Full Professor in Religion and Global Affairs

The University of Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana is accepting applications for the McDonald Family Professorship in Forgiveness and Ethics, a full-time, tenured position at the full professor level. This position includes an administrative leadership role as the Director of the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, which is dedicated to studying, learning from, and collaborating with religious communities worldwide. The Ansari Institute embraces wide-ranging work, including research, teaching, outreach, and interaction with religious communities, faith and civic leaders, academics and journalists, and the general public.

The ideal candidate will be a distinguished scholar in the role of religion and/or faith in shaping conflict and reconciliation, including but not limited to religious violence, interreligious tensions, transitional justice, memory and trauma, and the role of religious institutions or faith-based organizations, ideas, institutions or philosophies in peacebuilding processes. Candidates should approach these issues through rigorous disciplinary training in fields such as history, political science, international relations, sociology, anthropology, or related areas. Scholars with a regional or global comparative perspective are welcome, as are those whose research engages both historical and contemporary case studies.

The ideal candidate will also have a record of interdisciplinary research, institutional leadership, and commitment to public engagement. As director of the Ansari Institute, they will provide intellectual and strategic leadership for Ansari, guiding its research agenda, overseeing external grants and programming, and collaborating with other units in the Keough School and at the university more broadly. This is a full-time, tenured appointment with administrative responsibilities and teaching expectations at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

The professorship will be based in the Keough School, which promotes interdisciplinary and policy-relevant research on critical issues in global affairs, transformative educational programs, and partnerships for global engagement. The Keough School approaches global affairs and development through a focus on integral human development (IHD), which is also central to the University of Notre Dame's mission. The Keough School offers degrees at the undergraduate, Master's and PhD level. Position duties include research, teaching, and service. The position is expected to begin in August 2026.

Qualifications: Candidates must have a Ph.D. in history, political science, sociology, anthropology, or a closely related field, with demonstrated expertise in religion and global affairs. The successful candidate is expected to have a record of distinguished scholarship and teaching that merits appointment at the full professor level, demonstrate engagement with religious dimensions of peace and conflict, including but not limited to reconciliation, religious nationalism, or religious pluralism in divided societies, be committed to interdisciplinary collaboration and public engagement, and help position the university as a center for research and teaching on religion and conflict transformation.