Notre Dame's Native American Initiatives

Native American Initiatives at the University of Notre Dame notes several events scheduled for Native American Heritage Month in November.

Grammy Award-winning recording artist, performer, songwriter, and activist Bill Miller will discuss the present and future impact of Native Americans on American politics on campus at 3 p.m. 2 November, followed by a concert at 8 p.m.

Navajo filmmaker Norman Patrick Brown will visit the Indiana University South Bend campus between noon and 9 p.m. 9 November.

Grammy and Native American Music award winning artist Joanne Shenandoah performs at 5 p.m. in the Legends of Notre Dame, South Bend. She is a Wolf Clan member of the Iroquois Confederacy.

For more information, go online.

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Ugandan Healthcare

Bill Flavin (center in photo), an undergraduate student in biochemistry at University of Notre Dame, South Bend, was given the opportunity to conduct research in Uganda this summer.

His three-week research project was funded and organized in partnership with the Ford Family Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity as part of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies.

After spending the past three summers researching in the Digestive Diseases Research Core Center at the University of Chicago Medical Center, Flavin decided to focus his research in Uganda on enteric and diarrheal diseases caused by impure water, as a consequence of extreme systematic poverty and grassroots economic growth and development. In addition to researching the healthcare system, Flavin also spent time working with local businesses and schools to address the issues.

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Notre Dame law prof to help draft peace declaration

Douglass Cassel (pictured), professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, is one of ten experts from around the world invited by UNESCO and the Spanish Association for International Human Rights Law to help draft a proposed universal declaration of the human right to peace, according to the South Bend-based university.

Cassel, who serves as the director of Notre Dame Law School’s Center for Civil and Human Rights, is a scholar and practitioner of international human rights, international criminal law, and international humanitarian law.

The drafting committee, which convenes at the end of this month in Barcelona, Spain, consists of two international experts from each of the five geographical regions represented at the United Nations: Latin America and the Caribbean; Africa; Asia; Western Europe and other western states (including the United States); and Eastern Europe. Ultimately, a draft of the peace declaration will be submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council, with a recommendation that it be adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations.

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Associate Provost for Internationalization

The University of Notre Dame has named J. Nicholas Entrikin to the newly established position of vice president and associate provost for internationalization, reports Inside INdiana Business. He will lead the institution's effort to broaden its international reputation through research, collaborative projects and strategic relationships. Entriken has been serving as vice provost of international studies at the University of California in Los Angeles.

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Notre Dame to host Brazilian Carnaval

Vibrant Brazilian dance rhythms will transport revelers from South Bend to the streets of Rio de Janeiro during the University of Notre Dame’s 12th annual celebration of Brazilian Carnaval. It will be held from 8 p.m. to midnight Friday (12 February) in Notre Dame’s South Dining Hall. The family-friendly event is free and open to the public.

The Brazilian celebration of Mardi Gras, Carnaval will feature professional Brazilian dancers performing and teaching dance steps to the authentic axe and samba music of Chicago Samba. Directed by Moacyr Marchini, Chicago Samba features Brazilian musicians who have performed together for almost 20 years.

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Our Thoughts are with the Haitians

One of the Indiana-based groups working with the people of Haiti is the University of Notre Dame Haiti Program.

The Notre Dame Haiti Program, led by Fr. Tom Streit, CSC, is a world leader in the fight against lymphatic filariasis. With a concentrated effort at eliminating the disease in Haiti, where more than 26% of the population is infected, Notre Dame and its partners, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Haitian Ministry of Health and Population, and Hopital Sainte Croix in Léogâne, Haiti, and additional partners are steadily moving toward the creation of a model for worldwide elimination.

The email is: haiti@nd.edu.

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Aragón to Receive National Latino Literary Award

Francisco Aragón (pictured), director of Letras Latinas, the literary program of the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, has been selected to receive the Outstanding Latino/a Cultural Arts, Literary Arts and Publications Award, reports the Notre Dame news bureau. The award is given by the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, and Aragón will receive it in March during the association’s national conference to be held in Costa Mesa, Calif.

The award recognizes Latinos who have contributed significantly to increasing understanding of the Hispanic community and/or culture through literary arts, scholarship and publications.

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Institute for Latino Studies Celebrates 10th Anniversary

The Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame celebrates its 10th anniversary this month with a series of special events on the South Bend campus.

