Virtues & Vocations launches new magazine

January 13, 2023

At Notre Dame we are clear that we want our students, faculty, and alumni to be a “force for good.” But in higher education as a whole, there is not a consensus about whether universities can help people be good or how education is connected to the common good. Virtues & Vocations, a national forum housed at the Institute for Social Concerns, is leading a movement to place character and moral purpose at the heart of higher education.

“We are committed to the idea that higher education can, in fact, promote human flourishing,” said Suzanne Shanahan, the Leo and Arlene Hawk Executive Director of the Institute for Social Concerns. “That is true not only at the center, where justice education, research, and engagement is central to our mission and work; it is also true in an engineering or business classroom, in the study of math or poetry.”

This week Virtues & Vocations published the first issue of its new magazine Virtues & Vocations: Higher Education for Human Flourishing, centering the question “should universities care about virtue?” Duke University Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law, Stanley Hauerwas, asserts the answer to that question is a resounding yes.

“Virtues and Vocations is a good name for a magazine designed to explore the moral challenges associated with educational institutions,” he wrote in his article, Callings. “The formative effect of universities on students is often unacknowledged, and even denied, but there is no question that the way students conduct themselves after college is the result of the formation students receive in college.”

The new magazine joins Virtues & Vocations’ monthly webinar series and newsletter in centering questions of character and purpose, welcoming leading scholars and practitioners from Notre Dame and around the world in exploring questions such as “Does caring too much cause burnout?” (Stephen Trzeciak, MD) or “What is the role of honesty and moral character at work?”  (Taya Cohen, Ph.D.). 

“I am pleased with the way the live webinar conversations are not only highlighting the importance of virtue for higher education, but also welcoming alumni, students, and people working in the professions into the conversation. I am delighted each month by the depth and variety of questions from the audience,” Shanahan said. “I am looking forward to kicking off the new year of webinars this month with a conversation on hope and character with Wake Forest Professor Michael Lamb, who recently released a book on Augustine and hope. I believe hope is central in all our work at the Center, so I am particularly looking forward to exploring with Michael ways we can cultivate this virtue together.”

Virtues & Vocations also hosts workshops for faculty and provides practical tools for integrating virtue into their classrooms. To receive regular updates about Virtues & Vocations, or to request a copy of the new magazine, please send an email to Erin Collazo Miller, Project Director at emille28@nd.edu.