2024-25 Research Report of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies
2024–2025 RESEARCH REPORT
A Review of Faculty, Student, and Institute-Led Research
The Nanovic Institute for European Studies was established more than 30 years ago as a student-focused unit; the founding hope was to help students at the University of Notre Dame connect with Europe. The bridges created and sustained between Notre Dame and Europe have been shaped by student research, student-driven curiosity, and student initiatives to explore many different questions in Europe and about Europe.
The institute’s experience over the years has shown that student research benefits both from appropriate mentoring and from established research programs and projects that offer students clearly defined opportunities for engagement. Furthermore, bridges between Notre Dame and Europe can be strengthened by establishing research partnerships with European universities.
The Nanovic Institute for European Studies is an academic unit within the Keough School of Global Affairs and is thus expected to contribute to the research excellence of Notre Dame. Since the institute does not have faculty lines, these contributions to academic research have to be planned in creative ways: by supporting the research of faculty fellows, by empowering student research and connecting it to wider research programs, by defining research priorities, and by initiating research projects.
The institute’s research priorities respond to university-wide research initiatives (especially in the fields of democracy, sustainability, ethics, and global Catholicism), contribute to the endeavors of the Keough School of Global Affairs (with its focus on integral human development), and reflect the Catholic mission of Notre Dame by paying special attention to “peripheries” and normative questions (ethics, religion).
“Peripheries” research has been advanced in the academic year 2024-25 by the coordination of The Routledge Handbook on Peripheries in European Studies (involving 41 authors, submission of full manuscript in May 2025), which will serve as a reference work for the intersection of peripheries studies and European studies. Normative questions, such as the role of dignity, the common good, and religion, play an important role in the newly established Ukrainian Studies Hub with a University of Notre Dame Press book series that will be inaugurated with a volume by Ukrainian public intellectual Myroslav Marynovych.
The institute advances research in the roles of supporter, facilitator, bridge builder, and coordinator. We hope to deepen the connection between our programming and our research agenda in the years to come.
Research Priorities
In his inaugural address, University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., challenged the Notre Dame community to be “bridge-builders”: to reach across boundaries and borders to understand and address the great challenges that we face as a global community.
Fr. Dowd’s challenge resonates with the University’s aspiration to be the leading global Catholic research university, yet to remain distinct from its peer universities. To act as a bridgebuilder means to seek truth for truth’s sake and push the frontiers of human knowledge, but to do so with what Fr. Dowd calls “a disciplined sensibility to…poverty, injustice, and oppression.”
The research priorities of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, as outlined in its 2021–2026 strategic plan, take on a renewed relevance in light of Fr. Dowd’s call. In the 2024-25 academic year, as in previous years,
Peripheries
The Nanovic Institute is committed to enlarging the map with research and dialogue that encompass the lived experience of all people in Europe, including those marginalized by geography, poverty, policies of citizenship, and difference. This priority has given rise to a flagship research project, The Routledge Handbook on Peripheries in European Studies (Routledge, forthcoming), co-edited by Clemens Sedmak and Nanovic affiliated scholar Pamela Ballinger, which brings together an international group of scholars to explore the fruitfulness of a “peripheral”
the institute has remained committed to advancing humanistic research that addresses urgent ethical questions, engages Europe’s religious traditions, and reaches out to those on the “peripheries.” In this work, the institute seeks to embody Fr. Dowd’s “disciplined sensibility,” both in the research it supports and the spirit in which that research is undertaken. The five priority areas that guided this year’s research endeavors include peripheries; big questions about Europe and humanity; human dignity; memory and remembering; and faith and religion in Europe.
viewpoint in the field of European studies. The institute also organized and sponsored a research program on “Storytelling from the Margins,” which convened a working group of Notre Dame and Laura Shannon Prize scholars to produce a collaborative publication on the experiences and stories of those on Europe’s margins. This project culminated in the 2025 Shannon Seminar on Storytelling, hosted at Kylemore Abbey, where these scholars gathered to workshop their research projects and continue planning their publication.
Big Questions about Europe and Humanity
European issues are global and human issues with implications for the world at large. The institute is particularly interested in questions that pose major moral challenges with implications for European identities and values, politics and society, and the history and future shared by European nations and peoples. Within this priority, the Nanovic Institute has partnered with Keough School faculty member Marc Jacob to support his project “Campaigning for Democracy,” which was recently awarded a Democracy Catalyst Grant through Notre Dame’s
Human Dignity
As part of the Keough School of Global Affairs, with its commitment to integral human development, the Nanovic Institute is interested in exploring the meaning and implications of the dignity of each human person. This includes research on the respect and safeguarding of the dignity of all, especially the most vulnerable members of society. In pursuit of this goal, the institute’s director, Clemens Sedmak, has partnered with Ukrainian Catholic University’s Dean of the Social Sciences Volodymyr Turchynovskyy to explore how the Russian aggression against Ukraine has challenged, transformed, and disrupted the thinking of Ukrainian philosophers. The project, “How the war has disrupted our thinking: Philosophy in Ukraine after ten years of Russian aggression
Democracy Initiative to examine the relationship between political campaigns and democratic resilience in Europe and abroad. The institute has also continued to intensify its efforts in supporting the growth of Ukrainian Studies at Notre Dame, launching the Nanovic Institute Series on Ukrainian Studies in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame Press, hosting its first biennial conference on Ukrainian Studies, and committing to its new Ukrainian Studies Hub Research Grants program.
(2014-2024),” was awarded a Ukrainian Studies Hub Research Grant and is currently in progress. In some ways, this project builds on a 2024 Munich conference co-sponsored by the institute, Ukrainian Catholic University, and Ludwig Maximilian University on “Challenges of Russia’s War against Ukraine and the Ethical Principles for Sustainable Peace in Europe.” This conference led to the publication of the academic volume Facing Russian Aggression: Struggle for Security and Peace in Europe, edited by Volodymyr Turchynovskyy and Oleh Turiy (UCU Press, 2025), which provides a Catholic perspective on ethical questions and sociological issues related to global security, spanning topics such as totalitarianism, Russian aggression, and just peace.
Memory and Remembering
The Nanovic Institute supports research exploring how memory is shaped, contested, and mobilized in contemporary Europe, particularly in relation to ethical and political dimensions of remembrance. One active project, “Sites of Memory in Contemporary Europe,” involves undergraduate researchers cataloging and analyzing contentious memorial sites across Europe that illuminate the ways history, culture, and identity continue to intersect in the present. An output of the project is a digital resource that documents each site and its surrounding debates. Sites from Poland will feature prominently in the database, as students from Notre Dame, Ukrainian
Faith and Religion in Europe
The Nanovic Institute also considers questions about the role of faith in Europe today and how religious traditions and institutions continue to shape Europe. Within this priority, the institute is currently coordinating an interdisciplinary research project on the “Resilience of Religious Communities in Central and Eastern Europe,” which springs out of a call for papers within the Catholic Universities Partnership (CUP). This call produced several research papers that have since been supplemented by further contributions from individual scholars and are currently being edited and shaped into a rigorous academic volume. Another CUP book publication, Faith, Freedom, and the Fall of Communism, edited by Morgan Munsen, Magdalena Charzyńska-Wójcik, and Daniel
Catholic University, and John Paul II Catholic University in Lublin contribute to the database following their participation in a summer school in Lublin on sites and symbols of Jewish presence on the complicated history and memory of Jewish identities throughout Poland and, in particular, the city of Lublin. The two-week summer school program took place in 2024 and 2025, and, with grant funding secured, will take place in 2026. Additionally, the institute is in the final stages of developing a scholarly volume in partnership with the Council for European Studies that examines the politics of memory with an emphasis on the evolving memorial landscape in Europe.