An academic symposium will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. 16 September in McKenna Hall Auditorium. Latino academicians from around the country have been invited to discuss the state of Latino studies, "past, present and future". Registration information is available online. Among the presenters are Latino/Chicano studies scholars Silvio Torres Saillant, Syracuse, and Alicia Gaspar de Alba, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA); historians María Cristina García, Cornell University, and Mario García, UC Santa Barbara; theologians Davíd Carrasco, Harvard Divinity School, and Roberto Goizueta, Boston College; sociologists Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, Princeton University, and Ramona Hernandez, City University of New York, and anthropologists José Limón, University of Texas at Austin, and Arlene Dávila, New York University.

"Letras Latinas", a literary presentation, is scheduled at 9:30 a.m. 17 September in Rooms 210-214 of McKenna Hall. Titled "Sharing our Stories, Sharing our Poems", it features Orlando Ricardo Menes, poet, and Alicia Gaspar de Alba, poet, novelist and activist. The Re-Opening Ceremony for the Institute for Latino Studies' library begins at 3 p.m. 18 September in McKenna Hall Library.

Perla Batalla, a Latina vocalist, composer, and arranger from Los Angeles, performs at 8 p.m. 18 September in Leighton Concert Hall on the Notre Dame campus as part of the "Visiting Artist Series". Tickets are $32.

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World's Oldest Known Granaries

A new study coauthored by Ian Kuijt, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, describes recent excavations in Jordan that reveal evidence of the world’s oldest know granaries, reports the news bureau of the University of Notre Dame, South Bend. The appearance of the granaries represents a critical evolutionary shift in the relationship between people and plant foods.

In a paper appearing in the 23 June 2009 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, Kuijt and Bill Finlayson, director, Council for British Research in the Levant, describe recent excavations at Dhra near the Dead Sea in Jordan that provide evidence of granaries that precede the emergence of fully domesticated plants and large-scale sedentary communities by at least 1,000 years.

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IU and Notre Dame Executive Education Ranked by Financial Times

The Financial Times has ranked two Indiana business schools among the top 65 in its annual survey of international non-degree programs worldwide.

The Kelley School of Business at Indiana University (pictured) was ranked fourth among U.S. public institutions, 11th nationally and 26th overall in Executive Education.

The only other Indiana school on the list was the University of Notre Dame, which was ranked 56th overall.

The rankings are compiled from responses to two sets of questionnaires. The first is a client survey, compiled from telephone interviews of the top corporate executive education purchasers. The other is a survey of statistical data completed by the business schools. The data from the client questionnaire accounts for 80 percent of the school's final score.

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Scowcroft to Speak at Notre Dame

Lt. General Brent Scowcroft, former U.S. national security advisor to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, will present “The Foreign Policy Challenges Facing the Obama Administration” at 4 p.m. 27 April 27 in the auditorium of the Hesburgh Center at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Prior to the presentation, Gen. Scowcroft will sign copies of his latest book, America and the World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy, which he co-authored with Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter.

Scowcroft’s presentation is part of Notre Dame’s International Security Program seminar series, which was established last year to provide a forum where leading scholars in national security studies from Notre Dame and elsewhere could come together to explore some of the most pressing issues in national security policy. The program is co-directed by Notre Dame political science faculty members Michael Desch, Kier Lieber, Daniel Lindley and Sebastian Rosato.

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Australian Ambassador to Speak at Notre Dame

Dennis Richardson, Australian ambassador to the United States, will discuss U.S.-Australia relations and highlight the country’s green initiatives during a lecture at 4:30 p.m. on 22 April in Room 161 of the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend.

Appointed to his current position in 2005, Richardson formerly served in Australia’s Foreign Service, was the principal adviser to the prime minister, led the review of the Australian Intelligence Community, and served as deputy secretary of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and director general of security for the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.

The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by Notre Dame’s Office of International Studies and Pi Sigma Alpha, the University’s political science honor society.

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Indiana's Future Through Multiculturalism

A "world cafe" style workshop is planned from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. 22 April to consider "Indiana's Future through Multiculturalism".

On the agenda are discussions of strategies for successful integration into a new life in Indiana and strategies for creating and sustaining welcoming, thriving Hoosier communities for people from all over the globe.

The "Cultures at the Crossroads" workshop will take place in the Gene B. Glick Junior Achievement Education Center, 7453 North Keystone Avenue, Indianapolis.

The workshop is sponsored by the Indiana Humanities Council and the Indiana Multiethnic Committee along with the Sagamore Institute, Indiana Historical Society, Central Indiana Community Foundation and the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend.

Cost is $20; registration deadline is 10 April. For information, contact Catherine O'Connor, 800:675-8897 or 317:638-1500, ext. 116.

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In the Wake of the Beagle

"In the Wake of the Beagle: Darwin in Latin American 1831-1836" is an exhibition opening tomorrow (1 March) in the Scholz Family gallery for Works on Paper in the Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame at South Bend.

