Staff Editorial

“University teachers should seek to improve their competence and endeavour to set the content, objectives, methods, and results of research in an individual discipline within the framework of a coherent world vision,” Bl. Pope John Paul II wrote in his 1990 apostolic constitution on Catholic universities, Ex Corde Ecclesiae. “Christians among the teachers are called to be witnesses and educators of authentic Christian life, which evidences attained integration between faith and life, and between professional competence and Christian wisdom. All teachers are to be inspired by academic ideals and by the principles of an authentically human life.”

Recognizing the important role professors can play not only as instructors but also as mentors and models, the Rover staff presents the following recommendations for courses offered in the 2014 fall semester.

Applied Mathematics

Mark Alber will be teaching “Mathematical and Computational Modeling” next semester.  If you are interested in applying mathematics to real world situations, this is the class and the professor for you.

Ankita Jain is offering “Topics in Applied Mathematics” next fall.  Jain is always willing to help outside of class and give her students the best opportunity to learn make.  If you need another math course, definitely think about adding this one.

Zhiliang Xu will be teaching “Numerical Analysis” in the fall.  This is an interesting course for those who enjoy learning about applications of Taylor Expansion to numerical algorithms.  Xu is always looking for ways to help his students and he is always available outside of class to patiently work through problems with you.

Art Studio

If you’re looking to fulfill your fine arts requirement, Bill Kremer’s ceramics class is a great option.  His sense of humor, openness to student creativity and flexible teaching style make ceramics an excellent choice for students of all artistic capacities.

Economics

Timothy Fuerst will once again be teaching “Principles of Macroeconomics” next fall.  This course satisfies the university requirement for social science and is also required for economics majors and a number of other disciplines.  As the course title suggests, students will get a “big-picture” look at how the economy works and at what drives economic growth.  Fuerst is a relative newcomer to Notre Dame and is enthusiastic about the mission of the university.  He is one of the most-cited economists in the world.

Joseph Kaboski is offering a writing-intensive economics seminar, “Introduction to Economics and Catholic Thought,” next semester.  The course focuses on papal encyclicals comprising the modern Catholic social teaching tradition and applies them to contemporary economic issues.  This course is particularly important for students studying economics at a Catholic university such as Notre Dame.

Rover advisor Eric Sims will return to teaching “Intermediate Macro Theory” next fall.  This course builds upon micro foundations to place the consumer, firm and government within a model that can explain economic growth and variation.  A central aim of the course is to understand business cycles and what drives them.  Sims is a wonderful teacher with a talent for connecting with students and making the material interesting.  He also likes to talk about football, so the fall is the perfect time to take his class.

James Sullivan will teach the “Intermediate Micro Theory” course, required for all economics majors.  This course focuses on the economic decision-making process of both consumers and firms, and builds a micro foundation for all further study in economics.  Sullivan is an engaging teacher with an ability to make difficult material more accessible and interesting.  He also directs, with Bill Evans, the Lab for Economic Opportunities, which seeks to discover research-driven solutions to poverty in the US.

Education, Schooling and Society

John Schoenig works in the Institute for Educational Initiatives with the ACE program, and teaches one undergraduate seminar each semester on education law and policy.  A graduate of ND law school, he is passionate and articulate about the complexities of the education sector today.  Anyone interested in law or education has a lot to gain from taking this class.

English

John Sitter is one of the most distinguished English professors at Notre Dame.  Taking “Introduction to Literary Studies” with him would be a great way to enter into the English major.  Sitter really cares about your future endeavors, and has a humble brilliance about him.  Even though he can be a tough grader, you will learn so much in his class and become a much, much better writer because of it.

History

Dan Graff, the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the History Department is perhaps the greatest DUS on campus.  Graff specializes in labor history and will be teaching one of the sections of the History Workshop class for majors.  Any class taught by Graff will be challenging, fulfilling, enlightening and fun.  He has a gift for spurring discussion and seeks the involvement of every student in his classes.

Thomas Kselman is arguably the best member of the History Department.  In his class “Modern France,” he does an excellent job of weaving in cultural, political and religious themes. He is rigorous but fair, introducing the student to a real study of history.  Kselman is a superb lecturer who welcomes input from the class and accommodates the interests of his students both in class time and by allowing them to pick the topics for their larger assignments.  Religious history is one of his areas of expertise and students will learn much about the history of the Catholic Church in his class.

Semion Lyandres, teaching “20th Century Russia: Rasputin to Putin,” is a scholar of modern Russian history.  His wit, sense of humor and kindly nature make him popular among students, but his vast range of knowledge and passion for European history is what makes his classes truly academically enriching.

You cannot go wrong with any class taught by Father Bill Miscamble, CSC, one of the Rover’s advisors and a perennial campus favorite.  His class, “Making Australia,” is engaging and informative, presenting to students a comprehensive history of his home country.  Father Miscamble’s love for his students, his work and the material he teaches is evident.  If you’re looking to fulfill a history requirement or simply take from one of Notre Dame’s finest scholars, this class is not to be missed.

Thomas Noble will be teaching “Age of Charlemagne” next semester.  He is a renowned historian who specializes in religious history among other things.  Noble knows about ten different languages and has translated many important texts in his field.  He provides both details and big picture as students are immersed in the world of Charlemagne.  This class is difficult, but is well worth the effort.

Other staff picks include Patrick Griffin, Fr. Tom Blantz, John VanEngen and Brian Krostenko.  

Italian

Christian Moevs is teaching “Dante I” (in English) in the fall.  Moevs is a thoughtful and approachable intellectual who treasures his relationships and conversations with students.  The course is an overview of the Divine Comedy, focusing on the Inferno, and on other minor texts of Dante.  Moevs is an excellent professor and guide to reading this greatest of Catholic poets.