Philpott (KUL Press), was published in late 2024. This volume explores Central and Eastern Europe’s traumatic Soviet past through religion and religious dissidents, and the profound influence of faith and religious belief as a force for social change; its essays explore the diverse experiences of religious communities across the region, though a special focus is given to the role of the Catholic Church.
Ukrainian Studies Hub Research
Since the launch of the Ukrainian Studies Hub, the Nanovic Institute for European Studies has continued its work to expand and deepen its research portfolio in the area of Ukrainian studies.
In addition to serving as a convening center for existing research on Ukraine at Notre Dame, the institute—through its Ukrainian Studies Hub—has likewise spearheaded efforts to initiate new and exciting research projects in the field. These efforts have allowed the Hub to continue growing its international network, deepen its relationship with Ukrainian Catholic
University (UCU) and other Ukrainian partners, and support the growth of Ukrainian Studies both at Notre Dame and globally. Over the past year, the Nanovic Institute has expanded the Hub’s research efforts through initiatives such as a major scholarly conference, which served as the public launch of the Hub, an ongoing grant program, and a developing book series.
Inaugural Ukrainian Studies Conference
On March 6–8, 2025, the Nanovic Institute hosted its first biennial Ukrainian Studies Hub conference, “Revolutions of Hope: Resilience and Recovery in Ukraine.” This international and interdisciplinary event brought together scholars, students, practitioners, artists, and members of the general public to consider the perhaps unexpected topic of hope in contemporary Ukraine. Since Russia’s illegal 2014 annexation of Crimea and, more recently, the 2022 full-scale invasion, Ukraine has been under siege, suffering unspeakable destruction to its people, its infrastructure, and its resources. The conference focused on the positive and corrective
response to this destruction, exploring reasons for hope, sources of hope, and the politics and ethics of hope in Ukraine.
While the conference program far transcended the scope of a standard academic gathering, the plenary sessions and stimulating panel sessions sparked important—and ongoing—scholarly conversations about hope in Ukraine. Attendees were treated to keynotes from distinguished speakers, including Archbishop Borys Gudziak (President of UCU), Olesya Khromeychuck (Director, Ukrainian Institute London), and Serhii Plokhy (Director, Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University).
Meanwhile, the lineup of scholarly panels allowed participants to engage in deep discussions about contemporary and historical issues facing Ukraine. Sessions explored topics such as the role of art and literature in times of war; Ukraine’s struggle for democratic values; the social and spiritual foundations of Ukrainian fortitude; Ukraine’s future development and recovery; the role of technology, media, and cultural identity in the war; and historical perspectives on Ukraine and its people.
By fostering these vital ideas, connections, and relationships, the Nanovic Institute’s inaugural Ukrainian Studies Hub conference marked a critical step in positioning Notre Dame as a global center for scholarly engagement with Ukraine and Ukrainian studies.
Ukrainian Studies Hub Grants Program
In support of its ongoing contributions to the field of Ukrainian studies, the Nanovic Institute announced the opening of its Ukrainian Studies Hub Research Grant program in 2024. This grant program offers awards for Notre Dame faculty—especially those working in collaboration with UCU scholars—whose research focuses on Ukraine and Ukrainian Studies. The institute committed $100,000 to this program in AY 2024-2025, and has renewed this commitment through the next academic year.
Successful research proposals so far include:
• Ian Kuijt (Notre Dame) and Fr. Andrii Shestak (UCU), “Student stories of resilience and resistance: Training UCU students in documentary film making in collaborative UCU-ND masterclasses.”
• Clemens Sedmak (Notre Dame) and Volodymyr Turchynovskyy (UCU), “How the war has disrupted our thinking: Philosophy in Ukraine after ten years of Russian aggression (2014–2024).”
• George Sikharulidze (Notre Dame), “Hromada: A Documentary Short Film on the Ukrainian War Refugees in Georgia.”
• Jessica McManus Warnell (Notre Dame), Sophia Opatska (UCU), and Amy Kenworthy (Bond University), “Hope in Action: Exploring Ukrainian Educators’ Understanding, Cultivation, and Enactment of Hope Within War.”
• Tim Weninger (Notre Dame), Orysia Vira (UCU), Andriy Hrynykha (UCU), and Oles Dobosevych (UCU), “Civic Relations in Early Modern Lviv: A Digital Reconstruction of Social Networks.”
ND–UCU Faculty Collaboration Grants
In addition to the Ukrainian Studies Hub Research Grants administered by the Nanovic Institute to promote research projects on Ukraine, especially those in partnership with Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU), Notre Dame Global and Notre Research partnered to generate sustainable joint research projects for Notre Dame and UCU. The ND–UCU Faculty Collaboration Grants, which provides research support for up to 24 months, were first awarded in 2022-2023; the program was reprised for a second round of grants in 2024-2025. The ND–UCU Faculty Collaboration Grants are a significant source of support for Ukrainian Studies at Notre Dame and for facilitating joint research projects with UCU faculty. Of the seven ND–UCU Faculty Collaboration Grants awarded in summer 2025, four included Nanovic faculty fellows and visiting scholars:
Religious Freedom in Contemporary Ukraine: Historical Transformations and the Challenges of War
Led by Yury P. Avvakumov, Associate Professor of Theology (Notre Dame), and Oleh Turiy, Head of the Institute of Church History (UCU) and 2018-19 Visiting Scholar, with Sean Griffin, Associate Professor of Slavic and Eurasian Studies (Notre Dame), and Myroslav Marynovych, President of Institute of Religion and Society (UCU)
Network Leadership for Democratic Resilience in Ukraine
Led by Debra Javeline, Professor of Political Science (Notre Dame), and Pavlo Khud, Lecturer in the
Management and Organizational Development (UCU), with Andriy Rozhdestvensky, Executive Director of the Center for Leadership (UCU)
The Moral Biography of Ukraine
Led by Clemens Sedmak, Director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies and Professor of Social Ethics (Notre Dame), and Volodymyr
Turchynovskyy, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Director of the International Institute for Ethics and Contemporary Issues (UCU), with John Deak, Associate Professor of History (Notre Dame), A. James McAdams, Emeritus Professor of International Affairs and former Nanovic Director, 2002-2018 (Notre Dame), Anatolii Babynskyi, Professor in the Institute of Church History (UCU), and Nataliya Yakymets, Deputy Director of Research at the International Institute for Ethics and Contemporary Issues (UCU)
Bringing a Just Peace to Ukraine
Led by Rev. Yuriy Shchurko, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology (UCU) and 2024-25 Visiting Scholar, and Suzanne Shanahan, Leo and Arlene Hawk Executive Director and Professor of the Practice at the Institute for Social Concerns (Notre Dame), with Daniel Philpott, Professor of Political Science (Notre Dame), Gerard Powers, Director of Catholic Peacebuilding Studies at the Kroc Institute (Notre Dame), Rev. Yuriy
Martynyuk, Senior Professor of Theology (UCU), and Dmytro Tsolin, Professor of Biblical Studies (UCU)
Ukrainian Studies Book Series
Recently launched in partnership with the University of Notre Dame Press, The Nanovic Institute Series on Ukrainian Studies is designed to make the breadth and depth of Ukrainian culture, history, and religious traditions more readily available to Western audiences. This series builds on the University’s strong tradition of collaboration with partners in Ukraine, seeking to promote not only contributions to Ukrainian studies (especially in the field of ethics and religion), but also the work currently being produced by Ukrainian scholars and other authors. The series looks both to the past and to the future, showcasing the best that Ukrainian historical memory and contemporary thought have to offer by amplifying the voices of those authors whose work demonstrates Ukrainian resilience in the face of a long history of oppression and paves the way for recovery, renewed strength, and future flourishing.
