THE INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL CONCERNS

The Institute for Social Concerns is the University of Notre Dame’s scholarly home for interdisciplinary responses to questions of justice. Committed to the normative proposition that a just world is a beautiful world, we engage the most urgent signs of the times through justice education, research for the common good, and collaborations with community.

JUSTICE
EDUCATION

Our approach to justice education develops students’ moral imagination, practical wisdom, and courage to act through academically rigorous coursework, immersive experiences, and critical reflection grounded in Catholic social tradition.

RESEARCH FOR
THE COMMON GOOD

Our approach to research focuses on the world’s most pressing social concerns and develops innovative, interdisciplinary, scholarly approaches to understand and address them.

COLLABORATIONS
WITH COMMUNITY

Our approach to community incubates democratic collaborations between community members and Notre Dame faculty, staff, and students that catalyze evidence-based sustainable interventions to local challenges.

INSTITUTE STORIES

NEA grant supports institute’s printmaking collaboration with Catholic Worker

This spring, the institute received grant funding from the National Endowment for the Arts through a Chair’s Extraordinary Action Award for its project Cultivating Beauty through Printmaking in partnership with St. Peter Claver Catholic Worker in South Bend.

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Summer at Social Concerns: By the numbers

The institute is poised to send a record-breaking 332 students on immersive summer experiences across the country and around the globe. Students from over 50 majors will participate in one of the institute’s summer programs.

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Journalist Claudia Rowe delivers annual Poverty Studies Distinguished Lecture

In her lecture, investigative journalist and National Book Award finalist Claudia Rowe explored the “foster-to-prison pipeline.” For a packed audience of students, scholars, and foster care advocates, Rowe’s lecture bridged the gap between deep investigative research and public policy, demonstrating the power of public scholarship.

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