2023-24 Research Report of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies
2023–2024 RESEARCH REPORT
A Review of Faculty, Student, and Institute-Led Research
The Nanovic Institute for European Studies 2023–2024 Research Report
The Nanovic Institute for European Studies contributes to the academic mission of the University of Notre Dame in various ways, notably through the establishment of social and cultural connections with European partners and through the coordination and support of scholarship and research. The latter, research and scholarship, represents a fundamental commitment to new insights and new ways of understanding Europe. The institute supports undergraduate and graduate students, colleagues from Notre Dame, and researchers from across the European continent, and across disciplinary boundaries, in exploring different aspects of Europe.
The Nanovic Institute is particularly interested in topics that are relevant to Catholic universities (e.g., normative questions that relate to faith traditions, Catholicism, ethics, etc.), issues that are close to the mission of the Keough School of Global Affairs (e.g., integral human development, human dignity, and integral ecology), and areas that have been part of its research tradition (e.g., Central and Eastern Europe, the humanities, history, and culture).
Since the beginning of the academic year 2023–24, the institute’s research endeavors have been guided by two important documents. The first is the new strategic framework of the University of Notre Dame, published in August 2023. This document identifies a central, overarching goal for the University: “Notre Dame must be the leading global Catholic research university.” The framework has also defined core areas of engagement, such as global Catholicism,
ethics, democracy, poverty, and the environment. The second guiding document is the new “Strategic Plan 2030” of the Keough School of Global Affairs, also published in 2023. This document defines four core research programs: Sustainability and Environmental Justice; Poverty, Inequality, and Marginalization; Democracy, Governance, Institutions, and Rights; and Systems and Structures of Violence and Peace— all the while remaining committed to advancing integral human development.
The Nanovic Institute for European Studies, with its research priorities focused on peripheries, dignity, normative questions, and big questions about Europe will encourage, initiate, and support research and scholarship in these areas of strategic interest to the Keough School and the University of Notre Dame. This research report shows some of these efforts and contributions. The institute is grateful to its partners for their hard work and commitment.
A Survey: European Studies
The field of European Studies is not a clearly delineated field, but a meeting point of many disciplines and approaches. They share an interest in Europe and a commitment to making sense of all matters European. Some of the current and pressing topics in European Studies can be seen by looking at special issues of relevant journals.
Each year the Nanovic Institute evaluates the landscape of the field of European Studies to map its place in this global academic enterprise.
The Journal of Contemporary European Studies, for example, has recently published special issues on resilient states and resilient societies, small EU member states and Brexit, EU public diplomacy, counter-narratives of Europe, national Roma integration strategies, and Islamophobia. The Journal of European Integration organized a special issue on the role of emotions in EU foreign policy in 2024, and a collection of articles on the “Transformation of Europe after Russia’s Attack on Ukraine.”
This topic, unsurprisingly, also occupied the pages of Studies in East European Thought in 2022, in a special issue titled “Russia’s War in Ukraine: When Barbarism Takes Over Civilization.”
The Central European Journal of International and Security Studies reflected on “Constructing Crises in Europe: Multifaceted Securitisation” in a 2023 special issue. Comparative Southeast European Studies dedicated a 2024 issue to healthcare; the Eastern Journal of European Studies published an issue on digital technologies; Comparative European Politics, in fall 2023, included an issue on Chinese representations of the European Union; European Politics and Society dealt with “The Constitutional Courts Under Stress” in a 2024 special issue, and with “The shaping power of anti-liberal ideas” in 2023. Meanwhile, West European Politics discussed
Brexit in 2024, and East European Politics discussed social movements in South East Europe in their last issue of 2023.
These publications bespeak a clear scholarly preoccupation with issues of “integration” and “innovation,” the transformation of Europe’s security landscape after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the global role of Europe, and the future of liberal democracy in Europe. This is not at all surprising given the developments in Europe in recent years. Integration and European identity are at the center of the discourse. It is telling that the 2023 University Association for Contemporary European Studies Best Book Prize was awarded to Mary C. Murphy and Jonathan Evershed for their book A Troubled Constitutional Future: Northern Ireland after Brexit (Agenda Publishing, 2022). Robert Braun, working in the area of political psychology, won the 2023 Carolina de Miguel Moyer Young Scholar Award from the Council for European Studies for his first book Protectors of Pluralism (Cambridge University Press, 2019), which examines local communities and their ability to protect minorities, and for his second book project, in which he traces the evolution of fear in Central Europe throughout the 19th and 20th century by studying the spread of frightful figures in children’s stories.
Even within historical research, the key concern seems to be the simple question: Europe, quo vadis?1
Another reference point worth mentioning relates to “big questions” and European concerns: namely, landmark cases of the European Courts.
Consider just a few cases from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg. Last year, the ECHR dealt with a key case on human trafficking (Krachunova v. Bulgaria, no. 18269/18, 2023) and issued an important decision in the case Alkhatib and Others v. Greece (no. 3566/16, 2024), ruling that Greece had violated a Syrian refugee’s right to life when its coastguards shot at a vessel carrying migrants and asylum seekers in 2014. The court also dealt with a series of cases related to personal (sexual) identity and transgender realities, for example, the refusal by national authorities to insert the term “neutral” or “intersex” instead of “male” on the birth certificate of an intersex person (Y v. France, no. 76888/17, 2023) or the legal impossibility for a transgender parent’s current gender to be indicated on the birth certificate of a child conceived after gender reclassification (A.H. and Others v. Germany, no. 7246/20, 2023). The ECHR also discussed a key case on privacy (absence of any form of legal recognition and protection for same sex couples: Fedotova and Others v. Russia, nos. 40792/10 et al., 2023) and another on freedom of expression (temporary suspension of children’s fairytale book depicting same-sex relationships and its subsequent labeling as harmful to children under the age of 14: Macatė v. Lithuania, no. 61435/19, 2023).
The Court also adjudicated questions of new technologies and data management, such as the unjustified processing of one applicant’s personal biometric data by using highly intrusive facial recognition technology in administrative offense proceedings to identify, locate, and arrest him (Glukhin v. Russia, no. 11519/20, 2023).
1 Latin: “Where are you going?”
On April 9, 2024, the Court published landmark decisions on issues related to climate change. In the cases Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Ors v. Switzerland, Carême v. France, and Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and 32 Others, the court discussed whether inaction on climate change constitutes a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. In the case of KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Ors v. Switzerland, the Court held that an ECHR Convention State’s inaction on climate change could amount to a breach of the ECHR. This is a remarkable judgment at the intersection of law, science, and politics.
Even at a cursory glance, we can see how questions of migration, personal identity, data, new technologies, and the environment have become more and more relevant in European discourse.
The Nanovic Institute is committed to contributing to this discourse through its strategic emphasis on research that examines life in Europe through the lens of human dignity, the common good, and integral ecology. We are particularly interested in voices and perspectives from the margins and the experiences of those from less privileged backgrounds and places.
Research Priorities
The institute recognizes that research is one of its most powerful means to act as a force for good. To this end, the Nanovic Institute is guided by five major research priorities, which reflect the institute’s mission and values as well as those of the Keough School and the University more broadly.
These priorities include:
While the Nanovic Institute believes that the knowledge garnered through research is an intrinsic good worthy of pursuing in its own right, it is deeply committed to wielding this knowledge to heal, unify, and enlighten a world in need.