The inaugural publication in this nascent series is set to be an English translation of Myroslav Marynovych’s seminal work on “The Ukrainian Idea and Christianity,” Українська ідея і християнство, або Коли гарцюють кольорові коні, first published by Дух і Літера (Spirit and Letter) in 2003. To further distinguish this book as the first in this important series, Marynovych has revised and updated his book with new sections not previously published, in Ukrainian or otherwise.
Series Editors
Yury P. Avvakumov (Notre Dame)
Clemens Sedmak (Notre Dame)
Anatolii Babynskiy (UCU)
Advisory Board
José Casanova (Georgetown University)
Taras Dobko (UCU)
Rory Finnin (Cambridge University)
Olenka Pevny (Cambridge University)
Serhii Plokhy (Harvard University)
Zoriana Rybchynska (UCU)
Tetyana Shlikhar (Notre Dame)
Frank Sysyn (University of Alberta)
Oleh Turiy (UCU)
Nanovic Institute-Supported Research Highlights
In the 2024-25 academic year, the Nanovic Institute provided numerous grants in support of individual and collaborative research projects led by faculty, visiting scholars, and students. The following section highlights some of these supported research activities.
Faculty Research
Over the past two years, the Nanovic Institute has provided grant funding for 89 faculty projects, including 43 in the last academic year. These projects span research, scholarship, and creative endeavors. The examples below reflect the institute’s strategic interests in peripheral cultural heritage, global democracy, and interdisciplinary humanities research:
Individual Research Project: Crimes against the State: The Rule of Law and the Habsburg Empire’s Last War
Led by John Deak, Associate Professor of History
With the support of the Nanovic Institute, Deak traveled to Innsbruck and Vienna, Austria, in summer 2025, to conduct research on the Habsburg Empire in World War I—specifically focusing on how the Habsburg military tried to use law and criminal prosecutions to remake the Habsburg state. This trip, an extension of his
NEH-funded research project “The First World War and the Fall of the Habsburg Empire” (with co-PI Jonathan Edward Gumz, University of Birmingham), allowed Deak to follow up on research leads from the NEH project as well as write a substantial research article on military justice in the First World War.
Individual Research Project: Francophone Peace Studies: Activism On and Beyond the Page
Led by Alison Rice, Dr. William M. Scholl Professor of French and Francophone Studies
Rice’s book project, supported by the Nanovic Institute, focuses on the attention that Francophone writers and filmmakers pay to human rights in both their creative work and activism. Focusing on four Francophone figures— Faïza Guène, Shumona Sinha, Véronique Tadjo, and Abdellah Taïa—Rice examines the way in which literature and film create empathy and promote human rights, and explores how authors who are attentive to building peace within their oeuvre are deeply engaged in activism outside their textual creations. Her project will culminate in a book-length publication as well as a film.
Individual Research Project: The Awakening
Led by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, Dorothy G. Griffin College Professor of English
In summer 2025, the Nanovic Institute supported Van der Vliet Oloomi’s travel to the Italian city of La Spezia, the most heavily bombarded Italian port city during World War II, to continue conducting oral-history interviews. These interviews capture the testimony of three women, lifelong friends who experienced the events of WWII and its aftermath. This oral history research forms
the basis of Van der Vliet Oloomi’s novel, The Awakening. Told in three sections, each narrated by a different character, this polyphonic novel is about the long twentieth century and about female friendship and belonging during decades of enormous global, cultural, and economic shifts in Italy; it is a meditation on time, war, love, and the bonds of family.
Collaborative Research Project: Undermining Democracy in Online Spaces: Decoding Russian & Chinese Digital Influence Operations
Led by Karrie Koesel, Associate Professor of Political Science, and Tim Weninger, Frank M. Freimann Collegiate Professor of Engineering
In spring 2025, the Nanovic Institute supported the project team led by Karrie Koesel as they continued working on their Notre Dame Democracy Initiative-funded project on the proliferation of Russian and Chinese anti-democratic narratives in online spaces. This project combines social science methodologies and digital forensics to study the spread of anti-democratic narratives and responses thereto across social media platforms. In particular, the institute funded the participation of Dr. Jekatyerina
Faculty Fellow Awards
Denise M. Della Rossa
Teaching Professor of German
Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Award for Excellence in Teaching (University of Notre Dame, 2024)
Dunajeva (Assistant Professor at Pázmány Péter Catholic University), who served as senior research personnel for the project. Dunajeva worked closely with the research team to gather valuable data about Hungary—a case study for examining the impact of anti-democratic narratives. This data draws on nonparticipatory netnography as well as in-depth interviews to explore whether and how Chinese and Russian anti-democratic narratives resonate in “friendly” political environments.
Ian Kuijt Professor of Anthropology
Awards for film Targeting Beauty (2024) include:
• Best Short Documentary (London Global Film Awards, 2024)
• Honorary Award for Efforts in Social Filmmaking (Activists Within Borders, 2024)
• Best Co-Directors—Short Documentary (Portugal Indie Film Festival, 2024)
• Best Short Documentary (Cine-Paris Film Festival, 2024)
Ray Offenheiser
Senior Advisor to the Dean and Director of the McKenna Center for Human Development and Global Business
President’s Award (University of Notre Dame, 2024)
Emilia Justyna Powell
Professor of Political Science
Best Book in International Law (International Studies Association, 2024-25) for The Peaceful Resolution of Maritime Disputes (Oxford University Press, 2023)
Mark W. Roche
Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Professor of German Language and Literature Concurrent Professor of Philosophy
Hesburgh Legacy Award (University of Notre Dame, 2025)
George Sikharulidze
Associate Professor of Film Production
Awards for film Panopticon (2024) include:
• Prize of the Ecumenical Jury (Commendation) (Karlovy Vary Film Festival)
• Best Film Award (Palic Film Festival, Parallels and Encounters section)
• Best Film and Best Actor Awards—Special Mention (Batumi International Art House Film Festival)
• Best New Performer Award (Asia Pacific Screen Awards)
• Critics’ Prize (Cinemed Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival)
Selected Bibliography of Faculty Publications
Aguilera-Mellado, Pedro A. La Excritura De Juan Benet. Editorial Comares, 2024.
