PROFILE: A. James McAdams

COLLABORATE A Legacy of Collaboration

A. James McAdams is the William M. Scholl Professor of International Affairs in Notre Dame’s Department of Political Science. He has written widely on European affairs, especially on Central Europe, as well as global communism. For 16 years, he served as Director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies. F ew people have shaped the Nanovic Institute as much as Jim McAdams. Director of the Institute for sixteen years, the William M. Scholl Professor of International Affairs established and cultivated the ethos of collaboration – between faculty members, students, and friends of the Institute, within and beyond Notre Dame – that is integral to Nanovic’s mission.

McAdams is a widely respected scholar of the history of communism, particularly in Germany and Central and Eastern Europe. Before he joined the Notre Dame faculty in 1992, he held teaching and research appointments at universities and institutes in the U.S. and in both East and West Germany prior to reunification.

As the Director of the Nanovic Institute, McAdams says he recognized that the overarching goal of Notre Dame’s home for European studies should be to bring Notre Dame to Europe and Europe to Notre Dame. To give shape to this broad vision, he created a framework that continues to guide the Institute’s work: bringing Europe to Notre Dame in ways that would allow “students, faculty, [and] others [to] engage in the pursuit of truth, knowledge, understanding”; providing students with truly immersive research and learning experiences in Europe beyond the existing study abroad programs; professionalizing graduate students; encouraging interdisciplinary engagement between faculty and students; and, contributing to Notre Dame’s Catholic identity.

For McAdams, these ideas required commitment to an ethos of engagement that is truly collaborative. Nanovic’s mission, Jim believes, is an engagement with European studies and Europe that is “not just passive studying, but a real understanding of what Euorpe has meant for world history, American history, and an understanding for how and what Europe can teach us.”

It was this version of collaboration – an exchange that is respectful and mutually beneficial – that led the Institute, under McAdams’ direction, to expand the Faculty Fellows program that had been initiated by his predecessor and inaugurate signature events that brought distinguished visitors to campus to engage with Notre Dame students and faculty. Collaboration has been evident in research projects and scholarly initiatives such as the international conference “1968 in Europe and Latin America,” which took place at Notre Dame in April 2018, and in some of McAdams’ favorite memories of his time at Nanovic, including a lunch that accompanied a screening of The Way (2010) when its star and director – Martin Sheen and son Emilio Estevez – shared a meal with Notre Dame community members who had themselves walked el Camino de Santiago de Compostela, the pilgrimage depicted in the film.

In 2003, mindful of Nanovic’s commitment to contribute to Notre Dame’s Catholic identity and equipped with a deep understanding of Central and Eastern Europe, McAdams embarked on the initiative that would become the Catholic Universities Partnership (CUP). It seemed natural, he says, that Notre Dame should form a relationship with Catholic institutions in nations where, even by the early 21st century, Soviet influence was still strong and democracy and freedom of thought were vulnerable. He also realized that many of these revived or nascent universities would benefit from stronger connections between each other. It is imperative, McAdams says, that the partnerships are truly collaborative, and that Notre Dame faculty, students, and university leaders realize that they have as much, and perhaps more, to learn from their peers in Eastern Europe as the other way around.

McAdams’ work, particularly in cultivating the CUP, has been widely recognized. He is the recipient of honorary doctorates from Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) and John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland, and a Gold Medal from the Catholic University in Ružomberok, Slovakia. In his address at Notre Dame’s 2022 commencement ceremony, Archbishop Borys Gudziak, president of UCU, singled out McAdams and the Nanovic Institute for particular praise. In 2019, the Institute received a significant new endowment from Robert and Elizabeth Nanovic to honor their friend Jim’s significant contributions.

Now entering its fourth decade, the Nanovic Institute follows a path largely hewn by McAdams. Nanovic’s leaders and staff are grateful to Jim for this legacy and for his generous friendship that has continued beyond his many years as director. ◆