Notre Dame College of Arts & Letters

05/21/2026

Our grads couldn’t have done it without you 🫶

05/20/2026

"The world needs your questions, your openness to ideas, your commitment to methodology and evidence, and your capacity to see and serve others." ☘️

05/17/2026

You did it, Class of 2026. Love thee ☘️ 🫶

05/15/2026

Grace Leeson hasn't shied away from taking risks and trying new things.

While majoring in English and Arts & Letters pre-health with a minor in compassionate care in medicine, she's traveled to several Latin American countries, learned Latin dance, joined a cooking club, and performed pop-up concerts, among other exploits.

All of this has led to her eventual goals of becoming a doctor while keeping her passions at the forefront.

“I’ve had the opportunity to bounce around and do a bunch of different things and be in different places,” she said. “It’s just part of my nature to be adventurous.”

05/14/2026

Cade Czarnecki says his College of Arts & Letters education has given him the space and support to pursue all of his passions, both in and outside of the classroom.

On top of majoring in political science and economics, he's studied for a semester each in Washington, D.C., and Greece, served as president of the multi-partisan BridgeND club, earned a spot as an inaugural undergraduate fellow with the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative, and worked as a research operations analyst for the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities.

And if that weren’t enough, he’s also fast. Cade won the 2026 Holy Half Marathon with a time of 1:16:30.

“Having the latitude to do so much in a short period of time while still feeling that I am committing myself to these efforts is something uniquely Notre Dame,” Cade said.

Read more about his story below ⬇

05/12/2026

As the curtain closes on Carolyn Dell’s time at Notre Dame, she can’t help but reminisce on all her favorite memories.

Dancing backstage before every performance, listening for a crewmate’s “Let’s go, girls” as their cue to move a 15-foot puppet across a stage, and even coming back to her residence hall after long rehearsals to chat her first-year roommate, one of her closest friends.

Though she'll always feel a fondness for the people and productions that filled her time here, Carolyn said, she also feels prepared to start the next act of her life.

“Notre Dame really sets up arts majors to have a point of view on a subject,” she said. “And I think that’s going to serve me very, very well going into the workforce.”

05/07/2026

The core of Jeff Harden’s research on American politics involves applying statistical methodology to examine how state legislative institutions affect representation. His approach is also deeply collaborative.

“Just the idea that you can study 50 legislatures comparatively instead of just one was really interesting to me,” Harden said. “And it really developed this strong allegiance to the study of state legislatures, as well as the origin of my interest in collaborative work and developing community-based research.”

During his decade at the University of Notre Dame, he has worked collaboratively with colleagues, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students on award-winning papers, presentations, and books — combining diverse interests and approaches to answer simple yet broad questions with intricate nuances, such as examining voter ID laws’ effects on legislators, politicians’ accountability post-January 6, and even Taylor Swift ticket sales.

In recognition of his work, Harden is the recipient of the 2026 College of Arts & Letters Research Award.

Read more at the link below ⬇️

05/06/2026

As any good mentor does, Kasey Buckles helps her graduate students produce the best work they can. She keeps them on schedule and refines their research questions. She points them toward analytical tools and connects them with other resources.

But she also knows that there’s more to life than writing an economics dissertation.

“Our students can very easily fall into the trap of thinking their worth is all about their work and how their work is perceived,” the economics professor said. “I really try at every stage to think about them as a scholar but also as a person — people who have families and interests and spiritual and mental lives.”

In recognition of her support for her students as well as their professional success, Buckles is the recipient of the 2026 College of Arts & Letters Graduate Student Mentorship Award.

Read her story: https://bit.ly/42NZo6k

Kasey Buckles, Quinn and Jean Stepan…

05/05/2026

University of Notre Dame historian Katlyn Carter has won a 2026 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, Carnegie Corporation of New York announced today.

Carter, an associate professor in the Department of History, was one of 24 scholars and writers from a record 381 nominees to receive the honor. The fellowship will provide Carter with research support for her second book, The Politics of Truth in Early America, and to develop an undergraduate course aimed at the fellowship’s theme of understanding and addressing political polarization in the United States.

The stipend is among the most generous of its kind, and previous Carnegie fellows have received numerous honors for their research, such as the Nobel Prize and National Book Award.

Carter is the fourth Notre Dame faculty member to receive a Carnegie Fellowship.

Carter, an associate professor in the Department of History, was one of 24 scholars and writers from a record 381 nominees to receive the honor. The fel...

05/04/2026

Last Friday, we celebrated the 200+ Arts & Letters seniors who submitted a senior thesis or creative project they completed over the course of the past year.

Check out their work at https://bit.ly/42dQyPe ☘️ 📚

04/29/2026

Americans say they love compromise. But elected officials — people who want to keep their voters happy and secure reelection — are increasingly choosing conflict and polarization instead, unwilling to be seen as working across the aisle.

James Kirk and Abigail Hemmen are digging into this political paradox, surveying Americans to answer the question, “In what contexts are American citizens most supportive of compromise?”

The two political science graduate students were able to start working on this project after receiving a Catalyst Grant from the University of Notre Dame’s Democracy Initiative in fall 2024. The multiyear investment allows them to finally explore issues they’ve been contemplating for years.

“We need to be thinking more strategically about what Americans actually mean and in what context they actually want to see their representatives compromise,” Kirk said.

Read more: https://bit.ly/3OmS3r3

Americans say they love compromise. But elected officials — people who want to keep their voters happy and secure reelection — are increasin...