ecology and ultimately becomes undrinkable.

When Jennifer Tank, Galla Professor of Biological Sciences, began to research the problems of nutrient runoff in nearby Kosciusko County, she focused on the streams and rivers it affected. She soon realized that the problems extended beyond streams and rivers, and that they would require her to expand the scope of her research well beyond their banks. As Tank put it, “I needed to get out of the streams and rivers and talk with farmers, but farmers didn’t necessarily want to hear from a biologist about what nutrient runoff was doing to freshwater.”

Tank understood the farmers’ skepticism and empathized with them. “Agriculture feeds the world and farmers need to make a living in a competitive business,” she said. “I couldn’t go to them with solutions that asked them to sacrifice crop yields and profits.” She realized that if the insights she was garnering in her research were to prove practically useful, she would need to gain the trust of Kosciusko County farmers and come up with solutions that were good for both crops and water. She would need to do both science and politics, biology and relationship building.

In Indiana’s neighboring states, soil and conservation efforts have worked through state legislation to regulate farming in ways that have put new constraints on agriculture and created tension between farmers, conservationists and legislators. Tank was searching for social and scientific solutions that would lead to positive results for all parties, but she had to work overcome the obstacles of miscommunication and natural skepticism.

After many careful conversations with conservationists and farmers, Tank began to see herself less as a scientist offering solutions and more as a partner working on a common set of problems. The farmers she became acquainted with were sincere stewards of their land and did not intend to harm water, but they did not want to be told what to do and have their own wisdom and experience with land use disregarded. They wanted to be involved in developing a good solution that satisfied everyone.

In fact, the wisdom and experience of Kosciusko County farmers made them excellent scientific partners. “Farmers are naturally experimentalists,” said Tank. “Many of them have spent years analyzing data and results and trying to come up with better ways to do things.”

One of the methods that farmers have long used to protect land in the offseason — when fields would normally be bare — proved valuable to Tank’s work. During the winter and spring, farmers often plant what are called cover crops, which are planted in late fall to slow erosion and improve soil health over the winter and spring before the next year’s cash crop planting occurs.

Although Kosciusko County farmers were using cover crops more than on average for Indiana, this planting still amounted to a very low percentage of the land in the surrounding Shatto Ditch watershed. Tank and her collaborators believed that if they increased that percentage, they might keep more nutrients in the soil, instead of having them run off into streams and rivers where they harm freshwaters and do not benefit crops.

In Indiana, cover crops are currently used on average on less than 15 percent of land that can be used for crops, and that is considered high compared to the national average. Kosciusko County farmers in the Shatto Ditch watershed are now growing winter cover crops on about 70 percent of their acreage, a rate that has already significantly reduced the amount of nutrient runoff to local waterways while increasing fertilizer nutrients in soils, which farmers hope will lead to higher crop yields.

The Ganey Award is funded by local entrepreneur and philanthropist Rodney F. Ganey, Ph.D., and awarded by the University of Notre Dame’s . The center facilitates community-based learning, research and service for Notre Dame undergraduates, graduate students and faculty. Since 1983, more than 15,000 students and hundreds of faculty have been engaged in its courses, research and programs.

Contact: JP Shortall, Center for Social Concerns, 574-631-3209, james.p.shortall.1@nd.edu

Lawrence Mishel will deliver the Higgins Labor Program’s Chuck Craypo Memorial Lecture.

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Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez of Honduras will visit the University of Notre Dame on Thursday (Nov. 5) for a conversation on Laudato Sí’ and the Synod on the Family. The event, sponsored by the , will take place at 4:30 p.m. in the Annenberg Auditorium of the Snite Museum of Art and is open to the public.

Rodriguez was appointed archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in 1993 and was elevated to cardinal — the first from Honduras — in 2001. He served as president of the Latin American Episcopal Conference from 1995 to 1999 and president of Caritas Internationalis, a global federation of Catholic charitable groups, from 2007 until May of this year. In April 2013, Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Rodriguez to the unprecedented nine-member Council of Cardinals, formed in order to advise the pope on a broad range of issues.

In the months leading up to the publication of Laudato Sí’, the cardinal spoke often about the likely themes of the encyclical. Since then he has continued to present the insights of the encyclical in various international settings. During the event at the Snite Museum, the cardinal will be talking with members of the University community on both Laudato Sí’ and the Synod on the Family, which was formed in 2014 to address the vocation and mission of the family in the Church and the modern world.

Before the recent papal visit to the U.S., the cardinal was asked to give a preview of what the pope would say on his trip. He emphasized then that Pope Francis would speak clearly, encourage dialogue and discourage ideological confrontation. “One of the conditions for a true dialogue,” Cardinal Rodriguez said, “is to have peace in your soul, peace in your personality, to be persons of peace. But when you are in the trenches, trying to defend ideologies, you’re not capable of a true dialogue.”

“We are very much looking forward to meeting and talking with Cardinal Rodriguez,” said , Leo and Arlene Hawk Executive Director of the Center for Social Concerns. “At the Center, we seek to foster the kind of dialogue Cardinal Rodriguez and the Holy Father have called for, believing that substantial conversation is crucial for the life of the University and the education in faith that we seek here.”

Contact: JP Shortall, Center for Social Concerns, 574-631-3209, james.p.shortall.1@nd.edu