BIG QUESTIONS ABOUT EUROPE AND HUMANITY
For the Nanovic Institute, European issues are global and human issues with implications for the world at large. The institute is particularly interested in questions that pose major moral challenges with implications for European identities and values, politics and society, and the history and future shared by European nations and peoples. Examples include normative and spiritual traditions in Europe, resilient democracies, migration, and the ethics of borders. Current projects include a research cluster organized by Ian Kuijt and Bill Donaruma called “Uncertain Harvest: The Abandonment of European Smallholder Farming and Rural Sustainability,” which looks at disappearing and vulnerable rural life-ways in Europe through extensive interviews with people in multiple countries, and the ongoing Humanities and Policy Initiative, which explores the role of the humanities in the realm of policy and politics. Furthermore, the institute organized an important 2022 conference through its Catholic Universities Partnership on “Resilience and Recovery: Challenges for Universities,” which recently bore fruit in the publication of Resilient Universities (UCU Press, 2024).
HUMAN DIGNITY
As part of the Keough School of Global Affairs with its commitment to integral human development, the Nanovic Institute is interested in exploring the meaning and implications of the dignity of each human person. The institute is concerned with research on the respect and safeguarding of the dignity of all, especially the most vulnerable, including migrants, children, and people with disabilities. Europe’s history contains many terrible violations of human dignity, particularly through colonialism, but European traditions can also offer important contributions to the concept and institutional translation of human dignity. One example of the institute’s contribution to human dignity is its intellectual leadership of the November
PERIPHERIES
The Nanovic Institute is committed to enlarging the map with research and dialogue that encompasses the lived experience of all people in Europe, including those marginalized by geography, poverty, policies of citizenship, and difference. In its 2021–2026 strategic plan, the institute expressed its aim to develop a theoretical framework for understanding peripheries and establish an ethical and methodologically sophisticated approach to the study of areas or groups underrepresented in research and public perception. As a significant step toward this goal, the Nanovic Institute has assembled a team of researchers, led by Clemens Sedmak and Pamela Ballinger (University of Michigan), to publish a landmark volume on the concept
2023 Keough School conference organized around the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Another example is its Advanced Leadership Program, which offers leaders and educators an opportunity to deepen their leadership, time management, and relationship-building skills. Uniquely, the program is designed to provide an integrated spiritual component, facilitating a renewed sense of mission and tools for leaders to be effective and resilient. The 2025 installment of this program, to be held in Rome, was awarded a $40,000 grant from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and is titled “A Leadership of Care: Creating a Community of Women Leaders at Catholic Universities in Central and Eastern Europe.”
of peripheries in all of its dimensions. This volume has been contracted by Routledge as part of its prestigious Handbooks & Companions collection. The institute also sponsored the “Decolonizing Scholarship” lecture series, which began in fall 2022 and continued through spring 2024, and hosted a virtual panel discussion on “Reimagining Europe from Its Peripheries” (October 2023), building upon an eponymous April 2023 conference.
MEMORY AND REMEMBERING
The Nanovic Institute is interested in projects investigating the politics and ethics of remembrance in contemporary Europe. This focus encompasses research related to national memories of racial violence and injustice, memory and reconciliation in postwar societies, and contested memory spaces, such as monuments. For the institute and its colleagues, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, post-Holocaust and Socialist memory are of particular interest, as are questions about how different communities in Europe represent their diverse histories. Current research endeavors
FAITH AND RELIGION IN EUROPE
The Nanovic Institute is committed to contributing to Notre Dame’s Catholic mission, including the strategic framework’s call to become the “leading global Catholic research university.” The institute recognizes that Notre Dame has a particular interest in matters of religious faith, faith-based actors, and the interaction between religion and state. Within this research priority, the institute considers questions about the role of faith in Europe today and how religious traditions and institutions continue to shape Europe. For example, it sponsored a June 2023 conference in Lviv, Ukraine, on “Church Diplomacy and the Religious Dimension of the Russian-Ukrainian
include an ongoing undergraduate project on “Sites of Memory,” which allows students to research and catalog contested sites of memory in Europe that have generated debate regarding the presentness of the past and European history, culture, and identity. This project will culminate in an online digital resource that shares each site of memory and the discourse surrounding the site. The institute is also organizing a major scholarly volume on the politics of memory, with a special focus on the European memorial landscape.
War,” which gave rise to a volume titled The Churches and the War: Religion, Religious Diplomacy, and Russia’s Aggression against Ukraine UCU Press, 2024). The institute is also overseeing the publication of an edited volume on Faith, Freedom, and the Fall of Communism (KUL Press, forthcoming), which explores Central and Eastern Europe’s traumatic Soviet past through the lens of religion and religious dissidents.
Spotlight: Mapping Ukraine
The Nanovic Institute convenes scholars from across Notre Dame and Ukrainian Catholic University to share their research, scholarship, and creative works.
Through the past 20 years, the Nanovic Institute for European Studies has fostered close, collaborative relationships with intellectual partners in Ukraine, particularly at Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) in Lviv.
This relationship began under the leadership of A. James McAdams, director of the Nanovic Institute from 2002 to 2018, whose global—and indeed catholic—vision led to the establishment of the Catholic Universities Partnership (CUP) in 2004. The CUP’s primary aim is to foster mutual support, elevation, and development of Catholic higher education and civil society in post-communist and post-Soviet Europe. In partnership with CUP members, the Nanovic Institute has built and sustained various avenues for fruitful engagement with Ukraine, ranging from educational opportunities for Ukrainian students to scholarly research and beyond.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the need to continue building community with Ukrainian partners has become doubly pronounced. To this end, the institute established its Ukrainian Studies Hub in September of 2023, which aims to serve as a coordinating center for Ukrainerelated work across the University of Notre Dame, fostering meaningful connections between colleagues studying or researching in Ukraine; organizing visiting scholars, joint events, and research projects with Ukrainian partners; establishing a “Ukrainian Studies” book series with Notre Dame Press; and in times of peace, facilitating faculty-led immersions and service learning for Notre Dame students in Ukraine.
In October 2023, the Nanovic Institute— under the auspices of its Ukrainian Studies Hub—organized a campus-wide conversation on Mapping Ukraine with Taras Dobko, rector of Ukrainian Catholic University. This event featured Notre Dame’s community of scholars who have worked in Ukraine and on subjects of great importance to Ukraine, often in partnership with UCU scholars and students. The meeting facilitated interdisciplinary conversations aimed at generating important feedback from Rector Dobko, a cross-pollination of ideas among colleagues, and an inclusive non-siloed approach to research at Notre Dame with Ukraine as its focal point. These presentations showcased the many ways Notre Dame is connected to Ukraine and UCU and helped the institute chart the course for future collaborations.
Ukraine-relevant research projects span a variety of backgrounds, including political science, philosophy and theology, anthropology, film and journalism, architecture, literature, and business. This diversity of specialties gestures towards the important fact that all disciplines have something to offer in support of Ukraine. At the same time, interdisciplinary collaborations are a powerful means of joining forces in support of resilience and recovery in Ukraine.
COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PROJECTS
“Principles
of a Just War and Just Peace in the Context of Russian Aggression in Ukraine”
Led by Daniel Philpott, Professor of Political Science; Fr. Yuriy Shchurko, Dean of the Theology-Philosophy Faculty (UCU); and Iryna Fenno, Associate Professor in the Kyiv Center (UCU).
