ECG 2025-2026 Faculty Fellowship

Description

The Institute for Ethics and the Common Good (ECG) convenes a multidisciplinary community to advance moral understanding and develop compelling responses to the most pressing ethical issues of our era. Each year, ECG awards 6-8 residential Faculty Fellowships annually to researchers whose work addresses the Institute’s yearly Research Theme.

During the 2025-2026 academic year, ECG is sponsoring research projects that investigate The Future of Virtue Ethics: Strengthening Foundations and Exploring Applications.

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The 21st century poses a host of novel ethical challenges arising from tremendous technological, social, and environmental changes, requiring us to develop, strengthen, and apply our core ethical frameworks.

One such framework is virtue ethics, which emphasizes the importance of virtue and practical wisdom in leading a moral life.

In the ancient world, figures like Plato and Aristotle (in the West) and Confucius and Mencius (in the East) developed virtue ethics. It further traces roots in the wisdom tradition of Judaism. It became a powerful influence for Catholic thought through the work of Augustine and Aquinas, and it continues to be a significant ethical tradition today, with genuinely global reach.

The Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and the Common Good (ECG) aims to catalyze and develop new work in virtue ethics with a series of 6-8 residential faculty research fellowships during the 2025-26 academic year.

These fellowships will bring together ethicists from across many disciplines—including philosophers, theologians, humanities scholars, social scientists, policy analysts, and legal scholars—to discern future directions of virtue ethics.

Note that while the term “virtue ethics” has come to have a specific meaning in philosophy and theology, it should be understood broadly here to include topics such as integral human development; holistic human flourishing; character development; and the political, social and institutional structures that best foster such development. Researchers working on these topics from any disciplinary perspective are welcome to apply.

In 2025-26, one Faculty Fellowship will be co-sponsored by the History of Philosophy Forum at Notre Dame, in connection with the Forum's Historical Traditions of Ethics Research Cluster beginning in 2025. This fellowship will fund a project that investigates a topic in the history of ethics.

For a list of potential research topics related to the theme, please see https://ethics.nd.edu/fellowships-and-grants/faculty/.

Faculty Fellows receive half their base salary per academic year (up to $80,000), a housing subsidy (for those who currently reside outside of the South Bend area), a research allowance of $500 per semester, and a private office at ECG. Fellows' home institutions provide the remainder of their salaries as well as all benefits, including health insurance.

Postdocs are welcome to apply and receive a stipend of up to $80,000 paid directly to them (rather than to a home institution). Postdocs are also provided health insurance benefits.

Qualifications

Faculty Fellowships are open to scholars in any discipline who are conducting research related to virtue ethics.

Faculty Fellows typically have a faculty appointment at their home institution, but the fellowships are also open to independent researchers, public practitioners, postdoctoral scholars, those who have recently received their Ph.D. (or equivalent terminal) degree, those who are pursuing the creative arts, and faculty from Notre Dame. Scholars from outside the U.S. are welcome to apply–there are no citizenship requirements for these fellowships.

Current graduate students are eligible to apply only if they will receive their terminal degree by August 1, 2025.

One goal of the fellowship selection process is the creation of a diverse and collaborative community of scholars with a range of disciplines and academic ranks. Applicants who are members of traditionally under-represented groups are encouraged to apply.

Preference is given to those who can join ECG for the entire academic year (August - May), but fellowships for shorter periods of time may be possible.

All Faculty Fellows are expected to reside in the South Bend area and to remain in residence at the University of Notre Dame during the period of their fellowship (except for vacation periods, holidays, and University breaks).

Faculty Fellows are expected to be free of their regular commitments and to have their primary office at the Institute so they may devote themselves full time to the work outlined in their