Announcement for Catherine of Siena Fellowship

Start Date:  Fall 2012

The Ethics Program of Villanova University seeks applicants for a Catherine of Siena Teaching Fellowship. Responsibilities include a 3/3 load teaching the sophomore/junior level core ethics course, research, plus committee work for the program.  A Ph.D. is preferred.  The position is for one year, renewable up to three years.  Candidates should have either an expertise in Christian ethics, with a competency to teach Western philosophical ethics, or an expertise in Western philosophical ethics and a competency to teach Christian ethics.  Send C.V., transcripts, evidence of teaching excellence and two letters of recommendation to Dr. Mark Doorley, Ethics Program, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, PA 19085. Villanova is a Roman Catholic University sponsored by the Augustinian Order.  An AA/EEO employer, Villanova seeks a diverse faculty committed to scholarship, service, and especially teaching, who understand, respect, and can contribute to the mission and values of the university.  Review of applications begins October 1; interviews will take place at both the Fall 2011 AAR meeting in San Francisco and the December meeting of the APA in Washington, D.C.  For more details see https://jobs.villanova.edu/postings/3739 or contact Dr. Doorley at mark.doorley@villanova.edu.

Catherine of Siena Fellowship

The Ethics Program has among its excellent faculty three scholars who have received our Catherine of Siena Fellowships. Usually these are younger scholars who we think can contribute greatly to the mission of the Ethics Program. These fellowships are for three years, though fellows have the opportunity to pursue tenure-track opportunities at any time during their stay at Villanova.

The fellows are teaching the core Ethics course, with occasional opportunities to teach in other areas of the university, including

• Philosophy
• Theology & Religious Studies 
• Humanities and Augustinian Traditions
• Center for Peace & Justice Education

In addition, they are very involved in the various student-centered activities that the Ethics Program sponsors.

Current Fellows

Dr. Selin Gursozlu
Selin received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from the State University of New York at Binghamton in the program in Social, Political, Ethical, and Legal Philosophy (2010). Prior to coming to Villanova, she worked as a visiting instructor in the Department of Philosophy at Grand Valley State University (2009-2010). She also worked at SUNY Binghamton as an Instructor (2008-2009) and Teaching Assistant (2004-2008) and served as a Graduate Assistant for Philosophy in an Inclusive Key Summer Institute (PIKSI) organized by Rock Ethics Institute at Pennsylvania State University (2009). Her areas of research include virtue ethics and feminist philosophy. Her primary interest is in virtues and flourishing under oppression. She particularly focuses on the virtue of integrity. She is currently working on a concept of moral resistance as it pertains to the question of the good life under oppression.

Dr. Peter Wicks
Peter received his B.A. from Oxford University, his M.Phil. from Cambridge University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame. Before coming to Villanova he was a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University. His areas of specialty are ethical theory and political philosophy, and he also has interests in the history of philosophy, especially ancient philosophy, and applied ethics, especially medical ethics. His dissertation argued that contemporary work in ethical theory has been marred by a tendency to misrepresent our moral beliefs by translating them into a sparser, and hence more easily theorized, conceptual vocabulary. Peter is currently working on a book about the sources of the appeal of consequentialist approaches to ethics and an article surveying recent work by moral philosophers on the concept of evil.

Dr. Mark Wilson
Before coming to Villanova, Mark received his Honors B.A. in Classical Studies and Theology from Saint Louis University. After a few years of teaching middle school and running a tennis center, he matriculated to Indiana University where he completed his Ph.D. in Religious Studies, specializing in philosophical and religious ethics. His research and teaching interests are driven by foundational questions about responsibility, self-interpretation, human agency, and the emotions. Underlying his approach is a comparative analysis that highlights the points of convergence and divergence in secular and religious perspectives. He is currently working on a book, entitled The Virtues of Regret: Agency and Emotional Responsibility, which explores the way that emotions like regret can have distinct and profound moral significance. He is also researching a larger project that contrasts ancient and modern concepts of purity of heart, beginning with early Christian texts and concluding with an investigation of modern thinkers such as Nietzsche and Kierkegaard.