Funded by the ND-UCU Faculty Collaboration Grant Program, Administered by Notre Dame Global
This research project takes as its starting point the recognition that the Catholic principles of just peace can inform the aims of a just war, as a just war is fought for a just peace. Beginning from this insight, this project offers insight into how to heal the wounds of war; how to view and affirm Ukraine’s present struggles; how to view the process of reconciliation and the possibility of forgiveness; and the principles of reparations, humanity, and relief. The research focuses on historical examples in Northern Ireland, South Africa, and elsewhere, particularly the European continent after the Second World War.
The project leaders held four virtual conferences in 2022–23 for this project.
“Religion, Religious Diplomacy, and Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine”
Led by Fr. Yury Avvakumov, Associate Professor of Theology; Oleh Turiy, Vice-Rector for Strategic Cooperation and Associate Professor of Church History (UCU); and Anatolli Babynskyi, Lecturer (UCU)
Funded by the ND-UCU Faculty Collaboration Grant Program, Administered by Notre Dame Global
This research project focuses on Ukrainian religious history—including the founding of UCU and the vision of Patriarch Josyf Slipyj— as well as the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church, one of the two largest Eastern Catholic Churches in the world. With roughly 4 million people, this tradition represents a significant element within global Catholicism. Understanding the history of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church can serve as a gateway to understanding (1) Eastern
Catholic Churches worldwide, including those that belong to other Rites, (2) the Ukrainian Diaspora, and (3) the dissidents and those who fought against totalitarianism in instructive ways.
An in-person international conference was held in Lviv, Ukraine, in June 2023, and a conference volume titled The Churches and the War: Religion, Religious Diplomacy, and Russia’s Aggression Against Ukraine was published with UCU Press in 2024.
“Profiles of Resistance and Resilience: Documenting Looting, Damage, and Destruction of Ukrainian Cultural Heritage”
Led by Ian Kuijt, Professor of Anthropology; William Donaruma, Professor of the Practice in Filmmaking and Head of Film Production, Director of the Creative Computing Group, and Creative Director of ND Learning; and Fr. Andrii Shestak, Director of the School of Journalism and Communications (UCU)
Funded by the ND-UCU Faculty Collaboration Grant Program, Administered by Notre Dame Global
This research project addresses the reality that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is an attack on culture, history, and heritage—both material and immaterial. Therefore, its work focuses on helping UCU students document cultural heritage sites, including those of cultural value that have been destroyed, relocated with hopes to preserve, or where measures have been taken to safeguard what remains. Kuijt and Donaruma have helped UCU students develop storytelling skills, individual M.A. projects, and technical film and documentary training. During their visit to Lviv in March 2023, they hosted a masterclass with 50 students and two days of hands-on film training with 20 students; and in October 2023, they hosted a masterclass for 30 M.A. students and small-group workshops.Ongoing projects include joint ND-UCU collaborations
on preserving archaeology, heritage, and history, including documentary films such as “Maybe Cannons Will Rumble,” “The Shooting Wall: Witness in Film,” and “ Targeting Beauty,” which document the loss of Ukrainian cultural heritage, and UCU visual media exhibitions such as “(Non)verbal Communication,” a photo exhibition by Taras Kurilko of UCU and “One Thing…,” a short documentary by Denys Zakharchenko (UCU), Kuijt, and Donaruma that asks Ukrainians what they do each day for a moment of contentment.
Pilot Project: Rebuilding the City of Zolochiv
Led by Stefanos Polyzoides, Francis and Kathleen Rooney Dean of the School of Architecture and Professor of Architecture; Marianne Cusato, Professor of the Practice and Director of the Housing & Community Regeneration Initiative; and Rahul Oka, Associate Research Professor of Global Affairs and Anthropology
This project partners architects and anthropologists from Notre Dame with city architects and officials of the western Ukrainian city of Zolochiv to create an urban development plan to rebuild the city with direct input from its citizens. The project leaders are working with the people of Zolochiv, a 500-year-old city in the Lviv Oblast in western Ukraine, to start a direct assistance project focused on reconstruction and the creation of a master-plan vision and urban development code that may serve as a pilot for future projects. The Notre Dame team became involved following a conversation with alumna Kathleen Hessert and her NGO, Move Ukraine. Their primary contact is Yuriy Kryvoruchko, the former city architect of Lviv and currently a professor at Lviv Polytechnic National University and a founding member of the newly formed International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism (INTBAU) chapter in Ukraine. Cusato and Oka visited Zolochiv in October 2023 as part of the charrette.
In Zolochiv, Cusato and Oka embarked on a listening tour to help with urban planning questions. Their tour presented many challenges. War is about erasing identity, and the future should be about restoring it. There was an emphasis on reaching back to a pre-1939 built environment, as the Soviet model reinforces community only, not identity; meanwhile, the U.S. model reinforces the individual. A new model is therefore needed for Ukraine, tailored to specific cities, which acknowledges identity, community, and the particular needs of the time/space. At the same time, any such plan should likewise address the trauma of war. For instance, the mental health crisis is critical, so one idea that was raised was to begin with mental health facilities and physical places where people can gather. The built environment should ultimately facilitate an easy transition to a future with socially integrated and economically viable options.
Peace, the Environment, and the Economy in Ukraine
Led by Drew Marcantonio, Assistant Professor of Environment, Peace, and Global Affairs in the Keough School of Global Affairs
The Peace Accords Matrix with the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, comprised of researchers and practitioners working at the nexus between research and practice. The program is seeking to promote and facilitate a higher order of integration between these domains. Marcantonio’s work is specifically concerned about the environmental considerations in peace agreements as part of concerns with who will pay for peace and the recovery that comes.
Assessing the Environmental Impacts of the Russian War of Aggression in Ukraine, in partnership with Kristina Hook ’19 Ph.D., assistant professor of conflict management at Kennesaw State University. This project began in 2018 and examines the impact that Russia’s war on Ukraine has had on the environment. Ukraine is a heavily industrialized country, with several chemical facilities and nuclear power plants, many of which are close to commercial and residential areas. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has introduced high rates of destruction to some of the country’s riskiest sites. Outputs include an article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists titled “Grappling with Environmental Risks in the Fog of War.”
“Regenerating Ecologies and Economies for Livelihoods,” a course developed for the Mendoza College of Business’s Meyer Business on the Frontlines Program, partnering with the Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative This international course helps students expand their knowledge of sustainability and business through interdisciplinary teamwork and regenerative livelihood development. While work in Ukraine is not possible at present, Rector Dobko has proposed 12 potential community partners who might be a good fit for the program. One idea currently under consideration is to monitor water quality and soil profiles over time to serve as a bridge between environmental science and business, as communities seek to attain specific sustainable goals for how to rebuild and to shape the dialogue on how institutions choose to rebuild.
Co-Taught Course: “Drama & Poetry in Ukraine at War: Representatives of Injustice and Resilience in Ukraine, 2014-2022”
Taught by Romana Huk, Associate Professor of English; Peter Holland, McMeel Family Professor in Shakespeare Studies; and Oleksandr Pronkevich, Professor and the Dean of the Faculty of Philology (Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University; Teacher at UCU) in Notre Dame’s Global Classroom
Ukrainian playwrights, thinkers, and poets have written at length about the war since 2014. This course examines what has been created over this time, and how it responds to Russia’s attack on Ukrainian culture. Theater scholar John Freedman argues that “writing back is an act of war.” The class has included critical explorations of drama and poetry, as well as a creative component and translations in partnership
between Notre Dame and UCU students. Performances (readings of poems and dramatic works) were recorded by the Global Classroom across online conferencing screens, with the idea that these works might be made available on a Notre Dame website for others to engage with.
