NEWS ROUNDUP

“The last year has been one of tremendous growth for the Nanovic Institute’s student programs. As we continue to transition out of pandemic restrictions, the Institute has taken steps to expand and deepen our student programs, creating an academically enriching environment where students feel empowered to understand the many dimensions of European studies that shape our world.”

– Anna Dolezal

INTENTIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF CURRICULUM

Minors in European Studies, Class of 2022 (left to right): Kate Connolly, Marinella Stollenwerk Cavallaro, Max Chuma, Perry Abbe Mayr, Alexander Shyne, James Broderick, Celia Krohn, Joey Speicher, and Grace Ma. In fall 2021, the Nanovic Institute launched a redesign of its signature minor in European studies. New curricular requirements introduce students to a variety of concepts and themes within European studies, while grounding their knowledge in the foundational ideas that have shaped and will continue to shape Europe and its peoples. An essential component of this redesign is a compulsory foundational European studies course, taught by faculty fellows, on the most salient ideas and events that make Europe what it is. These changes were made with the goal of attracting and retaining a wide variety of students who would find an intellectual home at the Nanovic Institute. More than a year into the implementation of this new curriculum, the Institute now boasts the highest number of students enrolled in the minor in European studies in the program’s history.

Student Engagement with Nanovic Forum Visitors

Students in the Nanovic Institute are afforded special opportunities to meet with Nanovic Forum visitors. In fall 2021, a select group of students from the Notre Dame Ukrainian Society met with the human rights activist Myroslav Marynovych and discussed the Ukrainian diaspora in the United States and the importance of the freedom of religion. During the spring semester, undergraduate students shared breakfast with Lord Alton of Liverpool, unpacking everything from advocacy strategies and human rights to balancing family and career in politics. During the last Forum event of the academic year, graduate and undergraduate students had coffee with Anne Applebaum. Fresh from her interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, students were able to gain invaluable insight into the war in Ukraine and the future of security in Europe.

Total number of Nanovic Institute graduates as of 2022: 199

Since it was established, the Nanovic Institute has supported training in many European languages: • Albanian • Danish • French • German • Greek • Irish • Italian • Latin • Polish • Portugese • Russian • Spanish Total number of student grants for language training, service learning, and research in Europe as of 2022:

2,100+

Diplomacy Scholars and Brussels Initiatives

This year the Institute expanded a course formerly taught online, Deep Dive into Diplomacy, into a competitive academic and co-curricular program aimed at developing the skills necessary to be effective diplomats in the world today.

This program was offered in partnership with the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna and featured a campus visit from its Deputy Director, Dr. Susanne Keppler-Schlesinger. The course invited career and retired European diplomats and American foreign service officers to speak on skills such as negotiation, judgment and decision making, protocol, and writing. The class was supplemented with opportunities for students to practice these skills including a diplomatic dining experience where students learned about meal-time etiquette. The program culminated in a week-long diplomacy immersion in Vienna and Brussels in spring 2022 where students engaged with European practitioners of diplomacy in organizations including the Austrian foreign service, NATO, and Microsoft.

EuroCup

Arguably the most fun Nanovic event of the year, the Eurocup Trivia competition pits dorms against one another in a friendly test of knowledge of all things European. How many countries border Germany? Which Italian composer of operas was a famous chef and gourmet? These questions get students thinking about the many facets of European studies and present an opportunity for the Institute to share upcoming opportunities with new and returning students alike. This year, 65 students participated in the third annual trivia competition and St. Edward’s Hall emerged as its champion for the second year in a row.

Launched during the summer of 2021, #NanovicFieldNotes is a social media campaign that shares images and stories from Nanovic grant recipients. During their fall, winter, and summer breaks, Nanovic-supported students research, serve, and learn “in the field.” For more, search #NanovicFieldNotes on Nanovic social media.

RIGHT: Daniel Glasgow, ND Architecture master’s student, was in L.A. studying Spanish Baroque architecture, when he encountered a cemetary gate at San Gabriel Mission in the classic curving baroque style.

RIGHT: For his senior thesis on post-traumatic coping mechanisms used by WWI soldiers, history major Thomas Filip conducted research in Belgium and England. Tommy is shown here visiting the Vimy Ridge memorial.

RIGHT: Sarah Nanjala, a Master of Global Affairs student, visited sites related to WWI while studying French in Brussels. BELOW: Carlos Garcia, in Staufen, Germany, studied German at the Goethe Institute in Freiburg, and picked up a new favorite word “Hilfsbereitschaft” meaning “readiness to help.”

RIGHT: Studio art major Anastasia Matuszak worked on an online exhibit on Ukrainian icons & iconography at the Ukrainian Museum-Archives in Cleveland. This included work by Daria B. Kulchytsky, whose icon “Madonna in Black” incorporates traditional Byzantine and uniquely Ukrainian features.

RIGHT: Maggie Foster, a vocalist in the Master of Sacred Music Program was in Lyon, France where she coached operative repertoire, focusing on Francis Poulenc’s one-woman opera La Voix Humaine. On her commute, she reviewed her music against the backdrop of the Alps.