Dear Mortara Community,
2024 was another eventful year inside and outside the Mortara Center. We hosted and organized a large number of highly successful events: research talks by renowned scholars, public book launches from our Georgetown faculty, workshops to advance research in progress by Mortara affiliated scholars, in-the-news events about highly topical issues, and events where politicians, policy-makers, diplomats, and executives shared their views with students and others in the Georgetown community.
We also saw people come and leave our community. Mortara director Elizabeth Saunders left for Columbia University and assistant director Brittany Friedman moved to California. We miss them but are grateful to have found great replacements with the arrival of our new assistant director Pauline Courteille and Daisy O’Brien, our event coordinator. Mortara is a warm and highly functional center because of them.
We also saw some of our visiting fellows leave in the summer for jobs elsewhere and welcomed a record-high number of visiting fellows in the Fall. Thanks for all the contributions you have made to the Mortara community and we hope you stay in touch! Mortara wouldn’t be such a vibrant community if it weren’t for the contributions of the young scholars who find a temporary home here.
The next year is going to be equally exciting. 2025 will be the 20th anniversary of the Mortara building. We are planning an exciting celebration in October. More details will follow but we are looking forward to celebrating this marquee occasion with all of you!
Let me wish all of you happy holidays and a gelukkig nieuwjaar!
Erik Voeten
