Description

The Institute for Ethics and the Common Good (ECG) invites tenured and tenure-track faculty to join a transformative moment in undergraduate education. Technology is developing rapidly, raising profound and urgent questions about what it means to live a flourishing life: What makes humans distinct? What does community look like in an increasingly digital world? How do we build lives that are rich with meaning and relationships? How do we discern truth when what we see, hear, and read can be fabricated? How do we appropriately harness powerful AI to promote human flourishing?

Today’s undergraduate students—the first generation of “AI natives”—are deeply hungry for these conversations. They seek the kind of formative educational experiences that teach them how to truly thrive in a complex world, not just survive it. At a moment when technology is disrupting foundational pillars of higher education—challenging our traditional definitions of originality, expertise, cognition, and even the purpose of education itself—this new wave of Signature Courses will help campuses meet these students’ needs and elevate the broader public understanding of this technological transformation.

As part of DELTA, we are excited to invite proposals from faculty members interested in developing Signature Courses exploring the fascinating questions that AI and other emerging technologies raise for our understanding of human flourishing. Over each of the 2026–27, 2027–28, and 2028–29 academic years, we will recruit cohorts of 17 tenured faculty from diverse disciplines and universities, creating 50+ new Signature Courses.

A Signature Course is an innovative new course at an institution that includes these three areas of emphasis:

• Student transformation is at the center of the course design, content, and pedagogical focus.
  • A signature course is designed to be a defining, highly formative milestone of a student’s college career—one that directly challenges them to deeply grapple with fundamental questions of meaning and purpose.
• Institutional collaboration that adds value to the university ecosystem.
  • A successful signature course will contribute to the larger goals of the university and help shape a compelling vision for the future of higher education.
• Public engagement that extends the ideas, and ethos, of the course to wider audiences.
  • A successful signature course will design strategies to creatively connect major themes and insights of the course with audiences outside the university.
• For examples of Signature Courses in our first cohort, see our program page.

For more background information on the DELTA Signature Course model, as well as specific details regarding the program timeline, visit our website. 

Funding and Support 

• Course launch funds: $25,000
• Stipend: $20,000 total for the duration of the fellowship period
• Travel/housing stipends included for Project Launch Residency and Summative Conference
• Undergraduate Intern funding: $5,000
• ECG staff resourcing, program evaluation, and communication campaign around the Signature Courses

Eligibility

• Applicants must hold a full-time, tenured or tenure-track faculty appointment
• Applicants from all academic disciplines are encouraged to apply, including—but not limited to—philosophy, theology, psychology, sociology, political science, computer science, law, literature, and the arts.
• The majority of fellowships will be awarded to scholars external to the University of Notre Dame. However, Notre Dame faculty are eligible to apply, and a limited number of fellowships may be awarded to applicants from within the university.
• We also welcome applications from scholars from a variety of faith and cultural traditions.

Expectations

• Signature Course faculty fellows attend the full Project Launch Residency, residing on or near the Notre Dame campus in South Bend, Indiana, from Monday, June 7 to Friday, June 25, 2027
• Attend the Summative Conference held at Notre Dame in June 2028
  Faculty select an undergraduate student intern to attend the full Project Launch Residency and to work with them on their course throughout the academic year
• Faculty complete three written self-evaluative studies
• Faculty maintain communication with Institute staff during all phases of course development and launch
• Faculty commit to launching their course in Academic Year 2028–2029
• Faculty commit—with clear institutional support/permission via a letter of commitment—to teach the new course at least three times over three academic years at their respective institutions

Application Requirements 

• Applications for the DELTA Signature Course Fellowship must be submitted through the Application Portal and should include the following:
  • A description of your course, including background and key course themes
  • How your course is guided and informed by DELTA principles, or explore significant questions raised by rising technologies and AI disruption
  • Draft learning objectives, including 2–3 student development goals that speak to the transformative aspirations for your students, including how they grapple with larger questions of meaning and purpose in their lives
  • How your course fulfills any unmet needs at your institution, or how your course will complement existing mission and ethos; and
  • Your initial sense of how you will communicate your course themes to a public audience
  • Completed application form
  • Cover letter
  • Curriculum vitae (no more than four pages, single spaced)
  • Signature Course Proposal (no more than six pages, double spaced), including two letters of reference. The letters should address the strength of the applicant’s proposed signature course, its fit with DELTA framework, and the faculty member’s demonstrated dedication to teaching.

Proposals will be holistically evaluated on the basis of the faculty member’s demonstrated commitment to teaching, the proposed course’s potential for student transformation, institutional impact, and public engagement, as well as the proposed course’s alignment with DELTA themes and questions.

Finalists will be asked to be available for a Zoom interview with committee members during the final stage of the selection process.