Love Ethic Faculty Fellowships

Research Theme Background

Context and Sample Questions

While often treated as a personal or private emotion, love has long served as a powerful moral, social, and political force. Across religious traditions, philosophical writings, literary works, and social movements, love has been invoked to challenge injustice, cultivate solidarity, shape character, and reimagine the good life. Love influences how we understand our obligations to others, how we navigate personal relationships, how communities are formed and sustained, and how societies respond to conflict and difference.

Yet despite its pervasive importance in human life, love is often marginalized within contemporary ethical theorizing. It is frequently studied as an emotion, psychological state, or interpersonal attachment, while its broader ethical significance has received less sustained attention. This call invites proposals for research projects that explore the relationship between love and ethics from theoretical, historical, empirical, practical, or applied perspectives. Applicants might explore questions such as:

•  In what ways do love-based ethics differ from dominant frameworks like deontology, utilitarianism, or virtue ethics?
• What kind of love is at stake in these systems—emotional, moral, agapeic—and how should it be understood philosophically or theologically?
• How have various religious traditions shaped, preserved, or contested love-centered approaches to moral decision-making
• What moral conclusions do love-based ethical systems suggest about controversial ethical issues in contemporary society, such as capital punishment, immigration policies, wealth inequality, artificial intelligence, etc.?
• What role might love-based ethics play in shaping public policy, political leadership, or conflict resolution?
• What insights can psychology offer about how love influences moral reasoning, development, and behavior?
• In what ways has love animated social movements, and how do different cultures institutionalize or resist its ethical claims?

Note that these questions are only a starting point. We encourage applicants to pursue other lines of inquiry that align with the overarching theme of Love and Ethics.

Program Details

Eligibility

Faculty Fellowships are open to scholars engaged in substantial research projects that examine questions at the intersection of love and ethics.

We welcome applications from scholars across all academic disciplines, including—but not limited to—philosophy, theology, psychology, sociology, political science, law, literature, and the arts.

Although most Faculty Fellows hold appointments at colleges or universities, the fellowship is also open to independent scholars, journalists, artists, and others whose work engages meaningfully with the fellowship theme. Postdoctoral scholars with a strong record of achievement are likewise encouraged to apply.

Most fellowships will be awarded to scholars from outside the University of Notre Dame. However, Notre Dame faculty are eligible to apply, and a limited number of fellowships may be awarded to internal applicants.

We welcome applications from scholars based outside the United States, as well as from individuals representing a wide range of faith traditions and cultural backgrounds.

Fellows are expected to remain in residence for the duration of their fellowship. While preference will be given to applicants who are available for the full academic year (August–May), we will also consider applicants who are available for only the Fall semester (August–December). Such applicants, if selected, will receive a semester-long fellowship.

Research Support

Faculty Fellows holding permanent faculty appointments at their home institutions will receive support equal to one-half of their academic-year base salary, up to a maximum of $80,000. Fellows’ home institutions are expected to provide the remainder of the salary as well as all benefits, including health insurance.

Fellows without permanent faculty appointments—such as independent scholars and postdoctoral researchers—will receive a salary of $80,000 together with University of Notre Dame benefits, including health insurance.

All Faculty Fellows receive a $1,000 annual research allowance and dedicated office space at ECG. Fellows who currently reside outside of the South Bend area receive a housing allowance of $1,500 per month.

Faculty Fellows will be joined by a cohort of graduate fellows, postdocs, and program chairs from Notre Dame who are pursuing their own ethics-based research projects and collaborate with the Faculty Fellows during weekly research seminars and other ECG events.

Throughout the year, ECG will organize robust programming to further explore the institute research theme and cultivate collaboration, such as work-in-progress seminars, guest lectures, book clubs, film viewings, and social events.

Fellowship Expectations

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 research proposal and participate fully in the community of scholars at the Institute.

Faculty Fellows are also expected to attend weekly seminars, present their research twice during these seminars, and attend ECG retreats, communications workshops, and other special events.

Public Engagement

ECG aims to support Faculty Fellows who are committed to making their research accessible not only to scholars from across the disciplines, but also, crucially, to the broader public who will benefit from engagement with these ideas and debates.

At ECG, Faculty Fellows present their research on these questions to their fellowship cohort, to faculty colleagues and special guests, and to the wider public each week during ECG's weekly seminars. These seminars come in a variety of formats, from masterclass sessions aimed at introducing key research components in an engaging way to public engagement workshops aimed at translating research insights for the public.

As part of their fellowship, Faculty Fellows also participate in multi-day fall and spring retreats that foster collaboration and provide tools and training to engage in ethical research and discussion with multi-disciplinary audiences and the community. These retreats vary from year to year, but in the past they have included a writing retreat, a workshop with a professional communications consulting group, and a workshop with an opinion editor at the New York Times.

Participation in ECG's weekly seminars and communications retreats is required for all Faculty Fellows—they are central components to making our year a success and a defining feature of our program.

Applications

Application Requirements

Applications for Faculty Fellowships must be submitted through Interfolio and should include the following:

• Completed online application form
• Cover letter
• Curriculum vitae (no more than four pages, single-spaced)
• Proposal abstract (no more than 400 words)
• Fellowship research proposal (no more than six pages double-spaced; research proposals may include a works-cited or bibliography page, which does not count toward the six-page limit). In the research proposal, applicants should provide an explanation of the project they intend to pursue at ECG, including:

• • How the proposed research aligns with the research theme and mission of the Institute
  • Preliminary objectives for the research to be conducted (i.e., whether the research might result in a book, journal article, art work, etc.)
  • The proposed work plan (including what research or work has already been accomplished, what will be done during the fellowship period, the methodology to be employed, and the organization of the scholarly project, book, or other work)
• Public-engagement proposal (no more than two pages, double-spaced). In the public-engagement proposal, applicants should explain how they plan to engage a public audience with their proposed research project (e.g., through a newspaper op-ed, public discussion, podcast episode, etc.).
• Two letters of reference. The letters should address the strength of the applicant’s proposed research project, its fit with the theme of Love and Ethics, and the applicant’s collaborative potential and collegiality. (See FAQ page for common questions about letters of reference.)
• (Optional) Up to two pages of non-text materials supporting the research proposal

Proposals will be evaluated on the basis of their potential for research impact, fit with the theme, and fit with the Institute’s mission.

Finalists will be asked to be available for a brief Zoom conversation with committee members during the final stage of the selection process.