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-Christopher Damian | Monday, October 26, 2015
Notre Dame students look at porn. It’s just a fact. In 2013, I conducted a very informal survey of more than 400 Notre Dame students on pornography use. Sixty-three percent of men and 11 percent of women admitted to viewing porn while on campus. I don’t know entirely what to do with this fact. I don’t
Christopher Damian | Thursday, October 1, 2015
A philosophy professor once told me the truly adult decisions are the ones we make in the face of an unforeseen future. Maybe this is why for some a tattoo is a rite of passage. It marks a significant event, an obstacle overcome, a new beginning or a personal commitment. It marks a memory to
Christopher Damian | Thursday, September 3, 2015
I graduated just over two years ago. Here are nine things I wish I had done as an undergrad. Fought to get out of the Arts & Letters science requirement (and several other requirements) Both of my science classes were a total waste of time. I tried to get my PLS Foundations of Natural Science
Christopher Damian | Thursday, April 23, 2015
Michelangelo began sculpting the Pietá when he was about 23 years old, about a year older than most of the students who will soon graduate from Notre Dame. His Pietá was a novel piece among Italian art representing Our Lady. The artistic tradition had previously maintained a Mary who stood strong at the foot of the
Christopher Damian | Thursday, April 9, 2015
Many undergraduates believe their lives after college will be full of life and excitement. That’s not the whole truth. After watching a few classes graduate and seeing my friends progress from college to post-graduate life, I’ve realized the transition isn’t always pretty. Here are a few things that will probably happen to you. First, you
Christopher Damian | Thursday, March 26, 2015
I recently attended the United Nations 59th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women. Representatives from around the world discussed the relationship between poverty and the education of women. The Western nations tended to present abstract arguments for “disaggregating data” and the importance of increased access of opportunity to education, political office and economic
Christopher Damian | Thursday, February 12, 2015
Ignorant people take things by blind faith. At least, this is the belief of our age, the age which calls itself the “enlightened age.” In an age of technological progress and scientific advancement, the obvious thing to do with “blind faith” is to reject it as a feature of darker times, of primitive man or
Christopher Damian | Thursday, January 29, 2015
In the midst of discussions over curricular developments at Notre Dame, I am mindful of a remark made by Otto Bird, the founder of the Program of Liberal Studies: “In the 1950s I was a member of the Faculty Hiring Committee, a body appointed by the administration to put pressure upon the department heads to
Christopher Damian | Thursday, January 15, 2015
Am I an intellectual prostitute? As a professional student in contemporary America, what else could I be? Former Cornell Law School dean Roger Crampton, once said law school tends to present the “hired gun” as one of the main “models of professional conduct to law students.” I suspect this is the implicit model of most professional and
Christopher Damian | Thursday, December 11, 2014
The first dozen times I came out I cried. For many of my friends, it was the first time they had seen me cry. Ever. A high school friend once told me that I had two emotions: happy, and more happy. She was wrong. I felt a lot of things, but I had to hide