Director, Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study

Meghan Sullivan is the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy. She serves as Director of the NDIAS, a university-wide research institute that supports faculty, doctoral students, undergraduates and visiting fellows pursuing cross-disciplinary research on major ethical themes. Sullivan also serves as Director of the University Ethics Initiative, working under the Office of the Provost to guide Notre Dame’s Ethics Priority in our recently adopted ND 2033 Strategic Framework.

Sullivan has published two books: Time Biases (OUP 2018) and The Good Life Method (Penguin 2021, with Paul Blaschko). She is currently working on her third, which considers the moral and political significance of love of strangers. She has published articles in many leading philosophy journals, including Ethics, Nous, and Philosophical Studies. She serves as a co-editor for Nous. Sullivan has served as PI/co-PI for large grants on the study of human flourishing from the NEH, the Mellon Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Sullivan is currently PI for a $2.97M project sponsored by JTF and administered by the NDIAS.

Sullivan teaches courses at all levels and founded Notre Dame’s God and the Good Life course. GGL introduces undergraduates to big philosophical debates concerning happiness, morality and meaning… and key methods for wrestling with them. In the past she has collaborated with faculty in other departments to offer pop-up courses on NBC’s The Good Place, Ted Chiang’s science fiction, and Thom Browne’s fashion empire. She periodically offers graduate seminars on topics in time, modality, and moral theory, and regularly advises doctoral students working in these areas.

Some of these research and teaching projects have been discussed in The New Yorker, Vulture, The New York Times, Vogue, The Atlantic, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Sullivan has been honored with one of Notre Dame's Joyce Awards for Teaching, with the Provost's All-Faculty Team Award, and with the City of South Bend's 40 Under 40 Award.

Sullivan has degrees from the University of Virginia (BA: Philosophy and Politics, Highest Distinction), Oxford (B.Phil: Philosophy), and Rutgers (PhD: Philosophy). She studied at Oxford as a US Rhodes Scholar (Balliol College). More up to date information is on her CV.