The University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Advanced Study is now the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, launching its website today at ethics.nd.edu. The transformed, expanded institute will play an essential role in advancing the University-wide Ethics Initiative emerging from “Notre Dame 2033: A Strategic Framework.”

“The world today is changing rapidly, and with those changes come a host of challenging ethical questions,” said Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy Meghan Sullivan, who directs both the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good and the Ethics Initiative. “We need a place where people can weigh these questions, discern the good, and find the inspiration to keep our most fundamental values at the center of all the decisions we make. With its deep, complementary roots of faith and reason, the University of Notre Dame can be that place.”

Building on a rich history

Founded in 2008, the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study (NDIAS) has worked to foster research focused on significant questions and enriched by interdisciplinary collaboration. More than 350 faculty, graduate students and undergraduates have served as NDIAS fellows, generating research and publications that advanced knowledge, inspired new undergraduate courses and opened channels of dialogue across disparate fields.

Building on this rich history, the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good (ECG) will facilitate interdisciplinary research in foundational and applied ethics, coordinate projects that cross departments and units, and support ethics-related education and public engagement efforts.

It will continue its highly competitive and successful fellowship programs for faculty, graduate students and undergraduates, creating opportunities for fellows to develop cutting-edge ethics research and deepen personal formation.

With the support of a major John Templeton Foundation grant, the institute will expand its popular Signature Course Fellowship program. This program, which in the past has supported faculty at Notre Dame in developing undergraduate “signature courses” focused on student flourishing, will now be open to faculty at other colleges and universities who wish to learn from Notre Dame’s successful model and create similar courses to benefit students on their campuses.

Enhancing research endeavors

ECG will be the home of the new Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Center for Virtue Ethics, recently established in honor of University President Emeritus Father Jenkins. The Jenkins Center will support preeminent scholars whose research advances human flourishing in both moral and spiritual contexts, facilitate the development of undergraduate courses exploring topics such as justice and the common good, and deepen the ethical formation of Notre Dame students and faculty. The work of the Jenkins Center will bring renewed vigor to the study of virtue ethics, continuing the long history of Catholic thought leadership in this field.

The Notre Dame-IBM Technology Ethics Lab will now be a key element of the institute. The lab promotes broad-based, far-reaching interdisciplinary research, thought and policy leadership in artificial intelligence and other technology ethics by engaging with relevant stakeholders to examine real-world challenges and provide practical models and applied solutions for ethical technology design, development, and deployment. The lab is sponsored by IBM through a 10-year, $20 million investment.

As the institute grows, it will focus attention on other pillars of applied ethics, including environmental ethics and the ethics of business and governance.

In this work, the institute and its team will strive to fully integrate intellectual and moral development, guided by the vision of Blessed Basil Moreau, founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross.

Supporting the Ethics Initiative

ECG is a signature element of the Ethics Initiative, one of several University-wide strategic efforts that will draw on expertise from multiple colleges, schools, centers and institutes to make the most meaningful contributions to questions of national and international concern.

The Ethics Initiative aims to establish Notre Dame as a premier global destination for the study of ethics, offering superb training for future generations of ethicists and moral leaders, a platform for engagement of the Catholic moral tradition with other modes of inquiry, and an opportunity to forge insights into some of the most significant ethical issues of our time.

To advance these goals, the initiative will make strategic hiring investments in key departments and area groups, grow opportunities in ethics for Notre Dame graduate students, and foster collaboration and coordination among the many departments and academic units on campus that focus on ethics issues.

“The launch of the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good is an exciting milestone for the Ethics Initiative,” said John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost. “As the only formally religious institution in the Association of American Universities, Notre Dame has the capacity to make a unique and strongly needed contribution to understanding the ethical challenges we face today. The work of the institute, together with the related activities of the initiative and its many current and potential partners, will play an important role in advancing Notre Dame as a leading global Catholic research university and a powerful force for good in the world.”

Originally published by Laura Moran Walton at ethics.nd.edu on July 25, 2024.