Panel Discussion: “A Healing, Unifying, Enlightening Force for a World Deeply in Need: The International Mission of the University of Notre Dame”
As part of International Education Week, a panel of Notre Dame faculty and administrators will discuss the Catholic mission of the University and the importance of international study, research and partnerships that advance this mission. Learn more and register here.
IEW is a national event coordinated by the U.S. Department of State and Department of Education to celebrate and promote global exchange between the United States and other countries.
Panelists
Professor Therese Scarpelli Cory, the John and Jean Oesterle Associate Professor of Thomistic Studies in the Department of Philosophy, works on medieval theories of mind, cognition, and personhood, with special focus on the thought of Thomas Aquinas and his thirteenth-century interlocutors. Themes that animate her research include, e.g., the nature of consciousness, the history of the self/person and concepts of subjectivity, what it means exactly to be "immaterial," Aristotelian hylomorphism and how it applies to mind, and problems connected with mental representation and intentionality, the relationship of imagination and intellect, and medieval theories of light and vision. In approaching these themes, she is particularly interested in uncovering different ways of "modeling" the mind and its activities. Another central research interest of hers is how Islamic philosophers--such as al-Farabi, Averroes, Avicenna, and the author of the "Liber de causis"--shaped Scholastic thought in medieval Christian Europe. She serves on the executive committee of the "Aquinas and the Arabs Project" and is also a member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Rev. James Lies, C.S.C., is the interim senior director for academic initiatives and partnerships for the University of Notre Dame London Global Gateway, a position he began in July of 2020. Formerly the Director for Catholic Initiatives and Outreach for the Notre Dame London Global Gateway, in his new role Fr. Jim provides academic leadership for the Gateway's academic research initiatives, while strengthening academic partnerships for Notre Dame's faculty and students. A priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, Fr. Jim will also provide local leadership to advance global scholarship in conjunction with campus and Notre Dame's global network. Additionally, Fr. Jim will collaborate with campus partners and local University partners to identify research opportunities and provide oversight for the G.K. Chesterton Collection, which was recently acquired from the Oxford Oratory. Fr. Jim earned his B.A. in Quantitative Methods from the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. He received an M.A. in Psychological Counseling from the University of Notre Dame; an M.Div. from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology & Human Development from the University of Minnesota.
Jason Ruiz is associate professor and chair of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame, where he is affiliated faculty with the Program in Gender Studies and the Institute for Latino Studies. He teaches courses in Latinx studies, race and representation, queer studies, and popular culture. Ruiz’s first book, Americans in the Treasure House: Travel to Porfirian Mexico and the Cultural Politics of Empire was published by the University of Texas Press in January 2014. He is a 2016 recipient of the Edmund P. Joyce Award and 2019 Charles B. Sheedy Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at Notre Dame. Ruiz is currently writing a book on popular culture, latinidad, and the War on Drugs.
Clemens Sedmak serves as interim director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies. Sedmak is professor of social ethics in the Keough School of Global Affairs and holds a joint appointment with Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns. He is also a concurrent professor of theology in the Department of Theology.
Rachel Tomas Morgan is assistant professor of the practice for international engagement at the Center for Social Concerns of the University of Notre Dame. Tomas Morgan designed, implemented, and directs the International Summer Service Learning Program (ISSLP) which she established for the Center in 1998. As concurrent faculty in the Department of Theology, Tomas Morgan oversees the international engagement area of the center which includes the ISSLP, works with other Center colleagues on community-based learning abroad and international seminars, works with faculty across the University interested in developing courses that include an international experiential or community-based learning component, and consults on international related initiatives across the University. In this capacity, she liaises and collaborates with Notre Dame International, the Keough School, international institutes, centers, and departments across the University, and external partners nationally and internationally.
Moderator:
Michael E. Pippenger was appointed vice president and associate provost for internationalization at Notre Dame in 2016. As a member of the President’s Leadership Council, Pippenger leads Notre Dame International, the centralized office for the university’s global strategy. With a team of 100 people around the world, he oversees international students, scholars, and study abroad, supports global faculty research, and runs Notre Dame’s five Global Gateways in Beijing, Dublin, London, Jerusalem and Rome; and six Global Centers in Hong Kong, Mexico City, Mumbai, Santiago de Chile, São Paulo, and Kylemore Abbey in western Ireland. A member of the Provost’s Cabinet, Pippenger chairs the University Committee on Internationalization and serves on the board of the University of Notre Dame (USA) in England. Before coming to Notre Dame, Pippenger worked for a decade at Columbia University in New York, where as Dean of Undergraduate Global Programs, he served on the senior leadership team for Columbia College and on the senior staff of the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. A graduate of Carleton College, Pippenger earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in English literature from Indiana University Bloomington.
Originally published at events.nd.edu.