Research Spotlight Luncheon

The Research Spotlight Luncheon offers a unique opportunity to learn about the projects of the Kellogg Institute's fall Visiting Fellows and current Dissertation Year Fellows. Each will give two-minute overviews of their research, then be available individually for questions and conversation in the Great Hall. This is an occasion to support the work of these scholars, learn about their work, and connect with those who have common research themes or other scholarly interests. A box lunch will be served beginning at noon, with dessert following in the Great Hall. Click below on individuals' names to learn more about them.

Catia Batista
This profile was current as of 2018, when she was part of the on-campus Kellogg community. Catia Batista (PhD, University of Chicago), a 2017–18 Kellogg visiting fellow, is associate professor in economics at Portugal’s Universidade Nova de Lisboa, where she is cofounder and scientific director of the NOVAFRICA research center...
Katherine Corcoran
Katherine Corcoran is a former Associated Press journalist and the 2017-2018 Hewlett Fellow for Public Policy at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. Currently she holds the position of associate director for International Media Relations in the Office of Public Affairs and Communication at the University of Notre Dame...
Séverine Deneulin
This profile was current as of 2018, when she was part of the on-campus Kellogg community. Séverine Deneulin (DPhil, University of Oxford), a Kellogg visiting fellow for the 2017–18 academic year, is associate professor in International Development at the University of Bath, where she teaches in the MSc in International Development and Professional Doctorate in Policy Research and Practice programs...
Natalia Forrat
This profile was current as of 2018, when she was part of the on-campus Kellogg community. Natalia Forrat (PhD, Northwestern University), a 2017–18 Kellogg Visiting Fellow, is a sociologist who studies how contemporary authoritarian regimes build relationships with their societies in ways that help autocrats survive...
Peter Johannessen
This profile was current as of 2018, when he was part of the on-campus Kellogg community. Peter Johannessen (PhD, Princeton University), a 2017–18 Kellogg visiting fellow, is a political scientist who studies decentralization and the political economy of development with a regional focus on Latin America...
Sandra Polanía-Reyes
This profile was current as of 2018, when she was part of the on-campus Kellogg community. Sandra Polanía-Reyes (PhD, University College London; PhD, University of Siena), a 2017–18 Kellogg visiting fellow, is a visiting assistant professor of economics at the Keough School of Global Affairs...
Gema Kloppe-Santamaría
This bio is current as of 2020. Gema Kloppe-Santamaría is assistant professor of Latin American history at Loyola University, Chicago. Her research analyzes the history of Latin American processes of state building across the 20th and 21st centuries, with a particular attention to questions of violence, crime, justice, and the rule of law. She was a 2017-18 Kellogg visiting fellow...
Luis Schiumerini
Luis Schiumerini is an assistant professor of political science at Notre Dame, where he was a postdoctoral research associate with the Department of Political Science and a 2017-2018 Kellogg Institute Visiting Fellow. His research focuses on the political economy of citizenship in the developing world...
Pedro Vicente
This profile was current as of 2018, when he was part of the on-campus Kellogg community. Pedro Vicente (PhD, University of Chicago), a 2017–18 Kellogg Visiting Fellow, is associate professor of economics at Portugal’s Nova School of Business and Economics, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, where he is also the founding scientific director of NOVAFRICA (Nova Africa Center for Business and Economic Development)...
Francisco C. Weffort
This profile was current as of 2018, when he was part of the on-campus Kellogg community. Francisco Correa Weffort (PhD, University of São Paulo), a distinguished scholar and public figure, returns to the Kellogg Institute for the fall 2017 semester as the Brazilian Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Democracy and Human Development...
Juan Guillermo Albarracín Dierolf
Juan Guillermo Albarracín Dierolf is currently an external research affiliate of the Kellogg Institute's Notre Dame Violence and Transitional Justice Lab (V-TJLab). The below profile was current as of 2018, when he was part of the on-campus Kellogg community...
Benjamin Denison
This profile was current as of 2018, when he was part of the on-campus Kellogg community. I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Political Science Department at the University of Notre Dame and currently a dissertation year fellow with the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. I am also a predoctoral fellow with the Notre Dame International Security Center and have served as a research fellow for the Varieties of Democracy project...
Alison Fitchett Climenhaga
This profile was current as of 2019 when she was part of the on-campus Kellogg community. I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Theology Department at the University of Notre Dame. I received my M.T.S. in systematic theology from the University of Notre Dame in 2011, and my B.A. from Messiah College with an interdisciplinary Humanities major and minors in Religion and Peace and Conflict Studies...