Known as the Donald R. Keough School of Global Affairs, Notre Dame’s first new school in nearly a century opened this fall.
Intended for both undergraduate and graduate students, the Keough School’s website said the school is focused on advancing integral human development through research, policy and practice. After the University announced its creation in 2014, history professor R. Scott Appleby was named the Marilyn Keough dean of the school.
“The Keough School is a key player in fulfilling the University’s goal of internationalization,” Appleby said in an email. “All of Notre Dame's college and schools, as well as Notre Dame International, are active and important participants in this effort.”
According to the Keough School’s website, the school, which is based in the newly-constructed Jenkins and Nanovic Halls, addresses topics such as poverty, war, disease, political oppression, environmental degradation and other threats to dignity and human flourishing.
Appleby said this year the school will focus on faculty, students and global policy studies in addition to working on new programs: one for undergraduates and one in policy studies with both a presence in Washington, D.C. and a network of international experts. The Keough School’s Master program in global affairs is already teaching its first class of students who came from areas across the world.
Over the next three to five years, Appleby said the Keough School plans to continue this building phase.
“We will continue to build a world class international faculty, welcome hundreds of gifted graduate and undergraduate students into the School and extend our networks of engagement and influence into the worlds of applied research, policy and practice of human rights, good governance, international development, peace-building and related areas,” Appleby said.
Ted Beatty, associate dean for academic affairs at the Keough School, said alongside participating in pre-existing programs managed by various institutes that will be expanded in the School, undergraduate students will eventually have the opportunity to participate in a comprehensive program of global affairs.
“This program of global affairs will be a program that organizes what [students] do in their majors, supplemental majors or minors, language study, study abroad ... in a way that integrates together and forms a coherent program of study,” Beatty said.
The pre-existing seven institutes under the Keough School are The Center for Civil and Human Rights, the Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies and the Nanovic Institute for European Studies.
“One thing the Keough School does is re-organize those [institutes] together under one roof,” Beatty said. “We inherit some programs from the institutes. We’ll then build up from those and create some exciting new opportunities for Notre Dame undergraduates.”
Appleby said he expects the full-fledged undergraduate program — which will aim to complement and globalize the disciplinary major — will begin with a relatively small number of students next year before growing in the coming years.
“Short of enrolling in the full program, or in a supplementary major or minor in the Keough School, undergrads can also take individual courses offered by the School,” Appleby said. “In addition, there are and will be an array of extracurricular options for students, ranging from guest lectures and mini-seminars led by prominent world leaders, to applied research opportunities designed to complement regular coursework and stimulate global thinking."
After three years of “frenetic planning and recruiting” with the seven institutes and colleagues from Notre Dame’s other colleges and schools, Appleby said the Keough School received a new burst of energy upon its opening.
“I am heartened but not surprised by the excitement and enthusiasm generated by the opening of the Keough School — expressions of which arrive daily from the Notre Dame family of alums and other fervent supporters, as well as from peers at other universities in the United States and around the world,” Appleby said.
As for long-term goals, Appleby said he looks forward to seeing his successor leverage the resources that Notre Dame and its supporters have provided.
“I’d wager that before too long, the Keough School and its faculty and graduates will be recognized as a world leader in placing human dignity at the center of every effort to build peace, heal the afflicted, stimulate economic growth and ensure education and security for the most vulnerable populations on the planet,” Appleby said.
