NEWS ROUNDUP

“Talking about Europe is key to understanding its history, culture, and challenges past and present. The Nanovic Institute engages faculty and students in serious conversations, invites experts to share their insights, and facilitates communications across and beyond campus. For Nanovic, hospitality and openness to the respectful exchange of ideas are not just ethical imperatives, they are approaches to problem-solving and furthering knowledge.”

– Hildegund Müller

MIDWEST MODEL EU

This past spring, Nanovic sent two “delegations” to the annual Midwest Model EU competition, hosted by Indiana University Bloomington. Students spent the first half of the semester drafting policy proposals and learning the political positions of their countries, Ireland and Poland, in preparation for the weekend of simulated EU policy making. Students in both delegations received awards for their negotiation skills and the Polish delegation came in second place overall.

An Exploratory Workshop on “Peripheries”

In March 2022, the Nanovic Institute held an exploratory session in London with Europe-based colleagues to consider the meaning of “peripheries” in the context of European studies. The workshop aimed to support the Institute in the fulfillment of its 2021-2026 strategic plan – “Engaging Big Questions and ‘Peripheries’ in Europe” – particularly the goal of focusing on the margins and marginalized people, topics, regions, languages, and cultures. Workshop participants will work with the Institute to explore the potential for a future book series on “peripheries.”

Studying Religion, Identity, and Peacebuilding in Sarajevo

In May, a group of Notre Dame and Bosnian students visited Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina to study “Religion, Identity, and Peace and the Periphery of Europe.” Away from the “centers” of Europe where they might typically travel, students learned from local Bosnian peacebuilders and social scientists about the country’s rich history of peacebuilding, competing ethno-religious narratives, trauma and cycles of conflict, and issues of identity. They also visited a number of historic sites, including some that figured prominently in the 1992-1995 Bosnia War such as the rebuilt Stari Most (Old Bridge) in Mostar, and Srebrenica, the town where more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were massacred in an act of genocide in 1995. The trip was facilitated by Mahan Mirza, executive director of the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, through a partnership with Peace Catalyst International. The visit was possible through principal support from the Nanovic Institute with additional support from the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and the Ansari Institute.

New Platforms

In summer 2021, the Institute launched three new platforms for Nanovic voices, spaces for sharing the stories, collaboration, and commentary of our students, faculty, and broader community.

Nanovic Navigator is the home for stories told by students about their experiences exploring Europe and European studies through the support of the Nanovic Institute.

Crossing the Square is a forum for collaborative research and the voices of scholars and leaders from within the Catholic Universities Partnership, particularly its leadership program.

Initiated by Nanovic’s Graduate fellows, Europe in the World is a platform for analyses and commentary on Europe’s political, social, and economic relations with the rest of the globe.

This past year, the Institute welcomed 12 new faculty fellows. More than 150 fellows invested in European studies, spanning more than two dozen departments and every college and school at Notre Dame, call the Institute home.

Tatiana Botero, Teaching Professor of Spanish, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

Katlyn Carter, Assistant Professor of History

David Gura, Curator, Ancient and Medieval Manuscripts in Hesburgh Libraries

Berthold Hoeckner, Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Music History and Chair, Department of Music

Eva Hoeckner, Assistant Teaching Professor of German, Department of German and Russian Languages and Literatures and the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures Elena Mangione-Lora, Teaching Professor of Spanish, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

Brian Ó Conchubhair, Associate Professor of Irish Language and Literature

David O’Connor, Professor of Philosophy, Departments of Philosophy and Classics

John Onyango, Associate Professor in the School of Architecture

Emma Planinc, Assistant Professor in the Program of Liberal Studies

Gretchen Reydams-Schils, Professor in the Program of Liberal Studies

Paolo Vitti, Associate Professor of the Practice (Rome) in the School of Architecture

The John Lukacs Collection

After his death in 2019, the family of John Lukacs, the Hungarianborn historian of modern Europe, donated his personal library of almost 20,000 titles to the University of Notre Dame. The Nanovic Institute, in collaboration with the Hesburgh Libraries, is now home to a selection of those titles. Read more in the online article “An Age of Books” about the John Lukacs Collection (go.nd.edu/lukacs), which offers a chance to “break bread” with a scholar who chronicled the past and agitated assumptions.

Beyond the Classroom Women in European Cinema with Barbara Mennel

The theme of the spring Nanovic Film Series, “Women at Work in European Cinema,” explored portraits of women in the workforce from the 18th to 21st centuries from France to Kosovo. Held in partnership with the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, the highlight of the film series was the screening of Populaire directed by Regis Roinsard. Populaire was introduced by Barbara Mennel whose book, “Women at Work In TwentyFirst-Century Cinema” served as the inspiration for the spring series and received the 2022 Laura Shannon Prize Honorable Mention.