Albahari, Maurizio. “Migrant Democracy: Constitutional Promise and Political Struggle in Contemporary Italy.” Society (December 2024): 1-12.
Anders, Selena. “Conserve or Restore? Giuseppe Valadier’s Approach to Saving Rome’s Ancient Monuments.” In History, Architecture and Heritage: Building the Architectural Identity, edited by E. Boeri, P. Coffy, and F. Mattei. Franco Angeli, 2024.
Avvakumov, Yury P. The Churches and the War: Religion, Religious Diplomacy, and Russia’s Aggression against Ukraine. Ukrainian Catholic University Press, 2024.
Avvakumov, Yury P. “The Renaissance Papacy and Eastern Christianity: Greek and Slavic.” In The Renaissance Papacy 1400–1600, edited by Nelson H. Minnich, vol. 22. Brill, 2025.
Bachmann, Rüdiger, David Baqaee, Christian Bayer, Moritz Kuhn, Andreas Löschel, Benjamin Moll, Andreas Peichl, Karen Pittel, and Moritz Schularick. “What If? The Macroeconomic and Distributional Effects for Germany of a Stop of Energy Imports from Russia.” Economica 91, no. 364 (2024): 1157-1200.
Bachmann, Ruediger. “Funktionen von Staatsschulden und Reform der Schuldenbremse.” Ifo Schnelldienst 77, no. 2 (2024): 19-22.
Banella, Laura. “Repurposing the Book As a Message: Italian Lyric Manuscripts in Prison.” Renaissance Studies 39, no. 2 (2025): 160-178.
Betz, John. “The Trinity and the Arts: Toward a Christian Poetics.” Modern Theology 40 (2024): 194-227.
Boes, Tobias. A Reader’s Guide to Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus. Camden House, 2025.
Brown, Jeremy. A World of Piety: The Aims of Castilian Kabbalah. Stanford University Press, 2025.
Brown, Jeremy. “On the Censorship of Anti-Christian Polemic in Early Kabbalah: In Memoriam: Gershon David Hundert (1946–2023).” AJS Review: The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies 48, no. 2 (2024): 278–307.
Bugyis, Katie Ann-Marie. “Goscelin of Saint-Bertin’s Matins Lessons for the Abbess-Saints of Barking Abbey in London, British Library, Cotton Ms Otho a Xii.” Traditio 79 (2025): 157–201.
Cachey, Theodore. “Lettura e interpretazione del canto XIV.” In Voci sul Purgatorio di Dante. Una nuova lettura della seconda cantica, edited by Zygmunt G. Baranski and Maria Antonietta Terzoli, vol. I, 371-396. 2024.
Cummings, Kathleen Sprows. “Telling Sisters’ Stories over the Last Quarter Century.” American Catholic Studies 135, no. 3 (2024): 21–27.
Desierto, Diane. “Entrenching Business and Human Rights in a Multi-Aligned Global Economy: The US, China, Middle Powers, and the Global South.” NYU Journal of International Law and Politics Fall 2024 Online Forum. Oxford Academic, 2024.
Desierto, Diane. “Realizing Rights to Development and Healthy, Safe, Sustainable Environment in Global and Local Climate Actions Affecting Small Island Developing States.” Santa Clara Journal of International Law (2024).
Desierto, Diane. “The Role of Human Rights in Investment Awards.” In The Award in International Investment Arbitration, edited by Katia Fach Gómez and Catharine Titi, 241-254. Oxford University Press, 2024.
Desierto, Diane. “UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC): Authoritarian Regimes and Emergency Measures in the UN Human Rights Committee’s 2022–2023 Jurisprudence.” In The Global Community Yearbook of International Law and Jurisprudence 2023: Global Law, Politics, Ethics, Justice, Global Community, edited by Giuliana Ziccardi Capaldo, 715-746. Oxford Academic, 2024.
Donahue, William. “Against Catholics: Kristallnacht and Its Aftermath in the U.S. Catholic Press A Speech on the Occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day (2019) at the University of Notre Dame.” In andererseits—Yearbook of Transatlantic German Studies 11/12 (2022/23), edited by William Collins Donahue, Georg Mein, and Rolf Parr, 21–34. Transcript, 2024.
Donahue, William. “The Berlin Seminar on German Literary Institutions: A Course Correction for German Studies.” In andererseits—Yearbook of Transatlantic German Studies 11/12 (2022/23), edited by William Collins Donahue, Georg Mein, and Rolf Parr, 119-124. Transcript, 2024.
Donahue, William. Review of Erich Kästner, Resignation ist kein Gesichtspunkt. Politische Reden und Feuilletons, edited by Sven Hanuschek. Arbitrium 42, no. 2 (2024): 221-227.
Donahue, William. “Kurzfilm in the German Studies Classroom Aesthetics, Landeskunde, Pedagogy.” In andererseits - Yearbook of Transatlantic German Studies 11/12 (2022/23), edited by William Collins Donahue, Georg Mein, and Rolf Parr, 181–84. Transcript, 2024.
Donahue, William. “‘Paradigmatic’ Novels of Political Strife: Juli Zeh’s Unterleuten (2016) and Über Menschen (2021).” In Gegenwarts-literatur: Utopie—Dystopie—Klimaromane / Utopia—Dystopia— Climate Fiction, edited by Friederike Eigler, 203–26. De Gruyter, 2024.
Doran, Kirk, Colin Davison, and Chungeun Yoon. “Labor and Invention as Complements: Evidence from 1920s Immigration Quotas.” University of Notre Dame, 2025.
Doran, Kirk, Prithwiraj Choudhury, Astrid Marinoni, and Chungeun Yoon. “Loss of Peers and Individual Worker Performance: Evidence From H-1B Visa Denials.” Organization Science (2024): 1957-2332.
Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. Review of Aztec and Maya Apocalypses: Old World Tales of Doom in a New World Setting, by Mark Z. Christensen. Journal of Social History 58, no. 1 (2024): 175–77.
Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. How the Spanish Empire Was Built: A 400-Year History. Reaktion Books Ltd, 2024.
Francalanci, Leonardo. “Entre El Mite I La Realitat. Elements Medievalistes Del Catalanisme Particularista de v. Almirall (Lo Catalanisme , 1886).” Catalan Review 38, no. 1 (2024): 79–99.
Frymoyer, Johanna. Modernist Movements: Listening for Topics in Schoenberg and Stravinsky. Oxford University Press, 2025.
García-Romero, Anne. “Grotesque Dramaturgy and Gender Critique in the Post-Dictatorship Southern Cone.” In Bodies on the Front Lines: Gender, Sexuality and Performance in Latin America and the Caribbean, edited by Brenda Werth and Katherine Zien, 288-304. University of Michigan Press, 2024.
Griffin, Sean. “The Dark Double: Russian Orthodoxy in Andrei Zviagintsev’s Leviathan.” Slavic Review 83, no. 3 (2025): 576–90.
Griffin, Sean. “Putin’s Holy War of the Fatherland: Sacred Memory and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.” The Russian Review 83, no. 1 (2024): 79–92.
Groody, Rev. Daniel, C.S.C. Una Teología de La Migración: El Cuerpo de Los Refugiados Y El Cuerpo de Cristo Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2024.