Rethinking Notre Dame’s Department of German and Russian Languages and Literatures
An ongoing effort led by Tobias Boes, Chair of the Department of German and Russian Languages and Literatures, and Tetyana Shlikhar, Assistant Teaching Professor of Russian
Boes and his colleagues have been implementing strategic changes within the department over the past two years, to rethink their department’s branding, hiring practices, and curriculum in response to Russian aggression and in solidarity with Ukraine. With open faculty lines, the department was able to build expertise in Slavic languages, literatures, and cultures beyond Russian with the 2022 hiring of Tetyana Shlikhar as assistant teaching professor of Russian and Ukrainian (whose expertise includes Russian and Ukrainian cinema, literatures, and memory studies) and with this past year’s hiring of Sean Griffin (an interdisciplinary scholar of Russia and Ukraine) and Arpi Movsesian (whose expertise includes Russian and Armenian literature and culture). In terms of curricular reform, the department plans to offer at least one course each semester that deals with Ukraine and/or destabilizing efforts of Russia in Ukraine and the Caucasus and new language opportunities.
In spring 2023, Shlikhar taught a Ukrainian film course paired with the Nanovic film series “Cinema in the Shadow of Empire,” which she curated. In the fall of 2023, she taught a course on Ukrainian culture, and in the spring
of 2024, she taught an introductory Ukrainian language course. Additional changes include cultural offerings (e.g., Russian tea parties are now Slavic tea parties) and conferences will feature Ukraine more prominently (e.g., Sean Griffin is looking to host a conference in spring 2025 that is focused on religion and cultural memory in the contemporary Russo-Ukrainian War).
Shlikhar is also spearheading efforts to adjust the department’s approach to studying Russian language and literature to look beyond Moscow toward the imperial peripheries. Rather than considering how Russian culture influenced the peripheries, the department seeks to consider mutual influence between these regions.
Shlikhar is also leading an ND-UCU Faculty Collaboration Grant-funded project titled “Historical Memory in (Post)colonial Societies: Comparative Perspective on Resilience and Narrative Justice,” in collaboration with Danylo Sudyn, associate professor of sociology at UCU.
“Global
Survey of Business Ethics with Focus on Ukraine”
Led by Georges Enderle, John T. Ryan Jr. Professor Emeritus of International Business Ethics in the Mendoza College of Business and Concurrent Professor in the Keough School of Global Affairs, and Yaryna Boychuk, CEO of the Business School (UCU)
Funded by the ND-UCU Faculty Collaboration Grant Program, Administered by Notre Dame Global
This project investigates the challenges and opportunities of business ethics in Ukraine. It uses the research methodology of the Global Survey of Business Ethics (GSBE), currently underway with the support of all regional business ethics networks of the world. This investigation will produce an unprecedented report of business ethics in Ukraine and provide a thorough foundation of integrating business ethics into the curriculum of the UCU Business School.
With support from the Nanovic Institute, Enderle participated in the September 2023 Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) conference in Washington, DC, on “Doing Business in Ukraine: The Role of the Private Sector in Ukraine’s Economic Transformation,” with 59 speakers and 418 participants, including many politicians, academics, and business leaders.
Co-Taught Course: “The Foundations of Peace and Conflict Research”
Taught by Ernesto Verdeja, Associate Professor of Peace Studies and Global Politics, and Marian Lopata, Associate Professor of Political Science (UCU)
Students in the course were exposed to cutting-edge research on negative peace (e.g., cease-fires) and positive peace (e.g., setting up sustainable human flourishing), as well as types of violence (direct, structural, cultural, epistemic, symbolic, and historic violence). The class also examined conflict mediation, conflict transformation (looking at peacebuilding from root
causes to different horizons), and concepts of justice. Case studies explored atrocity/genocide prevention, the reintegration of “liberated territories,” and accountability for perpetrators. Topics included the Israel-Palestine conflict, wars in former Yugoslavia, and Russian-Ukrainian conflicts since 1991.
“Defunding
Russia’s War Against Ukraine”
Led by David Cortright, Professor Emeritus of the Practice in the Keough School of Global Affairs, and Anna Romandash, an Award-Winning Journalist from Ukraine and MGA graduate from the Keough School
Through the course of this project, Cortright and Romandash discovered that despite the sanctions on Russia, the wartime Russian economy has only shrunk by ~2%, and Russians were still able to acquire sanctioned goods (purchasing indirectly from third-party groups or other countries that did not impose sanctions) or alternative goods (often from China). Russians have also circumvented sanctions by taking advantage of dual-use technologies, and they have been successful in lobbying against specific
sanctions with agents of influence (such as oil at $60/barrel, while critics argue that caps should have been set at $30/barrel). This data suggests that sanctions imposed on Russia by Western governments have not been as effective as many have hoped.
This research led to the publication of a policy brief titled “Defunding Russia’s War Against Ukraine,” (available at go.nd.edu/ sanctionsbrief ), which makes several policy recommendations.
Collaborative Research Project: Promoting Human Rights Education in Post-Soviet Ukraine
Led by Mary Ellen O’Connell, Robert & Marion Short Professor of Law and Professor of International Peace Studies, and Svitlana Khyliuk, Director of the Law School (UCU)
O’Connell traveled to Lviv in the summer of 2023 to teach about the armed conflict in Ukraine in relation to international human rights and advancing international law as part of a project that received three years of funding from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. As a legacy of Soviet rule in Ukraine, international human rights law was not taught to law faculties—only to international relations faculties. While this has been corrected at UCU, in Ukraine there is a serious deficit of judges who have studied international human rights law.
Khyliuk is working to create a new center for international human rights law in Lviv, building on the legacy of those great minds in international human rights law who were from or educated there (e.g., Raphael Lemkin, known for defining the term “genocide” and campaigning to establish the Genocide Convention, studied in Lviv; Louis B. Sohn, the international legal scholar who authored the UN charter on self-defense [article 51], was born and educated in Lviv).
Beyond showcasing the diverse array of scholarly projects being undertaken by Notre Dame’s Ukrainian Studies community, the Ukrainian Studies Hub and its Mapping Ukraine project provided a much-needed forum to facilitate interdisciplinary conversations and think institutionally about the University’s engagement with Ukraine. These kinds of conversations, and the connections that they enable, are indeed the lifeblood of the Nanovic Institute’s Ukrainian Studies Hub. Not only do they allow for fruitful intellectual exchange, but they afford us at Notre Dame the opportunity to listen and be responsive to the needs and concerns of our Ukrainian partners.
