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Using anti-racist messaging boosts credibility of human rights groups, Notre Dame study shows

2024-12-20T08:00:00-05:00

How can human rights groups criticize governments' human rights violations without appearing racist or fueling racism toward diaspora groups? New research by a University of Notre Dame human rights expert sheds light on the complex relationship between race and human rights, especially as it plays out between human rights groups and governments.

“If public criticism by a human rights group, known as shaming, could be perceived as racist, it could threaten these organizations’ impartial, unbiased reputations,” said Zoltan Búzás, associate professor of global affairs at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs. “Maintaining a reputation for fairness is critical for enabling these organizations’ important work: raising funds, recruiting volunteers and mobilizing Americans to pressure their representatives against human rights violations.”

In a study published in the American Journal of Political Science, Búzás and Lotem Bassan-Nygate of Harvard University found that when shaming by human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, included anti-racist cues denouncing racism, survey respondents perceived the shaming as less racist. For example, a February 2022 Amnesty report labeling Israel an “apartheid state” but condemning antisemitism and clarifying that its criticism was aimed at the government, not Jewish people, reduced perceptions of racism by 5 percent when compared to a report with no anti-racist cues.

“Human rights organizations should seriously consider emulating Amnesty’s use of anti-racist cues in shaming messages,” Búzás said. “Although shaming with such cues is slightly less effective at mobilizing the public against human rights violators than shaming without cues, the price seems worth paying to lower perceptions of racism.”

The researchers conducted two U.S. survey experiments involving nearly 7,000 respondents and interviews with 11 individuals from the prominent human rights organizations Amnesty International, Oxfam and Human Rights Watch. Survey results showed that shaming of the Israeli and Chinese governments for human rights violations reduced support for the governments themselves but did not increase antisemitism or anti-Asian sentiment.

“If shamers face a racial dilemma, it is less about how to shame without fueling racism, and more about how to shame without appearing racist,” said Búzás, though he noted that more research is needed to explore the issue of fueling racism among diasporas.

The researchers also investigated “countershaming” — when targeted governments accuse human rights organizations of racism — and found that governments can partially win back foreign support by making accusations of racism.

In the case of China, for example, racial countershaming by the Chinese government increased overall support by nearly 3 percent, almost completely eliminating the adverse effects of shaming.

Búzas recently shared the study’s findings with several prominent human rights organizations in a meeting at the Keough 91��Ƶ’s Washington Office. Future research on this topic should explore additional tactics for minimizing perceptions of racism beyond anti-racist cues, Búzás said.

“These cues are just one instrument,” he said. “Organizations could also look into internal reform such as diversifying their staff and their boards, creating strong accountability mechanisms and embracing inclusive organizational cultures. This question of developing and protecting a good reputation came up repeatedly and deserves more sustained study. Ultimately, however, human rights organizations should strive to become genuinely anti-racist organizations, rather than simply engage in superficial reputation management.”

Research was funded by the Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights and the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs.

Originally published by Renée LaReau at keough.nd.edu on Dec. 20.

Black men — including transit workers — are targets for aggression on public transportation, study shows

2024-11-22T12:50:00-05:00

Black men on buses and trains — whether as passengers or transit workers — face hostile encounters that threaten their sense of safety and well-being, according to a new study by a Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs sociologist. By reinforcing racist tropes that they are dangerous or invisible, these encounters can also erode Black men’s sense of dignity and self-worth.

“Black men who want to go to work, school, appointments, visit others, or do any of the other things that people use public transport for, find the experience to be degrading rather than liberating,” said Gwendolyn Purifoye, assistant professor of racial justice and conflict transformation in the Keough 91��Ƶ at the University of Notre Dame. “Any hostile encounter in a public space is stressful, but it’s magnified when you are trapped in a space until a vehicle stops.”

Gwendolyn Purifoye, assistant professor of racial justice and conflict transformation in the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. (Photo by Peter Ringenberg/University of Notre Dame)

Purifoye’s study, co-authored with Derrick Brooms of Morehouse College, was published in the journal Sociology of Race and Ethnicity.

The researchers conducted ethnographic observations on Chicago-area buses and trains between 2010 and 2022, choosing routes that, according to census data, traversed racially and economically diverse areas of the city and suburbs, including downtown Chicago. They traveled at varied times of day and amid diverse weather conditions.

The researchers observed repeated avoidance of Black male passengers by non-Black passengers, which included behaviors such as ignoring a request for directions, moving away or averting eye contact. They also noted surveillance behaviors by authority figures such as police in train stations.

“Being treated as undesirable or as a cause for fear is harmful to Black men, especially because these incidents often play out in front of other people,” said Purifoye, who is a core faculty member of the Keough 91��Ƶ’s Kroc Institute for International Peace 91��Ƶ. “Black men are simultaneously hyper-visible and invisible — visible as potential problems yet invisible as citizens with rights, as human beings with feelings or as persons deserving civility in public spaces.”

The researchers also found that Black male transit personnel faced repeated hostile behaviors such as challenges to their authority and criticism for doing their jobs, especially during large-scale special events such as parades, concerts and sporting events.

“Black men’s status as transit personnel or security does not shield them from racial animus,” Purifoye said. “These types of stressors in everyday life not only have implications for their health and well-being but also can impact their dispositions, relationships and sense of self, which in turn impacts their families and communities.”

Purifoye has shared the study’s findings with Chicago’s Regional Transportation Authority. She is a member of its steering committee that works to implement transit service that is safer, more frequent, reliable and affordable for riders. Based on study results, Purifoye recommends that Chicago’s transit boards adopt policies that add or increase security for transit personnel, regardless of their routes, and provide more funding for security. Purifoye also advises adopting clear policies that protect all passengers and personnel from any form of harassment, she said, while ensuring that policies do not include measures — such as hyper-surveillance or police dogs — that have historically been used against Black populations.

Purifoye said the study revealed a need for further research on how negative interactions on public transportation inform conditions that leave Black men at risk in public. The research was funded by the Midwest Sociological Society and is part of a larger ongoing project that examines social interactions on public transportation across race, class and gender groups.

Originally published by Renée LaReau at keough.nd.edu on Nov. 14.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

As Maui rebuilds, Notre Dame research team contributes expertise on hazard-resilient housing

2024-08-08T11:06:35-04:00

It has been one year since fires on the Hawaiian island of Maui killed 102 people, destroyed more than 2,200 buildings and displaced 5,000 people in the historic town of Lahaina. Today, signs of rebuilding are visible. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has leveled and graded the lots where homes once stood, and temporary FEMA housing is slated to open in October.

But how should Lahaina residents rebuild, knowing that fires or other natural disasters could strike again? Susan Ostermann, assistant professor of global affairs in the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, studies housing resilience and is investigating this question with support from the National Science Foundation.

Working with Abbie Liel, a University of Colorado Boulder professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, and a team of Notre Dame and Colorado students, Ostermann conducted extensive fieldwork in Maui with the goal of helping residents rebuild homes that are more resilient to natural disasters.

“Few aspects of life are more important to people than their homes,” Ostermann said. “By improving compliance with hazard-resilient building practices through effective interventions, we can better protect homes and human life.”

In June, the researchers interviewed more than 50 homeowners, builders, regulators and other government officials. The researchers asked residents about how the fires changed their opinions on housing and government regulation.

A memorial for the 102 victims of the fires that destroyed much of the town of Lahaina, Maui, on August 8, 2023. (Photo by Matthew Thayer)

“Usually a big event like this crystallizes certain ideas for people,” Ostermann said. “That’s the politics of it. If people suddenly care about how houses are built, that can change norms.”

After compiling and analyzing their data, the researchers will create market- and knowledge-based solutions — such as information sheets on factors that improve housing resilience — to share with homeowners, real estate agents and homebuyers.

Their findings will be translated into quantitative data that will inform evidence-based interventions to share with the people of Maui. Liel, a structural engineer, brings expertise in building materials and methods and how climate impacts them. Ostermann, a political scientist and lawyer, brings expertise in knowledge-based strategies — specifically, how these strategies can increase community compliance with regulations such as building codes without government coercion. She also looks at how that research can translate into actionable policy recommendations.

