Academic Convocation – September 4, 2024

Convocation Speaker at PC

The Academic Convocation will be held on Wednesday, September 4, 2024, at 3 p.m. in the Peterson Recreation Center.

Academic Convocation, which marks the official opening of the academic year, welcomes new members of our community – students in the Class of 2028, transfer students, and new faculty members. On Convocation day, the College follows an abbreviated class schedule. 

Abbreviated Class Schedule

2024 Keynote Speaker

Paolo Carozza

Paolo Carozza

Paolo G. Carozza is a professor of law and concurrent professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame and among the world’s most accomplished practitioners of international human rights law. He joined the Notre Dame Law School faculty in 1996. His academic expertise includes comparative constitutional law, human rights, law and development, and international law. Aside from his teaching duties at Notre Dame, Carozza served as director of the university’s Kellogg Institute for International Studies, as associate dean for international and graduate programs, and as director of the institution’s Center for Civil and Human Rights.

Carozza has served as the U.S. member of the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission, a member of the U.S. State Department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights, and president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. In 2016, Pope Francis appointed him to be an Academician of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. He currently serves as a member of the Meta Platforms, Inc. Oversight Board, an independent expert body created to render decisions and policy recommendations regarding difficult moderation problems on Meta’s platforms.

A graduate of Harvard University, Carozza earned his juris doctor from Harvard Law School. The Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, California, is one of two schools who have awarded Carozza honorary doctoral degrees.

Academic Convocation Photos