These conversations will serve as a springboard moving forward, as the Ukrainian Studies Hub continues to grow its community and expand its scholarly and educational activities. To this end, the Nanovic Institute is currently planning its inaugural Ukrainian Studies Conference, which will be held March 6–8, 2025 at the University of Notre Dame. Guest speakers will include Archbishop Borys Gudziak, Taras Dobko, and Rory Finnin, among others. At the same time, the Hub is helping the Nanovic Institute expand its research profile through a Ukrainian Studies book series at Notre Dame Press, whose inaugural publication will be a
translation of Myroslav Marynovych’s work on Ukrainian Christianity; scholarly publications such as The Trauma of Communism (UCU Press, 2022) and Faith, Freedom and the Fall of Communism (KUL Press, forthcoming); and the institute’s visiting scholars program, which has allowed more than 25 scholars from UCU to pursue research in residence at the Nanovic Institute and engage in scholarly conversations with the Notre Dame community. Furthermore, the institute is launching a grant program to support research projects that deepen Notre Dame’s links to Ukraine, especially UCU. The program will award a total of $100,000 over the coming year to research projects related to Ukraine and Ukrainian studies that will produce substantial academic outputs with international reach.
Nanovic InstituteSupported Research Highlights
Through the 2023–24 academic year, the Nanovic Institute provided numerous grants in support of individual and collaborative research projects led by faculty, visiting scholars, and students.
FACULTY RESEARCH
Over the past two years, the institute provided funding to support 100 faculty projects, with 46 such projects supported this past academic year, encompassing research, scholarship, and creative endeavors. Here are some noteworthy examples of those faculty projects, which specifically highlight the institute’s strategic interest in global Catholicism, peripheries, and interdisciplinary humanities research:
Individual Research Project: “Pastoring Nuns: Sibyl de Felton, Barking Abbey, and Leading Liturgy in Late Medieval England”
Led by Katie Bugyis, the Rev. John A. O’Brien Associate Professor in the Program of Liberal Studies
In the summer of 2023, the Nanovic Institute funded Bugyis as she traveled to England to complete manuscript and archival research for her second book project, Pastoring Nuns. While there, Bugyis examined several manuscripts attributed to Barking Abbey, a community of Benedictine nuns located just outside of London in Essex from roughly 666–1539, paying particular attention to material on Sibyl de Felton, the abbess of the community from 1393–1419.
Individual Research Project: “Mary Magdalene at the Abbey of St. George, Prague”
Led by Margot Fassler, Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Music History and Liturgy Emerita
In the spring of 2023, the Nanovic Institute funded Fassler’s travel to Prague to continue her research on liturgical manuscripts available in Czech libraries. While there, she focused on several medieval processionals, antiphoners, and breviaries from the Abbey of St. George. This research will appear in a short monograph, in preparation, as well as a chapter in an edited volume tentatively titled The Ladies on the Hill: The Life, Culture, and Art of Two Imperial Foundations.
Individual Research Project: “Planetary Catholicism: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and the Postwar Global Order”
Led by Sarah Shortall, Associate Professor of History
With support from the Nanovic Institute, Shortall traveled to Paris and Rome in summer 2023 to undertake archival research for her second book project, Planetary Catholicism. Her book will examine the global reception of the work of Jesuit priest and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, using it as a means to explore the contribution of religion to global consciousness since the Second World War.
Collaborative Research Project: “Shore to Shore: Global Connectivities, Resiliency, and Island Worlds of Inishark and Inishbofin, Ireland 1650-1950”
Led by Meredith Chesson, Associate Professor of Anthropology, and Ian Kuijt, Associate Professor of Anthropology
As part of the ongoing research conducted the Cultural Landscapes of the Irish Coast (CLIC) project—led by Chesson, Kuijt, and Audrey Horning (The College of William and Mary)—Chesson spent four weeks in Inishbofin, Ireland in the summer of 2024, with support from the Nanovic Institute. There, she worked to establish and launch an Archival Repository as part of CLIC’s ongoing collaboration with descendant community members on Inishark and Inishbofin, Co. Galway.
Individual Research Project: “Landscape of Projections: Documenting the Decay of Memory in Finland”
Led
by
Cecilia Kim, Assistant Professor of Film Production
With support from the Nanovic Institute, Kim traveled to the island of Örö (Finland) in December 2023, to conduct independent work for a new video project titled “Landscape of Projections.” Her project explores the question of how we build a home in an unfamiliar environment, asking how we develop attachments to cultivate a sense of belonging over time.
Individual Research Project: “Orwell’s Women”
Led by Eileen Hunt, Professor of Political Science
With the Nanovic Institute’s support, Hunt is writing the first feminist intellectual history that shows how the most significant women in George Orwell’s life—from his socialist, suffragette, free-loving mother to his two free-loving wives who edited his work to his sister who adopted his orphaned son—shaped his literary tastes, political views, and legacy as a writer. This influence is crystallized in Orwell’s vision of Julia as a model of free and daring womanhood and resistance to oppression in Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). The institute is also offering funding in support of an undergraduate student, Clare Duffy, who has served as a research assistant to Hunt during the course of this project. Duffy will use these funds to present her contributions to this research as part of Hunt’s panel at this year’s American Political Science Association meeting in September.
MAJOR AWARDS AND GRANTS WON BY FACULTY FELLOWS IN 2023–24:
Katie Bugyis, the Rev. John A. O’Brien Associate Professor in the Program of Liberal Studies, and Margot Fassler, the KeoughHesburgh Professor of Music History and Liturgy Emerita, were awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant for their project building a website to preserve and educate others on medieval liturgy.
Katlyn Marie Carter, assistant professor of history, was awarded the Gilbert Chinard Book Award and honorable mention for the Louis Gottschalk Prize from the American Society for EighteenthCentury Studies—both for her book Democracy in Darkness: Secrecy and Transparency in the Age of Revolutions (Yale University Press, 2023).
Patrick Griffin, Thomas Moore and Judy Livingston Director of the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies and Madden-Hennbry Professor of History, was elected as a distinguished fellow at the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford.
Deborah Javeline, professor of political science, received honorable mention for the Distinguished Book Award, Ethnicity, Nationalism, & Migration Studies of the International Studies Association, for her book After Violence: Russia’s Beslan School Massacre and the Peace that Followed (Oxford University Press, 2023).
Karrie Koesel, associate professor of political science, together with Aleksandar Matovski (Naval Postgraduate School), received a grant from the Department of Defense’s Defense Education and Civilian University Research (DECUR) Partnership for their project “Kremlin Influence Operations in Online Spaces.”
Raymond Offenheiser, senior advisor to the dean and director of the McKenna Center for Human Development and Global Business at the Keough School of Global Affairs, received the 2024 President’s Award, which recognizes “pioneering and visionary achievements in research, public impact, and/or creative endeavors that advance University goals.”
María Rosa Olivera-Williams, professor of Spanish, received an NEH Scholarly Editions and Translations grant for her project on Rubén Darío, poet and leader of the modernismo Spanish-language literary movement.
Gretchen Reydams-Schils, professor in the Program of Liberal Studies, was awarded a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship for her project “‘Becoming like God’: Perfection in Platonism and Stoicism (1c. BCE–2c. CE).”
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FACULTY FELLOW PUBLICATIONS IN 2023–24*
Aguilera-Mellado, Pedro. “Escombros contemporáneos, estratos modernos … y secreto marxista de la ‘existencia’ en el cine de Tito Montero.” Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies 14 (2024).
Albahari, Maurizio. “Externalization of Borders,” in The Cambridge History of Global Migrations. Cambridge University Press, 2023.
Alford, Roger. “Antitrust Accountability Delayed: State Antitrust Enforcement and Multidistrict Litigation.” SMU Science & Technology Law Review 26:1 (2023).
Ameriks, Karl. Kantian Dignity & Its Difficulties. Oxford University Press, 2024.
