UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Rock Ethics Institute (REI) invites applications for its 2025–26 Faculty Fellows program. The program offers a one-course release from teaching during a single academic year to support ethics-related research projects by Penn State faculty.
The Rock Ethics Institute or the Maurice K. Goddard Chair in Forestry and Environmental Resource Conservation will provide up to $7,500 in buyout funds to compensate for a course release. The institute anticipates awarding four ethics-related fellowships this cycle, two of which with a focus in environmental conservation and policy.
The Faculty Fellows program has been a cornerstone of REI initiatives since 2015, fostering innovative ethics-related research across disciplines. This program encourages interdisciplinary engagement among faculty and furthers the institute's objective of promoting moral literacy and leadership within the entire Penn State system.
A pivotal aspect of the fellowships is active participation within the Rock Ethics Institute's intellectual community. Fellows are encouraged to join in institute events and showcase their work at public forums.
The institute values projects that complement the research pursuits of the REI’s core faculty and fall within the institute’s research themes of food and agriculture, sustainability, technology, health, gender and sexuality, race, public life and global issues. Collaborations that involve community partners, students or curricular innovations are especially welcome.
This Faculty Fellows cycle marks the second year of the REI’s collaboration with the Maurice K. Goddard Chair in Forestry and Environmental Resource Conservation. The inaugural year of the partnership seated three collaborative fellows: Ida Djenontin, assistant professor of geography, Emily Pakhtigian, assistant professor of public policy, and Carter Hunt, associate professor of recreation, park and tourism management and anthropology.
Additional Rock Ethics Institute Faculty Fellows the 2024–25 academic year are Xiang Zhu, assistant professor, Department of Statistics and Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, and J. Marlena Edwards, assistant professor of history, African American studies and African studies.
All career-level Penn State faculty are eligible to apply for Rock Ethics Institute Faculty Fellowships.
The deadline for applications is Nov. 14. Successful applicants will be notified by Dec. 13.
Please direct any questions about the Rock Ethics Institute Faculty Fellowships or application process to Ben Jones, btj7@psu.edu, or specific questions on the Goddard Environmental Policy Fellowships to Christopher Scott, cascott@psu.edu.
The Rock Ethics Institute was established in 2001 through a $5 million gift from Doug and Julie Rock. The REI’s mission is to promote engaged ethics research and ethical leadership from its home in Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts.