2004-2005 Faculty Fellows

The following are the current CSC Faculty Fellows. All but Dennis Jacobs will be continuing for one more year.

J. Matthew Ashley, Associate Professor of Theology, is the Center’s liaison to that department. Matt teaches with Jay Brandenberger of the Center's Faculty a theology course that takes students to El Salvador over spring break. Ashley's scholarly interests include political and liberation theology, Christian spirituality, and the dialogue between theology & science.

Faculty Fellow Dennis Jacobs, Professor of Chemistry, and Mary Beckman, initiated a coalition that includes Memorial Hospital, Greentree Environmental and the city of South Bend to assist the county’s Get the Lead Out Task Force in the identification and eradication of lead hazards affecting children locally. Results of the effort include a chemistry course in which students test local homes for harmful levels of lead contamination and a presentation by the coalition at the Campus Community Partnerships for Health national conference in San Diego. Dennis is Carnegie Foundation's U.S. Professor of the Year for research and doctoral universities.

Felicia LeClere, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Laboratory for Social Research, will be working with Mary Beckman, Associate Director for Academic Affairs and Research at the Center, to develop & conduct workshops to assist local community agencies in writing grants and doing program evaluation. Professor LeClere's research to date has largely focused on the effects of communities and neighborhoods on the health and well-being of adults and children.

Don Pope-Davis, Professor of Counseling Psychology, is developing a course with Jay Brandenberger in which graduate and undergraduate students will explore multicultural contexts locally & through an immersion in the southern U.S. Pope-Davis's primary research interests are in the areas of multicultural psychology, counseling, and education. Pope-Davis has recently been named Assistant Vice President and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies. He is a research fellow of the American Psych-ological Association.

Steve Silliman, Associate Dean for Educational Programs in the College of Engineering and Civil Engineering Professor is working with Rachel Tomas Morgan, Director of the Center’s International Summer Service Learning Program (ISSLP), to assess the possibility of deploying computers and educational software to remote village schools in Belize as part of an ISSLP opportunity. This ISSLP site would be offered as a collaboration between the Center and the College of Engineering with hopes to initiate an electronic learning exchange relationship with the Belize school and one or two schools in South Bend.

Described below are the Faculty Fellows who are beginning their two-year term with the Center for Social Concerns fall semester 2004.

Greg Downey, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, will be continuing his work 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 U.S., where he studies such subjects as social movements, education, interpersonal violence, physical education, and development. See related article in CSC News & Reflections.

Rev. Robert S. Pelton, CSC, is the Director of Latin American/North American Church Concerns (LANACC) 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 heart and soul behind Notre Dame’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 affords 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. The Holocaust Project designs interdisciplinary educational opportunities for Notre Dame students to engage in seminars, conferences, and film festivals where they can ponder the causes of the Shoah and consider pathways to reconciliation between Jews and Christians. As Faculty Fellow, Rabbi Signer will develop with the Center creative new activities to advance interreligious 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.