The History of Philosophy Forum is delighted to announce a new three-year "Historical Traditions of Ethics" Research Cluster, beginning fall 2025. Building on Notre Dame's areas of research excellence in ethics and the history of philosophy, the research cluster will stimulate international and domestic research collaborations on how major historical thinkers have tackled the most important ethical problems, and how their intellectual contributions have been developed in traditions of inquiry across time. The research cluster contributes to the Ethics Initiative outlined in Notre Dame 2033: A Strategic Framework (published by Provost John McGreevy in August 2023) and will be funded through the Strategic Framework Grant Program in its first two years (see press release here).
Therese Cory, director of the History of Philosophy Forum and John and Jean Oesterle Associate Professor of Thomistic Studies will serve as co-principal investigator together with Alix Cohen, professor of philosophy, and Gretchen Reydams-Schils, professor of liberal studies, both members of the Forum's faculty steering committee. John O'Callaghan, associate professor of philosophy; Stephen Ogden, Tracey Family Associate Professor of Philosophy; and Denis Robichaud, John and Patrice Kelly Associate Professor of Liberal Studies, will serve as faculty collaborators in the research cluster.
Programming for "Historical Traditions of Ethics" will commence after the Forum concludes its current research cluster, "Modeling the Mind in the European History of Philosophy," now entering its third and final year. As has been the case with "Modeling the Mind," the Forum will announce annual research themes to anchor the cluster's research activity. The Forum's annual spring colloquium will be dedicated to these annual research themes, encouraging leading scholars to engage with topics in the history of ethics across periods and traditions. The Forum will also support external researchers contributing to the cluster's research topics through its established Small Grants for International Researchers and Summer Writing and Research Grants programs.
Additionally, the Forum is co-sponsoring a 2025-26 Faculty Fellowship with the newly launched Institute for Ethics and the Common Good. This will be a yearlong appointment open to scholars conducting research in the history of ethics.
With the "Historical Traditions of Ethics" Research Cluster, the Forum aims to support high-quality research projects within the history of ethics, to generate new scholarship in its thematic areas, and to establish a global network of scholars working in the field which draws upon the University of Notre Dame's faculty strengths and institutional support of ethics research. For inquiries about the research cluster, please write to historyofphilosophy@nd.edu.