“If you connect self-interest with the right information, creating incentive-based systems, you can create more hazard-resilient housing without creating more regulation,” she said.

One homeowner interviewed by the researchers was a real estate agent who lived in Lahaina with her husband and two teenage daughters. When the fires destroyed the family’s home, they relocated to a townhome in Kaanapali, an area 10 minutes north of Lahaina. (As part of the project, researchers agreed to not reveal participants’ names.)

Because the house was insured, the homeowner is rebuilding, but the fires have impacted their approach. The homeowner and the architect are consulting California building codes, which incorporate safeguards against fire damage. In their current neighborhood, she and the neighbors have initiated the five-step process to become a Firewise community, a program of the National Fire Protection Association that helps neighborhoods establish not only an emergency response plan, but also standards for safer building, home maintenance and landscaping practices.

“The importance of what this homeowner is doing cannot be overstated,” Ostermann said. “The changing of norms doesn’t have to be regulatory or code-driven. Demonstration effect — when one group of people changes their behavior and others learn about it and consider changing their own behavior — is very powerful. As a resident and realtor, their actions hold incredible potential.”

Many areas of Lahaina are still closed to non-resident traffic. (Photo by Matthew Thayer)

Another homeowner who is taking part in Ostermann’s research is a carpenter and longtime Maui resident who, alongside his wife and 7-year-old son, moved to FEMA-funded housing in Kihei after his home burned. As a member of a carpenters’ union, he said the fires haven’t changed his thoughts on building materials, but they have changed his commitment to political participation at the local level.

“I have not been a regular voter,” he said. “But I want to vote now. I see how important it is to get involved in decisions about housing.”

“Many people see building codes or regulation more generally as being technical, dry and far removed from their lives,” Ostermann said. “Disasters often make clear how these seemingly unimportant rules can mean the difference between life and death, or between having housing or not. They are a blueprint for resilience, but they have costs as well in terms of construction time and expense, among others, and as a result, they can be deeply political.”

Ostermann and Liel’s Maui study is part of a larger National Science Foundation-funded project on housing resilience that originally included Alaska and Puerto Rico. Alaska experienced an earthquake in 2018 and several high-wind events that resulted in significant damage, while Puerto Rico was struck by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 and earthquakes in 2014 and 2020.

When the Maui fires occurred, the National Science Foundation contacted Ostermann and Liel and offered them an emergency grant to conduct interviews on Maui. Concerned about magnifying the personal trauma experienced by fire victims, the researchers opted to delay the research until Lahaina residents had more time to heal.

“We wanted to give people a breather and let them find a stable situation,” Ostermann said.

From left: Notre Dame undergraduate Bona Park, University of Colorado Boulder professor Abbie Liel, and Notre Dame professor Susan Ostermann interview a Lahaina resident whose home was destroyed by the August 8 fire. (Photo by Matthew Thayer)

Essential to the project is a team of student research assistants, including five Notre Dame undergraduates representing a variety of majors ranging from global affairs to psychology to mechanical engineering. Global affairs major Tavin Martin is currently identifying and collating key terms from the researchers’ Maui interviews and will prepare them for quantitative analysis alongside interview data from Puerto Rico and Alaska.

“These undergrads are being given an opportunity to perform at the highest level possible,” Ostermann said.

Another student who stepped up to help in Maui is Bona Park, a mechanical engineering major from Oahu, who volunteered to connect the researchers with local fire victims she knew through the Notre Dame Club of Hawaii. Park made the initial contact with the victims, scheduled interview appointments and then flew to Maui from Oahu to participate in several days of interviews.

“We couldn’t have done the project in this way without Bona,” Ostermann said. “When it comes to making inroads in the community, we wouldn’t have had the time. Bona enabled us to start interviews with an authentic connection that made it easy.”

Though housing resilience lies at the heart of the Maui research project, Ostermann and Liel said the fieldwork has led them to think about community resilience.

“I felt more optimistic leaving than I expected,” Liel said. “There are so many good people in Maui; there is so much care being shown to others and so much interest in theories about which houses survived. I left with an overall feeling that the future Lahaina might be more resilient.”

“I found Lahaina to be incredibly inspiring,” Ostermann said. “Housing is an important community asset, but it is the community itself that matters most for its own resilience. In Lahaina, I witnessed a willingness to experiment and a desire for the community to find a way forward that works well for all. This is what resilience is made of. I think we would all do well to take inspiration from the Lahaina community.”

Originally published by Renée LaReau at keough.nd.edu on Aug. 8.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

Using forest resources strengthens food security, study finds

2024-07-22T13:00:00-04:00

Soko Koryon, forest inventory coordinator for USAID's Forest Incomes for Environmental Sustainability program, describes forest inventory methodology to visitors in Barconnie Community Forest in Grand Bassa County, Liberia. Photo by Yoel Kirschner, courtesy USAID.

Forests can reduce hunger in rural households while also capturing carbon and advancing sustainability goals for low- and middle-income countries, according to new research by University of Notre Dame experts.

Households in Liberia that participated in forest-based activities — including collecting and processing timber, hunting bushmeat or gathering edible plants — reduced their food scarcity by 84 percent, according to a study published in the journal Food Security. The research was conducted by Daniel C. Miller, associate professor of environmental policy at Notre Dame’s Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs, and co-author Festus Amadu, a former Notre Dame postdoctoral researcher who is now assistant professor of climate policy at Florida Gulf Coast University.

“Previous research has shown that forests benefit people, but now we have evidence on a national scale,” Miller said. “Forests are a vital source of food security for forest-adjacent households in Liberia, the most forested country in West Africa.”

Miller and Amadu analyzed data from a 2019 survey by the Liberian government and the World Bank. Miller, a former World Bank senior forestry specialist, helped design the survey, which collected data from nearly 3,000 households living near forests across all 15 counties in Liberia. The researchers found that when households reported engaging in forest-based activities, they also reported food insecurity for almost three fewer months out of the year.

Food insecurity is severe in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including Liberia, where most rural households do not have access to enough food to meet their daily calorie intake requirements for the whole year, Miller said. Causes of this food insecurity include extreme weather events, political instability, and poor agricultural productivity caused by natural resource depletion. Existing research shows that forests may be more resilient to some of these stresses, making them increasingly vital for reducing food insecurity in countries such as Liberia, where forests comprise 69 percent of its land area.

“Forests do a lot of things for us as human beings, and yet their manifold contributions are not systematically studied and documented,” Miller said. “While forests will never substitute for agriculture on any large scale, they can serve as an important food source, particularly in lean times.”

Miller said the study’s methodology — using forest-specific data acquired on a national scale — could be applied to other forest-rich, economically poor countries in West Africa and elsewhere to further understand how forests can mitigate food insecurity.

“Forests can and should be considered by national governments in other countries not only for their climate and environmental benefits, but for their potential to support human development and well-being,” he said.

The research was supported by the Forests & Livelihoods: Assessment, Research and Engagement (FLARE) network, which Miller leads, with funding from Notre Dame Research, the Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative and the Keough 91��Ƶ.

In future studies, Miller and Amadu will examine how forest governance, particularly at the community level, affects how people living near forests can benefit from them. Miller also said the study’s findings have important policy implications and could be used by policymakers focused on forest management and conservation.

“The benefits that forests create for the citizens of a country are yet another reason why forests are worth managing well and conserving,” Miller said. “When you have empirical evidence at the national level, it becomes relevant not only in scholarship but also for the policy realm.”

Originally published by Renée LaReau at keough.nd.edu on July 22.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

US states shape foreign policy amid national China unease, research shows

2024-06-27T09:29:00-04:00

State-level officials such as governors, state legislators and attorneys general are shaping U.S.-China relations as the two countries navigate a strained geopolitical relationship, according to new research by political scientist Kyle Jaros.

“The state level has independent importance in the U.S.-China relationship — it’s not just a reflection of what’s happening at the national level,” said Jaros, associate professor of global affairs in the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. “The actions taken by state and local officials — and their Chinese counterparts — not only affect their own communities, but also play a key role in shaping the overall U.S.-China relationship.”

