Institute stories
Institute Stories
Read stories about our work for justice at the Institute for Social Concerns. To receive these stories in your inbox each month, subscribe to The Current, our newsletter featuring stories, events, opportunities, and other updates about the institute. You can also review past issues on The Current newsletter page.
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Michael Roth to receive 2026 Virtues & Vocations Book Award
Virtues & Vocations, a national forum for interdisciplinary scholars and practitioners housed at the Institute for Social Concerns, is pleased to announce that Michael Roth, president of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, will receive the 2026 Virtues & Vocations Book Award for his book The Student: A Short History, published by Yale University Press.
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Journalist Claudia Rowe delivers annual Poverty Studies Distinguished Lecture
Delivering the annual Poverty Studies Distinguished Lecture at the Institute for Social Concerns, Rowe presented a chilling map of the “long shadow” cast by the American foster care system. Drawing on 35 years of reporting at the intersection of youth and government policy—research central to her recent book Wards of the State—Rowe described a system…
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Summer at Social Concerns: By the numbers
The Institute for Social Concerns is launching a record-breaking cohort of summer programs. These programs remain remarkable in quality and scope.
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Institute for Social Concerns receives Bridge Builder Award
The Institute for Social Concerns at the University of Notre Dame was honored to receive the Bridge Builder Award at the 39th annual community celebration and benefit dinner for Dismas House of Indiana on May 2, 2026.
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NEA grant supports institute’s printmaking collaboration with Catholic Worker
As part of the NEA’s Celebrating America250 program, the Institute for Social Concerns launched the project “Cultivating Beauty through Printmaking.” The project puts the institute’s mission into practice, utilizing research and arts engagement to promote the dignity and wellbeing of populations often unseen or unheard.
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ReSearching for the Common Good: Emelia Hughes
The Institute for Social Concerns leverages research to respond to the complex demands of justice and to serve the common good. This series, ReSearching for the Common Good, highlights some of the scholars in our community.
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A renewed Plunge into Boston—Mendoza students encounter homelessness in a specially designed course
Named for the late Rev. Don McNeill, C.S.C.—the founding director of the Institute for Social Concerns—the program is designed as an interruption to a student’s undergraduate trajectory, making them briefly but acutely aware of the challenges faced by unhoused people.
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Dignity in the desert—Proximities seminar hones students’ moral imagination
While one cohort navigated the Sonoran Desert, other Proximities students pursued parallel examinations of structures of justice and injustice across the country: examining healthcare access in Minneapolis, analyzing environmental health and industrial policy in New Orleans, and exploring restorative justice and the use of arts to promote dignity in Philadelphia. Grounded in the conviction that…
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A living tradition for a technological age—Institute expands Enacting CST book series
Through the Enacting Catholic Social Tradition series, the tradition is being brought to bear on issues of technology design, environmental degradation, the contemporary housing crises, financial decision making, and community organizing. A joint publishing project between the Institute for Social Concerns and Liturgical Press, the series has tackled these issues with volumes that are accessible…
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ReSearching for the Common Good: Branden Moore
The Institute for Social Concerns leverages research to respond to the complex demands of justice and to serve the common good. This series, ReSearching for the Common Good, highlights some of the scholars in our community.