. Center for Civil and Human Rights
. Center for Social Concerns
. Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies
. The Institute for Educational Initiatives
. Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
. Notre Dame Center for Ethics and
Religious Values in Business
. John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values
. Thomas J. White Center on Law and Government
. Erasmus Institute
Center for Civil and Human Rights
In its first decade, the center has become recognized among those active on behalf of human rights due to its outstanding and innovative contributions in the areas of teaching, research and service. Its LL.M. and J.S.D. programs offer unparalleled opportunities to committed lawyers from around the world to become empowered through the use of the international legal process. Many of its graduates now form part of an international network of lawyers who, through their teaching or practice, actively are engaged in the development of a global human rights culture. As a result of another unique program developed by the center, some of the graduates have been afforded the opportunity to contribute to the international legal process as law clerks to the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
The center's teaching programs are complemented by a research agenda that is dedicated to raising international awareness of important human rights concerns in a way that contributes to their eventual resolution. The research agenda identifies and analyzes vitally important human rights problems, publishing such landmark works as the two-volume translation of the "Report of the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation." Conferences such as the 1995 meeting on the work of the International Criminal Tribunals and the prospects for a permanent international criminal court not only provide educational outreach to a wider audience, but serve the international community by contributing to the advancement of international law.
Over the next decade, the center has extremely important roles to play in legal education and in furthering human rights and peace. A 1996 survey conducted by the International Legal Education Committee of the Section of International Law and Practice of the American Bar Association found that the vast majority of law students in the United States graduate without ever having been exposed to international law. At most law schools, less than 20 percent of students ever take an international law subject; only 16 schools reported the existence of an LL.M. in international law, and only seven schools offer J.S.D. degrees in this field. The Notre Dame Law School is one of a handful of U.S. law schools with a specific center for human rights study. This means that most law graduates today likely have little or no awareness of the human rights violations occurring throughout the world and also lack the basic knowledge of how to counter the gross abuses being committed. To respond to this situation, the center can provide national leadership by enhancing the international education of all law students at Notre Dame and by developing innovative programs that can be adopted at other law schools and at other universities in pre-law programs.
In teaching, research and service, the center consistently has demonstrated its understanding of the need for interdisciplinary approaches to human rights problems and their solutions. For the future, the center aims to develop interdisciplinary programs and activities that will involve the entire University community. In this regard, the interrelationship between human rights, peace and sustainable development provides a focal point for planning purposes. In these programs, the center's goal will be not only to train lawyers and policymakers in methods for securing remedies for past and present human rights violations, but also to devise strategies and techniques for preventing future conflicts and violations.
The commitment to human rights also demands that the center provide the invaluable service of applying knowledge and expertise to aid those whose human rights are violated and threatened. This is a vital extension of the learning process. In addition to providing interns and law clerks to human rights organizations and institutions, the center envisages the creation of a network of human rights lawyers who will monitor human rights practices throughout the world, including the United States, and who will be prepared to act when violations are detected.
The Center for Social Concerns
The Center for Social Concerns, on the University of Notre Dame campus, opened its doors in January, 1983. It is a visible sign of the University's commitment to social concerns. Mission Statement: The Center for Social Concerns provides educational experiences in social concerns inspired by Gospel values and Catholic social teachings. Central to this process is enhancing the spiritual and intellectual awareness of students, faculty, staff, and alumni/ae about today's complex social realities, calling us all to service and action for a more just and humane world.
Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies
The Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies aims to advance investigation in comparative international studies. Named to honor the woman who donated the initial endowment for it, the Institute is a research center at the University of Notre Dame. The Kellogg Institute promotes international research by attracting faculty, students, and visitors to Notre Dame and by providing them with a supportive community of scholarship, through various activities described in this brochure. Each year, Kellogg brings to campus about eight residential Visiting Fellows from the United States and abroad. The Institute also comprises some 40 Kellogg Fellows, all of whom are Notre Dame faculty members, coming from 10 departments, and it awards individual support to faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates for international research or internships. In support of intellectual exchange, Kellogg schedules a twice-weekly series of speakers on international topics, as well as international conferences, topical roundtable discussions of world affairs, and cultural events. The Institute also publishes Working Papers and a book series to disseminate research. Through these program activities, the Kellogg Institute fosters interdisciplinary research on contemporary political, economic, social, and religious issues.