While the U.S. Constitution clearly states that foreign policy is the responsibility of the federal government, it also leaves space for cities and states to have international relationships and even to enter into certain kinds of agreements, Jaros said.

Known as subnational diplomacy or paradiplomacy, state-level relations with China are the focus of a new study by Jaros and Sara Newland of Smith College, published in Publius: The Journal of Federalism, a publication of Oxford University Press.

Jaros and Newland, who were recently awarded a grant from The Henry Luce Foundation to fund this work, found that states vary widely in how they engage with China and range from confrontation to cooperation or a combination of the two.

Kyle Jaros, associate professor of global affairs, fields questions from state- and local-level officials during the U.S.-China Subnational Symposium at the University of Michigan’s Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese 91��Ƶ in April 2024. Jaros shared his expertise as part of his role as a fellow of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program.

“Broadly speaking, our data analysis shows some states that are clearly pro-engagement,” said Jaros, who currently serves as a visiting senior fellow for U.S.-China subnational relations for the Truman Center in Washington, D.C. “They feel that it is still appropriate to have at least some forms of business cooperation with China and may pursue climate cooperation, tourism cooperation or educational partnerships.”

To assess states’ engagement with China, Jaros and Newland tracked changing patterns of state-level U.S.-China relations using an original dataset on cooperative and confrontational policies across all 50 U.S. states.

Of the 50 states, California serves as a leading example of a state that has continued to adopt policies that foster people-to-people contact with China, Jaros said. For example, Gov. Gavin Newsom made a high-profile trip to China in October 2023 to advance climate partnerships and economic changes, laying the groundwork for Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to San Francisco the following month. Florida and Texas lie at the other end of the spectrum, Jaros said, adopting confrontational policies that curb contact between state institutions (such as government or universities) and China. Florida, for example, now restricts Chinese citizens’ and businesses’ abilities to purchase land or real estate in the state, and Gov. Ron DeSantis has publicly articulated his concern that the Communist party is infiltrating Florida’s institutions.

In Indiana, the picture is more complicated, according to Jaros and Newland’s in-depth case study of the state, which was included in the research.

“Until 2022, Indiana engaged fairly regularly with official Chinese counterparts, even as concerns and criticisms from some quarters increased,” Jaros said. “While some forms of low-key economic and educational cooperation are continuing today, many areas that once seemed appropriate or safe are now seen by Indiana officials as off-limits or dangerous.”

For years, Indiana has pursued state-level cooperation with China, as the state is home to several major corporations, including leading pharmaceutical and engineering companies, that see the Chinese market as crucial to their overall strategy. In addition, numerous small businesses see China as a crucial part of their supply chain, relying on it as a sizable export market.

And yet, last year, Indiana state legislators voted to divest the state’s pension fund from China, and the state has banned new sister city relationships with China. In 2021, state Attorney General Todd Rokita launched an investigation into Valparaiso University’s Confucius Institute, alleging that it functioned as a propaganda arm for the Chinese Communist Party.

Jaros has met with the State Department’s Subnational Diplomacy Unit about his work, and he and Newland are studying how the federal government can help U.S. states and cities coordinate knowledge-sharing and also how it can provide useful information to lower levels of government.

In his capacity as a Truman fellow, Jaros is also expanding the research to include city-level diplomacy. This summer, he and Newland, who is also a Truman fellow, will meet with city officials, chamber of commerce members and other local groups in Los Angeles; Hartford, Connecticut; Des Moines, Iowa; and Jacksonville, Florida.

“We will solicit views from the local level both for their own sake and also to bring some of it back to share with policymakers in Washington, to help them have a better awareness of how what they are doing affects local communities,” Jaros said.

A fellow of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program, Jaros regularly briefs state and local officials on the U.S.-China relationship. In April, he delivered a presentation at the committee’s subnational symposium, held in coordination with the University of Michigan.

Jaros said the next stage of the research includes examining the consequences of what is happening at the state level, including its policy implications.

“We see policy impacts at several different levels: city, state and federal,” he said. “This work has implications for how cities and states think about what kinds of interactions with China are appropriate right now and what kinds of caution are needed.”

Originally published by Renée LaReau at keough.nd.edu on June 21.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

Keough 91��Ƶ establishes two new doctoral programs

2024-04-03T09:00:00-04:00

The Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame has established two new doctoral programs in sustainable development and peace studies.

The peace studies and sustainable development programs will enable doctoral students in the Keough 91��Ƶ to examine from different perspectives the intersection of poverty, the environment, violent conflict and peace. Both programs will enroll students beginning in fall 2025.

“The creation of these new programs marks a milestone in the history of the Keough 91��Ƶ,” said Scott Appleby, the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough 91��Ƶ. “We now have a critical mass of highly talented and accomplished faculty who are qualified to educate and train researchers, teachers and thought leaders in these crucial areas of sustainable development and peace.”

The Ph.D. program in sustainable development will address the existential threat posed by rapid environmental change and its impact on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations.

“Sustainability is commonly defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” Appleby said. “It focuses on ensuring well-being across three interconnected dimensions: environmental, economic and social.”

The program will train students to be experts in one of three areas: climate change mitigation and adaptation, environmental governance or development policy. The plight and participation of the most vulnerable members of society, especially in the Global South, will be a common theme.

Program highlights include a semester-long course that will enable students to develop research that is both scientifically sound and policy-relevant. They will do so by engaging with organizations whose work intersects with academic and policy arenas, such as the Nature Conservancy, the World Resources Institute, USAID, the U.S. Department of State, the United Nations, the World Bank, regional development banks and other organizations.

The program will draw upon the expertise of several of the Keough 91��Ƶ’s international institutes, including the Kellogg Institute for International 91��Ƶ, Kroc Institute for International Peace 91��Ƶ and Pulte Institute for Global Development, all of which have experience conducting translational research — applied scholarship directed to outcomes that directly benefit people.

The new Ph.D. peace studies program is geared toward highly accomplished professionals with backgrounds in fields such as conflict resolution, education or human rights who wish to bring professional and interdisciplinary knowledge into their doctoral research and immerse themselves solely in the field of peace studies.

The “stand-alone” peace studies doctoral program will welcome candidates who are not seeking to be credentialed in a single discipline but who will draw on the disciplines and practices most relevant to their specific area of expertise within the field of peace studies.

“The new program will offer an additional way for graduate students to engage in peace studies research at Notre Dame at the highest level,” said Caroline Hughes, director of doctoral studies and the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., Chair in Peace 91��Ƶ at the Keough 91��Ƶ’s Kroc Institute. “It will complement the school’s existing joint doctoral program, which has been enormously successful.”

The school’s long-standing joint doctoral degree program, administered by the Kroc Institute, educates and trains students in peace research and their choice of discipline — anthropology, history, political science, theology, psychology or sociology. Created in 2008, the program’s 43 graduates are employed in prestigious academic positions at Emory University, Fordham University, Boston College, Chapman University, Pepperdine University and other institutions, while other graduates are engaged in educational administration, research or peacebuilding practice.

Created in response to increasing recognition of the role of peace studies expertise in addressing global challenges, the new program will pair the scholarship of peace studies with the interdisciplinary approaches preferred by policymakers and practitioners. Students will be trained and prepared to disseminate their research findings both among the communities they have researched and also in policy forums with capacity to initiate positive change.

“Equipped with state-of-the-art training, graduates of the new program will return to and enrich global networks of scholarship, policy and practice,” Hughes said.

Students will benefit from expertise at the Kroc Institute, one of the world’s most acclaimed and influential centers for the study of peace and conflict, as well as from the other international institutes within the Keough 91��Ƶ and Notre Dame more broadly.

To learn more about the Ph.D. in sustainable development, contact keough-admissions@nd.edu. To learn more about the Ph.D. in peace studies, contact krocphd@nd.edu.

Originally published by Renée LaReau at keough.nd.edu on March 27.