Avvakumov, Yury (ed.). The Churches and the War: Religion, Religious Diplomacy, and Russia’s Aggression against Ukraine. Ukrainian Catholic University Press, 2024.
Bachmann, Ruediger (ed.). Handbook of Economic Expectations. Academic Press, 2023.
Banella, Laura, “Repurposing the Book as a Message: Italian Lyric Manuscripts in Prison.” Renaissance Studies (2024).
Beihammer, Alexander. The Islamic–Byzantine Border in History: From the Rise of Islam to the End of the Crusades. Edinburgh University Press, 2023.
Betz, John. Christ the Logos of Creation: An Essay in Analogical Metaphysics. Emmaus Academic, 2023.
Boes, Tobias. “Transnational Signification and National Literature: Schriftstreit of 1905-1914,” in German Literature as a Transnational Field of Production. Boydell & Brewer, Camden House, 2023.
Brown, Jeremy. “What Does the Messiah Know? A Prelude to Kabbalah’s Trinity Complex.” Maimonides Review of Philosophy and Religion 2 (2023).
Bugyis, Katie. “The Materiality of Female Religious Reform in Twelfth-Century Ireland: The Case of Co-Located Religious Houses,” in Women and Monastic Reform in the Medieval West, c. 1000–1500. Boydell & Brewer, 2023.
Cachey, Theodore. “Geografie della scrittura,” in Geografie del Petrarca, a cura di Gino Belloni, Manlio Pastore Stocchi e Francesco Piovan. Editrice Antenore, 2024.
Carter, Katlyn. Democracy in Darkness: Secrecy and Transparency in the Age of Revolutions. Yale University Press, 2023.
Chesson, Meredith. Early Bronze Age IA mortuary practices and difference on the south-eastern Dead Sea Plain, Jordan. Routledge, 2023.
Deak, John. The Fates of Nations: Varieties of Success and Failure for Great Powers in Long-Term Rivalries. RAND Corporation, 2024.
Dowd, Rev. Robert. “Can student body diversity foster interethnic trust, tolerance, and patriotism? The Role of Friendship in Kenya.” American Journal of Political Science (2024).
Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. Approaches to Global History: To See the World Whole. Bloomsbury, 2023.
*This list focuses on Nanovic Institute faculty fellows; in some instances, other authors or editors are also credited but not listed here.
Gregory, Brad. “History and Politics as If We Still Lived in the Holocene.” History and Theory 62:3 (2023).
Gresik, Thomas. “Tax policy competition under destination‐based taxation.” Review of International Economics (2024).
Griffin, Patrick. The Age of Atlantic Revolution: The Fall and Rise of a Connected World. Yale University Press, 2023.
Gürel, Perin. “Politics of Beauty: Modernization, Comparativism, and the Empress of Iran.” Diplomatic History 47:2 (2023).
Hösle, Vittorio, Philosophische Literatur-Interpretationen von Dante bis le Carré. Verlag Karl Alber, 2023.
Huk, Romana. Rewriting the Word “God”: In The Arc of Converging Lines between Innovative Theory, Theology, and Poetry. University of Alabama Press, 2024.
Hunt, Eileen. The First Last Man: Mary Shelley and the Post-Apocalyptic Imagination. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024.
Jarvis, Katie. La politique sur les marchés. Travail, genre et citoyenneté dans la France révolutionnaire. Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2023.
Javeline, Debra. After Violence: Russia’s Beslan School Massacre and the Peace that Followed. Oxford University Press, 2023.
Johnson, Ian Ona. “Ernst Volckheim, Heinz Guderian, and the Origins of German Armor Doctrine” The Journal of Military History 86:1 (2023).
Jones, C.J. Fixing the Liturgy: Friars, Sisters, and the Dominican Rite, 1256-1516. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024.
Joshua, Essaka. “Romantic Sociability, Deaf Comedy, and John Poole’s Deaf as a Post (1823).” Studies in Romanticism 63 (2023).
Koesel, Karrie J. “Church and State in Contemporary China: Securing Christianity.” Politics and Religion 17:1 (2024).
Kuijt, Ian. “How many people lived in the World’s earliest villages? Reconsidering community size and population pressure at Neolithic Çatalhöyük.” The Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 74 (2024).
Leavitt, Charles L., IV. “Introduction: Fascism in Italian Culture 1945-2023.” Annali D’Italianistica 41 (2023).
Lehner, Ulrich L. Inszenierte Keuschheit: Sexualdelikte in der Gesellschaft Jesu im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert. De Gruyter, 2023.
Lincicum, David. Israel’s Scriptures in Early Christian Writings: The Use of the Old Testament in the New. Eerdmans, 2023.
McAdams, A. James. Far-Right Newspeak and the Future of Liberal Democracy. Routledge, 2024.
Morel, Oliver. The ‘German Illusion’: Germany and Jewish-German Motifs in Hélène Cixous’s Late Work. Bloomsbury, 2023.
Mouton Kinyon, Chanté. “‘I’m apparently not famous anymore’: Appropriating Dion Boucicault’s Octoroon and Reckoning with Racial Violence in America,” in Transnationalism and Irish Literature. Cambridge University Press 2024.
Ó Conchubhair, Brian. “The Celtic Literary Society: A Political and Secular Gaelic League?” in The Irish Revival: A Complex Vision. Syracuse University Press, 2023.
Philpott, Daniel. “Bishops of Peace.” Journal of Social Encounters 7:1 (2023).
Powell, Emilia Justyna. The Peaceful Resolution of Territorial and Maritime Disputes. Oxford University Press, 2023.
Reydams-Schils, Gretchen (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Roman Philosophy. Oxford University Press, 2023.
Roche, Mark. Beautiful Ugliness: Christianity, Modernity, and the Arts. University of Notre Dame Press, 2023.
Sedmak, Clemens. Enacting Integral Human Development. Orbis Books, 2023.
Semes, Steven (trans.). New building in old cities: Writings by Gustavo Giovannoni on Architectural and Urban Conservation. Getty Conservation Institute, 2024.
Shortall, Sarah. “From the Three Bodies of Christ to the King’s Two Bodies: The Theological Origins of Secularization Theory.” Modern Intellectual History 20:3 (2023).
Vitti, Paolo. Lime and Gypsum Structural Mortars in Historic Construction, Reference Module in Social Sciences. Elsevier, 2023.
Wang, Emily. Pushkin, the Decembrists, and Civic Sentimentalism. University of Wisconsin Press, 2023.
Wengle, Susanne. “Russia’s War on Ukrainian Farms: The Black Sea Theater.” Russian Analytical Digest (2023).
