Creating Dialogue, Contributing to the Classroom

“The center plays a vital role on campus by supporting colleges, other centers and institutes, and University administration as each office pursues excellence in undergraduate education,” says John T. McGreevy, professor of history, I.A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts and Letters.

The DeBartolo Performing Arts Center proudly supports the academic pursuits of the University's colleges, institutes and centers.

For example, in partnership with the Departments of Theology and Film, Television, and Theatre, the center presents Films and Faith: a uniquely Notre Dame film festival focusing on Catholic and spirituality based cinema. All of the films were introduced by film faculty. The Browning Cinema also helped plan for Catholics in the Movies, sponsored by the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, as well as the Angelus Film Festival, in partnership with the University's Center for Ethics and Culture and the Little Theatre, in Los Angeles, California.

Other events reflecting our mission and echoing the University’s values included events by the Law School, “A Conversation with the Chief Justice (of the United States),” the center’s presentation of L.A. Theatre Works’ The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial; this event included pre-performance talks on the theological and legal arguments of this seminal case by M. Cathleen Kaveny as part of the year-long observance of Darwin at Notre Dame and the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies hosting Nobel Prize-winner Shirin Ebadi.