Eight new Ph.D. students will enroll in Notre Dame’s interdisciplinary peace studies doctoral program in fall 2013, announced Asher Kaufman, associate professor of history and peace studies and director of doctoral studies at the Kroc Institute.
The incoming students — the largest group admitted at one time since the Ph.D. in Peace Studies program began in 2008 — include two students in peace studies and sociology; one in peace studies and political science; two in peace studies and psychology; two in peace studies and theology; and one in peace studies and anthropology. (Twenty-one students already are enrolled in the program.)
Three of the incoming students will receive University Presidential Fellowships, one will receive a Joseph L. Gaia Distinguished Fellowship, and one will receive a Richard and Peggy Notebaert Premier Fellowship, Kaufman said. These grants will supplement Ph.D. students’ primary support from the Kroc Institute.
Also this year, the Notre Dame Graduate School will award Laura Taylor, a current Ph.D. student in psychology and peace studies, the Eli J. and Helen Shaheen award, which recognizes one outstanding graduate student from each of the four divisions of the Notre Dame Graduate School: Humanities, Social Sciences, Science, and Engineering. The Shaheen award is granted each year to doctoral students who “exhibit superior ability” according to the following criteria: grades; research and publication; fellowship and other awards; and teaching.
The creation of the Kroc Institute’s Ph.D. program in 2008 fulfilled one of the final wishes of Mrs. Joan B. Kroc (1928-2003), the Kroc institute’s founding benefactor, said Kroc Institute director Scott Appleby. Mrs. Kroc had joined forces with the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., president emeritus of Notre Dame, to establish (in 1986) an institute dedicated to training the best minds committed to international peace research. Support for the innovative doctoral program has grown steadily thanks to the generosity of members of the Kroc Institute Advisory Council.
Contact: Asher Kaufman, akaufma2@nd.edu