The Institute for Ethics and the Common Good (ECG) is proud to announce its cohort of Signature Course Fellows for the 2024–25 academic year.
The Signature Course Fellowship program, made possible through a $2.97 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation, supports faculty who have a vision for translating research on human flourishing into large-scale, public-facing, pedagogically innovative courses that have the potential to become a cornerstone in their university’s curriculum.
The 2024-2025 Signature Course Faculty Fellows are:
- Mal Ahern, University of Washington, Seattle; Summer 2025 Fellow
- Ellie Anderson, Pomona College; Summer 2025 Fellow
- Michael Burns, Loyola University, Chicago; Summer 2025 Fellow
- Michael J. Deem, University of Pittsburgh; Summer 2025 Fellow
- Thomas Gift, University College London; Summer 2025 Fellow
- Sara Hendren, Northeastern University; Summer 2025 Fellow
- Barbara Junisbai, Pitzer College; Summer 2025 Fellow
- Conor Kelly, Marquette University; Summer 2025 Fellow
- Esau McCaulley, Wheaton College; Fall 2024 Fellow
- Erin McDonnell, University of Notre Dame; Fall 2024 Fellow
- Terence McDonnell, University of Notre Dame; Fall 2024 Fellow
- Julie Norman, University College London; Summer 2025 Fellow
- Robert Chao Romero, University of California Los Angeles; Summer 2025 Fellow
- Bettina Spencer, Saint Mary's College; Summer 2025 Fellow
- Catalina Toma, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Joe Vukov, Loyola University, Chicago
- Laura Westhoff, University of Missouri-St. Louis
- Andre Willis, Brown University
“We are so grateful to these eighteen faculty leaders, their universities, and the John Templeton Foundation for their commitment to building the next generation of transformative courses on human flourishing. Not only are each of these fellows leading experts in their field, they are also passionately committed to the idea that a college classroom can be an engine for student discernment and transforming our broader culture. We cannot wait to see these ideas launch,” says Meghan Sullivan, Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy and director of ECG and the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative.
Sullivan’s own popular signature course “God and the Good Life,” which has instructed thousands of students since its beginning in 2016 and is now a primary way for students to experience philosophy at Notre Dame, served as an initial model for the program.
The Signature Course Fellowship program includes a robust lineup of activities designed to help faculty develop, launch, and maintain their courses. These include a multi-day opening retreat, which was held in Seattle in July 2024; training sessions led by experts on public engagement, website development, and co-curricular program building, and weekly planning seminars.
After their residency, each fellow will launch their course at their home institution and commit to teach it for at least three semesters. Fellows will convene at the conclusion of the grant for a summative conference, providing them the opportunity to demonstrate course content and share lessons learned.
During the 2024-25 academic year, the program is funding 18 faculty members for residential sabbaticals to pursue their projects: three during the Fall 2024 semester and 15 during an intensive, one-month program in the summer of 2025. All fellows receive a substantial stipend, subsidized housing, design funds to help build their courses, a sub-grant to their home university to facilitate the course launch, and support from student research assistants.
To learn more about the Signature Course Fellowship program, visit the ECG website.
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The Institute for Ethics and the Common Good (ECG) facilitates interdisciplinary research in foundational and applied ethics, coordinates projects that cross departments and units, and supports ethics-related education and public engagement efforts. ECG is a signature element of the Ethics Initiative, one of several University-wide strategic efforts that draw on expertise from multiple colleges, schools, centers, and institutes in order to make the most meaningful contributions to questions of national and international concern.
