Laub-Novak Fellows
Each year new fellows for the Laub-Novak program are selected. Below, you can find announcements for the fellows from 2024 onward.
2025 Fellow
Congratulations to Evelyn Behling, a doctoral candidate in the department of Political Science, upon her being named the 2025 Michael Novak and Karen Laub-Novak Fellow in Philosophy and Public Policy. Ms. Behling brings ancient perspective to bear on social challenges in liberal democracies, with a particular interest in the American case. Her dissertation, "Aristotle's Realist Aims: On Faction, Reciprocal Equality, and the Common Advantage in Aristotle's Politics," considers the value and challenge of diversity in political life through study of Aristotle's approach to the problem of faction. In approaching this topic, she is interested in many "Maritainian" questions concerning the reconciliation of democratic governance and virtue. She argues that Aristotle, like Maritain who followed him, seeks to retain a link between political order and higher-minded justice while also recognizing the inherent limits of the perfectibility of political action that follow from the potential for conflict among the differing groups needed for a self-sufficient city.
In addition to being a Laub-Novak Fellow of the Jacques Maritain Center, Ms. Behling is currently a David Solomon Fellow of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture and a Graduate Fellow of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, both at the University of Notre Dame. She has also been a GAANN Fellow of the United States Department of Education through the ND Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government. For her work with undergraduates, she won Notre Dame Political Science's Spring 2023 Excellence in Teaching Award. Ms. Behling earned her M.A. in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame in 2023 and her B.A. with Distinction in Humanities from Yale University in 2017.
2024 Fellows
Congratulations to Cait Duggan and Tyler Castle, inaugural recipients of the Maritain Center's Laub-Novak Fellowship in Philosophy and Public Policy!
Cait and Tyler are both pursuing innovative research projects that address central questions in the public square and incorporate key perspectives from the Catholic tradition. They will join the Maritain Center this summer to advance its initiatives and will remain associated with the Center for the duration of their programs of study.
Cait Duggan is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Theology. Her research focuses on how civil law can cultivate the civic virtues necessary for harmony in contemporary democratic societies. Cait's research draws upon the contributions of Jacques Maritain and Yves Simon, who together presented Thomistic thought as a resource for liberal democracy.
Tyler Castle is a third-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science, with concentrations in political theory and constitutional studies. He is researching the notion of moderation in Christian political thought, attending especially to the contributions of Augustine, Pascal, and Alexis de Tocqueville. Before coming to Notre Dame, Tyler worked for nearly a decade at the American Enterprise Institute, where he had the opportunity to meet and study with Michael Novak.