The Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study (NDIAS) has hired Adam Gustine to be its Assistant Director for Signature Course Fellowships and Carli Steelman to be its Program Manager for Evaluation and Research.

Both positions will help administer the $2.97 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation that the NDIAS received to support faculty seeking to translate research on human flourishing into “signature courses”— pedagogically innovative, large-scale courses that have an outsize impact on a university curriculum and the broader public discussion.

The three-year grant will provide funding for 15 faculty members from Notre Dame and national or international institutions to join the NDIAS in 2024-25 as Signature Course Fellows, where they will spend a semester or summer in residence developing signature courses on topics connected to human flourishing.

“Adam and Carli are an administrative dream-team for our Signature Course Fellowship Program,” said Meghan Sullivan, Director of the NDIAS, Director of the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative, and Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy. “Together, they bring wisdom for developing durable curricula, supporting student formation, as well as a deep, creative knowledge of data analysis and program evaluation. They have a shared passion for the power of a great course to reach students and the broader public alike. With their guidance, we look forward to launching this program and empowering our grantees to change the ways we view human flourishing.”

Before joining the institute, Gustine was assistant director for academic affairs at Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns, where he directed the center’s work in justice education. He is the author of Ecosystems of Jubilee: Economic Ethics for the Neighborhood (Zondervan, 2023) and Becoming a Just Church: Cultivating Communities of God's Shalom (InterVarsity Press, 2019). His doctorate, from Missio Seminary (Philadelphia, Pa.), focused on the development of leadership in diverse and urban contexts.

Steelman is a Ph.D. candidate in peace studies and sociology at Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Her dissertation explores how dynamics of violence, political arrangements, and social conditions structure the spatial distribution of collective memory after civil war. She obtained her master’s degree in political science from the University of New Mexico.

The NDIAS convenes an interdisciplinary group of faculty fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate scholars each year to study questions that engage complex ethical challenges of our time and affect our ability to lead valuable, meaningful lives. To learn more, please visit ndias.nd.edu.

To learn more about the Signature Course Fellowship Program, visit ndias.nd.edu/signature-courses.

Contact:
Kristian Olsen / Assistant Director of Communications and Fellowships
Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study / University of Notre Dame
kolsen1@nd.edu / 574.631.2830
ndias.nd.edu / @NotreDameIAS

About Notre Dame Research:
The University of Notre Dame is a private research and teaching university inspired by its Catholic mission. Located in South Bend, Indiana, its researchers are advancing human understanding through research, scholarship, education, and creative endeavor in order to be a repository for knowledge and a powerful means for doing good in the world. For more information, please see research.nd.edu or @UNDResearch.