Center for Social Concerns Newsletter | March 2024
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Turning good intentions into positive impact
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Katie Comeau, a postdoctoral research associate at the Center for Social Concerns, studies organizations and leadership. She focuses her research on the culture that churches and other nonprofits need to have a positive impact with their work.
“I’m interested in the organization of doing good work,” she said.
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| Summer programs connect academics to real world
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In early June, 200 undergrads from Notre Dame will set out across the U.S. and around the world for the Center’s signature summer programs — NDBridge and Summer Fellowships.
The students represent all of the University’s undergraduate colleges and schools, and see the summer as an opportunity to pursue their interests in a real-world context.
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Solidarity and the City taps into ND’s national network
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The Center for Social Concerns course Solidarity and the City explores the principle and practice of solidarity in the context of a city that students visit during spring break.
Putting together a meaningful and authentic experience for students enrolled in the course requires a robust network of community partners and Notre Dame alumni.
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‘Art and Labor’ at the Raclin Murphy
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This month, the Labor Café will meet at Notre Dame’s new art museum for “Art and Labor: Engaging Questions of Work, Representation, and Identity at the Raclin Murphy.”
Friday, March 22, 4:00–5:00 p.m.
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
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| Patience, Courage & the Pursuit of Justice
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Join our conversation with Sarah Schnitker, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University, where she studies virtue and character development.
Monday, March 25, noon–1:00 p.m., online via Zoom
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‘Let us Descend’ by Jesmyn Ward
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The Center for Social Concerns’ online book club will discuss “Let Us Descend” — a reimagining of American slavery as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching.
Tuesday, March 26, 7:00–8:15 p.m., online via Zoom
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| Diversity & Inclusion in the City of South Bend
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Cynthia Simmons-Taylor, head of diversity, compliance, and inclusion for South Bend’s city government, will speak at our monthly series Signs of the Times.
Friday, April 5, noon–1:00 p.m. Geddes Hall, Coffee House
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‘Unlocking Learning’ Book Launch
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Justin McDevitt, director of the Women’s College Partnership, part of the ND Programs for Education in Prison, co-edited the book with contributors from a dozen countries.
Thursday, April 11, 4:00–5:00 p.m.
Geddes Hall, Coffee House
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| Parker J. Palmer: Education & Vocation
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Tune in for our conversation with Parker Palmer — an author, educator, and activist who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality, and social change.
Monday, April 15, noon–1:00 p.m., online via Zoom
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Register for Fall 2024 Justice Education Courses
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Cultivate your moral imagination, practical wisdom, and courage to act through Center for Social Concerns courses, including one-credit and three-credit options available to fit in your fall semester schedule.
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Check out the Center for Social Concerns’ Minors
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Virtues & Vocations Spring Issue: Purpose
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In the new issue, deeply personal essays illustrate how important self-transcendence is for the pursuit of purpose. And yet, their humor reminds us that not everything in life needs to be purposeful.
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| Poverty & Public Policy Spring Issue
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The latest edition of the journal presents original research as well as policy and book reviews that explore financial decision making, safety net use, and mental health, as well as the impact of microfinance.
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Above, from left: Spiritual writer, preacher, and community-cultivator Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove delivered the Center’s annual Junior Parents Weekend Lecture on Feb. 16. “I really believe in movement building, because I think movements can create new culture,” Wilson-Hartgrove said. On March 1, Mark Herriman, chief operations officer for United Way of St. Joseph County, talked about the “teach a man to fish” model of empowerment as part of the Signs of the Times series.
Below, left: SPIRE: the Global Catholic Social Tradition Network, hosted a conference, “Catholic Social Teaching and Technology: Reimagining the Internet,” from March 11-13 at St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai. Scholars and practitioners from India, Bangladesh, and several other countries took part in the conversations.
Below, right: Students in the course Racial Justice in America went on an immersive journey through the American South during spring break to visit significant sites related to racial justice, including Brown Chapel AME Church (top) in Selma, Alabama, and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice (bottom) in Montgomery, Alabama.
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Women played an integral role in the founding of the Center for Social Concerns in the early ’80s, so we’re highlighting women who have been a part of the Center’s story and hearing about what they’re doing now.
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Eileen Doherty ’90 | Evergreen Park, IL
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Eileen Doherty ’90 has spent her career at institutions where higher education generates transformative change for groups who have had less access to education or who have otherwise been marginalized.
She worked at St. Xavier University in Chicago for 20 years, first as director of campus ministry and then as dean of students, serving a largely first-generation student population. Since 2018, she’s been the assistant dean for student affairs at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria, which has a commitment to educate future physicians to practice in underserved communities.
As a Notre Dame student, Doherty had many formative experiences through the Center for Social Concerns, where she participated in the Community of the International Lay Apostolate, fall and spring break trips to Appalachia, immersive experiences in Toronto and Chicago, and a summer program at St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, Illinois.
She went on to earn two graduate degrees, a master of divinity and a Ph.D. in higher education, from Loyola University Chicago.
“The Center for Social Concerns awakened me to the issues of injustice in our societies and our world. It shaped for me a lens through which I learned to see the inequities that plague all of us and limit my fellow human beings from fulfilling their potential,” she said.
“My time at the Center for Social Concerns, along with my faith development through the University, laid the foundation for the choices I would make in life — choices to serve others, to facilitate positive change where I can, and to put my trust in God to lead the way for me.”
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