The Institute for Educational Initiatives
The Institute for Educational Initiatives, established in 1997, aims to improve the education of all youth, particularly the disadvantaged. To achieve this end, the Institute conducts two major programs designed to address specific educational goals. These are the Program on the Social Organization of Schools and the Alliance for Catholic Education. Through the teaching and research conducted in these programs, the Institute hopes to contribute to the revitalization of American education and, as a Catholic university, to benefit parochial education in a special way.
The Program on the Social Organization of Schools (PSOS) conducts basic and applied research on schools and the learning process. The Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) seeks to develop a corps of highly motivated and committed young educators to meet the needs of our country's most underserved elementary and secondary schools. At the completion of their training, students receive a Masters in Education degree, and qualify for certification in various states. The ACE program also conducts continuing education programs for educators, including an annual workshop for Catholic school superintendents.
To foster the intellectual life of IEI and the Notre Dame community, the Institute holds an annual lecture series to address contemporary issues in education and an annual research conference to report recent research findings on schools. IEI also sponsors workshops and symposia, initiates and coordinates research projects among faculty, supports the publication of an annual edited volume on contemporary educational research and practice and sponsors faculty exchanges, postdoctoral fellowships and graduate training in areas related to the Institute mission. Through these efforts, IEI hopes to make a significant contribution toward attaining educational excellence and equity in American education.
Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
Established in 1986 through a generous donation from Joan B. Kroc, the Kroc Institute emerged from the need felt by faculty and students for a more imaginative and ethical response to the nuclear arms buildup and the chronic problem of war. In addition to offering an innovative undergraduate concentration in peace studies, the Institute established one of the nation's first graduate programs in peace studies. Inspired by the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC, then President of the University, the program attracted students and visiting scholars from around the world to study peacemaking while building cross-cultural understanding among themselves.
Although the end of the cold war has led to significant changes in world affairs, concerns about collective violence, the desire to nurture international peacemakers, and support for path-breaking peace research continue to animate the work of the Institute. The Institute builds on many outstanding resources at the University of Notre Dame. Forty faculty drawn from over a dozen University departments create a network of peace scholars on campus. The Kroc Institute has built upon the University's longstanding commitment to international education by offering one of Notre Dame's most fully internationalized programs, expanding opportunities for U.S. students to study with and learn from international students, and collaborating with the Law School's Center for Civil and Human Rights, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, the Keough Center for Irish Studies, the Erasmus Institute, and other university programs.
The Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Religious Values in Business
The center seeks to strengthen the Judeo-Christian ethical foundations in business and public policy decisions by fostering dialogue among academic and corporate leaders, as well as by research and publications. The center also helps to coordinate and integrate the teaching of ethics throughout the business curriculum at Notre Dame.
Created in 1986, the University of Notre Dame's John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values is committed to advancing research on science and technology as human, knowledge producing institutions, and to studying the variety of ways theses institutions impact society at large, creating new value-laden choices and dilemmas as well as furthering our material well-being. The variety of endeavors pursued by the Center can be broadly classified under the headings of education and research. The Graduate Program in History and Philosophy of Science along with the Undergraduate Program in Science, Technology and Values make up the educational backbone of the Reilly Center. Among its responsibilities the Center directs the scholarship fund for the Arts and Letters/Engineering-Five Year Double Degree Program and the Visiting Scholars Lecture Series.
In keeping with the University's mission as a preeminent Catholic university, the Center seeks to take a leading role in promoting scholarship in the fields of science and technology studies, to facilitate broad public dissemination of outstanding work theat contributes to the humanistic understanding of science, and to foster greater awareness among the University's students and faculty.
Thomas J. White Center on Law and Government
Through the generosity of the late Thomas J. and Alberta White of St. Louis, Missouri, the Law School established the Thomas J. White Center on Law and Government to examine public policy questions within the framework of Judeo- Christian values. The White Center enriches the Law School's curriculum by providing a focal point for public law research, attracting distinguished scholars and public figures to the Law School campus, and encouraging a select group of law students to dedicate a substantial portion of their professional study to public concerns.
The Erasmus Institute fosters research grounded in Catholic intellectual traditions and focused on significant issues in contemporary scholarship, bringing two millennia of Catholic thought to bear on problems in the humanities, social sciences, and arts. The Institute favors first-order scholarship over policy-oriented or applied investigations. Though concerned primarily with the Catholic intellectual heritage, the Institute supports complementary research deriving from other Christian intellectual traditions as well as from Jewish and Islamic ones. It invites the participation of scholars without regard to religious belief.