Political scientist shares China-Global South expertise with policymakers

2024-02-12T15:00:00-05:00

For more than a decade, China has invested heavily in the economic development of countries collectively known as the Global South. More recently, China has demonstrated that its ambitions are growing beyond the economic realm and extending into the geopolitical sphere. This shift carries implications not only for the developing countries that are the beneficiaries of China’s investment, but also for the United States and other developed democracies, said a scholar at the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame.

“For China, nations and regions in the Global South are a major priority, and we should be paying more attention to them in addition to monitoring China’s great power rivalry with the United States,” said Joshua Eisenman, associate professor of politics in the Keough 91��Ƶ. “The rivalry between China and the U.S. is part of the story, but not the whole story.”

Eisenman researches China’s economic and geopolitical strategies in the Global South, which collectively includes Southeast Asia, South Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. These regions have become an essential component of China’s external engagement and foreign policy in recent years, Eisenman said.

Eisenman and other Notre Dame scholars including Scott Appleby, the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough 91��Ƶ; Susan Ostermann, assistant professor of global affairs; and Victoria Tin-bor Hui, associate professor of political science, will participate in the two-day panel discussion “China in the Global South: Development and Influence in a Shifting Global Order,” at the Atlantic Council on Feb. 21-22 in Washington, D.C. The event will also feature prominent experts from the U.S. Department of State, USAID and Freedom House, as well as experts from across the Global South such as Joseph Asunka, CEO of Afrobarometer, a prominent pan-African research network that provides data on the views of Africans to inform development and policy decision-making.

Two recent events signal China’s expanding geopolitical ambitions, Eisenman said. Most recently, as the U.S. faced pushback for its support of Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip, China aligned itself with countries such as Brazil, India, Pakistan and South Africa, all of which condemned Israel’s actions. And in March 2023, China brokered a détente between Saudi Arabia and Iran following seven years of open hostility and nonexistent diplomatic ties between the two countries. Eisenman said these events reveal China’s expanding geopolitical interests beyond places like Africa, the largest beneficiary of Chinese investment in recent years.

“In many ways, China’s investment in places like Africa has peaked and is unlikely to return to those levels,” he said. “What is increasing are the engagements of the Communist Party of China and the People’s Liberation Army with their counterparts in the Global South. We’re seeing an expansion in the political and security arena in ways that should draw our attention.”

To shed light on these and other emerging trends, the Keough 91��Ƶ’s Pulte Institute for Global Development and the Atlantic Council have formed the China-Global South Initiative, a multi-year partnership that is co-directed by Eisenman and David Shullman, who leads the council’s Global China Hub. This joint effort convenes policymakers, academics and local partners to study and coordinate local responses to China’s strategic intentions and impacts in the Global South. The initiative also aims to produce rigorous academic and policy publications, convene leading experts and offer mentoring opportunities for Notre Dame students and experts from the Global South. Founded in 2022, the initiative aims to become the premier global resource for understanding China in the Global South.

The Atlantic Council event will be the largest that the China-Global South Initiative has hosted, according to Eisenman. “The scope of this event reflects the tremendous support of the Keough 91��Ƶ and the Atlantic Council for this initiative,” he said. “With top U.S. officials joining attendees from all around the Global South, including the Philippines, Colombia, Ghana and more, we believe it will generate critical insights not only for future research, but for future policy strategies as well.”

Eisenman is the co-author (with David Shinn) of “China’s Relations with Africa: A New Era of Strategic Engagement” (Columbia University Press, 2023), which focuses on political and security relations between China and Africa, explains the tactics and methods that China uses to build relations with African countries, and contextualizes and interprets them within Beijing’s larger geostrategy.

Originally published by Renée LaReau at keough.nd.edu on Feb. 8.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

Steve Reifenberg awarded Fulbright to develop programs at pontifical university in Chile

2023-09-15T16:00:00-04:00

Steve Reifenberg, teaching professor of international development in the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to help create new experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate students at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC) in Santiago, Chile.

Beginning in January, Reifenberg will spend four months collaborating with faculty across disciplines at the pontifical university, one of the oldest and most widely recognized educational institutions in Latin America.

“Our goal is to create innovative opportunities for students to engage in real-world, team-based problem solving that addresses some of the complex global challenges we face today in areas such as education, health or community development,” Reifenberg said.

Reifenberg developed a series of master of global affairs courses based on this approach as co-director of the Keough 91��Ƶ’s Integration Lab from 2015 to 2021, and also as an instructor for several Notre Dame undergraduate courses.

At UC, Reifenberg will work with faculty representing the natural sciences and mathematics, the social sciences, and arts and humanities. Together, they plan to build upon work with the university’s current partner organizations and also with individuals from outside the university community.

“We’ll explore models for initiatives that enable students, partners and the communities they serve to bring their best selves — creative, resourceful, authentic, purposeful and impactful — to make concrete contributions to the work at hand,” said Reifenberg, whose teaching focuses on international development carried out through accompaniment, a partnership rooted in a recognition of shared human dignity and care for all dimensions of the human person. While at UC, Reifenberg also plans to explore and write about the concepts of accompaniment and experiential learning in the Chilean context.

Reifenberg has extensive experience living and working in Chile. Before coming to Notre Dame in 2010, he founded and directed the regional office of Harvard University’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American 91��Ƶ in Santiago, Chile, one of several roles he held while working at Harvard for 20 years. He is the author of “Santiago’s Children: What I Learned About Life Working at an Orphanage in Chile” and serves on the boards of Partners in Health and also Education Bridge in South Sudan. He holds a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy 91��Ƶ of Government, an M.S. in print journalism from Boston University and a B.A. in philosophy from Notre Dame.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

Originally published by Renée LaReau at keough.nd.edu on Sept. 5.

Former president of Colombia to teach in Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs, deliver public lecture

2022-08-29T09:14:00-04:00

Juan Manuel Santos, who served as president of Colombia from 2010 to 2018, has been named a distinguished policy fellow in the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. Santos will teach in the Keough 91��Ƶ’s Master of Global Affairs and undergraduate programs, and will deliver the 29th annual Hesburgh Lecture in Ethics and Public Policy at 4:30 p.m. Sept. 13 (Tuesday) in the Decio Theatre at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center. The lecture is free but ticketed, and is open to the public. Tickets will be available for pickup at the DeBartolo ticket office one hour prior to the performance.

Santos will co-teach a master’s-level course titled “From Colombia to Global Peacebuilding,” which will explore, analyze and reflect on the peace process between the Colombian government and Colombia’s Revolutionary Armed Forces, or FARC. Under Santos’ guidance, students will learn how peacebuilding processes can support conflict transformation efforts in countries worldwide. Santos will also serve as a guest lecturer in an introductory undergraduate course in global affairs.

The historic Colombian Peace Agreement was signed on Nov. 24, 2016, while Santos was in office, and is celebrated as a major turning point in ending the country’s 52-year armed conflict. Santos was the sole recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the longest armed conflict in the Western Hemisphere. In his Nobel Peace Prize speech, Santos directly acknowledged the Keough 91��Ƶ’s Kroc Institute for International Peace 91��Ƶ, which through the 2016 peace agreement was given primary responsibility for technical verification and monitoring of implementation of the accord through the Peace Accords Matrix (PAM) Barometer Initiative. This designation is the first time a university-based research center has played such a direct role in supporting the implementation of a peace agreement and the first time researchers have measured the implementation of a peace accord in real time.

Before serving as president, Santos served as minister of foreign trade and was elected to the Colombian Congress as the presidential designate (similar to the role of vice president in the United States). He also served as minister of finance and minister of defense. Prior to serving in government roles, Santos was a deputy publisher and journalist with the Colombian publication El Tiempo. He won the King of Spain Prize for Journalism for a series of articles looking at corruption amid the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua.

“President Santos is a major influential figure in peacebuilding around the world today,” said Josefina Echavarría Alvarez, director of the Peace Accords Matrix and associate professor of the practice in the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs. “By ending the longest war in Latin America through the signing of the 2016 Colombian peace accord, he now serves as a role model for addressing war and violence worldwide. We are delighted that he will be sharing his insights on peacebuilding with the Notre Dame community, including the Keough 91��Ƶ students who come from countries around the globe.”

