A FALL OF PROXIMITY AND HOPE

As 283 students have returned from immersive summer experiences and 20+ Social Concerns courses are about to commence, we greet you with enthusiasm and hope!

In this Jubilee year, we have curated initiatives that will bring our University and local community into conversations with scholars, writers, and practitioners that will inspire, challenge, and give reasons for hope. We are thrilled to be launching a new South Bend Citizens Collaboratory that builds on our longstanding connections to partners in the local community. We're welcoming new colleagues who will enhance our work of knowledge in service to justice. And we're hosting a series of gatherings to celebrate human flourishing and spark dialogue, insight, and reflection into questions of justice—including Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity winner Tom Catena, who is coming from Sudan to deliver this year’s signature Rev. Bernie Clark, C.S.C., Lecture. It all starts this afternoon with our first Virtues & Vocations webinar, followed by our annual Welcome Back Bash outside Geddes Hall this Friday evening.

We hope you can join us this fall!

STORIES

Introducing the South Bend Citizens Collaboratory

The Institute for Social Concerns has long been at the forefront of efforts to build genuinely reciprocal, mutually enriching partnerships with members of the city and region. Now, emerging from these partnerships, the institute is launching the South Bend Citizens Collaboratory—a home for individuals and organizations committed to the flourishing of our shared community of South Bend. 

Welcoming new scholar and cohort of fellows

Postdoctoral research scholar Dustin Webster joins four new research fellows at the institute: international justice poetry fellow Kyla Walker, education in action fellow Michael Stayer, and postbaccalaureate research fellows Wonu Fasasi and Hayden Kirwan. Each of their fellowships expands the scope of the institute's work in key areas.

Question of Justice: Marianne Cusato

Throughout her three decades as a designer and now as director of the Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative at the School of Architecture, Marianne Cusato has been driven by the pursuit of providing dignity of place for all. “Everyone deserves a dignified home,” she states, “and society works better when we live in dignified places.” 

ON OUR SHELF

Virtues & Vocations Magazine

The fall 2025 issue on meaningful work is out today! In this issue, you'll read from Chris Higgins on vocational fit, Zena Hitz on work and the meaning of life, Michelle Weise on the soul of work, Ricardo Nuila on people practice, and Dan Graff on the last good job in America. 

EVENTS

V&V Webinar: Today!

We kick off our 2025-2026 monthly webinar series with a conversation on meaningful work with Chris Higgins (Department of Formative Education at Boston College) and Guru Madhavan (U.S. National Academy of Engineering).

Monday, Aug 25, 2025
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm

Welcome Back Bash

Join us for food, games, and lots of giveaways as we kick off the new academic year! Learn more about all of the courses, programs, minors, research, and community engagement opportunities offered by the institute.

Friday, Aug 29, 2025
5:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Outside Geddes Hall

Democracy Lecture: Luke Bretherton

Luke Bretherton, Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at Oxford University and Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, will deliver a public lecture on Democracy, the Commons, and the Struggle to Be Human.    

Thursday, Sept 4, 2025
5:30 pm
Geddes Hall, Andrews Auditorium

MVP Friday: Viet Thanh Nguyen

Join us Friday afternoons on select home football weekends for lectures by national leaders, journalists, and writers. For the weekend of the Purdue game, we welcome Pulitzer Prize–winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen.

Friday, Sept 19, 2025
4:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Geddes Hall, Andrews Auditorium

Alumni Book Club: Oldfield's Fully Alive 

The institute is hosting an online book club for alumni of our programs and courses. Join us Oct. 1 to talk about Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times by Elizabeth Oldfield. Brain Lair Books, an independent bookstore in South Bend, sends a free book to the first 15 people who sign up!

Wednesday, Oct 1, 2025
7:00 p.m. to 8:15 p.m.
On Zoom

Bernie Clark Lecture: Tom Catena

For the 2025 Annual Rev. Bernie Clark, C.S.C., Lecture, the institute welcomes Tom Catena, an American physician who has been practicing in Gidel in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan since 2008. In 2017, he was awarded the second annual Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. He is chair of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative.

Wednesday, Nov 12, 2025
5:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Eck Center Auditorium

OPPORTUNITIES

Fall 2025 Courses

Cultivate your moral imagination, practical wisdom, and courage to act through the institute's courses. The list of options includes one-credit courses (like the Appalachia and Franciscan Land seminars that include a fall break experience!) and three-credit courses to fit into your fall schedule. Looking to add justice education to your Notre Dame experience? Check out all we have to offer!

Fall 2025 Graduate Institute

The institute offers the Graduate Institute for Engaged Teaching and Research during the fall semester break, Wed., Oct. 22, to Fri., Oct. 24. Designed for graduate and professional students in all fields at all levels interested in applying their disciplinary lens and tools to issues of justice, the institute explores principles and effective models of public scholarship and community engagement. Participants experience a mix of dialogue with community and academic leaders, workshops, guided reflection, and community walking tours.

COMMUNITY OF SCHOLARS

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.

Gray Nocjar is an electrical engineering major with a minor in journalism, ethics and democracy from Gaithersburg, Maryland. In addition to his academic pursuits, he is the creator of the Interhall Football Bible featured in the summer 2025 issue of Notre Dame Magazine.

Gray is a 2024–25 McNeill Common Good Fellow of the Institute for Social Concerns.

How do you see your research advancing the common good?

I conducted two case studies on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) focused on renewables in rural areas, the WindAid Institute and EcoSwell. Located in Trujillo and Lobitos, Peru, respectively, they face a restrictive economic and political environment yet still provide solar and wind energy to local communities in their country. 

The goal of my research is to learn how such organizations that produce clean energy for disadvantaged communities succeed in their industry, despite a host of barriers that arise. Renewable energy lags behind fossil fuels in usage, accessibility, and—in some cases within these communities—social acceptance. One’s income level, distance from major cities, and knowledge of the renewable industry can also affect one’s ability to engage with these technologies. Even greater challenges present in nations that lack clear-cut national energy policies, a robust distribution network, or reliable electric grids. Based on my findings, I am developing a playbook for any group—but particularly NGOs—to overcome barriers to producing clean energy in under-resourced areas.

How did you become interested in this research?

I always felt invested in the push for more renewable energy because I believe the most severe consequences of remaining a society reliant on fossil fuels will take shape in my lifetime. To me, it felt like a given that renewables would continue to grow and win more hearts and homes every year. Sadly, that has not been the case, as we have instead seen budget cuts and the termination of tax credits for wind turbines and other renewables. I decided to research how companies can overcome hurdles to joining or thriving in the renewable energy industry because I believe we need more hands involved in reforming the current system—and a plan to do so. As an electrical engineer, I hope to one day join a renewable energy company or NGO to find my place in this work directly.

What has it meant to be a McNeill Common Good Fellow?

The McNeill Common Good Fellowship is a one-of-a-kind chance to explore how you want to live your life, while also receiving early career resources. I can’t imagine being able to live at WindAid or EcoSwell, both thousands of miles from home, without the generous resources provided by the fellowship. McNeill gave me the chance to learn technical skills from these programs and accomplish things like improving the safety of renewable energy hybrid systems in compliance with the National Electrical Code. More importantly, the commitment of the institute to teaching me new perspectives through the fellowship’s two exclusive discussion classes provided the theoretical framework for me to understand my vocation as contributing to the common good. These courses and experiences instilled in me a desire to determine how the renewable energy crisis fits within the context of the specific communities in which I lived and with which I engaged. Ultimately, I credit the fellowship with providing me the nudge to pursue a life that benefits not only myself but also society.

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