Rev. Robert A. Dowd to replace Jenkins in July as president of University of Notre Dame

Jordan Smith, South Bend Tribune
Updated ·2 min read
Rev. Robert Dowd
Rev. Robert Dowd

SOUTH BEND — The Rev. Robert A. Dowd will become the 18th president of the University of Notre Dame, the board of trustees announced Monday morning.

Dowd, a Michigan City native who graduated from Notre Dame in 1987, will begin his duties July 1. In the meantime, he will work closely with outgoing president the Rev. John Jenkins, according to a statement from Notre Dame Board of Trustee Chair Jack Brennan.

Since 2021, Dowd has been Notre Dame's vice president and associate provost for interdisciplinary initiatives. He's also a political science professor and a religious superior of the university's Holy Cross community, where ordained priests and brothers of the Holy Cross live.

More: When Notre Dame president Rev. John Jenkins steps down, legacy of research will remain

In the fall of 1987, having earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and economics that spring, Dowd entered the Moreau Seminary to explore priesthood. He was ordained as a priest in 1994. He went on to work as associate rector of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and an assistant rector in a Notre Dame residence hall.

He later earned a master's degree in African studies — recalling the 18 months he spent in East Africa during seminary — and a doctoral degree in political science at UCLA. He became an associate professor of political science at Notre Dame in 2004.

In his current role, he founded Notre Dame’s Ford Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. The initiative aims to forge research partnerships in communities in the Global South.

His research has focused on how Christian and Islamic religious communities affect support for democratic institutions. He's written about how faith-based schooling affects civic engagement in Africa and the role religious institutions play in integrating migrants and refugees into European communities. He's the author of a book on the subject called "Christianity, Islam, Liberal Democracy: Lessons from Sub-Saharan Africa."

Since its founding by the Rev. Edward Frederick Sorin in 1842, Notre Dame has been led by a priest-president from Sorin's religious order, the Congregation of the Holy Cross. Dowd will be Notre Dame's fourth president in the last 70 years, following the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, the Rev. Edward Malloy and Jenkins, who announced in October he will step down after the 2023-24 academic year.

Email South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @jordantsmith09

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Rev. Robert A. Dowd named 18th president of University of Notre Dame