In The News


  • Faculty fellow captures better picture of role religious congregations play in Chicago communities

    Faculty fellow captures better picture of role religious congregations play in Chicago communities

    Faculty fellow captures better picture of role religious congregations play in Chicago communities May 26, 2022 Institute for Social Concerns Faculty Fellow and professor of Sociology Kraig Beyerlein taught community-engaged courses through the center from the moment he joined Notre Dame. He teaches the undergraduate US-Mexico Border course which was so popular he helped design…


  • Center faculty member co-edits new volume on intercessory prayer in Mennonite and Catholic traditions

    Center faculty member co-edits new volume on intercessory prayer in Mennonite and Catholic traditions

    Center faculty member co-edits new volume on intercessory prayer in Mennonite and Catholic traditions May 16, 2022 In 2003 Pope John Paul II canonized South Tyrolean missionary priest Father Joseph Freinademetz, S.V.D., (1852-1908) in part because prayers for his intercession on behalf of a terminally ill Japanese Mennonite student are believed to have cured the…


  • Institute for Social Concerns launches new pre-orientation program

    Institute for Social Concerns launches new pre-orientation program

    Institute for Social Concerns launches new pre-orientation program May 13, 2022 The Institute for Social Concerns is launching a new pre-orientation program that matches incoming first-year students with communities and community organizations working to address social challenges. Students will be able to participate in one of two versions of the program. RISE: Hometown takes place…


  • Center’s juried art exhibit demonstrates varied approaches to questions of dignity

    Center’s juried art exhibit demonstrates varied approaches to questions of dignity

    Center’s juried art exhibit demonstrates varied approaches to questions of dignity May 2, 2022 The Institute for Social Concerns’ Arts of Dignity Series culminated with an undergraduate art exhibit on the first floor of Geddes Hall the week of April 25. The exhibit featured 25 works in various media by students at the University of…


  • Humanizing the just wage conversation in labor mediation

    Humanizing the just wage conversation in labor mediation

    Humanizing the just wage conversation in labor mediation April 29, 2022 What makes any wage excessive? This question is at the heart of one of seven criteria that make up the Just Wage Framework, a tool created by the interdisciplinary Higgins Labor Program to determine the justness of any given wage scenario. The concept of excessive wage is…


  • Westville Correctional Facility podcast gives voice and new perspective to incarcerated men

    Westville Correctional Facility podcast gives voice and new perspective to incarcerated men

    Westville Correctional Facility podcast gives voice and new perspective to incarcerated men April 14, 2022 The Moreau College Initiative (MCI) is an academic collaboration between Holy Cross College and the University of Notre Dame that provides opportunities for the incarcerated at Westville Correctional Facility in northwestern Indiana to earn college credit towards an associate’s or…


  • Center hosts meeting of statewide advocacy leaders

    Center hosts meeting of statewide advocacy leaders

    Center hosts meeting of statewide advocacy leaders April 5, 2022 Leaders from advocacy organizations across the state of Indiana gathered on Friday, April 1, 2022 at the Geddes Hall coffee house to share their work and consider opportunities for collaboration on statewide advocacy efforts. The meeting was part of the Institute for Social Concerns Signs…


  • Realities of Race student creates campus conversation around race and justice

    Realities of Race student creates campus conversation around race and justice

    Realities of Race student creates campus conversation around race and justice April 4, 2022 Next month, Alejandro Claure will complete his undergraduate education at Notre Dame, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Science-Business. Claure has been an active participant in Institute for Social Concerns courses and programs, completing several Social Concerns Seminars, the Poverty Studies…


  • Four years of student leadership at Notre Dame

    Four years of student leadership at Notre Dame

    Four years of student leadership at Notre Dame April 4, 2022 When seniors Elaine Carter, accounting, and Maddie Whitney, business analytics, registered for the Institute for Social Concerns’ Advocacy for the Common Good seminar their freshman year, they had no idea the one-credit course would turn into a four-year campaign that would shape their entire…


  • Making science more accessible (and more fun) for children

    Making science more accessible (and more fun) for children

    Making science more accessible (and more fun) for children March 18, 2022 Professor Cara Ocobock saw an opportunity. It was August 2020 and her young niece had asked for an at-home science kit, but the materials Ocobock found too often seemed to treat science as if it were magic. “Science is cool enough,” she thought.…