Love Ethic Postdoctoral Fellowships

Research Theme Background

Love-Based Ethical Frameworks

What would it mean to take love seriously as a foundation for ethics?

While often treated as a personal or private emotion, love has also long served as a powerful moral and political force. Across religious traditions, philosophical writings, and social movements, love has been invoked to challenge injustice, build solidarity, and reimagine the good life. And yet, in much of contemporary ethical theory, it remains sidelined—studied more as a mere emotion than a serious moral principle.

Love-based ethical systems challenge this marginalization. At their core, these systems assert that a widespread, non-merit-based feature like dignity or humanity is what grounds moral significance for each of us. Such a system is built around principles that situate interpersonal love at the foundations of our ethical reasoning and aim to guide us through a host of complex and divisive challenges in applied ethics.

Although not yet widely recognized as a distinct school of moral thought, love-based ethics has a long and varied history. Religious traditions including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Confucianism have articulated love as a central ethical imperative. Thinkers such as Soren Kierkegaard, Emmanuel Levinas, Martin Buber, and Simone Weil have deepened these traditions within modern theology and philosophy. Outside explicitly religious frameworks, philosophers like Iris Murdoch and social theorists such as bell hooks have positioned love as a transformative moral and political force. Elements of this tradition have also underpinned key social movements—from Gandhi’s Satyagraha to the nonviolent resistance of the American Civil Rights Movement.

This call invites proposals for research projects that critically examine, construct, or apply love-based ethical frameworks across disciplines and contexts. 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?

These questions are only a starting point. We encourage applicants to pursue other lines of inquiry that align with the theme of love-based ethics.

Our aim is to cultivate rigorous, original, ethically grounded work that brings love-based ethics in conversation with today’s moral debates and the broader landscape of contemporary ethical theory.

Program Details

Eligibility

These postdoctoral fellowships are open to scholars who are conducting a serious research project related to love-based ethical frameworks.

Note: Postdocs working on faith-based approaches to artificial intelligence should apply for a one-year faculty fellowship.

Applicants from all academic disciplines are encouraged to apply, including—but not limited to—philosophy, theology, psychology, sociology, political science, law, literature, and the arts.

These are intended to be two-year postdocs; Fellows are expected to be in residence at Notre Dame for the full fellowship period (July 2026 through June 2028).

Candidates should have completed all Ph.D. requirements by May 1, 2026 and be within five years of earning their degree.

We welcome applications from scholars who are based outside the U.S. We also welcome applications from scholars from a variety of faith and cultural traditions.

Research Support

Postdocs receive $80,000 each year in salary, $1,000 each year in dedicated research funds, and Notre Dame benefits.

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

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

Fellowship Expectations

All Postdoctoral 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 (July 2026 through June 2028), except for vacation periods, holidays, and University breaks.

Postdocs are expected to be free of their regular commitments 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.

In addition to pursuing independent research on love-based ethics, postdoctoral fellows will contribute to the broader goals of the grant by collaborating with ECG staff to help organize two academic conferences focused on love-based ethical frameworks.

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.

Postdoctoral Fellows may have the opportunity to teach one undergraduate course per year on a topic related to love-based-ethics. This arrangement is subject to departmental approval.

Public Engagement

ECG aims to support postdocs 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, 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, Postdoctoral 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 Postdoctoral Fellows—they are central components to making our year a success and a defining feature of our program.

Application Requirements

Applications for Postdocotral 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 2026-2027 research theme of love-based 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.