Michael Roth to receive 2026 Virtues & Vocations Book Award

May 14, 2026

Virtues & Vocations, a national forum for interdisciplinary scholars and practitioners housed at the Institute for Social Concerns, is pleased to announce that Michael Roth, president of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, will receive the 2026 Virtues & Vocations Book Award for his book The Student: A Short History, published by Yale University Press.

The award, which includes a $5,000 prize, will be presented at Virtues & Vocations’ Conference on Higher Education & Human Flourishing, June 1–3 at the University of Notre Dame. In addition to being honored, Roth will join the conference for a fireside chat with Suzanne Shanahan, the Leo and Arlene Hawk Executive Director of the Institute for Social Concerns. All 140 conference attendees from 75 different institutions will receive a copy of the book.

“We are thrilled to honor Michael Roth with this year’s Virtues & Vocations Book Award,” said Shanahan. “In his book, Michael offers a profound reminder that education is not merely a path to a career but is a transformative journey of the self. His work perfectly captures the spirit of our conference—exploring how higher education can and should cultivate the character and purpose necessary for true human flourishing. We look forward to the rich conversation his insights will undoubtedly spark among colleagues this June.”

“Michael offers a profound reminder that education is not merely a path to a career but is a transformative journey of the self.”

– Suzanne Shanahan, the Leo and Arlene Hawk Executive Director of the Institute for Social Concerns

The 16th president of Wesleyan University, Roth is a distinguished historian and public intellectual dedicated to “pragmatic liberal education”—an educational approach that connects rigorous scholarship with purposeful engagement in the world. Roth has championed the university as a vital space for human flourishing, emphasizing interdisciplinary study, intellectual diversity, and the cultivation of a student’s capacity to contribute to the public good. A first-generation college student, he has become a national voice for making education both accessible and transformational, earning the 2025 PEN/Benenson Courage Award for his advocacy on behalf of higher education.

In The Student, Roth narrates a sweeping history of learners—from the followers of Confucius and Socrates to the modern university student—to explore how the act of learning has evolved over millennia. He argues that being a student is defined by more than academic mastery; it is a dynamic process of developing curiosity, the intellectual and moral virtue that enables sound judgment and the capacity to think for oneself.

Roth’s award follows the inaugural Virtues & Vocations Book Award presented at the 2025 conference to Norman Wirzba for his book Love’s Braided Dance: Hope in Times of Crisis, also published by Yale University Press.

Housed at the Institute for Social Concerns, University of Notre Dame, Virtues & Vocations is a national forum for scholars and practitioners across disciplines to consider how best to cultivate character in pre-professional and professional education. Virtues & Vocations hosts faculty workshops, an annual conference, and monthly webinars that engage issues of character, professional identity and moral purpose. socialconcerns.nd.edu/research/virtues/