Measuring moral imagination
For the fall 2025 Appalachia seminar, the institute’s justice education staff designed a tool that assesses how the seminar develops students' moral imagination, drawing from the framework of an Appalachia seminar alum, West Point character scientist Elise Dykhuis.
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Summit envisions future of higher education
To celebrate the contributions of Jay Brandenberger ’78, professor of the practice, as he concludes his career, the institute hosted the Higher Education and the Common Good Summit on November 21 in the Geddes Hall Coffee House where Brandenberger spent much of his time over the years with students and colleagues.
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Miroslav Volf is the founder & director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. He will join us to discuss his most recent book, The Cost of Ambition: How Striving to Be Better Than Others Makes Us Worse.
Monday, Jan. 26, 2026
12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
On Zoom
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This student-oriented simulation will immerse participants in the lived experience of individuals returning to our community from prison to develop a better understanding of the systemic barriers they face, as well as the resilience it takes to overcome them.
Friday, Jan. 30, 2026
12:30 pm to 3:00 pm
Remick Commons, Visitation Hall
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The 2026 Encounter lectures kick off on Friday, Jan. 30, with a lecture by Christian ethicist Kate Ward, followed by lectures by Meghan Clark on Feb. 6, Traci West on March 27, and Linda Hogan on April 17. Plan to join us for one or all of these lectures!
Friday, Jan. 30, Feb. 6,
March 27, April 17, 2026
4:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Geddes Hall, Andrews Auditorium
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Social Concerns Alumni Book Club
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The alumni book club will discuss Ocean Vuong's The Emperor of Gladness, a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul.
Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026
7:00 p.m. to 8:15 p.m.
On Zoom
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Junior Parents Weekend Lecture
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Mark your calendars for our Junior Parents Weekend Lecture by Ayana Mathis, author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie and, most recently, The Unsettled.
Friday, Feb. 20, 2026
5:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Geddes Hall, Andrews Auditorium
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The 2026 Poverty Studies Distinguished Lecture will be delivered by Claudia Rowe, journalist and author of Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care.
Tuesday, April 21, 2026
5:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Geddes Hall, Andrews Auditorium
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Graduate Student Award: Apply Today!
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Graduate students are eligible to apply for a $1,000 Justice Lab Grad Student Award! The application for Spring 2026 is open through today, December 15.
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Integrating Virtue Fellows
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Notre Dame Integrating Virtues Fellows is an opportunity for faculty from the professional schools at Notre Dame to join a discipline-specific community of practice in integrating moral, intellectual, civic or performance virtues into a course they will teach in the 2026-2027 academic year. Apply by January 15.
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Are you a current first year student? Looking for a summer justice opportunity? Then NDBridge may be for you! NDBridge is a 1-credit course and an 8-week immersive summer experience where students think hard about injustice, work with communities around the world that face it, and consider their responsibility to the common good while at Notre Dame and beyond. Applications open through January 4.
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Are you a current sophomore or junior? Looking for a summer justice opportunity? Then apply for the Social Concerns Summer Fellowship! The Summer Fellowship is a 1-credit course that prepares students for an 8-week immersive summer experience where they work alongside a community organization, explore vocational aspirations, consider the dynamics of injustice, and conduct research. Applications open through January 8.
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Above: Jay Brandenberger, fourth from left, is joined by family and colleagues at his retirement celebration in the McNeill Gallery. Below: Postbaccalaureate Research Fellows Wonu Fasasi, second from left, and Hayden Kirwan, second from right, are joined by staff from the South Bend Community Reentry Center for the first ever reentry simulation at the Reentry Center.
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As an interdisciplinary academic institute, the Institute for Social Concerns leverages research to respond to the complex demands of justice and to serve the common good. This series, ReSearching for the Common Good, highlights some of the scholars in our community.
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Caroline Petrikas is a political science and gender studies double major, minoring in constitutional studies. A 2024 NDBridge participant, she is a recipient of a 2024 Researching for the Common Good Award from the institute. She is also a fellow with both the O’Brien Notre Dame International Security Center and the Hesburgh Democracy Initiative and is a part of the Glynn Family Honors Program.
Can you describe your research for NDBridge?
In the summer of 2024, I worked with Forum Connemara in Letterfrack, Ireland, focusing on how Ukrainian refugees were fitting into Irish society. I looked closely at the connections between government groups, local communities, and the displaced people themselves. I studied social programs run by government-funded community centers in rural Ireland, like the Forum, and learned that it was tough for the refugees to settle in, and the government programs weren't set up well. This left refugees feeling both helpless and invisible. Seeing how systems meant to help vulnerable people can actually silence them got me interested in the big issues of invisibility and accountability.
What research have you conducted since NDBridge?
My work with the Forum led to me getting the Research for the Common Good Award, which gave me up to $5,000 for more research. I wanted to move beyond just local integration problems, so I focused on that idea of invisibility within transnational justice and international law. So in May 2025, I went to The Hague in the Netherlands. I wanted to find out if the International Criminal Court (ICC) can hold people accountable, or if its political limitations just keep this invisibility going. I did field research with experts and employees at the ICC with the goal of contributing to the common good by seeing how we can make international justice stronger and more effective.
How do you see your research addressing justice and the common good?
My research found that the ICC relies too much on state cooperation, which has hurt its credibility and made it feel more like a symbol of justice than the real thing. By linking my work in Ireland with this broader examination of international justice, I tried to understand how invisibility works across different borders and scales. I wrapped up my research by producing a final paper arguing that the ICC needs major reforms to be credible and to keep alive the possibility for real global accountability and justice.
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