In the next issue of its award-winning series, the Nanovic Institute for European Studies releases its 2023-24 Year in Review. This publication focuses on the activities, achievements, research, events, programs, and—most importantly—people that characterized the past academic year at the institute. This year’s edition also includes a feature story about the 20-year anniversary of the Catholic Universities Partnership (CUP), one of the core initiatives of the institute for these past two decades.
With former Nanovic Institute Director A. James McAdams, William M. Scholl Professor of International Affairs, serving as the coordinator between multiple institutions, the CUP “began in 2004 as an initiative to foster mutual support, elevation, and development of Catholic higher education and civil society in post-communist and post-Soviet Europe.” In addition to Notre Dame, the CUP member institutions include Catholic University in Ružomberok (Slovakia), Catholic University of Croatia, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (Poland), Pázmány Péter Catholic University (Budapest, Hungary), Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani University (Tbilisi, Georgia), and Ukrainian Catholic University (Lviv, Ukraine).
As described in the feature story, the Nanovic Institute’s founding benefactors, Robert and Elizabeth Nanovic, were directly involved in the early conversations that birthed this 20-year history, most clearly expressed during the May 2024 conference in Zagreb, Croatia.
McAdams, speaking of this conference and the people he saw gathered in unity because of the CUP, said,
“And we see it here at our meeting in Zagreb, where there are enormous numbers of scholars and university leaders who show up along with government ministers, church leaders, and I’d say, really importantly, students, to show that this slow, patient, careful process of building relationships—to demonstrate that it has worked. That it has real substance.”
Along with McAdams, the University of Notre Dame was represented by the Nanovic Institute team—namely Director Clemens Sedmak, Senior Associate Director Grant Osborn, and Associate Director Melanie Webb—Michael Pippenger, vice president and associate Provost for internationalization; and two Notre Dame students who graduated in May 2024: William C. Smith and Hannah Smith. Hannah wrote a reflective piece that is part of the CUP story, and William shared his experiences in Slovakia in another story in the Year in Review.
ABOVE: A group shot from the first CUP meeting in 2005 at Notre Dame. BELOW: The Notre Dame group in Zagreb, Croatia, at the 20th-anniversary celebration during its annual meeting in 2024.
The Nanovic Institute is overjoyed to tell this story and many more from its exciting academic year. From faculty awards and publications to student journeys of discovery and research in Europe to hosting guests on campus that aided the University in connecting with Europe, this year has exemplified the Nanovic Institute’s commitments to building a culture of “encounter” and going out to what Pope Francis has called “the peripheries.”
In his opening letter, Sedmak focuses on remarks to the University’s leaders during a recent papal audience in which the Pontiff made the charge to go to “the peripheries” explicitly. Sedmak then concludes,
“We firmly believe that ‘the peripheries’ are a place of growth through encounters, a space of rethinking and unlearning, and an invitation to become ‘artisans of a new humanity.’”
The Nanovic Institute’s Year in Review is an annual publication highlighting the work of students, faculty, partners, and the entire Nanovic Institute network over the past academic year. The previous year’s edition earned a Gold Award in the 39th Annual Educational Advertising Awards in the annual report category. Previously, the series earned the Silver Award for its 2021-22 special edition featuring the 30th anniversary of the Nanovic Institute. All previous issues may be read on the institute’s website.
Julian Rentzsch, a talented illustrator from Germany, produced this year’s illustrations and portraits. The institute offers its sincere thanks to Kerry Prugh, art director for Notre Dame Magazine, for helping make this connection. It also thanks its many contributors for their generosity in telling their stories and the representatives of each CUP institution for offering their thoughts on the partnership’s history and future.
A companion piece, the 2023-24 Nanovic Institute Research Report is also forthcoming. This piece seeks to elevate the institute’s research portfolio among its peers in European studies globally, most notably in Ukrainian studies through the new Ukrainian Studies Hub, which will hold its inaugural conference on March 6–8, 2025.
The Nanovic Institute for European Studies is part of the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. It joins with its fellow institutes and centers in seeking to exemplify the principles of integral human development, a core concept within Catholic social teaching. It does so with its unique focus on “peripheries” and the big questions about Europe and humanity, twin pillars of its 2021-26 strategic plan.