VISITING SCHOLAR RESEARCH
Over the last academic year, the Nanovic Institute hosted six visiting scholars, with five from CUP institutions and two from UCU, as well as one diplomat in residence from St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge. While in residence, these scholars pursued meaningful research and teaching projects that aligned with the institute’s research priorities. Here are just a few examples of their projects:
Individual Research Project: “Imagination and the Cosmic Consciousness in Chaucer’s The House of Fame”
Led by Dominika Ruszkiewicz, Assistant Professor in the Department of English Language and Culture (Jesuit University Ignatianum in Kraków)
During her time at the Nanovic Institute, Ruszkiewicz focused on the work of Geoffrey Chaucer—specifically his poem The House of Fame. Looking at the theoretical work of Pierre Hadot, she developed a case that Chaucer’s poem contains echoes of an ancient exercise referred to as “the view from above,” which engages the faculties of the imagination to enable an individual to review their life and to situate it in the context of universal nature. The results of this research were published as a peer-reviewed article in Religions titled “Imagination and the Cosmic Consciousness in Chaucer’s The House of Fame,” which can be read here: go.nd.edu/07ce14
Individual
Research
Project: “Sailing the Legal Tides: Exploring the Legal Dimensions of Maritime Piracy in International Law”
Led by Amarilla Kiss, Assistant Professor in the Institute of International Studies and Political Science (Pázmány Péter Catholic University)
While a visiting scholar, Kiss continued her research on the legal history of piracy, the difference between piracy and armed robbery, its regulation in international law, and how states incorporate this definition. Her project explored the human rights aspects, jurisdictional issues in apprehending perpetrators, and the case law of affected states. To this end, she organized a book workshop in which she presented her research to colleagues at Notre Dame and sparked important discussions in the field of maritime law.
STUDENT RESEARCH
At the core of the Nanovic Institute’s mission lies a commitment to creating “artisans of a new humanity.” To this end, the institute consistently supports undergraduate and graduate students as they pursue significant and impactful research projects. Over the 2023–24 academic year, the institute awarded 32 undergraduate grants and 26 graduate grants. Here are some examples of individual and group projects that these awards have supported:
Individual Research Project: “Practice and Reason: Understanding the Relationship between Byzantine Mosaics and Architectural Designs”
Led by Chioma Oparaji ’25, Architecture Major
Oparaji secured funding from the Nanovic Institute to conduct research in the northern Italian city of Ravenna. In one week of research, she studied ancient Byzantine mosaics,
participated in a five-day mosaic workshop, and visited Ravenna’s early Christian monuments.
To learn more about her research, visit: go.nd.edu/15534b
Individual Research Project: “Lessons for Senior Living: Community Design from Medieval Flanders”
Led by Ashley Straub ’24, Architecture Major with a concentration in historic preservation and a minor in Italian
During the 2023 fall break, Straub traveled to three cities in Belgium with support from the Nanovic Institute. She studied the béguinages, hospitals, and god houses of Bruges, Leuven, and Brussels to inform the design of her senior architectural thesis project in the spring semester. To learn more about her project, visit: go.nd.edu/straub
Individual Research Project: “Liberal Kingship: The Case of Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria”
Led by Stephanie Truskowski, Ph.D. Candidate in History
During her time as a graduate fellow at the Nanovic Institute (2023–24), Truskowski’s research explored the significance of the Second Mexican Empire in European history. Whereas many historians depict this empire as an event that only held relevance for Mexico, Truskowski argues that it might likewise be viewed as the culmination of developments both within the Habsburg empire and in Europe writ large. In
this way, her project calls scholars to reconsider how they understand the relationship between Europe and the rest of the world.
To read more about her research, visit: go.nd.edu/maximilian
Individual Research Project: “Discovering Peripheries in Italy: Korea within European Cities”
Led by Inha Park, Ph.D. Candidate in Italian studies
During the summer of 2023, Park traveled to Italy with a grant from the Nanovic Institute to research how Italians, from ordinary working-class people to artists and intellectuals, have represented and recounted the Korean War from their unique perspectives.
To learn more about her research, visit: go.nd.edu/26ab3b
Group Research Project: “Writing the War in Ukraine”
Led by student researchers Andriana Opryshko ’24, Yuliia Sokolenko ’25, Halyna Tuziak ’25, and Bohdana Yakobchuk ’25 from Ukrainian Catholic University, and Lindsay Burgess ’24, Anna Gazewood ’24, Abigail Keaney ’24, and Jake Miller ’24 from Notre Dame, with advisor and introduction-writer Sofiia Dobko (UCU ‘23) and Nanovic Institute leaders Abigail Lewis and Gráinne McEvoy
The result of a 2023 summer research project organized by the Nanovic Institute, this digital exhibition presents several pieces of Ukrainian poetry (including songs) together with responses from eight undergraduate students from Notre Dame and Ukrainian Catholic University. Working in teams of two, one student from each university, researchers explored the significance of written language in the context of the Russian war
on Ukraine. By focusing on the works of poets and artists, the researchers explored the themes of protest, testimony, prayer, witnessing, and the memorialization of the war in poetic words. The project expanded upon a previous student research project and art exhibit, “Ukrainian Art as Protest and Resilience.”
Explore the digital exhibit at: go.nd.edu/ukrainewriting
Group Research Project: “Fighting for Democracy and Human Rights through the Arts”
Led by student researchers Ethan Chiang ’27, Anna Gazewood ’24, Monay Licata ’25, Kendra Lyimo ’24, Abby O’Connor ’26, Jane Palmer ’26, Cate Porter ’25, Annie Rehill ’24, Erin Tutaj ’24, and Isabelle Wilson ’26, with student advisor and introduction-writer Clare Barloon ’24 and Nanovic Institute leader Abigail Lewis
This project, the third installment in the Nanovic Institute’s series of student-led research and digital art exhibitions, features the results of undergraduate research conducted in spring 2024. Ten students each wrote about a distinct artist and their efforts to use art as a platform for confronting human rights abuses, protesting the proliferation of war, and safeguarding democratic
rights in Europe and beyond. The artists come from many backgrounds and work in mediums as diverse as installations, illustration, performance art, and street murals.
Explore the online exhibit at: go.nd.edu/ArtsDemocracy
Grants Received
Notre Dame Democracy Initiative Grant
“Undermining Democracy in Online Spaces: Decoding Russian & Chinese Digital Influence Operations”
PI: Karrie Koesel, Associate Professor of Political Science
Co-PI: Tim Weninger, Frank M. Freimann Collegiate Professor of Engineering
Amount: $200,000
Authoritarian regimes actively spread misinformation within democracies to achieve their goals. They aim to disrupt democratic political systems and widen existing divides. They utilize social media platforms to erode trust in democratic elections and referendums, amplify extremist voices, trigger violence, mobilize vigilante mobs, and advance autocratic interests. This project examines the methods by which authoritarian governments seek to weaken democratic institutions, values, and political systems in social media spaces.
This multidisciplinary research combines social science methodologies and digital forensics to study Russian and Chinese anti-democratic narratives and responses to these narratives across social media platforms. The objectives of this study are to (1) identify Russian and Chinese propaganda efforts at scale; (2) classify and compare anti-democratic narratives, techniques, and objectives informed by political, social, and cultural contexts; (3) track the diffusion and evolution of Moscow and Beijing’s influence operations across platforms and communities; (4) advance new theoretical models of democratic erosion and disinformation; and (5) empirically test the impact of anti-democratic narratives by combining computational analysis with an in-depth case study of Hungary.
“Toward a Global Institutional Ethics for Catholic Universities in Conversation with Pope Francis”
PI: Clemens Sedmak, Director, Nanovic Institute for European Studies, and Professor of Social Ethics
Co-PIs: Katie Bugyis, Rev. John A. O’Brien Associate Professor in the Program of Liberal Studies; Mark L. Poorman, C.S.C., Associate Professor of Theology; Mark W. Roche, Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Professor of German Language and Literature; Suzanne Shanahan, Leo and Arlene Hawk Executive Director, Center for Social Concerns, and Professor of Sociology
Amount: $86,355
This 16-month pilot project explores three research questions through structured engagement with four different Catholic Universities with which Notre Dame has strong ties: Strathmore University in Nairobi (Africa), St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai (Asia), the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (Europe), and the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (South America):
1. What does the Pontificate of Pope Francis contribute to an ethics of universities?
2. What are specific contemporary moral challenges faced by Catholic universities?
3. What is an appropriate model of institutional ethics to respond to these challenges?
The goal of the pilot is to generate the building blocks for a grounded, global, and contextual ethics for Catholic universities.