“The naming of President Santos as the Keough 91��Ƶ’s inaugural distinguished policy fellow extends Notre Dame’s engagement with world leaders, in this case with a champion of peace through negotiated settlement, the rebuilding of war-torn society and the redress of grievances and injustices wherever possible,” said Scott Appleby, the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs. “It is a great honor for us to welcome President Santos to the Keough 91��Ƶ and to Notre Dame.”

Founded in 2014, Notre Dame’s Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs advances integral human development through research, policy and practice; transformative educational programs; and partnerships for global engagement. The Keough 91��Ƶ addresses some of the world’s greatest challenges, with particular emphasis on the design and implementation of effective and ethical responses to poverty, war, disease, political oppression, environmental degradation and other threats to dignity and human flourishing. Through its academic programs the school educates and trains global affairs professionals, preparing students for effective and ethical professional leadership in governments, nongovernmental organizations and the private sector.

Tom and Molly Duffey endow program for student career development in Keough 91��Ƶ

2022-08-10T09:29:00-04:00

Tom and Molly Duffey of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, have made a $5 million gift to create and endow a new student career development program in the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame.

The Duffey Career Development Program will prepare graduate and undergraduate students to compete successfully for professional opportunities and positions that require the skills and knowledge acquired in their Keough 91��Ƶ and Notre Dame education.

“This generous gift from Tom and Molly ensures that our graduates, who are blessed with the values and intellect to change the world, launch their careers with every advantage in a competitive marketplace,” Scott Appleby, the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough 91��Ƶ, said. “The Duffey Career Development Program will serve students during a critical time of professional and personal discernment as they determine how and where to maximize the impact of their efforts to build a more just, peaceful and secure world.”

The Duffeys’ gift will fund the appointment of an experienced career development team with the vision and ability to offer relevant resources and guidance in an ever-changing workforce environment. The new team will work closely with the University’s Meruelo Family Center for Career Development and the Notre Dame Alumni Association to expand Notre Dame’s network of alumni and potential employers in the nonprofit, public and private sectors, and to create postgraduate internships and fellowships designed to help students transition from their Keough 91��Ƶ studies to successful careers.

Tom Duffey is a 1979 Notre Dame graduate and Molly is a 1979 graduate of Saint Mary’s College. They were married in 1980 at Notre Dame’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart and have three sons: Ryan, Matt and Keenan, who is a 2012 Notre Dame graduate. The Duffeys made a gift to support the opening of the Keough 91��Ƶ’s Washington office, and Tom is a member of the school’s advisory council.

“The Duffeys have been a blessing to this new school, and Tom has been a wise adviser to me and to the other deans and staff. I will always be grateful for their friendship, support and encouragement,” Appleby said.

“Molly and I are thrilled and honored to play a small role in support of the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs,” Tom Duffey said. “Dean Scott Appleby, the staff and the faculty of the Keough 91��Ƶ are building something very special at Notre Dame. The Keough 91��Ƶ attracts incredible young men and women from all over the world who are passionately committed to making a positive difference in the world. We hope the creation of a formal career development center will establish the guidance mechanisms and outside organizational relationships necessary to help Keough graduates identify and pursue career paths that align with their passion and interest.”

Founded in 2014, Notre Dame’s Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs advances integral human development through research, policy and practice; transformative educational programs; and partnerships for global engagement. The Keough 91��Ƶ educates and trains global affairs professionals, preparing students for effective and ethical professional leadership in governments, nongovernmental organizations and the private sector. The school offers academic programs at every level — undergraduate, master’s and doctoral.

New global affairs major now available to Notre Dame undergraduates

2022-03-23T10:00:00-04:00

University of Notre Dame students can now declare a full academic major in global affairs and earn an undergraduate degree from the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs. The new global affairs major enables students to learn how interdisciplinary, policy-oriented research and scholarship can drive constructive change.

“This exciting interdisciplinary program of study was created in response to consistent and growing interest from students,” said R. Scott Appleby, the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough 91��Ƶ. “Notre Dame students want to learn how to navigate the interconnected, multicultural world they will face upon graduation — and how to address daunting global challenges that include climate change, resource wars and ungovernable flows of migrants and refugees.”

The new major will culminate in a Bachelor of Arts degree in global affairs. Curricular highlights include a cross-cultural experience, an interdisciplinary seminar that models how to integrate and apply knowledge from various disciplines and apply it to global issues, and an ethics seminar that will analyze how moral reasoning functions in professional and public settings relevant to global affairs.

“An exemplary liberal arts education produces independent thinkers with the capacity to maintain a broad outlook, see connections and integrate the subjects and methods best suited for enlightened and humane decision-making,” Appleby said. “The Keough 91��Ƶ faculty is prepared to foster these capacities in undergraduates, who can now make the school their primary academic home.”

The major builds upon the diverse expertise of Keough 91��Ƶ faculty members — trained in disciplines and subdisciplines such as global politics, cultural anthropology, social psychology, human rights, peace studies, environmental policy, development economics, social and theological ethics, religion, social entrepreneurship, international organizations and global trade — as well as supplemental majors, minors and co-curricular and extracurricular opportunities in the Keough 91��Ƶ’s nine international institutes. The new major also is a key part of Notre Dame’s plan to become more fully international and engaged with the worlds of policy and practice.

The Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs was founded in 2014. In keeping with Notre Dame’s mission to place scholarship in service to the common good, the Keough 91��Ƶ advances integral human development through research, policy and practice; transformative educational programs; and partnerships for global engagement. The Keough 91��Ƶ builds on the strengths of nine institutes and a Global Policy Initiative focused on international research, scholarship and education at Notre Dame.

To learn more, visit keough.nd.edu/undergrad/global-affairs-major/.

Keough family establishes premier graduate fellowships for Notre Dame global affairs students

2021-11-05T10:00:00-04:00

The family of Donald and Marilyn Keough, longtime University of Notre Dame benefactors, has made a $25 million gift to the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs, a campus epicenter for global engagement. The gift dramatically increases financial aid for students in the Master of Global Affairs program.

“Don and Mickie Keough are towering figures in Notre Dame history, by virtue of their visionary leadership, generous benefaction and commitment to the University’s mission,” University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., said. “With the creation of the Keough Family Fellowships program by their daughters and sons, the great Keough legacy continues. Notre Dame is blessed by their support, and I am deeply grateful to this family which has been so dear to me.”

The flagship program of the Keough 91��Ƶ, the Master of Global Affairs epitomizes Notre Dame’s commitment to educating a new generation of skilled, ethical leaders dedicated to fostering human dignity worldwide. With 58 countries represented and more than 60 percent of its students coming from outside of the United States, the program’s international makeup creates a rich and vibrant learning community. Since the Keough 91��Ƶ opened in 2017, the program has produced 108 alumni and currently enrolls 78 graduate students.

“The Keough 91��Ƶ’s MGA program provides exceptionally gifted students, many from low-income countries and modest backgrounds, a first-rate professional education grounded in a moral commitment to help enhance the lives and livelihoods of the most vulnerable,” Scott Appleby, the Marilyn Keough Dean of the school, said. “Yet again the extraordinary Keough family has embraced and helped fulfill Notre Dame’s mission of academic excellence in service to the common good, this time by guaranteeing that a calling to serve others need not come with a burden of insurmountable graduate school debt.”

The newly established Keough Family Fellowships continue the long and storied legacy of Don and Marilyn Keough, who both received honorary degrees from Notre Dame. Don passed away in 2015 and Mickie a year later.

Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished business executives in American history, Don served as the president, chief operating officer and director of the Coca-Cola Co. from 1981 to 1993. During his tenure, he oversaw one of the company’s most dramatic periods of international expansion. In 1986, he was elected chairman of Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees, a position he held for six years, and in 1997 he was named a Life Trustee of the University. He also was the recipient of the 1993 Laetare Medal, the University’s highest honor.

