Category: News

Dressed in Marian University’s blue commencement regalia and speaking to her fellow graduates, Michelle Williams acknowledged that society often views people like them — those who have been incarcerated — through “a lens of failure.”

Foundry Field collaboration celebrates South Bend’s past and promising future June 20, 2023 There’s magic in the game of baseball. Not just in what happens on the field, but also in the game’s capacity to bring communities together, to stoke pride in a place’s history, and to inspire people into the future. Foundry Field — […]

New book series approaches justice questions through Catholic social tradition June 20, 2023 Catholic social teaching is often called the Church’s best kept secret, but a new series of books titled Enacting Catholic Social Tradition is trying to change that.  The series is being written by participants in SPIRE: The Global Catholic Social Tradition Network […]

2023 awards honor students committed to the common good June 19, 2023 The center’s annual Senior Send-off Ceremony celebrates the students who have demonstrated a commitment to justice and the common good throughout their time at Notre Dame. At the 2023 ceremony, the center recognized three students in particular with two different awards.  Sr. Thea […]

ReSEARCHING for Justice May 8, 2023 This year, the center launched a new fellowship for graduate students from across campus whose scholarship intersected with questions of justice. The diverse group of 14 came from the College of Arts and Letters, College of Engineering, Keogh School of Global Affairs, the Law School, and College of Science. The goal of the fellowship was […]

Undergrad research shows understanding trauma key to developing better solutions for those seeking asylum May 5, 2023 This May, 43 graduating seniors will complete capstone projects addressing topics connecting their field of study to questions of justice––food insecurity, mental illness, sustainability, and more. These students are a part of the center’s two minors: the Poverty Studies […]

What would an economy of celebration look like in the US today? May 5, 2023 Adam Gustine and José Humphreys had each been thinking about communities for a while. What makes them flourish? What prevents their flourishing? Both had written about the relationship between churches and the communities of which they’re a part when they […]

Visiting practitioner fellow engages faculty, staff, and students around global human rights advocacy April 12, 2023 Monalisa, an Indian human rights attorney and expert on global human trafficking joined the Center for Social Concerns and the Higgins Labor Program in March as a weeklong practitioner in residence. But this was a bit of a homecoming. […]

Rewired for a just society: 2023 conference keynote urges shift to nonviolence April 5, 2023 In the years following September 2001, Marie Dennis tried to demonstrate in her work with Pax Christi that violence and war were not an appropriate response to the 9/11 attacks. In the process of doing so, she began to realize […]

Called to the common good? March 19, 2023 Vocations without the virtues will lack substance. Virtues without vocations will seem arbitrary.—Stanley Hauerwas, 2023 The Center for Social Concerns is launching a new 3-year initiative to study and pilot best practices for cultivating a lifelong commitment to the common good among college-aged students. The project begins with […]