Grove, Rev. Kevin G., C.S.C. “Absurd Geographies of Resilience and Justice.” Climate and Development 16, no. 9 (2024): 739–50.
Hoeckner, Berthold. “Korngold’s Hollywood Homecomings.” 19th-Century Music 48, no. 1-2 (2024): 5–18.
Hoeckner, Berthold. “Pitch Height and Mode Have Asymmetrical Effects on the Perception of Mixed Emotions in Major and Minor Seventh Chords.” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts (2024).
Holland, Peter. “‘Enter Kent, Gloster, and Bastard’: Beginning King Lear and the Choice of the Audience.” Humanities 14, no. 3 (2025): 65.
Holland, Peter. “‘Is This the Promised End?’; Travels with/in King Lear.” Shakespeare in Southern Africa 36, no. 1 (2024).
Holland, Peter. “Mask and Persona: Creating the Bard for Bardcom.” Persona Studies 5, no. 2 (2025): 9–22.
Hösle, Vittorio. “Causes and Consequences of the Destruction of the Belief in the Attainability of Truth: Philosophical Reflections with a Historical Example.” Filozofia 79, no. 2 (2024): 113–32.
Hösle, Vittorio. “Ludwig Steinherrs Zur Geburt Einer Ming-Vase.” In andererseits - Yearbook of Transatlantic German Studies 11/12 (2022/23), edited by William Collins Donahue, Georg Mein, and Rolf Parr, 451–64. Transcript, 2024.
Hösle, Vittorio. “The Place of Kant’s Philosophy of History in the History of the Philosophy of History (Translate from German by V. Kozlovskyi).” NaUKMA Research Papers in Philosophy and Religious Studies 13 (2024): 17–25.
Huk, Romana. Rewriting the Word God: In the Arc of Converging Lines between Innovative Theory, Theology, and Poetry. University of Alabama Press, 2025.
Javeline, Debra. “Russia in a changing climate.” WIREs Climate Change 15, no. 2 (March 2024).
Jones, CJ. Fixing the Liturgy: Friars, Sisters, and the Dominican Rite, 1256-1516. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024.
Jones, CJ. “A Musical Variation on Late Medieval Religious Reform: Johannes Nider and the Observant Dominican Liturgy.” Austrian History Yearbook 55 (2024): 538–51. Cambridge University Press.
Joshua, Essaka. “‘An Infectious Madness’: Disability and the Epidemiology of Social Unrest in Charles Dickens’s Barnaby Rudge.” In Nineteenth-Century Literature in Transition: The 1830s, edited by John Gardner and David Stewart, 38-61. Cambridge University Press, 2024.
Joshua, Essaka. “Disability and Race.” In The Cambridge Companion to Romanticism and Race, edited by Manu Chander, 98-115. Cambridge University Press, 2024.
Joshua, Essaka. “Romanticism and Deaf Justice.” European Romantic Review 35, no. 3 (2024): 525–43.
Koesel, Karrie. “Obstacles to Covenantal Pluralism in Contemporary Russia.” The Review of Faith & International Affairs 23, no. 1 (2025): 1–14.
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Kuijt, Ian. “Reconsidering Narratives of Household Social Inequality.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 75 (2024).
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Kuijt, Ian. “Visual Storytelling and Community Based Research in Archaeology.” The SAA Archaeological Record 24, no. 1 (2024): 36-43.
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Lehner, Ulrich L. “The Semantics of Religious Borders in Early Modern Confessions.” Reformation & Renaissance Review 26, no. 1 (2024): 54–79.
Lincicum, David. “A Non-Manuscript of Papias of Hierapolis.” New Testament Studies 70, no. 3 (2024): 421–23.
Lyandres, Semion. “‘A Nice Little Family!’ the Romanov Brothers and the Fate of Russian Monarchy in 1917.” Journal of Modern Russian History and Historiography 17, no. 1 (2024): 3–38.
Machan, Tim. Review of The United States of English: The American Language from Colonial Times to the Twenty-First Century. Modern Philology 121, no. 4 (2024): E135–37.
Mainwaring, Madison. “Through the Glass, Darkly: Femininity and the Mirror in Nineteenth-Century France.” French Cultural Studies (2024).
Martin, Sarah Edmands. “DialecTikTok: The Dynamic Semiotics of Amateur Visual Trends on TikTok.” In Digital Transformation in Design: Processes and Practices, edited by Laura S. Scherling, 55–64. Transcript, 2024.
McAdams, A. James, and Samuel Piccolo, eds. Far-Right Newspeak and the Future of Liberal Democracy. Routledge, 2024.
Meserve, Margaret. “The Papacy and the Crusade, 1400–1600.” In The Renaissance Papacy 1400–1600, edited by Nelson H. Minnich, 210–33. Brill, 2025.
Minor, Heather Hyde. “‘Magnificence without Meaning’: Piranesi’s Carceri and the Antiquarian Imagination.” The Art Bulletin 106, no. 4 (2024): 33–61.
Miseres, Vanesa. “Ediciones Críticas de Mujeres: Cartografías, Genealogías Y Constelaciones. Reflexiones Desde La Teoría, La Práctica Y La Pedagogía.” (An)ecdótica 9, no. 1 (2025): 7–18.
Miseres, Vanesa. Review of María Luisa Carnelli. Antología. Poemas, Tangos Y Crónica, selection, preliminary study, and notes by Florencia Abbate. (An)ecdótica 9, no. 1 (2025): 203–6.
Miseres, Vanesa. “La Rosa Muerta de Zoila Aurora Cáceres Y El Archivo Médico Feminista Del Entresiglos.” Amérique Latine Histoire et Mémoire 47 (2024).
Morel, Olivier. The “German Illusion”: Germany and Jewish-German Motifs in Hélène Cixous’s Late Work Bloomsbury Academic, 2024.
Mustillo, Thomas. “The Logic of Ambitious Legislators in Fluid Party Systems.” Legislative Studies Quarterly (2024): 1–18.
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Visiting Scholar Research
Over the last academic year, the Nanovic Institute hosted six visiting scholars, with five from CUP institutions and two from UCU. Additionally, the institute hosted Mark Gitenstein, US ambassador to the EU (2022-25), who served as Nanovic Forum Diplomat in Residence at the Nanovic
Institute in the spring semester of 2025. While in residence, these scholars and practitioners pursued meaningful research and teaching projects that aligned with the institute’s research priorities. Below are just a few examples of their research projects and outputs.
Collaborative Research Project: Facing Russian Aggression: Struggle for Security and Peace in Europe
Led by Volodymyr Turchynovskyy, Dean of the Social Sciences Faculty (UCU), and Oleh Turiy, Director of the Institute of Church History and Vice Rector for External Affairs (UCU)
As a visiting scholar at the Nanovic Institute, Turchynovskyy co-edited and eventually published the volume Facing Russian Aggression: Struggle for Security and Peace in Europe (Ukrainian Catholic University Press, 2025) with Oleh Turiy. The volume includes papers presented at the symposium “Challenges of Russia’s War against Ukraine and the Ethical Principles of Sustainable Peace in Europe,” held in Munich, Germany, in February 2024. At a time when Ukraine faces
the existential challenge of war with the Russian aggressor, Catholic intellectuals are contributing to critical discussions on sociopolitical and security issues, offering value-based guidelines for their resolution. The essays in this volume examine the traumatic experiences of the past, contemporary manifestations of totalitarianism, the ethical dimensions of global security, opposition to Russian aggression, and the principles for achieving a just peace.
