College of Arts & Letters | Latest News

Elizabeth Shewark’s lab looks more like a daycare than a research facility — but that’s kind of the point. The Childhood and Adolescence Resilience (CARE) Lab in Corbett Family Hall is where Shewark and her team observe families and children at play, hoping to learn how different factors impact children’s social, emotional, and academic development over time. “Their lives are happening outside of…

This summer, four doctoral students affiliated with the Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government studied language, culture, and political thought abroad in France. First-year constitutional studies students Luke Thompson, Kody Richards, and Zachary Coddington, as well as political science student Matthew Arildsen, all received grants from the CCCG to make their summer programs possible.…

Essaka Joshua’s research has taken her from The New York Public Library to archives in Scotland, tracing the intersections of Romantic theatre and disability studies. Her next stop is a little closer to home. A professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, Joshua was recently named a 2026-27 long-term fellow at the Newberry Library. In January, she will begin six months of research at the…

This summer, America celebrated the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, widely recognized as the formal founding of our nation and one of the early stages of establishing a democratic government. Over the past two decades, however, democracies all over the world have struggled with a lack of clear support. Democracy scholars have referred to these challenges as ev…

In an age of artificial intelligence, rapid change, and global uncertainty, Kenneth Scheve ’90, the I.A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts & Letters and Keough -Hesburgh Professor of Political Science, believes the liberal arts are not becoming…

Gilberto Cárdenas, professor emeritus of sociology and founding director of the Institute of Latino Studies (ILS) at the University of Notre Dame, died Sunday, July 26. He was 79. Cárdenas was born in post-World…

As the University of Notre Dame’s Democracy Initiative approaches its fourth year, Inaugural Director David Campbell, the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy, is preparing to transition leadership of the initiative to renowned political scientist Ken Kollman, the Dr. William M. Scholl Professor of Politics in the Department of Political Science and the Keough School of Global Affairs. K…

The Library of Congress has named David Campbell, the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame, to the Kluge Chair in American Law and Governance, a prestigious research appointment focused on legal, constitutional and political issues related to the institutions of American government.

Notre Dame economists William Evans and Ethan Lieber examined the prescription practices of physicians in the late 1990s and found that they had increased the frequency and extent to which they prescribed opioids for treating chronic pain, contributing to the overall increase in opioid use and subsequent overdose deaths across the country.

The Notre Dame Arts Initiative has awarded 38 grants to foster sustained growth in the arts through partner programming for the inaugural Notre Dame Arts Biennial, scheduled for January through…

Every year, the bishops of the Coptic Orthodox Church in North America meet for a consultation to discuss theological issues. This year, the University of Notre Dame hosted the discussion for the first time — a landmark moment in the history of Coptic and Catholic cooperation. Gathering under the auspices of the Tantur Ecumenical Institute, the 12 visiting bishops spent two balmy days in mid-June…

At a recent University of Notre Dame reunion, Rev. Stephen M. Koeth, C.S.C., ’99, reconnected with old friends and shared stories of his life today, highlighting how he builds relationships with students, both in the classroom and as a priest in residence at Stanford Hall. “You’re living the dream,” one of his friends said. Koeth was struck by just how true that statement was. Since he first enco…

The College of Arts & Letters Office of the Dean has appointed several new leaders in the College and across its departments, centers, and institutes. Their terms begin July 1, 2026, unless otherwise noted. College …

Notre Dame faculty are conducting research around the globe year-round. Their research spans continents, connects them with remote parts of the world, and even brings them into war and conflict-torn areas. For some, that’s exactly where they need to be. Notre Dame psychology…

Rev. John I Jenkins C.S.C.(Photo by Barbara Johnston/University of Notre Dame) Commonweal, the oldest independent, lay-led, Catholic journal of opinion in the United States, created the award in 2024 in recognition of the journal’s 100th anniversary. Father Jenkins will be presented with the award, which is given biennially, at the Commonweal Benefit Dinner on Oct. 5 in New York City.

The global health space has the power to connect researchers across disciplines and bring light to the world’s pressing challenges. For Ph.D. students and candidates who are pursuing research in global health, the Eck Institute for Global Health at the University of Notre Dame facilitates this with its Ph.D. Fellowship program.

The University of Notre Dame announced the launch of the Earth and planetary sciences (EPS) minor, a multidisciplinary program designed to prepare students for the rapidly expanding global space sector. A collaboration between the College of Engineering, the…

Virna Vidal-Menezes, a Ph.D. candidate in economics and a fellow in Notre Dame’s Program for Interdisciplinary Educational Research (ND PIER),…

University of Notre Dame rising senior Katharine Steffes has been awarded a Beinecke Scholarship worth $35,000 in support of her graduate education. She is Notre Dame’s 11th Beinecke Scholar overall and third since 2023.

In 1970, nearly half of all Black individuals in the U.S. resided in a large city. Over the past 50 years, that number has fallen to merely 25 percent, while the share living in the suburbs of large cities rose from 16 to 36 percent. This demographic shift is as large as the post-World War II wave of the Great Migration, according to Notre Dame economist Evan Mast, who set out study whether subur…