On display through 29 March, this exhibition presents a selection of photographs (including the one at right), lithographs, and books illustrating the Latin America sites visited by Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle. The exhibition is offered as part of a cross-disciplinary academic investigation of Darwin's seminal text, On the Origin of Species, to mark the 150th-anniversary its publication.

'One Laptop Per Child'

University of Notre Dame alumnus Charles Kane will return to campus next to week to talk about his transition from working as a for-profit executive to pro-bono president and chief operating officer of One Laptop Per Child Association Inc., reports Inside INdiana Business.

His presentation on Technology and the Globalization of Education at 5 p.m. 10 February in the Eck Visitors’ Center auditorium on the South Bend campus is open to the public at no charge.

The organization manufactures and distributes laptop computers to children in poor and developing regions around the world.

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"The Edge of Heaven" at Notre Dame

The Edge of Heaven, a 2008 film directed by Fatih Akin, screens at 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. both today (15 August) and tomorrow (16 August) in the Browning Cinema on the Campus of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend. Tickets are $6 ($5 for Notre dame faculty/staff, $4 seniors and $3 students).

The film, in Turkish, German, and English languages with English subtitles is not rated; it runs 122 minutes.

Awards: Winner – Best Screenplay Award, Cannes Film Festival 2007; Winner – Best Screenplay Award, European Film Awards 2007; Winner – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Editing 2008 German Film Awards (LOLA). You can see the trailer here.

Summary: Nejat initially disapproves of his widower father Ali`s choice of prostitute Yeter for a live-in girlfriend. But the young professor warms to her when he learns that most of her hard-earned money is sent home to Turkey for her daughter’s university studies. After Yeter`s accidental death, Nejat travels to Istanbul to search for Yeter`s daughter Ayten. Political activist Ayten has fled the Turkish police and is already in Germany. She is befriended by a young woman, Lotte, who invites rebellious Ayten to stay in her home, much to the displeasure of her conservative mother, Susanne. When Ayten is arrested and her asylum plea denied, she is deported and imprisoned in Turkey. Passionate Lotte abandons everything to help Ayten. A tragic event brings Susanne to Istanbul to help fulfill her daughter`s mission.

Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival

Macbeth and more comes to South Bend next month with the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival.

"Wicked Will: Shakespeare and the Supernatural" is the title of the presentation on 4 August. It's a collection of silly and scary vignettes that explore Shakespeare's interest in the supernatural -- and it's appropriate for children.

Macbeth, the shortest and "most ferocious" of Shakespeare's tragedies, plays 19-24 and 26-31 August.

For more information and to buy tickets, go to the website, send an email or call 574:631-BARD.

Center for Global Health and Infectious Diseases Gets Gift

The estate of a University of Notre Dame graduate has given the South Bend institution a $20 million dollar gift, according to Inside INdiana Business. The donation from the estate of Frank E. Eck will support the Center for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, which will be remained for the Eck family. Frank Eck, who died in December 2007, was a 1944 graduate and was chairman of Advanced Drainage Systems (ADS) of Columbus, Ohio.

Raúl's Cuba

Marifeli Pérez-Stable (right) will discuss ""Raúl's Cuba: Domestic and International Challenges" at 4:15 p.m. Thursday (3 April) in Room C103, Hesburgh Center, University of Notre Dame, South Bend.

Dr. Pérez-Stable is vice president for democratic governance at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, DC, and a professor of sociology at Miami’s Florida International University. She is also the director of “National Dialogues on Democracy in Latin America,” a project sponsored by the Inter-American Dialogue with the cooperation of the Organization of American States.

An abstract of her presentation:
"In February 2008, Raúl Castro assumed the presidencies of the Cuban councils of state and ministries, choosing hard-liner José Ramón Machado Ventura as first vice president of both councils. In his inaugural speech, Raúl announced a restructuring of the state administration, hinted at economic reforms, and said he would delay naming ministers until the end of 2008.....

"Raúl’s principal domestic challenges are to maintain political control and improve living standards. His international obstacles include improving relations with the US, and maintaining positive relations with Hugo Chávez, while lessening Cuban dependence on Venezuelan oil."

Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures

This fall, the University of Notre Dame in South Bend will open the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures (CSLC), according to Inside INdiana Business. The CSLC will serve as a hub of foreign language learning and internationalism. Located in four renovated classrooms at DeBartolo Hall, it will include a multi-purpose classroom, language center and a home theater. Also this fall, a 14th option will be added to Notre Dame’s language line-up − Korean.