“Our parents saw in Notre Dame a commitment to the shared ideal of forming leaders of consequence who can build a better, more humane world,” Clarke Keough said on behalf of the family. “My siblings and I are humbled to see Dad and Mom’s vision come alive in the school that bears our family name, and these fellowships will carry on their legacy through the women and men willing to dedicate their talents, careers and creativity to build such a world in the 21st century.”

For decades, the Keough family has been instrumental in bringing the world to Notre Dame and taking Notre Dame to the world. Their tremendous generosity has gone toward the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs and its home on campus, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Hall; the Marilyn Keough residence hall; Malloy Hall, housing the Departments of Theology and Philosophy; three library collections; and the restoration of O’Connell House in Dublin. They also have endowed the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish 91��Ƶ, several fellowships, the Keough 91��Ƶ deanship and multiple faculty chairs — two in Irish studies and three that are known as Keough-Hesburgh professorships, which are awarded to scholars who both are world-class leaders in their field of expertise and demonstrate a commitment to the Catholic mission of Notre Dame.

Don and Mickie have six children — Kathleen Keough Soto; Shayla Keough Rumely, a 1976 graduate; Michael (1978) and Patrick Keough (1979); Eileen Keough Millard (1984) and Clarke Keough (1985). Shayla is a member of the University’s Board of Fellows and a Trustee, and Michael, Patrick, Clarke and Eileen serve on Notre Dame advisory councils.

The Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs advances integral human development through research, policy and practice; transformative educational programs; and partnerships for global engagement, building on the strengths of nine institutes and centers. It offers academic opportunities at both the graduate and undergraduate level, including a master’s degree and a supplementary major in global affairs.

The two-year Master of Global Affairs program prepares professionals for skilled, effective leadership and careers in government, nongovernmental and civil society organizations, and the private sector. It integrates rigorous professional training with extended, global fieldwork and close engagement with policymakers, multidisciplinary faculty and students from around the world working to address global challenges.

Keough 91��Ƶ partners with Truman Foundation to provide annual global affairs scholarship

2021-10-13T11:00:00-04:00

The Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame is partnering with the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation to offer a full scholarship to a Truman Scholar.

Beginning in the fall of 2022, the Keough 91��Ƶ will provide a full-tuition scholarship to a Truman Scholar pursuing a Master of Global Affairs degree. The premier graduate scholarship for aspiring public service leaders in the United States, the Truman Scholarship is awarded to undergraduate students on their records of leadership, public service and academic achievement. Each Truman Scholar receives funding for graduate studies, leadership training, career counseling, and internship and fellowship opportunities within the U.S. government.

“The Keough 91��Ƶ is proud to support an incoming Master of Global Affairs student through its partnership with the Truman Foundation,” said Becca Méndez, associate director of the Master of Global Affairs program. “With many of our graduates already working in prestigious public service roles, the Truman Scholarship enhances our effectiveness as a springboard for future leaders committed to the public good.”

The new scholarship builds on a strong relationship between the University of Notre Dame and the Truman Foundation. Since its inaugural class in 1977, the Truman Foundation has named 18 Notre Dame undergraduates as Truman Scholars.

“For almost 45 years, the Truman Foundation has served as a beacon for public service, inspiring Americans from across our country, and Notre Dame has a rich tradition of supporting its Truman Scholars,” said Terry Babcock-Lumish, executive secretary of the Truman Foundation. “Today, we are honored to begin our partnership with the Keough 91��Ƶ to invest in our nation’s next generation of leaders. We are grateful to the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs and the Notre Dame Graduate 91��Ƶ for championing public servants at this historic time.”

Truman Scholars are nominated by their undergraduate institutions for demonstrating outstanding leadership potential, a commitment to a career in government or the nonprofit sector, and academic excellence.

The living memorial to the 33rd U.S. president and the national monument to public service, the Truman Scholarship recognizes college juniors who demonstrate outstanding potential for public service. Since its establishment by Congress in 1975, the Truman Foundation has named 3,384 Truman Scholars, including United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch (1987); U.S. Sen. Chris Coons (1983); U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch (1986), Dusty Johnson (1998), Andy Kim (2003), Tom Malinowski (1985) and Greg Stanton (1990); Ambassador Susan Rice (1984); National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan (1997); and Fair Fight founder Stacey Abrams (1994).

Learn more here.

Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs and Mendoza College of Business launch dual master’s degree program

2020-09-22T10:00:00-04:00

The University of Notre Dame’s Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs and Mendoza College of Business have partnered to offer a dual master’s degree program in global affairs and business administration. The MGA/MBA program serves students with academic and professional interests in global affairs and business. The new program enables students to complete two two-year degree programs within three years.

“Knowing how to engage with the private sector can be an important tool for becoming an effective and ethical changemaker,” said Becca Méndez, associate director of the master of global affairs program. “In an increasingly global workforce, having skills and knowledge in these complementary fields provides a real benefit.”

“A master in global affairs is a perfect complement to a master of business administration,” said Kelli Kilpatrick, Notre Dame MBA program director. “The combination of the two creates an intersection of business and global affairs and would be an attractive course of study for students seeking a truly international approach to growing the good in business.”

“Within my peer group there is huge untapped demand for combining global affairs, economic development, and international business,” said Jamison Greene, a student in the program who is a former financial analyst and Peace Corps volunteer. “The goal is to combine our passions for business and international development and add value to society.”

Timothy Derr, another student enrolled in the program, says he appreciates having two diverse sets of classmates.

“Through the master of global affairs program I have classmates from all over the world, giving me a truly global perspective, and in the MBA program I have peers with knowledge of finance, accounting, real estate, and marketing,” said Derr, a former Peace Corps volunteer and marketing and communications specialist. “Having learned from the exchange of perspectives will provide a real advantage when applying for jobs in sustainable development.”

Interested students apply separately for the MBA in the Mendoza College of Business, and the MGA at the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs. Students can apply to both programs simultaneously, or apply to one program after having enrolled in the other. Applications are evaluated independently by each school using the criteria for their respective programs.

Learn more about the MGA/MBA program.

Contact: Ti Lavers, director of communications, Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs, 574-631-8819, tlavers@nd.edu

Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs responds to ethical issues raised by COVID-19 through new blog

2020-05-13T15:00:00-04:00

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, faculty at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs have created the new blog Dignity and Development, a hub for research and policy insights dedicated to upholding human dignity around the world. While initial blog posts will be written by Keough 91��Ƶ faculty, the group of contributors will be expanded to include the wider University community and beyond. Once the pandemic has waned, Dignity and Development will broaden its focus to additional timely global issues.

Launched on April 22, Dignity and Development draws upon diverse expertise from religious scholars, political scientists, anthropologists, psychologists, ethicists, historians, engineers, international development specialists and other academics and professionals in a variety of sectors and fields. The blog aims to bring scholars and practitioners into dialogue, fostering creative solutions to global challenges.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed levels of human suffering and inequality that are now impossible to ignore, wrote Scott Appleby, the Marilyn Keough Dean, in his inaugural blog post.

“The COVID-19 pandemic did not create these conditions — they have too long existed — but it has exacerbated them for millions of Americans and billions of people around the world,” Appleby said. “What is more, the deadly virus and its devastating economic consequences have extended the circle of vulnerability to untold numbers, who now know what it means to have their livelihoods, dignity and very lives endangered.”

Despite the risk of raising false hopes, Appleby asserts that COVID-19 presents an opportunity to approach global problems from a new perspective.

“Can we nonetheless imagine a world emerging from the pandemic, chastened but with new eyes to see, in which discussions about what has been revealed to us in the global crisis take center stage?” he said.

To date, Dignity and Development has addressed a variety of issues related to COVID-19: the plight of migrant workers, the role of religious leaders, new dilemmas for researchers engaged in fieldwork, and the unprecedented need for international cooperation among global leaders. A common thread running through the blog posts is a commitment to analyzing issues through the lens of integral human development, a positive vision of human flourishing at the heart of the Keough 91��Ƶ’s academic mission.

Along with Appleby, co-editors of the blog are Laura Miller-Graff, assistant professor of psychology and peace studies, and Clemens Sedmak, professor of social ethics.

