Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and the Common Good

05/29/2026

Join the dialogue!

When: Tue June 2, 2026, 3:00PM - 4:15PM EDT

Where: Online via livestream

Meghan Sullivan, director of the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, will join the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education, and other participants to offer insight into Pope Leo's new encyclical in an online public dialogue on Tuesday, June 2nd.

Meghan Sullivan is the founding director of the Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, where she leads the DELTA Network, a major effort to develop a shared, faith-based ethical framework for scholars, religious leaders, tech leaders, and others to discern appropriate uses of artificial intelligence. She will join the online Public Dialogue “Magnifica Humanitas: AI, Catholic Social Teaching, and Pope Leo’s New Encyclical” on Tuesday, June 2 at 3:00 pm EDT. RSVP: bit.ly/PopeLeoAI

05/28/2026

Through our Signature Course Fellowship program, we invited faculty from universities around the globe to imagine what it would look like to teach a truly transformative class.

Then we gave them the time, resources and community to turn their idea into a reality.

This week, we hosted our Signature Course Fellows for a summative conference featuring live demonstrations of the classes they cooked up, and they did not disappoint!

Interested to learn more about the Signature Course Fellowship? Check out our website for more details: https://ethics.nd.edu/fellowships-and-grants/signature-course-fellowships/

05/25/2026

Have you seen our Substack?

Check out The Human DELTA, the official Substack of the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good. Today, we're bringing the latest analysis and highlights on Pope Leo's brand new encyclical, 'Magnifica Humanitas':

Early reflections on the Vatican's new AI encyclical: Magnifica Humanitas

05/18/2026

Can a human really be in love with a machine?

ECG director Meghan Sullivan joins the podcast God Forbid with award winning novelist Caragh M. O'Brien and University of Sydney professor Uri Gal to discuss a world where AI partners are no longer science fiction. Is love still real if your partner is programmed to agree?

Full episode:

Falling in love with a machine is supposed to be the stuff of science-fiction. About a decade ago, Spike Jonze made the film Her, about a lonely man Theodore, played by Joaquin Phoenix, falling in love with his operating system, Samantha. And the world renowned psychoanalyst Esther Perel recently co...

05/17/2026

It’s Commencement day here at the University of Notre Dame. Congratulations to all of our graduating seniors! Your joy, enthusiasm, and thoughtfulness brought laughter and smiles to the institute all year round. Come back to visit soon!

05/01/2026

How do you know if what you’re doing is what you’re really supposed to be doing?

Adam Gustine, ECG’s Associate Director of Signature Course Fellowships, Education, and Formation, has written extensively on the ethics of our shared social and economic ecosystems. In his work leading student programming at the institute, he helps Notre Dame undergraduates cultivate the capacities for virtue, leadership, and vocational discernment.

His newest book, A Working Theology of Labor: Justice, Dignity, and the Common Good (Baker Academic) comes out in October 2026.

In a new series on vocation and the dignity of labor, Gustine reflects on his many conversations with students and helps clear away the misconceptions that prevent us from valuing all work.

Part 1 is out now:

The author reflects on students’ struggles with vocation and purpose, noting how traditional vocational frameworks can induce anxiety instead of inspiration. He highlights misconceptions rega…

04/29/2026

Today is the last day of classes here at Notre Dame, so last night, the ECG community came together to mark the end of the academic year.

The evening was filled with wonderful food, reflections on memories made throughout the year, and year-end awards to celebrate and send off our 2025-26 cohort of Fellows.

Our Faculty Fellows, Wilsey Distinguished Graduate Fellows, and ND-IBM Tech Ethics Lab Graduate Fellows filled the year with exciting achievements including completed books, papers accepted in major academic journals, and perhaps best of all, sustained and generative interdisciplinary engagement with each other’s work.

Thank you to all of our Fellows for your many contributions to life in the institute this year.

Don’t be strangers!

04/27/2026

Last week, the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good hosted New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Carlos Lozada ’93 for a public lecture: “America at 250: How Should We Think of Ourselves?”

In the course of his talk, Lozada shared what reading 5,000 pages about a single family taught him about the United States. And he challenged the audience to see America not only as a place, or even an ideal, but something more.

Read the full story:

What can reading 5,000 pages about a single family teach us about America? This was the question posed by New York Times opinion columnist and Pulitzer ...

04/27/2026

Meet the philosopher trying to teach ethics to AI developers.

This episode of NPR’s TED Radio Hour features ECG director Meghan Sullivan and her quest to solve some modern problems by turning to ancient philosophy. Sullivan shares how a deep understanding of the role of love in our lives can give guidance and direction in turbulent times.

"Around Silicon Valley, as a result of this ubiquity of artificial intelligence, a whole lot of people are having these philosophical questions and crises right now,” said Sullivan.

In the 48 minute conversation, Sullivan shines light on the love ethic and shares practical strategies to help tech developers and ordinary citizens alike bring the good life into focus in an era of powerful AI.

Check out the full episode:

Philosopher Meghan Sullivan feels her years of study have all been leading up to today's AI debates. Some tech developers are finally ready to get into the ethical weeds with her.

04/23/2026

For Saint Mary’s professor of psychology Bettina Spencer, belonging is the foundation of flourishing.

As a Signature Course Fellow with the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, Spencer developed a new course helping students explore the psychology of community and belonging through documentary filmmaking. She’s teaching the course for the very first time this semester, and it’s already having an impact on the St. Mary’s campus.

Want to get involved? A free screening of the class’s original documentary project will be held this Sunday at 7pm in the Browning Cinema in the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center on Notre Dame’s campus. You won’t want to miss it!

Read the full story on Spencer and her transformative new class:

Teaching assistant Aracely Gonzalez '26, center, works with fellow Belles to edit video clips for a documentary film project titled "Belonging." For Saint Mary’s Professor of Psychology Bettina Spencer, belonging is the foundation of flourishing. To that end, she designed a new course titled Belon...