Cross-listed in a host of other disciplines, Vittorio Montemaggi is offering a course in “Meaning, Vulnerability and Human Existence.”  This course comes recommended to the Rover from a trusted source who reports that it “changes lives” and “is perhaps the best course” he has taken during his time at Notre Dame.  Montemaggi is a true scholar whose faith informs his work, and whose passion for the subject material animates his teaching.

Philosophy

Fred Freddoso will don his Buffalo Bills cap once more in the fall as he teaches “Ancient and Medieval Philosophy,” a 3000-level philosophy that is also open to non-majors.  Freddoso brings the thought of the pre-socratics to life with humor, which is not easy to do.  The course offers a broad exposure to the philosophers whose work forms the basis of much modern thought.  Freddoso is also teaching “Aquinas on Virtue and Law,” an upper-level course that promises to deliver knowledge applicable to everyday life.  Expect to encounter Porky Pig and Arnie the Aardvark in both.

John O’Callaghan is offering two courses on the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas in the fall.  The first is “Thought of Aquinas,” which fulfills the second university requirement in philosophy, and “Aquinas’s Philosophical Theology” is an upper-level undergraduate course that majors and non-majors alike can enter.  O’Callaghan is an expert Aquinas scholars whose presentation of the Universal Doctor’s work is entertaining and informative.

David O’Connor, a perennial favorite from the philosophy department, is teaching two courses next semester.  “Ancient Wisdom, Modern Love” is an upper-level philosophy course exploring the topic of romantic love through the lens of literature and philosophical texts.  His college seminar, “Odysseys of the Self,” involves a host of enriching assignments, including Wagner’s Ring cycle of operas, Homer’s Odyssey and Lord of the Rings.

Returning from the sunny corridors of Baylor, David Solomon is teaching two of his regulars: “Medical Ethics” and “Morality and Modernity.”  The former is a popular 2000-level course that explores the integration of medicine and ethics through the proxy of several contentious contemporary issues; the latter boasts perhaps the best syllabus that any course offers.  No course offers better insight into the philosophical underpinnings of morality in modernity (fittingly).

Political Science

Rover advisor Patrick Deneen is a renowned scholar teaching two courses in the fall semester: “Constitutionalism, Law and Politics” and the university seminar “The End of Education.”  Both promise to be excellent forays into the field of political philosophy.  If you are interested in asking questions about human nature and the ends of the modern university with one of the nation’s best political theorists, Deneen’s classes are for you.

Michael Desch, Chair of the Department of Political Science, is teaching “U.S. Foreign Policy.”  Desch is an engaging speaker and his lectures bring foreign policy issues to life.

Mary Keys is teaching one of the most popular seminar courses on offer, “Politics and Conscience.”  This course challenges Solomon’s “Morality and Modernity” for the best syllabus.  Students explore the topics of politics, conscience and law through the reading of classic authors such as Augustine, Aquinas, Thomas More, Josef Pieper, Martin Luther King Jr, Erasmus and others.  Keys guides the discussion gracefully and allows students the opportunity to think their way through these readings and their applications to the present.  Keys is also co-teaching a 4000-level “Justice Seminar” that is available to majors from various disciplines.

Speaking of faith and politics, Dan Philpott is teaching a 3000-level course in “Catholicism and Politics” that will offer a comprehensive look at the topics suggested by the title.  Like Keys, Philpott guides the class with adeptness, and brings his scholarly knowledge to bear on pressing contemporary issues.

Rover advisor Michael Zuckert is teaching his senior seminar, “The Political Thought and Statesmanship of Lincoln.”  Zuckert’s insights into the character and thought of one of America’s most storied presidents cut through popular narratives and illumine who Lincoln really was.

Theology

Gary Anderson is teaching “Introduction to Old Testament.”  Anderson is one of the world’s leading Hebrew Bible scholars, and the fruit of taking this course if the fact that you will never think of the Old Testament as boring again.  The course is listed as a 4000-level major course, but diligence may pay off.

John Cavadini is offering his course “Christian Traditions I” in the fall.  Cavadini is one of Notre Dame’s most accomplished theologians, and teaches his courses with an unparalleled thoughtfulness and meditativeness.  He brings his specialties in patristic theology and early Christian thought into conversation with how the content of this course enriches the lives of believers today.

David Fagerberg is teaching one of his classics, “C. S. Lewis: Sin, Sanctification, and Saints,” a popular 2000-level course that fulfills the second university requirement in theology.  C.S. Lewis is only the worm on the hook: The course is really about the vices and passions, asceticism of the desert fathers, the cost of attaining virtue, and the joy of beatitude.  This comes from Olivier Clement’s book Roots of Christian Mysticism.  But to make the abstract categories clear, we do read Screwtape Letters; Perelandra; The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; Great Divorce and The Last Battle.

Monsignor Michael Heintz is also teaching “Christian Traditions I” in the fall.  Trads I is one of the most informative classes a student interested in theology can take, and Msgr. Heintz is one of the department’s best (and funniest) teachers.

Gabriel Reynolds is an expert on the relationship between Christianity and Islam, and is offering a 2000-level course in the fall that fulfills the second university theology requirement: “Islam and Christian Theology.”  Reynolds draws his students into a thoughtful dialectic involving two of the Abrahamic traditions, encouraging his students to explore more deeply the similarities and differences of these two faiths.

Todd Walatka is teaching his “Introduction to Vatican II” course.  Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI devoted much energy and attention to the Second Vatican Council’s teachings, and Walatka’s course is a great introduction for students who want to explore the Council’s most foundational documents.