Keough 91��Ƶ’s McKenna Center launches new entrepreneurship programs to fight global poverty, underemployment

2019-12-16T16:15:00-05:00

Two programs that help disadvantaged entrepreneurs in South Bend and South Africa now have a new home at the McKenna Center for Human Development and Global Business, part of the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. The programs are directed by Michael Morris, professor of the practice, a scholar of entrepreneurship who joined the Keough 91��Ƶ in August.

Entrepreneurship and Empowerment in South Africa, a six-week immersion program in townships surrounding Cape Town, South Africa, pairs graduate students and rising juniors and seniors with historically disadvantaged entrepreneurs seeking to develop their own businesses. The program, launched in 1998, is a partnership among Notre Dame and the University of Colorado, Texas A&M University, the University of Florida and the University of the Western Cape in South Africa.

Each year, 28 students from the United States join with 20 South African students to form consulting teams, gaining experience solving real-world business challenges in adverse circumstances.

“The program is empowering both for the entrepreneurs and the students,” Morris said. “Students make a real contribution to these businesses, and the experience changes them and how they see the world.”

Closer to Notre Dame’s campus, the South Bend Entrepreneurship and Adversity Program seeks to help members of the South Bend community, particularly those facing economic or other hardships, in starting and growing a business.

The Keough 91��Ƶ’s McKenna Center for Human Development and Global Business manages the program in close partnership with local nonprofit groups, government offices, small businesses and other university partners across South Bend. The program builds on initiatives Morris created in Syracuse, New York, and Gainesville, Florida.

“Entrepreneurship represents a viable pathway out of poverty,” Morris said. “Using a unique model, and collaborating with strong partners, we we hope to see 100 sustainable ventures in South Bend started by low-income entrepreneurs over the next five years.”

Morris is the first new faculty member at the McKenna Center, which was established in 2016 with a generous gift from Andrew J. McKenna Sr., a University of Notre Dame alumnus and emeritus chairman of the Board of Trustees. A pioneer in curricular innovation and experiential learning, Morris has built three university entrepreneurship programs that have been ranked in the top 10 in the United States and earned global recognition for excellence.

Morris also is the founder and director of the Experiential Classroom, a clinic that shares best practices in entrepreneurship education with faculty from around the globe, and holds a doctorate in marketing from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech).

Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs appoints five new faculty

2019-10-03T15:30:00-04:00

The Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame has appointed five new faculty members who bring diverse expertise in gender and peace studies, development economics, global education, international political economy, policy and armed conflict.

“Befitting the Keough 91��Ƶ’s mission and ambitions, each member of this new cohort of faculty brings expertise that is both international in focus and global in scope,” said Scott Appleby, the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough 91��Ƶ.

“Whether the topic is U.S.-China relations, resource-driven conflict in Africa, the economics of poverty and poverty reduction, inclusive educational policy in developing countries, or intersectional justice, these scholars’ cutting-edge research carries direct implications for policy as well as practice.”

The new faculty — Ashley Bohrer, Joshua Eisenman, Alejandro Estefan, Patrizio Piraino and Rachel Sweet — bring extensive international teaching and field research experience to the Keough 91��Ƶ, which opened its doors in 2017.

Ashley Bohrer, assistant professor of gender and peace studies, is a core faculty member of the Kroc Institute for International Peace 91��Ƶ, part of the Keough 91��Ƶ. She also is a concurrent faculty member in Notre Dame’s Gender 91��Ƶ Program.

Bohrer, who holds a doctorate in philosophy from DePaul University, studies complex patterns of oppression based on race, gender, sexuality and class, focusing on the intersections of these varieties of injustice. She is the author of "Marxism and Intersectionality: Race, Gender, Class, and Sexuality under Contemporary Capitalism." Bohrer has studied and taught around the world, including in France, Germany, Lebanon, China, South Africa and Sweden. During the fall 2019 semester, she is teaching a peace studies seminar for undergraduates.

Joshua Eisenman, associate professor of global affairs, studies the political economy of China’s development and China’s foreign relations with developing countries, especially those in Africa. After extensive fieldwork in China, he wrote "Red China’s Green Revolution: Technological Innovation, Institutional Change, and Economic Development Under the Commune" and co-edited "China Steps Out: Beijing’s Major Power Engagement with the Developing World." He holds a doctorate in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles.

A respected expert in policy circles who speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese, Eisenman is regularly consulted by U.S. policymakers on Capitol Hill, in the government’s executive branch and in the U.S. military. He has served as senior fellow for China studies at the American Policy Council since 2006. In the classroom, Eisenman will teach courses such as China and the World, U.S.-China Relations, and Foreign Policymaking in a Global Age.

Alejandro Estefan, assistant professor of global affairs, studies economic development with the goal of informing policy decision-making. Estefan studies many essential topics in the field of development economics, including the factors that lift individuals out of poverty; the effects of public investments on education; female labor force participation and its impact on gender violence; and state capacity and tax revenue collection.

Estefan holds a doctorate from University College London. He is a former research scholar at the Institute for Fiscal 91��Ƶ in London and the Center for the Economics of Human Development at the University of Chicago, and has worked as a policy analyst for the presidency of the Republic of Mexico. Estefan currently teaches Poverty Policy, a course that applies the tools of economic and public policy analysis to the study of poverty.

Patrizio Piraino, associate professor of education, labor and development, is an applied microeconomist who focuses on global education, labor and development, with emphasis on inequality, intergenerational mobility and social exclusion.

Piraino, who holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Siena in Italy, comes to Notre Dame from the University of Cape Town, where he was associate professor of economics. He has developed extensive expertise on issues related to global socioeconomic mobility, having studied data from several nations.

Piraino has collaborated with government agencies and the World Bank to evaluate how public services can promote youth work-readiness and employment. His most current research focuses on the impact of innovative post-primary education programs on socioeconomic mobility. During the spring 2020 semester, Piraino will teach a course on global education.

Rachel Sweet, assistant professor of global affairs, is a core faculty member of the Kroc Institute for International Peace 91��Ƶ and a concurrent faculty member in the Department of Political Science.

Sweet’s research focuses on armed conflict, governance and state capacity in fragile environments, and the methodology and data of studying civil wars and armed violence. She has conducted extensive field research in east and central Africa. An Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area 91��Ƶ at Harvard University, she holds a doctorate in political science from Northwestern University.

Sweet bridges academic rigor with practical engagement to improve conflict policy. She has worked with the U.N. Office of the Secretary General-Special Envoy to the African Great Lakes, with the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission, and as a lead conflict investigator with the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. She also has been invited to present research findings to policymakers from the U.S. Department of State, the United Nations and various U.S. intelligence agencies.

During the fall 2019 semester, Sweet is teaching a course on contemporary civil wars.

The Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs addresses some of the world’s greatest challenges, with particular emphasis on the design and implementation of effective and ethical responses to poverty, war, disease, political oppression, environmental degradation and other threats to dignity and human flourishing.

In keeping with Notre Dame’s mission to place scholarship in service to the common good, the Keough 91��Ƶ advances integral human development through research, policy and practice; transformative educational programs; and partnerships for global engagement.

Originally published by Renée LaReau at conductorshare.nd.edu on Oct. 3.

Keough 91��Ƶ awards new professional fellowships

2019-05-08T14:00:00-04:00

The Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame has created two new fellowships to support the professional development of graduating master of global affairs students. The Raymond C. Offenheiser Fellowship and the Hesburgh Global Fellowship will subsidize employment with organizations that foster human dignity and equality. The fellowships will be awarded annually.

“These new fellowships demonstrate the Keough 91��Ƶ’s commitment to guiding our students on a career path where they can thrive professionally and be a force for good in the world,” said Melinda Fountain, professional development specialist at the Keough 91��Ƶ. “We’re delighted to offer them to two outstanding members of our inaugural graduating class.”

