Academics

Rock Ethics Institute announces faculty fellows program

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Rock Ethics Institute is launching a new Faculty Fellows Program designed to support faculty members from the sciences, humanities, engineering and social sciences to develop new interdisciplinary research collaborations that have a deeply integrated ethics dimension. Faculty members who have ongoing research collaborations that would be significantly enhanced by this program are also welcome to apply. This program is open to all Penn State University Park faculty members, at all career levels, and to all established University Park research scientists.

The institute is particularly interested in supporting initiatives with integrated curricular and research components that would advance its aim of integrating ethics into the Penn State curriculum. Priority will be given to interdisciplinary collaborations that have a good likelihood of continuing beyond the funding period through securing external funding.

Both individual and collaborative fellowships are available. The program provides funding to those awarded that will allow up to two course releases per academic year for an individual and up to three course releases per academic year for a collaborative team. The deadline for submitting proposals is Oct. 12. More information, including information on the application process, can be found on the Faculty Fellows Program website.

Additionally, faculty fellows are expected to become an active partner in the Rock faculty community, which includes faculty hired through Penn State’s co-funded ethics hires, a transformative effort that aims to make Penn State a leader in collaborative, interdisciplinary ethics research and in ethical literacy. Priority will be given to proposals on topics that could interface with or complement the research interests of current Rock faculty. These include: bioethics, human security and global ethics, ethics education and moral development, ethics of health and human performance enhancement, food ethics, sexuality, violence and ethics, ethics and journalism and digital media, engineering ethics, ethical dimensions of climate change and risk management, the ethics of drones, and water resources ethics and sustainable planning. Faculty fellows will be expected to attend occasional events with the co-funded ethics hires during their fellowship period. 

The Rock Ethics Institute was established through a $5 million gift in 2001 from Doug and Julie Rock to the College of the Liberal Arts. The institute’s mission is to promote ethical awareness and inquiry across the University, and in the public and professional sectors, through a three-fold emphasis on teaching, research and outreach. Recently, the Rocks endowed the Nancy Tuana Directorship of the Rock Ethics Institute with an additional $5 million gift, which was part of a larger commitment they made to the college during "For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students."

Last Updated May 19, 2016

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