The Institute for Ethics and the Common Good (ECG) is launching a new model for academic collaborations in the field of love-based ethics.
In July of this year, the institute will welcome its inaugural cohort of Institutional Collaborators, an international group of academics and senior administrators conducting ambitious research projects developing the love ethic. The selection of these Collaborators is contingent on the completion of their official grant paperwork and contract processes.
ECG Institutional Collaborators are research teams composed of tenure and tenure-track faculty working in conjunction with at least two other researchers at their home institution. Projects will run for up to four years, concluding in April 2030, and the teams will conduct their research at their home institution during the duration of the project.
The 2026 cohort of Institutional Collaborators:
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Sara Algoe from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, leading the project “Accelerating Scientific Evidence about an Ethic of Love”
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Sabena Jameel-Choudhury from the University of Birmingham, leading the project “Medicine’s Broken Heart”
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Christina Kilby from James Madison University, leading the project “Love and War in America: Post-Conflict Insights for a Love-Based Civic Ethic”
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Krystal Laryea from the University of Memphis, leading the project “To Love a City: How Love-Based Ethics Shape Social and Civic Action in Memphis, Tennessee”
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Elias Omondi Opongo S.J. from Upendo Hekima University College, leading the project “Incubation Hub: Love Ethics for Reconciliation, Leadership, and Social Cohesion in Kenya”
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Ryan Preston-Roedder from Occidental College, leading the project “Loving Attention: Generosity, Solidarity, and Racial Justice”
"We couldn't be more excited for this new program," said Meghan Sullivan, Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy and director of the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good. "This represents a unique opportunity to build long-term, high impact relationships with these researchers and their institutions. We've got five visionary scholars at the helm of these research teams, and we look forward to collaboratively building out the intellectual foundations of the love ethic network."
Each Institutional Collaborator project will engage with the love ethic, the idea that a widespread, non-merit-based feature like dignity or humanity is what grounds moral significance for each person. The aim of the Institutional Collaborator initiative 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.
Collaborators will also take part in two global conferences organized by ECG centered on the love ethic, while serving as advocates within a broader network of students, scholars, and practitioners committed to advancing this work. By uniting rigorous thought leadership with frontline experience, these groups will work to transform academic research into practical, real-world strategies that address the most foundational elements of the love ethic.
These Institutional Collaborator grants are made possible through a $10 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation for the project Love and Social Transformation: Empowering Scholars and Social Innovators to Develop the Love Ethic. The grant project is led by the Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Center for Virtue Ethics, the locus for research and moral formation within the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good. It brings scholars, writers, nonprofit leaders and others together to advance a framework that captures the power, richness and applicability of the love ethic—a core component of many faith traditions throughout the world.
The Institute for Ethics and the Common Good is at the heart of the Ethics Initiative, a University-wide effort to establish Notre Dame as a premier global destination for the study of ethics. Under the leadership of Meghan Sullivan, Ethics Initiative director and Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy, the institute focuses on cross-disciplinary ethics research, undergraduate course development, the moral formation of its students and faculty, and engaging the public in meaningful dialogue around ethical issues.