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

Faculty lead Catholic social tradition workshops in local parishes

The institute is organizing faculty-led workshops at local parishes to apply Catholic social teaching to the needs of the community. These energizing sessions share principles and inspire participants to encounter and engage their neighbors with renewed intention.

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Faculty workshop reimagines purpose in business education

The institute welcomed business professors from across North America interested in learning about Management as a Calling. This signature program is designed to lead business students through a process of discernment of a personal mission and develops the courage to pursue that mission.

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Ayana Mathis speaks in Andrews Auditorium at Geddes Hall

Ayana Mathis delivers hope in unsettling times

Acclaimed novelist Ayana Mathis presented the institute’s annual Junior Parents Weekend Lecture on campus, sharing her own crisis of faith and connecting with parents as she affectingly articulated the aspirations a parent has for a child.

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