College of Arts & Letters | Latest News

Around the turn of the fifth century, Hypatia was a prominent philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician living in the Roman Empire. Today, she’s the figurehead of the Hypatia Scholars Program at the University of Notre Dame. Housed in the Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values, the Hypatia Scholars Program is a yearlong experience that offers first-year science and engineering student…

The University of Notre Dame celebrated its 181st Commencement Ceremony on Sunday (May 17) at Notre Dame Stadium. An audience of more than 20,000 family members, friends, faculty and graduates were in attendance as 2,120 degrees were conferred on undergraduate students.

A team of four University of Notre Dame undergraduate students won the national competition America’s Startup with their pitch for a data security company, alongside nine other teams from universities across the country. America’s Startup…

John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost and Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, has been elected to the Society of American Historians “in recognition…

On Tuesday, May 12, John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost at the University of Notre Dame, announced the winners of the 2026 University…

Notre Dame seniors Gabriela Sierocka and Kate Rafford earned 2026 Library Research Awards in the Capstone or Thesis Research category.

In his four years at the University of Notre Dame, Cade Czarnecki ’26 has majored in political science and economics, studied for a semester each in Washington, D.C., and Greece, served as president of the multi-partisan BridgeND club, earned a spot as an inaugural undergraduate fellow with the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative, and worked as a research operations analyst for the Wilson Sheehan Lab…

Program of Liberal Studies major Quinn McKenna ’23 knows that even the “great books” are built one line, one chapter at a time. The best career advice she got from her professors was to do exactly that: focus on just the next chapter. “If you let your interests and your passion guide this next chapter, everything will unfold as it should,” she said. Since graduating, the south Florida native has …

Grace Leeson wasn’t accustomed to being behind the pack. But here she was in Puebla, Mexico — for a whole semester her junior year — and out of everyone in her cohort, she was the only one who was not either a Spanish major or a native speaker. Most of her classes were entirely in Spanish, she was living with a Spanish-speaking host family, and she’d be shadowing Spanish-speaking doctors. Though …

University of Notre Dame alumnus Paul Popiel, D.M.A., will return to his alma mater to lead the oldest continuously operating collegiate band in the country as Kenn and Pamela Ricci Director of Bands. In this role, Popiel will oversee the University’s band program through the Division of Student Affairs, and serve as a faculty member in the Department of Music through the College of Arts & Le…

Graduating senior Eva Romero knows her facts. “Fewer than 60 percent of students in the United States who enroll full-time at a four-year school will graduate with a bachelor’s degree within six years,” she said, “and the challenge is even greater for low-income students.” According to research from Notre Dame’s Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO), where Romero served as a researc…

Cordova Lopez, a psychology major with a supplemental major in education, schooling and society, has made the most of her four years at Notre Dame. Now, as a mentor to first-year students at Notre Dame through the Building Bridges program, she has one key piece of advice for them: Trust that the things you’re passionate about will lead you somewhere meaningful.

Carolyn Dell’s career path was ignited by a fireworks show. As a sophomore in high school, Dell’s father — who worked in theme parks entertainment — gave her the opportunity to program part of a fireworks show at Six Flags. Dell watched as her art lit up the sky and became the backdrop for a couple’s surprise engagement. That’s when she knew that, no matter what, she needed to continue making art…

If in August 2022, you asked me what I thought my time at the University of Notre Dame would look like, I probably would have given you a clear and confident answer. I would have told you about classes I’d like to take, clubs I hoped to join, and would’ve declared with certainty that I’d become a…

Xavier Navarro Aquino, assistant professor of English, unexpectedly passed away Wednesday (May 6). He was 36. An acclaimed novelist and beloved teacher, mentor, and colleague, Navarro Aquino was a member of the Creative Writing Program and a faculty fellow of the Institute for Latino Studies and the Initiative on Race and Resilience. “Xavier's writing and artwork communicate with absolute clarity…

Bike south along the Link Trail, take a Transpo bus along Route 7, or drive a block past Rocco’s restaurant on South Bend Avenue, and you’ll find a building that’s more than bricks and siding. It’s the region’s newest mental health ally. When it opens this June, the Wilma and Peter Veldman Family Psychology Clinic will expand local access to mental healthcare through a combination of research, tr…

One day a few years ago, Jeff Harden set out to do something different — complete a research project alone. And it hasn’t been pretty. “It has been a very painful process,” Harden said. “It's almost been like using a lawnmower that needs to be oiled really badly.” Although the work has been arduous, it has also been deeply validating to the Andrew J. McKenna Family College Professor of Political …

As any good mentor does, Kasey Buckles helps her graduate students produce the best work they can. She keeps them on schedule and refines their research questions. She points them toward analytical tools and connects them with other resources. But she also knows that there’s more to life than writing an economics dissertation. “Our students can very easily fall into the trap of thinking their wor…

Fourteen scholars will participate in the third round of the Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good’s Research Innovation Collaboratives. These “labs” build on the University’s strategic framework…

The Hesburgh Libraries recently announced the winners of the 2026 University of Notre Dame Library Research Award. This year, nine undergraduate students from disciplines across the University earned honors for their strong research skills and effective…