Collaborative Research Project: Partizánska Ľupča: Memory, Identity, Hope
Led by Marek Babic, Associate Professor in the Department of History (Catholic University in Ružomberok)
During his time with the Nanovic Institute, Babic continued to work on a research project that originated in partnership with the Nanovic Institute in 2023. This project focuses on the peripheral Slovakian village of Partizánska Ľupča, and is part of a broader effort within the Nanovic Institute to study marginalized places and communities within Europe. In 2023, Babic and his colleagues in Slovakia conducted 25 interviews with residents of Partizánska Ľupča to understand their perspectives on the place and identity of the village over its history. The researchers wanted
to understand the culture of memory-making in the village: how residents remember the past, and what they hope for in the future. Armed with the results of these interviews, Babic used his time with the institute to finish writing his Slovaklanguage book on the topic, Partizánska Ľupča: Pamäť, identita, nádej (Verbum, 2025), with co-authors Mgr. Samuel Červeňanský; Mgr. Ján Golian, Ph.D.; Mgr. Mária Timčíková; and Mgr. Lukáš Tkáč, Ph.D.
Individual Research Project: Cybersecurity Threats – Russian Aggression Against Ukraine and Disinformation
Led by Urszula Soler, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Administration (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin)
During her research visit at the Nanovic Institute, Soler analyzed contemporary cybersecurity threats and disinformation operations that the Russian Federation has employed in the war against Ukraine. Her project focused on identifying the tools and methods used in complex information campaigns, which aim to not only destabilize Ukraine but also influence allied states. Soler’s visit allowed her to access valuable resources at the Hesburgh Libraries and exchange knowledge with experts in information technology and disinformation studies at Notre Dame. She also presented a paper titled “Russian Disinformation and the War in Ukraine: A Legacy of Propaganda,”
Student Research
At the heart of the Nanovic Institute’s mission lies a commitment to forming “artisans of a new humanity.” In pursuit of this goal, the institute continues to support both undergraduate and graduate students in conducting meaningful and impactful research. During the 2024-25 academic year, the institute awarded 63 undergraduate
INDIVIDUAL STUDENT RESEARCH PROJECTS
at the institute’s inaugural Ukrainian Studies conference, “Revolutions of Hope: Resilience and Recovery in Ukraine.” Her presentation sparked academic discussions and established new research contacts. As a result of her work, Soler also prepared two academic articles, both of which have been accepted for publication: “La disarmante disinformazione - comunicazione senza anima” (forthcoming in Atti Forum Internazionale del Gran Sasso) and “The Role of Telegram in Coordinating Cyber Attacks and Propaganda Campaigns by Russian Hackers” (forthcoming in Cybersecurity & Law).
grants, of which 30 had a distinct research focus; 32 graduate grants, all in support of research; and organized enriching group research projects. The following examples highlight some of the individual and collaborative projects made possible through this support.
The Women of the Book: The Liturgical Lives of Franciscan Women in Late Medieval England and France
Led by Olivia Caroline Geraci, Ph.D. student in medieval studies
In summer 2025, the Nanovic Institute supported Geraci as she traveled to the British Library, the Cranston Library, the Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, and the
Bibliothèque nationale de France to access extant liturgical manuscripts associated with Franciscan women’s communities in England and France. This research forms the basis of a project that
investigates how monastic rule intersects with geography to shape both liturgical practice and identity formation in these communities. Her study takes an innovative, integrative approach, using materials from four Franciscan women’s houses—three in England and one in France—for a comparative analysis of the liturgical practices
of these communities within England and across the continent. Geraci will present her findings on a panel she is organizing for the 2026 annual meeting of the Medieval Academy of America and will subsequently write an article, which she will submit to Church History, the leading journal for liturgical studies.
Contesting Borders, Contrasting Multinationalism, Polish-Soviet Borderlands: From the Treaty of Riga to Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact 1921-1939
Led by Nicholas Herrud, Ph.D. student in history
In summer 2025, the Nanovic Institute funded Herrud’s travel to the Kennan Institute in Washington, D.C., where he conducted crucial research for his dissertation project on the Polish and Soviet multi-ethnic states in the interwar period. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has underscored the importance of understanding the history of the borderlands, but it also made it impossible for Herrud to travel to primary-source archives in Ukraine. By traveling to the Kennan
Institute, Herrud was able to access invaluable primary sources, consult with experts and specialist librarians, and build a bibliography for his dissertation proposal. Herrud’s cross-regional historical study will provide a broader, more nuanced understanding of a historical crisis that resonates with current geopolitical events. His research will inform a future scholarly article and contribute to the broader academic community’s understanding of this vital and timely topic.
Analyzing the Policy of Irish Neutrality in World War II and Its Consequences
Led by Liam Kelly (Class of ’26), honors history major with minors in political science and philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE)
In summer 2025, the Nanovic Institute funded Kelly’s research trip to the University College Dublin (UCD) archives and the Irish National Archives to conduct research for his honors history thesis, which explores the question of Irish neutrality in World War II and its aftermath. At UCD, Kelly was able to access the personal papers of Eamon De Valera, Frank Aiken, and John Costello; meanwhile at the Irish National Archives, he examined files from the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Foreign Affairs. Through his research, Kelly found that while there was still considerable support for the Irish Government among Irish-American organizations, support for Ireland among Irish-Americans more
broadly had decreased after the war. The lack of Irish-American pressure on the US Government helps to explain the failure of the Irish Government to convince the American Government to pressure Britain to end partition. Kelly’s studies also revealed the extent to which Ireland was open to joining NATO in order to combat communism and be a part of the new American-led post-war order. What held back their involvement was not an ideological attachment to neutrality, but rather an aversion to entering into an alliance with Britain, which was occupying the six counties of Northern Ireland. Kelly will explore these themes further in his honors thesis project in the coming academic year.
COLLABORATIVE STUDENT RESEARCH
Since 2021, the Nanovic Institute has provided opportunities for students to participate in research projects designed by the institute and mentored by faculty, staff, and graduate students at Notre Dame and beyond. These projects, which typically take place during winter and summer breaks, help students develop their skills in conducting research, curate public-facing projects, and learn more about specific topics
Sites of Memory in Contemporary Europe
The Nanovic Institute for European Studies established memory and remembering as a core research priority in its 2021-26 Strategic Plan, emphasizing that memory is more than a personal experience. Collective memory, the type of memory that groups share, shapes how people experience the world today; but those collective memories are often contested, as politics is inextricably linked to them. In this context, places play an important role. They become sites where these debates unfold and offer a way to explore conflicted histories that influence the present.
