The Higgins Labor Studies Program, an interdisciplinary unit of the Center for Social Concerns, sponsors initiatives bringing together faculty, students, staff, and the wider community to explore questions related to work, equality, and social justice. Informed by the Catholic Social Tradition’s commitment to the dignity of work and the rights of workers, and inspired by the University of Notre Da
me’s mission to foster amongst its students “a sense of human solidarity and concern for the common good,” the Higgins Labor Studies Program promotes research and educational outreach “that will bear fruit as learning becomes service to justice." The Higgins Labor Studies Program takes its name from Monsignor George Higgins: Catholic priest, economist, and writer; fierce promoter of unions and workers’ rights; longtime advisor to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops on questions of social justice; and worthy recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Our efforts today carry on the tradition of “labor priests” like Msgr. John Ryan (1869-1945), Msgr. Higgins (1916-2002), and Rev. Patrick Sullivan, CSC (1929- ), who has just published the first of a multivolume series on the topic.
