The Kellogg Institute for International Studies is proud that three of our faculty fellows have been selected for the University of Notre Dame's annual feature Women Lead. They are Ming Hu from the College of Architecture, Julia Kowalski from the Keough School of Global Affairs, and Erin McDonnell from the College of Arts and Letters. Link to their individual features after the introductions below.
Ming Hu
When Ming Hu talks about engineering and architecture, the two fields merge into one. Combining analytical and technological skills with hand drawing and spatial literacy has led her to study, practice, and research solutions that are good for the planet and its people. She is emblematic of the right and left brain working together in balance.
“I cannot think of one without thinking of the other,” she said. Hu is the associate dean for research, scholarship, and creative work at the School of Architecture and a concurrent associate professor in the College of Engineering. READ MORE . . .
Julia Kowalski
Julia Kowalski, a cultural anthropologist in the Keough School of Global Affairs, studies how abstract social phenomena such as gender inequality and democracy manifest themselves in intimate lived experiences, especially in India and South Asia more broadly.
“I explore the methodologies and theories that can help us connect small-scale, everyday lived experiences and practices to the big abstract categories that seem to govern our lives from above,” said Kowalski, who holds a doctorate in comparative human development from the University of Chicago. “Part of what’s at stake is that inequality and power are often reproduced at micro levels in ways that can be hard to see. My research enables us to see how gender-based inequality gets grounded and naturalized in everyday life.” READ MORE . . .
Erin McDonnell
Erin McDonnell sees those who fight against the odds.
The University of Notre Dame sociologist works with public sector employees in low-income nations who face uphill battles against bureaucratic procedures and cultural stigmas that inhibit their work.
But instead of focusing on what’s going wrong, McDonnell emphasizes what’s going right.
“I like to make things better,” she said. “Incremental improvement is my jam.” READ MORE . . .
The Kellogg Institute for International Studies, part of the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, is an interdisciplinary community of scholars and students from across the University and around the globe that promotes research, provides educational opportunities, and builds partnerships throughout the world on the themes of global democracy and integral human development.