To engage students in this dialogue in Europe, the Nanovic Institute has organized a multi-year student project titled “Sites of Memory in Contemporary Europe.” This project aims to compile a database of sites of contested
Agrivoltaics: Policies, Implementation, Strategy
As part of the Nanovic Institute’s commitment to asking big questions about Europe and exploring the moral challenges of sustainability, 2024-25 saw the launch of an undergraduate research project on the subject of agrivoltaics. This innovative approach to dual land use, which
that deepen their understanding of Europe. Many of these projects have been highlighted at the Nanovic Institute’s Undergraduate Research Conference, which allows students the opportunity to share their work with the University and local community. Below is an overview of this year’s collaborative student research endeavors.
memory—whether they be monuments, historic locations, buildings, or other types of sites. Students already traveling in Europe during academic breaks may apply to be part of the project. They then choose a site near where they will be in Europe and write a reflective analysis of the contested memories surrounding it.
The project completed its first full cycle with student responses collected during the summer of 2024, with 22 students documenting 32 sites across Europe. In summer 2025, the project continued to grow, with 45 students documenting more than 60 locations. The database holds a trove of information, analyses, and a catalog of the sometimes unseen historical and social factors that shape life in Europe today.
introduces solar panels to existing agricultural land to harvest solar energy, has been growing in recent years. The concept was pioneered in Europe and Asia, and many European nations, including Germany, still lead the way in agrivoltaic technology implementation.
The solar panels are designed in such a way that they minimally disrupt crop yields, provide additional shade when required, and offer an additional revenue stream for farmers who are feeling increasing financial strain.
Eight undergraduate students researched agrivoltaic policies in four European countries: Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and France. They analyzed the differences in government support structures, financial incentives, and how regional geography and administrative differences impact agrivoltaic implementation. In addition, they applied their findings to Notre Dame’s own state, developing policy recommendations for Indiana
Sustainability Fellows Program
In the spirit of being “bridge-builders” and connecting with fellow Notre Dame departments on campus and across Europe, 2024-25 saw the launch of a new undergraduate Sustainability Fellowship in collaboration with Notre Dame Global. Students who were planning to conduct research or study abroad in Europe could apply for the opportunity to pursue an independent research project on a subject related to sustainability. This year, nine Sustainability Fellows explored a wide range of topics, from water recycling in Ireland to urban gardening in Italy. Students worked with local organizations and academics to conduct their research, embedding themselves in local communities to better understand the nuances and challenges of environmental sustainability in Europe.
This fellowship was organized in close consultation and collaboration with several departments at
so that the farming population can potentially capitalize on the technology.
The research team presented their findings at the Nanovic Institute’s Undergraduate Research Conference in March 2025 and composed a policy brief that will be published by Notre Dame’s Keough School in 2025. When published, its information will be: Schmitt et al. Aligning Agriculture and Energy: A Framework for Leveraging Agrivoltaics in Indiana. Keough School Policy Brief Series. Notre Dame, IN: Keough School of Global Affairs, 2025. https://doi. org/10.7274/29459135
Notre Dame. The Nanovic Institute coordinated with Notre Dame Global and the University’s Sustainability Initiative to ensure that the fellowship would address real issues that affect European nations as well as the US itself. Notre Dame campuses in London, Rome, and Dublin, as well as Kylemore Abbey in Galway, contributed vital insight into structuring the program and supported the students as they conducted their work on the ground.
In the fall 2025 semester, each student will present their work at a public event and will produce a written report that will be published online. As this fellowship model continues to grow, the Nanovic Institute will be a vital resource for distributing the research of its Sustainability Fellows and continuing to build bridges between academic audiences and grassroots organizations engaged in sustainability.
Unveiling the Climate Apocalypse
The 2024-25 academic year also featured a new undergraduate research project, which engaged with the topic of climate change and its representation in contemporary European art and literature. Europe was the site of the Industrial Revolution, and for decades European nations were the lead emitters of greenhouse gases that have contributed heavily to a warming climate. At the same time, many European nations are, today, hubs of sustainable technology innovation. This tension raises complex questions about reconciling the past with the future, prompting researchers and engaged citizens to consider the role of individual responsibility in the face of a global challenge—largely exacerbated by corporations and governments—that can seem insurmountable.
Undergraduate Research Conference
The Nanovic Institute has continued its commitment to excellent undergraduate education, experiential learning, and professional development by organizing its second annual Undergraduate Research Conference This conference enables students to share their work with the University and local community and further refine their research questions and frameworks. Many of the student participants presented work resulting from research in Europe funded and supported by the Nanovic Institute. The audience, consisting of professors, graduate students, undergraduates, and the public, was able to ask questions and encourage students to explore new questions about their work.
The students conducted independent research guided by an instructor, the institute’s postdoctoral research associate, and created an online exhibition of their work named “Unveiling the Climate Apocalypse.” Five participating students wrote seven essays for the project, which explore climate change in a wide range of artistic genres and contexts. Students analyzed the visuals and gameplay mechanisms of video games, life-size sculptures in London and Grenada, exhibits by anonymous street artist Banksy, and more. This exhibit supports the institute’s commitment to researching big questions about sustainability and issues of human dignity by investigating responses to climate change’s increasing impact on vulnerable populations and how Europe, and the world, ought to respond.
A total of 20 students presented across four panels. To offer students a comprehensive and accurate conference experience, the institute provided both breakfast and lunch for panelists, which provided opportunities for the students to discuss their work with professors, graduate students, and their cohort in a relaxed atmosphere. Each panel was moderated by a faculty member or graduate student connected to the Nanovic Institute. Prizes were awarded for the best presentations, with gold going to Clodagh McEvoy-Johnston ’25, silver to Bennett Schmitt ’25, and honorable mention to Dani Fielding ’27and Jane Palmer ’26.
Newly-Received Grants
NEH Collaborative Research Grant
“Contextualizing and Personalizing the Diversity of Catholic Resistance to Communist Religious Oppression in Central and Eastern Europe (1944-1991).”
PD: Morgan Munsen, Senior Research and Partnerships Program Manager, Nanovic Institute
Co-PDs: Randal Harrison, Associate Librarian in Emerging Technologies at the Hesburgh Libraries; Anatolii Babynskyi, Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Church History (Ukrainian Catholic University); Alexander Martin, Professor of History; A. James McAdams, Emeritus Professor of International Affairs; Katherine Blalak, Digital Repositories Librarian at the Hesburgh Libraries; and Natasha Lyandres, Russian and East European Studies Librarian and Head of Rare Books and Special Collections at the Hesburgh Libraries.
Amount: $140,541
This scholarly digital project seeks to contextualize and personalize everyday Catholic resistance to communist religious oppression in Central and Eastern Europe during the 20th century (1944 to 1991). This goal will be accomplished through the creation of a rich multimedia website with several dimensions. First, utilizing ArcGIS StoryMaps, the research team will create dynamic digital storytelling “tours” of the time period that incorporate interview clips of Catholic individuals’ experiences of communist religious oppression in Ukraine, Georgia, Poland, Slovakia, and Croatia alongside contextual information on domestic and regional developments. Second, this entire corpus of interviews—supplemented with new data collection in Ukraine—will be made publicly accessible for the first time in a fully searchable
database, including downloadable transcripts and fully subtitled video (in both English and the original language), along with video excerpts organized around important themes derived from content analysis of the data. Third, a bibliography will provide suggested further reading. This website will launch no later than summer 2028 and will be structured to allow for the incorporation of additional data if/when supplementary data collection occurs. This project will both stimulate new research through engagement with valuable primary data and provide new ways of understanding individual pursuit of religious freedom and resistance against communist limitations on religious expression.
