Center for Social Concerns

2004-2006 Faculty Fellows

Greg Downey, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, will be continuing working with Rachel Tomas-Morgan to provide students returning from the International Summer Service Learning Program and from other internships and study abroad programs in the developing world with a re-entry course. This course, "Cultural Difference and Social Change," allows students to follow up their international experiences with focused research, reflection, and public presentations to future generations of participants in these programs.  Downey's primary research interests are in Brazil and the United States, where he studies such subjects as social movements, human rights, interpersonal violence, physical education, and development.

Rev. Robert S. Pelton, CSC is the Director of Latin American/North American Church Concerns at the Kellogg Institute and Concurrent Professor of Theology.  His work with the Center will focus on deepening the research opportunities for students and faculty in and on issues pertaining to Cuba.  He is the architect behind Notre Dames's annual Archbishop Oscar Romero lecture series that celebrates the memory and the message of this assassinated champion for the marginalized.  Father Pelton also leads student-faculty trips to Cuba that afford a rare glimpse of the relationship between Castro's regime and the Catholic Church.  Father Pelton's publications include his book From Power to Communion, which centers on the challenges of social justice and spiritual leadership in Latin America.

Rabbi Michael A. Signer is Abrams Professor of Jewish Thought and Culture in the Department of Theology and Director of the Notre Dame Holocaust Project.  As Faculty Fellow, Rabbi Signer will develop with the Center new activities to advance inter-religious dialogue, including educational opportunities for students to focus on the Jewish roots of social justice and to engage in civic participation involving the sharing of diverse religious experiences and heritages.  Rabbi Signer is the author and editor of five books on topics that range from Medieval Latin biblical commentaries to contemporary Jewish-Christian relations.  Betty Signer, Project Coordinator of the Notre Dame Holocaust Project, will also be working iwth the Center on these projects.

2005-2007 Faculty Fellows

Agustin Fuentes is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Flatley Director of the Office of Undergraduate and Post-Baccalaureate Fellowships.  As Fellow, Fuentes will be assisting the Center in linking undergraduates with community-based research opportunities, and in providing information about community research to the campus and area community through speakers and other means. Fuentes has written extensively in the areas of human evolution and behavior, primate behavior, conservation , and the importance of collaborative research and undergraduate teaching.

Darcia Narvaez is Associate Professor of Psychology. She directs the Center for Ethical Education. She works on lifespan moral character formation. As a Center Fellow, she will be working with Jay Brandenberger to conduct an ethics audit of the campus. Professor Narvaez is a member, with Center Executive Director Fr. Bill Lies, CSC, of the Faculty Learning Community on integrating Catholic Social Teaching into university instruction. She will be assisting the Center to review its courses and programs for how ethical skill development can be incorporated. Professor Narvaez has published more than 40 articles, books and chapters.

Michael C.F. Wiescher is the Freimann Professor of Physics and the Director of the Joint Institute of Nuclear Astrophysics (JINA) at the University of Notre Dame and Adjunct Professor of Physics at Michigan State University. As Faculty Fellow he will expand his one-credit interdisciplinary course "Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Warfare" into a three-credit class with research opportunities for undergraduate students that utilize the  community links of the Center for Social Concerns. He will also create, with the assistance of Suzanne Coshow, Director of Educational Outreach for JINA, a special outreach program through which physics undergraduates and graduate students develop computer games and movies for presentations at local schools on topics of general interest in nuclear physics and astrophysics.  Wiescher also will plan a public lecture series on Nuclear Weapons and Aspects of Non-Proliferation to provide opportunities for a broad audience to learn about the legal, political, historical, and physics aspects.

Renewed for two more years, 2005-2007 Faculty Fellow

Don Pope-Davis, Professor of Counseling Psychology and Assistant Vice President and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, is working with the Center for Social Concerns to enhance the role of graduate students in its work. Through his facilitation, graduate students are now eligible for small grants to develop community-based learning courses. Pope-Davis also is helping the Center expand its efforts in multicultural contexts. For example, post-docs in multicultural studies under his direction work with Center staff on research projects and other activities related to their areas of expertise. Pope-Davis’s primary research interests are in multicultural psychology, counseling, and education. He is a research fellow of the American Psychological Association.