“Grounded” means that the approach is empirical and takes the contemporary, diverse institutional realities into account. “Global” means that the project intends to develop a moral compass
relevant to Catholic universities worldwide.
“Contextual” means that the model will respect the diversity and pluralism of local conditions.
The pilot project will produce six research outputs: (i) a globally first systematic exploration of the teaching of Pope Francis with regard to the institutional ethics of universities, (ii) a survey instrument piloted on the four campuses and refined for fielding across all Catholic universities, (iii) a series of open-ended, in-depth interviews with stakeholders at each of the four sites, (iv) two case studies per university, (v) two virtual conferences, and (vi) an initial ethical framework for Catholic universities.
This scalable pilot and the work that will follow seek to position Notre Dame as a global thought leader for developing an institutional ethics for Catholic universities.
ND-Durham Seed Grant – Notre Dame Global
“Lived Catholicism and Social Justice”
PI: Clemens Sedmak, Director, Nanovic Institute for European Studies, and Professor of Social Ethics
Co-PI: Karen Kilby, Bede Professor of Catholic Theology (Durham University)
Amount: $25,000
This pilot project works to develop the nascent, cross-disciplinary field of study “lived Catholicism” as a context and stimulus for shared research. The particular focus will be on Pope Francis’ global experiment, the “Synod on Synodality.” “Lived Catholicism” as an intellectual framework and Synod as an object of focus share an orientation towards social justice: each seeks to move beyond traditional power
External Foundation Grant
Summer School in Lublin, Poland (2025 & 2026)
structures and attend to the voices and concerns of those who have been marginalized. Researchers will gather data on various individuals’ experiences of synodality through interviews and focus-group discussions in four countries (UK, Germany, Poland, and Hungary). The project will culminate in an in-person, European-focused colloquium in April in London and an online, globally-reaching conference.
The Nanovic Institute for European Studies & The Catholic University of Lublin
Amount: $50,000
In July of 2024, the Nanovic Institute will sponsor a summer school program in the historic city of Lublin, Poland titled “Site and Symbol of Jewish Presence.” Here, students will participate in a structured, multidisciplinary course of lectures, visits to historic sites, and guided selfexploration. They will learn about (1) the cultural heritage of the Jewish community as a minority group, (2) the value of (the individuals belonging to) the group in shaping the host community, and (3) the dangers inherent in the cultivated and manipulated perception of “the Other” in the broader context of the modern world in view of its current challenges.
In anticipation of this program’s success, the Nanovic Institute, in partnership with Advisory Board member David Buckley, has successfully procured a grant from an external foundation, which will support the continuation of this summer school in 2025 and 2026 (also in Lublin). By extending this summer school over two more years, the program will be able to stitch together a holistic view of Jewish presence in the region. This sustained attention to the Polish Jewish population will allow students to recognize and understand the long-term presence, influence, and contributions of this community.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee on Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe Grant
“Cultivating Integral Human Development through a Leadership of Care: Creating a Community of Women Leaders at Catholic Universities in Central and Eastern Europe”
The Nanovic Institute for European Studies
Amount: $40,000
The Nanovic Institute plans to sponsor an Advanced Leadership Program for women leaders of Catholic universities in Central and Eastern Europe in Rome, Italy, in the summer of 2025. The first version of this advanced leadership program took place in May 2022. It was a special form of the Nanovic sponsored Catholic Leadership Institute, which has taken place at the University of Notre Dame every one to two years since 2017. In 2025, the Advanced Leadership Program will focus on a “leadership of care,” renewing and deepening the leadership of 21 women leaders of the Catholic Universities Partnership (CUP). It will create a unique
opportunity for women to learn from other women leaders who have faced similar challenges and opportunities, build a resilient network of leaders across generations and institutions, and develop a chain of mentorship that will endure, inspire, and advance opportunities for other women leaders in Catholic higher education.
Looking Ahead
“Notre Dame must be the leading global Catholic research university, on par with but distinct from the world’s best private universities.This effort to educate students and conduct research at the highest level animated by a distinctive Catholic mission is one of the most exciting and consequential experiments in global higher education.”
– Notre Dame 2033: A Strategic Framework
The strategic framework of the University of Notre Dame encourages its academic units to “think as an institution.” In response to this charge, the Nanovic Institute will be more and more intentional and strategic about entering into partnerships and collaborations. Already, the institute is making significant strides in this direction. One expression of this move towards cross-unit collaboration is the Ukrainian Studies Hub, which will be officially inaugurated in March 2025 with an international conference. The Hub is intended to coordinate Notre Dame’s research efforts on Ukraine—efforts that happen in and through many different academic units.
Another example of cross-unit collaboration will be a research project on Catholic universities and their specific moral challenges. Over the next year, the institute will also explore a spectrum of European experiences with “synodality” and Pope Francis’ vision of a synodal church.
As per our strategic plan, the Nanovic Institute will focus on the question of how Europe is experienced from “the peripheries.” Perspectives “from the margins” offer particular insights into Europe, which can be seen in “auto-sociobiographical” texts, for example. To mention four specific examples:
• Katriona O’Sullivan’s memoir Poor, which describes her childhood in dire poverty, serves as a window into the Irish and British welfare system;
• Francis Seeck’s book Zugang verwehrt is a first-hand account of classism in Germany with deep insights into the distribution of visible and invisible privileges;
• Gianluca Nicoletti reflects on his experience as father of a son diagnosed on the autism spectrum in his Una notte ho sognato che parlavi—a book that also tells stories about institutions, society, and culture; and
• Yeva Skalietska’s moving text You Don’t Know What War Is: The Diary of a Young Girl from Ukraine offers a 12-year-old girl’s experience in Kharkiv after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The institute will engage with “road[s] less traveled” and non-mainstream perspectives to reach a more inclusive understanding of Europe.
In a systematic approach to peripheries and their significance for European studies, the Nanovic Institute will coordinate the aforementioned publication of the Routledge Handbook of Peripheries and European Studies, which will bring roughly 40 authors together to explore this topic from different perspectives, working with geographical, structural, socio-political, and epistemic peripheries.
The Nanovic Institute believes that systematic research on peripheries constitutes a serious contribution to European studies, and represents the distinctive perspective of an institute housed within a Catholic university. Such research draws inspiration both from the Catholic idea of the “preferential option for the poor” and from Pope Francis’ exhortation—explicitly repeated to Notre Dame’s leadership in their audience on January 31, 2024—to go out to the peripheries, seeking new ways of including, learning from, and building up those on the outskirts of conventional centers of human experience.
STAFF
Clemens Sedmak
Director and Professor of Social Ethics
Jacob Kildoo
Research Program Manager, Grants & Publications
Abigail Lewis
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Rev. James Lies, C.S.C.
Senior Advisor for Faculty Fellow Affairs and Partnerships
Hildegund Müller
Senior Liaison for Research and Curricular Affairs and Associate Professor of Classics
