Clemens Sedmak

Director and Professor of Social Ethics

Clemens Sedmak is professor of social ethics in the Keough School of Global Affairs and holds a joint appointment with Notre Dame’s Institute for Social Concerns. He is also a concurrent professor of theology in the Department of Theology. He holds faculty fellow roles in the the Ansari Institute for the Global Engagement with Religion, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, and the Pulte Institute for Global Development. 

A native Austrian, Clemens Sedmak holds doctoral degrees in theology (Catholic University of Linz), philosophy and social theory (University of Innsbruck). Before coming to Notre Dame, he was the F.D. Maurice Professor for Moral and Social Theology at King's College London.

Sedmak has previously served as director of the Center for Ethics and Poverty Research and chair for epistemology and philosophy of religion at the University of Salzburg, where he was also president of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Social Ethics.

Sedmak has authored, edited, and co-edited numerous publications in German, French, and English, including The Capacity to be Displaced: Resilience, Mission, and Inner Strength (Brill, 2017), Enacting Catholic Social Tradition: The Deep Practice of Human Dignity (Orbis, 2022), and Enacting Integral Human Development (Orbis, 2023).

His research interests include social ethics, the Catholic social tradition, and issues of poverty and justice. Sedmak's research includes collaboration with Notre Dame colleagues on the Catholic Church's role in acclimating refugees into Italian society.