Sofía del Valle, from Chile, has received the Raymond C. Offenheiser Fellowship for Active Citizenship. This fellowship will fund del Valle’s work for Oxfam, a global nonprofit organization focused on alleviating poverty and injustice. As a student, del Valle conducted fieldwork with Oxfam in Accra, Ghana, through the Keough 91��Ƶ’s Integration Lab. She studied cocoa farming and the cocoa supply chain, aiming to support policy that improves the lives of female cocoa farmers.

Del Valle wanted to continue her work with Oxfam because of the organization’s approach to social problems as complex issues.

“Oxfam is an organization that cares about the issues I care about, and they genuinely put people at the heart of what they do,” she said. “Their emphasis on the structural causes of poverty and inequality set them apart.”

The Offenheiser Fellowship was created in honor of Ray Offenheiser, director of the Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development (NDIGD). Before joining NDIGD, part of the Keough 91��Ƶ, Offenheiser served for 20 years as president of Oxfam America. Under his leadership, the agency grew eightfold and repositioned itself in the United States as an influential voice on international development, human rights and governance, humanitarianism, and foreign assistance.

The Offenheiser Fellowship is awarded to eligible Keough 91��Ƶ graduate students following the completion of their master of global affairs degree. Recipients work for one year at Oxfam’s offices in Boston or Washington, D.C.

Djiba Soumaoro, from Mali, is the recipient of the Hesburgh Global Fellowship. Named for the late Notre Dame President Emeritus Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., the fellowship provides funding for a graduate of the Master of Global Affairs program to pursue work focused on peace, justice, development or other related fields. Soumaoro will work for the Ouelessebougou Alliance, first in Salt Lake City, Utah, then in Mali’s Ouelessebougou region, where Soumaoro was born and raised.

“I want to give hope to disadvantaged and marginalized people in the same way some incredible people gave hope and opportunity to me while I was living in extreme poverty,” said Soumaro, who was the first of his 11 siblings to pursue a formal education. “I want to pay forward all the good that I have received in life.”

The Ouelessebougou Alliance works in partnership with local villagers to transform the quality of life in the region by facilitating sustainable health and education programs.

Soumaoro plans to draw upon the knowledge and skills he developed at the Keough 91��Ƶ, especially an informed understanding of structural violence and the conflict analysis skills he practiced as an intern with Catholic Relief Services (CRS). Through his six-month International Peace 91��Ƶ field experience in the U.S., Mali and Senegal, Soumaoro worked with the CRS Equity, Inclusion and Peacebuilding team on efforts to improve conditions for youth and women around the world.

The Keough 91��Ƶ’s Master of Global Affairs program, launched in August 2017, is a two-year professional degree program that prepares students for skilled, effective leadership and careers in government, nongovernmental and civil society organizations and the private sector. The inaugural master of global affairs class will graduate from Notre Dame on May 19.

Notre Dame’s Scott Appleby honored with Religion and International 91��Ƶ Distinguished Scholar Award

2019-03-28T13:00:00-04:00

R. Scott Appleby, the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs, is the recipient of the 2019 Religion and International 91��Ƶ Distinguished Scholar Award.

Appleby accepted the honor at the annual International 91��Ƶ Association (ISA) convention in Toronto. The celebration featured an academic roundtable dedicated to Appleby’s scholarship and its contribution to the field of international studies.

“Scott Appleby’s work has brought religion to the attention of academic audiences and clarified how religion matters in the world,” said the committee from the ISA Religion and International Relations Section, which presented the award. “His research has inspired and will continue to inspire debate and scholarship across multiple disciplines.”

The roundtable discussion highlighted Appleby’s development of key concepts in the study of religion and international relations, including fundamentalism; the role of religion in conflict and peacebuilding; sustainable peace; religious engagement; interreligious dialogue; religious engagement in foreign policy; and strategic peacebuilding, a set of practices that aims to transform a society from a state of violence or deep injustice to one of peace.

“Scott Appleby has shown that, while religion can promote political violence and conflict, it can also promote nonviolent civic engagement, development, conflict resolution and reconciliation,” said Scott M. Thomas, associate professor of international relations at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom, one of nine scholars participating in the roundtable. “Informed by this multifaceted understanding, he has pioneered a policy-oriented approach of the role of religion in international relations.”

Appleby also won praise from colleagues for establishing new and innovative research programs, including Contending Modernities, a major, multi-year project that examines interaction among Catholic, Muslim and secular forces in the modern world; and the Catholic Peacebuilding Network, a group of academics and practitioners that fosters the study and practice of Catholic peacebuilding in conflict-ridden areas. Appleby developed these initiatives during his 14-year tenure as the director of the Kroc Institute for International Peace 91��Ƶ.

“Directing a peace institute for over a decade and being constantly challenged by the realities of human suffering has grounded Appleby’s work in the dialectic tension between theory and practice,” said Atalia Omer, Keough 91��Ƶ associate professor of religion, conflict and peace studies, who participated in the roundtable.

Appleby was named founding dean of the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs in 2014. Notre Dame’s first new school in nearly a century, the Keough 91��Ƶ includes nine international institutes and centers, including the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, which opened its doors in October 2018.

A member of the Notre Dame faculty since 1994, Appleby is the author or editor of 15 books, including the widely cited volumes of “The Fundamentalism Project” (co-edited with Martin E. Marty and published by the University of Chicago Press); and “The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence and Reconciliation.” Most recently, Appleby co-edited (with Atalia Omer) The Oxford Handbook on Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding. He also serves as lead editor of 91��Ƶ in Strategic Peacebuilding, an Oxford University Press series.

Appleby co-chaired the Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Task Force on Religion and the Making of U.S. Foreign Policy, which released the influential report, “Engaging Religious Communities Abroad: A New Imperative for U.S. Foreign Policy.”

A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, Appleby is the recipient of four honorary doctorates, from Fordham University, Scranton University, St. John’s University (Collegeville, Minnesota) and Saint Xavier University.

Democratization expert Aníbal Pérez-Liñán holds appointment in Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs

2019-02-25T10:00:00-05:00

Aníbal Pérez-Liñán, who joined the University of Notre Dame faculty in the Department of Political Science in August 2018, holds a joint appointment in the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs. An expert in democratization, political instability and the rule of law in new democracies, Pérez-Liñán teaches courses on democratic development and political institutions.

Pérez-Liñán’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development, the Inter-American Development Bank, Uruguay’s National Agency for Research and Innovation and Paraguay’s National Council for Science and Technology. He is editor-in-chief of the Latin American Research Review, the scholarly journal of the Latin American 91��Ƶ Association, and co-editor with Paolo Carozza of the Kellogg Series on Democracy and Development published by University of Notre Dame Press.

“Aníbal has quickly proven himself an invaluable member of the Keough 91��Ƶ faculty, not only for his considerable expertise in governance and politics in Latin America, but also for his ability to think comparatively and across disciplines about some of the world’s most intractable problems,” said Scott Appleby, Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs. “He is also an insightful evaluator of methodological excellence in the social sciences and a generous colleague.”

Pérez-Liñán’s book "Democracies and Dictatorships in Latin America" (Cambridge University Press), co-authored with Scott Mainwaring, analyzes the profound transformation of the Western Hemisphere at the end of the 20th century, which led to the decline of military dictatorships and a sudden surge in the number of democracies. The book co-won the Best Book Award from the Comparative Democratization Section of the American Political Science Association, and won the Donna Lee Van Cott Prize from the Political Institutions section of the Latin American 91��Ƶ.

Pérez-Liñán also is the author of "Presidential Impeachment and the New Political Instability in Latin America" (Cambridge University Press), which documents and explains the emerging use of presidential impeachment as a political weapon.

A Notre Dame graduate, Pérez-Liñán earned a Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science. He is a faculty fellow of the Kellogg Institute for International 91��Ƶ, where he also is a former visiting fellow and distinguished research affiliate.

“I am thrilled with the intellectual environment at the Keough 91��Ƶ,” he said. “Notre Dame’s Catholic mission prompts the study of democratization and human development, and Keough provides a vibrant, interdisciplinary space for research, teaching and policy debates.”

Before returning to Notre Dame, Pérez-Liñán was a political science professor and core faculty member at the Center for Latin American 91��Ƶ at the University of Pittsburgh.