Notre Dame Democracy Catalyst Grant
“Campaigning For Democracy”
PI: Marc S. Jacob, Assistant Professor of Democracy and Global Affairs
Co-PIs: Thomas Mustillo, Associate Professor of Global Affairs, and Tiffany M. Tang, the Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics
Amount: $136,000
The Campaigning for Democracy Research Cluster aims to establish a new research agenda focused on democratic campaigning in challenging electoral contexts, particularly in Poland, Turkey, and Brazil. The project explores why certain campaign strategies succeed in environments where free and fair elections are under threat, and how campaigns supporting democracy can effectively engage citizens. Through panel data collection, the project will identify voter concerns, pivotal electoral segments, and effective messaging strategies, while piloting a training program for pro-democracy campaign strategists in Turkey. In partnership with the Nanovic Institute, Jacob’s team will hold a follow-up workshop at Notre Dame’s London Global Gateway, focusing on European democracies where campaigns have faced attacks on fair electoral competition. This workshop will feature campaign
strategists from Polish and German political parties across the political spectrum, all of whom face competitors challenging free and fair elections. Additionally, a new interdisciplinary class will educate students on democratic campaigning, engaging both American and Turkish campaign strategists. The Catalyst Grant will enable the development of key theoretical frameworks and empirical designs, with a three-year period dedicated to building a globally-oriented training program, positioning Notre Dame as a leader in ethical democratic campaigning and contributing to the Democracy Initiative. The project will ultimately attract further funding to support democratic competition globally.
ND-UCU Faculty Collaboration Grant
“The Moral Biography of Ukraine”
PIs: Clemens Sedmak, Director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies and Professor of Social Ethics (Notre Dame), and Volodymyr Turchynovskyy, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Director of the International Institute for Ethics and Contemporary Issues (UCU)
Co-PIs: John Deak, Associate Professor of History (Notre Dame), A. James McAdams, Emeritus Professor of International Affairs (Notre Dame), Anatolii Babynskyi, Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Church History (UCU), and Nataliya Yakymets, Deputy Director of Research at the International Institute for Ethics and Contemporary Issues (UCU)
Amount: $71,100
The project explores Ukraine’s ethical infrastructure by looking at the recent moral history of the country; through a series of 15 case studies on historical milestones that are co-authored from a historical and an ethical perspective, the project pursues two goals: i) understanding the moral aspects of Ukraine’s history with democracy and the foundations of the resilience of Ukraine’s democracy; ii) identifying key aspects of the long term ethical infrastructure that need to be stabilized and strengthened for the long term future of a democratic Ukraine. The project uses two moral lenses based on Catholic Social Tradition—human dignity, common good and democracy—to morally assess the events. It works with historical milestones from five categories: the civic dimension (like the “human chain” of 1990), the socio-political dimension
(like the 1996 constitution), the geopolitical dimension (like the Tuzla crisis in 2003), the cultural and educational dimension (like the education reform in 2008), and the socio-religious dimension (like the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in 2019). There are four research questions: What happened? How do these events relate to dignity, the common good, and democracy, and what do the case studies tell us about the ethical framework of Ukraine? How does this ethical framework strengthen the resilience of democracy? How can this framework be used to build a long-term resilient democracy in Ukraine?
Ongoing Grants
Notre Dame Democracy Initiative Grant
“Undermining Democracy in Online Spaces: Decoding Russian & Chinese Digital Influence Operations”
PI: Karrie Koesel, Associate Professor of Political Science
Co-PI: Tim Weninger, Frank M. Freimann Collegiate Professor of Engineering
“Toward a Global Institutional Ethics for Catholic Universities in Conversation with Pope Francis”
PI: Clemens Sedmak, Director, Nanovic Institute for European Studies, and Professor of Social Ethics
Co-PIs: Katie Bugyis, Rev. John A. O’Brien Associate Professor in the Program of Liberal Studies; Mark L. Poorman, C.S.C., Associate Professor of Theology; Mark W. Roche, Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Professor of German Language and Literature; Suzanne Shanahan, Leo and Arlene Hawk Executive Director, Center for Social Concerns, and Professor of Sociology
Amount: $86,355
ND-Durham Seed Grant – Notre Dame Global
“Lived Catholicism and Social Justice”
PI: Clemens Sedmak, Director, Nanovic Institute for European Studies, and Professor of Social Ethics
Co-PI: Karen Kilby, Bede Professor of Catholic Theology (Durham University)
Amount: $25,000
External Foundation Grant
“Lublin: Site and Symbol of Jewish Presence” Summer School, Poland (2025 & 2026)
The Nanovic Institute for European Studies & The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin
Amount: $50,000
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee on Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe Grant
“Cultivating Integral Human Development through a Leadership of Care: Creating a Community of Women Leaders at Catholic Universities in Central and Eastern Europe”
The Nanovic Institute for European Studies
Amount: $40,000
Looking Ahead
Even a small academic unit like the Nanovic Institute for European Studies is affected by global developments. The changing geopolitical landscape calls for new ways of developing research topics and of fostering partnerships between Notre Dame and European institutions.
In the years to come, major topics that need to be addressed include democracy research (with many significant developments in Europe), sustainability, conflict resolution and diplomacy, and the role of religions.
The Nanovic Institute has a traditional focus on “experiences, immersions, encounters.” This is particularly the case for student research, but these dimensions are also relevant for other research projects, such as initiatives in collaboration with partner universities within the Catholic Universities Partnership. This is why we will explore ways of doing research on “lived Catholicism” and “lived democracy” in Europe. What is the experience of being Catholic in Europe today? How is democracy experienced both by citizens and migrants in European countries? And are there differences between Western European and Central/Eastern European countries?
An important area of growth will be Ukrainian Studies, where we work closely with colleagues from the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv on joint research projects.
We will continue with “peripheries” research with European partners. We are particularly interested in aspects of social exclusion. How does Europe present itself to “people in the margins”? And how can social inclusion be supported?
One important topic for 2025-26 has been named by University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C.: cultivating hope. How can hope be nurtured and sustained? What is the role of hope for Ukrainians and Ukraine? What is the role of
religions in cultivating hope? What role does hope play in social and political ethics and for the idea of integral human development?
These are some of the questions that will shape the institute’s future research agenda— as supporter, facilitator, bridge builder, and coordinator.
Even though the work of the Nanovic Institute is influenced by macro developments, our profile is also colored by micro developments, notably an external review in the fall of 2025. The visit of three external reviewers will lead to recommendations that, in turn, will shape the new strategic plan for 2026-2031. A key question posed to the reviewers concerns the institute’s academic profile: How should the Nanovic Institute enhance its research profile and academic visibility within the field of European Studies?
We expect the research report 2025-26 to reflect some responses to this question. The next research report will also be able to refer to a new strategic plan that will be developed in the spring of 2026.
One keyword of the future will have to be “cooperation.” The institute, like any other academic unit on campus, is encouraged to “think as an institution.” We will deepen our research ties with sister units within the Keough School of Global Affairs, units across campus, and a carefully curated list of peer institutions and European partners.
