At a time when some are questioning the role of higher education in society, the Institute for Social Concerns is bringing creative and collaborative problem solving to address the world’s most pressing issues—from access to health care to human trafficking. ND Justice Labs are opportunities for collaborations among teams of faculty, community partners, and both undergraduate and graduate students to research questions from and for communities throughout the United States. By bringing together experts in the field with community members and students, these year-round, multidisciplinary, community-based research programs provide cutting-edge solutions to issues such as housing, just wages, and mass incarceration.

Housing and the Common Good Research Lab

This lab first establishes an account of the historical roots of the affordable housing crisis in the United States, paying particular attention to the local Michiana context. It also introduces students to the housing “continuum of care” in the City of South Bend, noting the various institutional and governmental agencies currently involved in addressing housing needs as well as the gaps in coverage, e.g. the need for a permanent low-barrier intake center. The second part of the course involves community engagement as students help to plan and organize a day-long conference on the local housing continuum of care. Students have the opportunity to follow up on the fruits of that conference, networking with area housing agencies and local government entities and researching best practices in other urban areas. During this segment of the course, students have the opportunity to engage with experts in the field, both virtually and in person, funded by research monies. This work will lead into their own constructive proposals for a concrete contribution to meeting the current affordable and supportive housing needs in South Bend and St. Joseph County more broadly.

Research spotlight: Economics major Elaine Carroll ’25 worked with faculty and community partners to research the viability of social impact bonds as a means of generating sustainable funding for low-income and permanent supportive housing. Using data analytics to undertake a study of a local low-barrier housing program, she not only wrote a successful honors thesis but also met a critical need in the community. One expert in the housing field urged her to publish her work so other researchers can build on it to benefit communities across the country.

Get involved: Contact Margie Pfeil at mpfeil1@nd.edu.

Just Wage Research Lab

This interdisciplinary research lab enlists students in the efforts of the Just Wage Initiative (JWI), a collaborative research and advocacy project of the Higgins Labor Program at the Institute for Social Concerns. Students help develop, refine, and update the Just Wage Framework, a multi-stakeholder online tool designed to advance a more inclusive and equitable economy. Students also undertake research projects connecting their own intellectual interests and disciplinary expertise to the JWI’s foundational question: What makes any given wage just or unjust? In addition, students collaborate with the instructor and local, national, and international practitioners to envision and execute collaborative research and advocacy campaigns to promote a just wage economy. Extended weekly class sessions feature visits by scholars and activists, as well as facilitate interactive group discussions and collaborative experiments.

Research spotlight: International human rights lawyer and practitioner in residence Monalisa ’18 LLM collaborated with Dan Graff, professor of the practice and director of the Higgins Labor Program, to research how companies in the hospitality sector can ensure they are not complicit in child sex trafficking.

Get involved: Contact Dan Graff at dgraff@nd.edu.

Mass Incarceration Research Lab

This research lab employs an interdisciplinary approach to research on a range of issues related to mass incarceration. Collaborating with faculty, scholars, activists, practitioners, those impacted by systems of incarceration, and other classmates, students develop, refine, and implement a research project which contributes to the overall body of scholarship on incarceration. Students are able to design projects (exploring moral, normative, and/or empirical, etc., dimensions of incarceration) which connect their own academic and intellectual interests to emerging research questions at the Institute for Social Concerns.

Research spotlight: The Mass Incarceration Research Lab collaborated with scholars at the University of Denver’s Social Movement Support Lab to conduct pretrial research that examines alternative emergency response and violence intervention programs in the twenty largest cities in the United States. Likewise, a research collaboration with scholars at Notre Dame and Boston College explored the most empirically successful form of rehabilitation within prisons, degree-granting prison education, and examined the effects of different forms of prison education programs in Indiana and Massachusetts on civic and social well-being post-release.

Get involved: Contact Sam Sokolsky-Tifft at ssokolsk@nd.edu.

Human Trafficking Interdisciplinary Research Lab

This lab is a research collaborative community of faculty, students and community members seeking evidence-based interventions to eradicate human trafficking. The lab will bring together legal, social scientific, technological, and theological perspectives to address various dimensions of the $150 billion annual trade in person (children and adults) for forced labor or sex. Questions animating the lab may include: If AI is helping exacerbate child sex trafficking are the ways to use it to stem child sex trafficking? How can Catholic Social Teaching give us new insight into how to address this exploitation? What role might policing and legal interventions play? How can we best address needs of survivors?

Get involved: Contact Suzanne Shanahan at sshanah2@nd.edu.

Grad Student Award:

Graduate students are eligible to apply for a $1,000 Justice Lab Grad Student Award! Students selected for this award will work on a project informed by both the lab’s field of inquiry and their own discipline, ideally one connected to their dissertation or primary research agenda. While doing so they will attend the lab weekly, sharing their expertise with students and contributing to the engaged research being undertaken with community partners. They will receive support from the faculty member affiliated with the lab, and by the end of the semester will produce a research deliverable that can be submitted for publication or presentation at conferences.

The application for Fall 2025 has closed, please check back in December for the Spring 2026 application.  For questions, please contact Emily Garvey, associate director, justice education, at garvey.32@nd.edu.