The Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study (NDIAS) has selected “The Good Life” as the organizing research theme for its 2024-2025 fellowship program, and researchers from around the globe can now apply for a faculty fellowship.

The NDIAS aims to bring together 8-10 faculty from across the disciplines—including the humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, legal studies, and the arts—for a year of collaboration, accelerated research, and public engagement on questions of well-being and flourishing.

“In the post-pandemic world, we’ve seen dramatic shifts in central elements of our lives—the way we work, the way we play, the way we socialize, even the way we search on the internet," said Meghan Sullivan, Director of the NDIAS and the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy. "We’ve also seen a rise in loneliness and burnout combined with a decrease in our willingness to trust. All of this has the potential to radically shape our vision of the good life and revives critically important ethical questions. The NDIAS is eager to bring a diverse group of world class scholars to Notre Dame for the year to deepen our understanding of The Good Life and to translate research into resources that support individuals, families, and communities as they envision their most fundamental goals."

Faculty fellows live and work at the University of Notre Dame and pursue their research in the NDIAS’s residential interdisciplinary research community. In addition to a generous fellowship stipend, fellows receive a housing subsidy, a research allowance of $500 per semester, and a private office at the NDIAS.

The NDIAS organizes robust programming each year to further explore its chosen research theme and cultivate collaboration, such as work-in-progress seminars, masterclass sessions, guest lectures, film viewings, and social events. Fellows also participate in Fall and Spring retreats designed to help them reach broad audiences with their NDIAS-sponsored research.

The Faculty Fellows will be joined by a cohort of Teaching Lab Fellows and Distinguished Graduate Fellows from Notre Dame who are pursuing their own projects related to The Good Life and collaborate with the Faculty Fellows during weekly research seminars and other NDIAS events.

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, and those who are pursuing the creative arts. Scholars from outside the U.S., as well as faculty from Notre Dame, are welcome to apply.

Each applicant will be required to submit a research proposal that addresses the designated 2024-2025 research theme. A representative list of research questions related to The Good Life can be found at https://ndias.nd.edu/fellowships/faculty.

The application period for faculty fellowships on The Good Life is now open and will continue until Monday, October 2, 2023.

To learn more about the Faculty Fellowship Program at the NDIAS, please visit ndias.nd.edu/fellowships/faculty.

The NDIAS convenes an interdisciplinary group of faculty fellows, top doctoral candidates, and undergraduate scholars to study questions that require a joint focus, benefit from sustained research and discussion, and advance our understanding of core issues that affect our ability to lead valuable, meaningful lives. To learn more, please visit ndias.nd.edu.

Originally published by Kristian Olsen at ndias.nd.edu on June 02, 2023.