The Center for Social Concerns (CSC) provides community-based learning courses, community-based research, and service opportunities for students and faculty and lies at the heart of the University of Notre Dame. It is a place where faith and action, service and learning, research and resolve intersect. Over the past 29 years, the Center has offered educational experiences in social concerns inspired by Gospel values and the Catholic social tradition so that students and faculty may better understand and respond to poverty and injustice.
The Center for Sustainable Energy at Notre Dame (cSEND) is a University Research Center whose mission is to advance innovative energy related research, education and outreach programs to address the global challenges of creating a more sustainable energy future. cSEND is built upon the foundations laid by the Notre Dame Energy Center (NDEC) – a College of Engineering research center (initiated in 2005) and the Sustainable Energy Initiative (SEI) – a Strategic Research Investment (funded by the University in 2010).
The College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame is Notre Dame’s oldest and largest college, at the core of the University’s distinctive mission. Its students, faculty, and programs meld the best aspects of a residential liberal arts college, a major research university, and a Catholic institution of international standing. The College’s 20 departments span three divisions—the arts, the social sciences, and the humanities—all of which contribute to the vibrant life of the College.
Engineering has been offered at the University since 1873, when Notre Dame became the first Catholic university in the country to have a school of engineering. Notre Dame boasts a long history of engineering developments in a variety of fields … from the construction of the first hand-driven wind tunnel in America (aerospace) and the successful transmission of one of the first wireless messages (communications) in the country to the discovery of a new class of actinyl peroxide compounds (energy) and demonstration of magnetic logic (computing). Today, graduate and undergraduate students continue to explore a wide variety of fields through the five departments housed within the college as they search for ways to address some of society’s most pressing needs.
Since its founding in 1865, the University of Notre Dame’s College of Science has built upon the University’s world-renowned intellectual resources while building up the campus’s state-of-the-art infrastructure, the $70 million Jordan Hall of Science and its Digital Visualization Theater serving as the most recent example. What hasn’t changed—and never will—is the University’s unwavering commitment to its Catholic character and the college’s mission to prepare tomorrow’s scientific leaders to think big while also inspiring them to make a difference, and to share their knowledge and discoveries in ways that encourage collaboration, advance learning, and contribute to the common good. This profound sense of unity of purpose is what sets us apart.
Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism
The Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism brings together scholars from history, theology, women’s studies, sociology, religious studies, American studies, and English to interpret the American Catholic experience. Through a variety of research projects, seminars, conferences, and publications, Cushwa serves as the leading center for the historical study of Roman Catholicism in the United States. The center also collaborates with church leaders and pastoral workers to enhance the vitality of Catholic life in the United States
The Department of Theology is the heart of Notre Dame’s education in faith and reason. Guided by the ideal of “faith seeking understanding,” the faculty engage in critical reflection in six areas: moral theology, world religions and world church, history of Christianity, liturgy, biblical studies, and systematic theology.
Environmental Change Initiative
The Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative (ND-ECI) is tackling the interrelated problems of invasive species, land use, and climate change, focusing on their synergistic impacts on water resources. The goal of ND-ECI is to provide solutions that minimize the trade-offs between human welfare and environmental health where trade-offs are unavoidable, and to discover win-win solutions where they are possible.
Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
The University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies is one of the world’s leading centers for the study of the causes of violent conflict and strategies for sustainable peace. Kroc Institute faculty and fellows conduct interdisciplinary research on a wide range of topics related to peace and justice.
The Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study (NDIAS) supports research that is directed toward, or extends inquiry to include, ultimate questions and questions of value, especially as they engage the Catholic intellectual tradition.
Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts
The Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts supports and promotes the research and creative activity of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates in the College of Arts and Letters.
The Office of Sustainability partners with administrative divisions, academic departments, and student groups across the Notre Dame campus to promote sustainability in its operations, education and research. Notre Dame recognizes its responsibility to conserve the natural environment while promoting long-term economic and social justice for all members of society, and strives to foster a pervasive focus on the connection between environmental stewardship and the Common Good.
Office of the Vice President for Research
Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values
The Reilly Center explores conceptual, ethical, and policy issues where science and technology intersect with society from different disciplinary perspectives. Our purpose is to promote the advancement of science and technology for the common good.
From the smallest details to the most profound ideals, the School of Architecture strives to educate leaders who will build a future at once more humane, functional and beautiful. Architecture does more than give us the structures where we live; it gives structure to our lives. In the design of our cities and towns, our neighborhoods, our homes and offices and parks and places of worship, architecture should reflect our highest aspirations.